Day #8 - Friday, June 3, 2011

  Wow!  What a wonderful day.  We could not have asked for more beautiful weather -- no wind and 75 degrees and not a cloud in the sky.

Midnight Sun

We woke up at 3:30 a.m. -- actually, I should say I did -- Dee stayed in bed.  I swear I saw the sun setting or coming up.  At least I saw something red and the sun had already set hours before.  I have posted the pictures of what I saw.  At 5:30 a.m. I made Dee get up and we saw the "real" sun coming up.  Weird!!  Now I don't even know if I'm coming or going...my IPhone played a trick on me as well.  It said it was 6:30 and it was really just 5:30 so I really was confused.  Of course, Dee's phone had the right time.  Oh, well, it was a perfect time to watch from our patio and see how we maneuvered through the water to the harbor dock.  It took almost and hour and half and we took some great pictures, more than we or anyone will ever want to see.

We got off the ship at 9:30 and started our tour of Stockholm on a bus with a tour guide. Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, is situated on the country's east coast of the Baltic Sea.  The population of Stockholm is 1.65 million.  It's a beautiful city of lush parks and majestic buildings.  There are 14 islands that are connected with 50 bridges.  Stockholm is often called "the Venice of the North" and I totally agree.  It is much prettier to me than Venice and goes beyond the beauty of Copenhagen. 

Our first stop was the Vasa museum.  The Vasa was once considered to be one of the world's largeset and most prestigious warships.  The museum is built around the 17th century warship, which sank in Stockholm's inner harbour on her maiden voyage in 1628. There is much discussion about the cause of its sinking, but the best guess is that the ship was built top heavy and the King was in too big of a hurry to get the ship produced that mistakes were made.   Salvaged in 1961 and today restored to much of its former glory, the Vasa represents an authentic piece of living history.  It was amazing to see is giganic ship inside of  the building.  Unfortunately, it was so dark inside that it was difficult to get good pictures.

 We then visited City Hall. It is marked by three crowns on top and is situated by the shores of the Lake Maelaren.   It was built in 1923 out of 8 million bricks.  It not only houses the Municipal Council, but each winter it hosts the Nobel Prize banquet in the spectacular Golden Hall which is covered with 19 mosaic tiles.  Unbelievable!!  It looks like there is a lot of gold in the room but in actuality very little is contained in it.

After City Hall we were given time on our own and we went looking for, of course, a Coke Cola Light!!  We had a nice lunch at a little cafe but very expensive for a pizza and hamburger!  We then went shopping and even saw a 7 Eleven store just like home.  We   then met back up with our tour guide for a walking tour of the old in killed my feet.  I am going to need a foot transplant when I get home.  I may not be able to go to work for a while!!

We walked around the royal palace at the foot of the Norrbro Bridge.  It contains 608 rooms and is said to be one of the largest palaces in Europe dating from the 18th century.  The King and Queen no longer use this as their residence but they show up every day for work!  Sure they do!








Another Guard



We then went to our last stop, the Stockholm Cathedral located in the oldest quarter of the City, Old Town.  Built in 1279 the exterior dates mainly from the 1700's.  This is where all the Royal baptisms, coronations and weddings take place.  The King took the Catholic church and changed it to a Luthern church back in the 1800's so that he could take over and control all the money.  Nice King,

There are dozens of burial vaults in the church.  Most of them in the floor but some are in vaults sitting on the floor.  Here a couple of them.

 

We then headed back to the ship on the bus.  We are very tired and are heading to bed early tonight.  We lose another hour!!!  Tomorrow we are in Helsinki, Finland for another walking tour.

Here are some pictures that were taken as we arrived in Stockholm.

  Our Guide