Stockholm in the Rain

We’re spending more time getting to, and from, Stockholm than we actually spent in port. You see, Stockholm lies inland from the Baltic Sea within an archipelago that consists of over 23,000 islands and skerrits. I don’t know what time we began our entrance this morning, but we pushed form the dock at PM, and it is now 8:45 PM, and we’re still in the archipelago. So it’s appearing to take about 5 hours EACH way. Our docked time was a maximum of 7 hours!

 

I escorted a tour today called “A Day in Stockholm.” It was a motor coach tour of the highlights of the city – by the way, Stockholm is situated on 14 islands – plus two photo stops, and stops at 3 of the city’s “high points.” Our first stop was at City Hall. This is where the Nobel Prize Banquet is held every year in the Golden Chamber, a grand hall decorated with over 19 million golden mosaic tiles (23.5 Karat gold). The banquet is held, and the prizes are awarded, each year on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death. You have to admit that the place setting is a bit glamorous!

After some touring, we went to the Vasa Museum. The Vasa was constructed in 3 years and was launched in 1628. It sank after sailing only 1,300 meters, and it remained immersed in the brackish water and mud of the Baltic Sea for 333 years. When it was raised in 1961, it was in remarkable condition for being under the water for that long. There were over 700 carved wooden statues incorporated into the ship. Most of the cannons were recovered in the 17^th Century, but they were sold to Germany, so there were only 3 left when the ship was raised from the depth of only about 30 meters.

 

Our final stop was the Old Town area where we had some free time to explore on our own, plus visit the city’s oldest church and the place where most Swedish coronation had taken place, and there have even been some royal weddings. It was originally a Catholic church, built in the late 13^th Century, but was converted to Lutheran after the Protestant Reformation. We didn’t have time to visit the Royal Palace, but we did walk by it; the guards are one of the oldest regiments in the world (Swiss Guards at Vatican are the oldest); pictures are okay, just so long as you don’t get too close to them.

As we sailed out, we saw some islands with no houses, just trees. Some islands had one or two houses on them, and boat transportation was the only way to connect with other islands or the mainland. Well, we finally made it out into the open waters of the Baltic Sea as we head to Helsinki, Finland – our. northernmost port on the cruise

Stuart