After laying around and doing some laundry, we were ready to meet the day. Looking around the city we were always in sight of many of the city's towers and spires.
Patti had researched and found a free walking tour of Stockholm Old Town. One of our favorite things! We grabbed a little lunch at the grocery store across the street, and walked about 15 minutes to the beginning point. The next three hours, we gathered with other English-speaking tourists for a trip through history and old town, focusing on all of the kings who were named Christian. Stockholm is a very old city with it history that goes back to the 1300’s. One statue was notable to us: it was a tribute to the man who started the revolt against Danish rule in 1251. There was Gustav Vassa cocking his crossbow. There are many other stories to tell, and many king Christians. Our guide, who lives in Stockholm but was originally from Australia, gave us a really interesting view of things to see in the old city in Stockholm. The old city had many narrow streets, many had cars squeezing through. These streets included the narrowest street in the city, less than 3 feet wide at the top of a stairs.
There was one square that really got our attention. There were four buildings, each of a distinct color, which appeared in nearly every presentation of Old Town Stockholm. On the same square was the Nobel Prize Museum. We felt badly that we did not have the chance to go inside. We had visited the Nobel Peace Prize Museum in Oslo, Norway five years ago but would have liked to have seen all of the other prizes which are awarded in Stockholm.
Of particular interest was the royal palace where we were just in time to watch the changing of the guard.
An energy check showed we could spend the rest of the afternoon seeing a couple of Museums. We walked through the city, and then took a free ferry to the island where there were many museums.
The first one we visited was the Vasa Museum. This focused on a war ship that was built in the 1700’s. It was state of the art, and then sunk in its maiden voyage about 20 minutes from shore. It was so top heavy with cannons and got some water inside and quickly sank. It sat at the bottom of the harbor for 300 years. In the early 1960’s it was rediscovered and eventually salvaged. Due to the mud plus the low level of salt in the water, it was nearly perfectly preserved.
We started our time in the museum with a tour in English which brought us up close to the ship. The carving and details that we could see close up were amazing. Then we had a chance to walk around and see the ship more closely, as well as to see a movie about it. It really was an amazing place to visit. It was noted that if it hadn’t sunk, it wouldn’t be around now and wouldn’t be able to be viewed as we could do it today. A really interesting stop.
From the museum we went over and got some Swedish ice cream. Delicious, but the rain was starting to fall. Another time to check, should we just go back to the apartment? No, there were more adventures to be had.
We headed down the road to The ABBA Museum. There we had a much more lighthearted look through the 1980’s Swedish sensation musical group. We spent the next couple hours learning about each of the four singers and musicians. We learned about their individual histories and how eventually they turned into two married couples. The museum really made good use of interactive technology. Patti had the chance to be a blue screen video, get her picture taken in one of the costumes, and we listened to a lot of great sing-along music. We also got to see some of the actual props and costumes from Mamma Mia 2 movie. Really delightful way to end a rainy afternoon. Their tagline was you walk in and you dance out. It really was a nice time.
We took the ferry back, mistakenly thinking we were on another free ferry but as it turns out we were stowaways and hadn’t paid for something that you were supposed to pay for. Boy, the transportation part of this trip has been a challenge. Luckily, the nice guy collecting tickets told us he wouldn’t throw us overboard.
Back to the apartment but we decided to treat ourselves to a very nice Italian meal on the plaza below our apartment. Pricey food but the atmosphere was great and the rain had stopped. A great and kind of cool day in Stockholm.
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