Stockholm: Ships, Canals and Islands

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Geo: 59.3327, 18.0645

On Monday we left Moscow to travel to Stockholm for the Scandinavian part of the trip. We flew Scandinavian Airlines and had no problems getting into Stockholm at 5.35pm. We hopped on the Arlander Express which took us into the city and got a taxi to our hotel, the Hilton. This is just across the canal from the old city.

Once we had settled in we walked up the hill which was a pedestrian Mall and which had several restaurants and bars. We chose to stop at Patrick's Bar and sat in the eerie twilight on the street and had a pub meal which was very good. We did have a bottle of Stoneleigh Sauv Blanc which cost here about $50 but was very nice. Our waitress started chatting and we discovered she was about to go to Bond University to study Law and International Business. She was a Colombian who had been adopted by Swedish parents and was very bright and bubbly.

We returned to the hotel having managed to buy some tonic at a 7/11 store.

Today we were up about 8am and after breakfast headed out to discover Stockholm. We had been in contact with Robin and Lilli Eley whom we know through Norm and Serena and La Chaine de Rossiteurs. They live here six months of the year as their daughter has married a Swede. We intend to catch up with them tonight. Robin told us not to miss the Vasa Museum. So we bought our Stockholm cards and walked down the hill and around to the dock where we hoped to find a ferry to transport us to the island where the museum is located. We found the base for the Hop On Hop off Boat and got a discount off the price with our card. We then boarded the boat. This took us first to the Royal Palace which is huge and has over 600 rooms. Then we went to Nybroviken where there are beautiful 19th Century apartment buildings which are the most sought after real estate in Stockholm. The rich and famous own these,including Bjorn Borg and the guy from Roxette.

We then went across to the Djurgarden Island which contains many museums, parks and the Theme Park, Tivoli Gruna Lund. There we alighted outside the Vasa Museum.
The Vasa was a wooden ship made in the 1620s in Stockholm. It was huge, the largest sailing ship ever built in Sweden. However, on August 10th 1628 she set sail on her maiden voyage but after only 1500 metres she capsized and sank to the bottom of the harbour. There she sat for 333 years until being found in 1957 and raised in 1962. Since then painstaking reconstruction work has been done and she is now housed in this museum in all her glory, 95% of it being original.

As we walked in I did not know what to expect but the sight was breathtaking. The ship stands four storeys high towering over us and the masts are not even fully reconstructed. The ship is undecorated as all the paint etc wore off in the time under the sea but it is no less stunning for that. There are intricate wood carvings adorning all sides and there are displays of how colourful it would have been in its glory. On the several floors exhibits show what life on board would have been like and also show the skeletons of some of the sailors who drowned on board. They have even reconstructed their faces from the skulls giving a human face to the disaster. Fletcher's photos are good but my camera could not cope with the immensity and the darkness in which the ship is preserved.

We spent a pleasant hour or so in there and then caught the boat over to the neighbouring island,Skeppsholmen or Ship's Island. This was where the Swedish Navy was based until fairly recently. We got off there and walked around it back to the area in front of the Royal Palace. It was a beautiful day and the walk was great even though we stopped frequently for Fletcher to rest. We walked up towards the shopping area but stopped in Kungsgarden a lovely square with great gardens. There was a small cafe in the middle so we grabbed a couple of baguettes and beers. A pleasant lunch. Then in search of a loo we went into one of the big shopping malls and found we had to pay 10 krona (about $1-30) to use the toilets.

From there we strolled back to the waterfront and used our Stockholm Cards to purchase tickets for the Royal Canal tour. This took us right round the big recreational island of Djurgarden and lasted an hour. This island used to be the Royal Hunting grounds but was opened to the public at the start of the 1900s and is now a favourite spot for locals to walk, cycle, visit etc.We were shown where some of the wealthier Swedes live such as Abba members and other artists and saw many pretty houses. There are some very large buildings built for the aristocracy which are now museums and galleries. On the island is also the Tivoli Gruna Lund a theme park with many roller coaster rides and other scary looking things. There were many people there enjoying themselves.

After that we returned to the Hop on Hop off boat to get us back to Slussen and our hotel. Fletcher's knee has been very sore so we are avoiding walking as much as possible. This again took us over some of the previous routes but also over to where the Cruise ships berth and back along the main shipping channel. By the time we returned we knew the harbour and the islands pretty well.

After a rest in the hotel we met our friends from Adelaide, Robin and Lilli . They were pleased to see us and we walked down to the Old Town to a restaurant called La Rouge. This proved to be an excellent choice. It was in a cellar with vaulted ceilings covered in paintings. We chose the fixed menu which was a reasonable price for Stockholm standards. For starters we had a seafood salad packed with crayfish, crab, scallops and shrimp. Delicious. Then a Beef dish which contained some of the most tender beef I have ever tasted. It was pink and soft and topped with the accompanying foie gras proved to be exquisite. For dessert there was icecream with meringue and berries . A couple of bottles of very fine French Red made it all go down very easily. We had a lovely night. The conversation never ebbed, we found mutual ground in most things and all of us agreed it was better to be here than suffering the election campaign back home.

Our night ended with a stroll back to the hotel and farewells to Robin and Lilli. A great start to our Scandinavian experience.

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