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Published: June 12th 2017
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Geo: 59.3327, 18.0645
We had visited Goeteborg, Sweden as part of our Norway cruise and really enjoyed it. Anna still cites it as one of her top-two stops on that trip. We were excited that this cruise would be stopping in Stockholm, as it promised to only be "bigger and better." I have a friend who is posted to Stockholm, and she had offered to take the day off and show us around the city. We ended up having to pass on her offer as she ended up not being able to take the day off, but that worked out fine. We had hoped we might meet up at the pier before we departed port, but that too was thwarted by time.
We ended up booking a full day tour through a private company (the same company we ended up using in Tallinn and St. Petersburg), and it packed in all the highlights in one day. Less than 30 minutes after docking we met our group, which only comprised ourselves, a couple from Connecticut, and a family of five from Toronto. We all had booked the same trio of tours, so we'd be spending the next three days together. Our guide was impossibly
tall and looked stereotypical Swedish. His English was perfect, and coincidentally, the weather (which had been forecast for rain) also ended up being perfect, as we had blue skies and high clouds all day.
We started at Stockholm's (and, it turns out Scandinavia's) top-visited museum right off the bat -- the Vasa museum. It houses an almost fully intact 17th century Swedish warship which sank during its maiden voyage in 1628. It had 64 heavy cannon and was the largest warship every constructed at the time. It's dimensions, however, were not calculated correctly, and the ship was too narrow and sat too high in the water and capsized and sank during its first sailing, near what is now central Stockholm. The ship was rediscovered in the early '50's and raised in 1961. Because the water in which it sank is primarily fresh water (due to the tides near Stockholm), the ship was almost entirely intact and preserved. The museum itself was purpose built to display the ship, and it was possible to see it up close from every angle and elevation.
Our tour continued through several very posh waterside neighbors -- the city is spread across a vast archipelago of
islands (our guide claimed 14,000 in total) -- so it seemed like everything was on the water. We got out at the Royal Palace, which sits neighboring the traditional "old town," and had time to see the changing of the royal guard, grab a bite to eat, and then complete a walking tour.
Our formal driving tour concluded at the Rathaus, or city hall, and in between our guide shared a lot of information on Sweden's famous social safety net, to include details on taxes and citizen benefits. We learned that everyone pays a minimum of 30 percent in taxes, but the more you earn, the higher your tax bracket, which often exceeds 50 or 60 percent. The goal -- which seems to be working -- is to create as egalitarian a society as possible and to ensure those making the most provide the most back. This discussion had to include the famous lawsuit against the Swedish band "ABBA," which had tried (unsuccessfully) to shield their substantial earnings from Swedish income tax.
We got back to our ship only about 20 minutes before the all-aboard deadline, which meant we had no way to meet up my friend. We sent her some
pictures after the fact, but there was not much we could do about the time.
The weather has turned out quite beautiful, and the sunset was striking this evening aboard the ship, as we crossed into the well-traveling shipping lanes leading toward St. Petersburg. From this point forward, for the next few days, it seemed as though we always had at least one other ship (usually a container ship or ferry) in view, whenever we looked outside, which speaks to the volume of traffic in and out of Russia, which surprised me.
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