Stockholm, Sweden

Oops! I was looking through my blog posts and found the draft of a post for our visit to Stockholm, Sweden...apparently I never finished writing about our cruise back in the summer! Luckily I wrote in my little travel journal, otherwise I don't think I would remember much of anything (I have a terrible memory). 

I do remember that Stockholm was extremely beautiful and very much centered around the water. Stockholm actually consists of a bunch of little islands, so you walk across bridges to get from place to place within the city. We started out in the old town area of Gamla Stan, which consisted of narrow, windy, and cobbled streets. Gamla Stan is where the Stockholm Palace (or Royal Palace) is located, so we got to check that out as well. 

Narrow streets of Gamla Stan

Outside of the Stockholm Palace

The Stockholm Palace

Next we walked to Kungsträdgården, which is a park in one of the more modern parts of Stockholm.  We stopped in at a restaurant called Max (we of course chose it because that is our dog's name) to have lunch, and when we came out, the band and marching processional were going by on their way to the Royal Palace for the Changing of the Guard. I had wanted to see it, but we weren't sure the timing was going to work out, so it was a pleasant surprise. It was an impressive processional, with several different groups taking part in the spectacle. 

Changing of the Guard processional

Changing of the Guard processional

Next we hopped on the "Hop On Hop Off" boat that went around to the different islands, and got off at Djurgården, which is where the Vasa Museum is located. Normally, Thomas and I don't care to spend a whole lot of time in museums. I understand that to some people museums are the main draw of a location, but personally we prefer to take in the atmosphere and local culture...and the food. We do enjoy some museums, mostly ones dealing with semi-recent historical events, and if one sounds particularly interesting to us, we will definitely check it out. Stockholm has A TON of museums, and the one that caught our eye was the Vasa Museum, which has an almost complete 17th century ship on display. She sunk on her maiden voyage, less than a mile into her journey. The museum was extremely well done, and fascinating to wander through. It contained a movie about the building, sinking, and recover of the ship, timelines of the events, artifacts found on the ship, and a model of part of the ship that we could walk through. Perhaps the most interesting, and surprising, part of the museum to me was the skeletons of some of the passengers onboard the Vasa when she sank. They had the skeletons laid out, along with information about that person - how old they probably were, what kind of health they were in, and (if applicable) the location they were on the ship when it sank and even what they may have been doing. For example, below is an excerpt of what was discovered about 'Fillip':

The individual F, "Filip", was probably a sailor who died at his post. He was c. 30 years old, 163 cm tall and had a set of teeth that gave him a special smile.  He was found in the steering cabin where he was probably an oarsman. He was close to a safe exit at the time of the catastrophe, by a short ladder to the upper deck, but seems to have chosen to stay below. Perhaps he died trying to turn the ship so that she could stand upright again.

It was just incredible to me that they could glean so much information from the skeletons, and really make the tragedy more real and relatable, even though it happened so long ago. This museum was definitely one of the highlights of our visit to Stockholm.  

Thomas was anxious to go inside the museum!

The Vasa

One of the skeletons from the Vasa

Thomas and I outside of the Vasa Museum

The most scenic part of our cruise (to me at least) was our journey through the Swedish archipelago. There were so many little islands that we cruised past, many of which had people's homes on them - what a wonderful place to live, although I imagine it must be pretty isolated. :) That was such a great way to end our cruise, it was definitely a trip we will never forget!

Thomas feeding the birds popcorn - they would eat it right out of his hand!

Cruising through the Swedish archilepago - check out that house!

Cruising through the Swedish archipelago