Stockholm, Sweden
Riddarholmen, Gamla Stan
Malardrottningen Yacht
Today has been a really fabulous day. This morning, as usual, we had an excellent breakfast from the buffet. After showers in our ghetto-bathroom, we started our day of sightseeing.
We walked to the ferry station and managed to arrive just in time to catch the ferry over to the island of Djurgarden. The ferry was covered by our SL access cards, and the whole trip took about 15 minutes.
We first went to the Vasamuseet (the Vasa Museum). This museum was really neat! It contains the sunken ship Vasa which was raised from the floor of the sea after it sank tragically. The ship took over 2 years to build--beginning in 1626 and ending in 1628. The ship did not contain enough ballast and began to tip over when a wind came through. It managed to right itself, but another squall came, causing the Vasa to take on water through the gunports and sink on her maiden voyage =/
Eventually, someone wanted to find and raise the Vasa. It took a long time to find it, but eventually they dug tunnels vertically and horizontally beneath the boat, fed cables through these tunnels, and raised the boat. A period of 12 years was spent examining the Vasa to determine how it would have looked originally. The ship is now housed in the Vasa Museum, partially recreated. Sadly, we cannot board the actual ship, but it is visible and can be photographed!
The rest of the museum tells details about the life on board the ship and about artifacts found on the ship.
After touring this museum, we went to the Nordiskamuseet (the Nordic Museum). This museum had handy little English audioguides at no extra charge! This museum was originally intended to display history of life in all Nordic countries. The building was never completed as was intended due to lack of money and a change in style during its construction. It is very pretty the way it's built now. This museum was pretty interesting, but I did like the Vasa Museum better.
There was a really neat old organ as well as an exhibit of old cameras.
There was also a fashion exhibit, and wow, were there some crazy outfits on display...for those of you who wish you could wear your bathing suit year round--now you can! Just add tights!
By this time, the weather had warmed up considerably! We walked over to Skansen which is reminiscent of Dollywood in a way. It's a recreation of many types of old Swedish life. Homes and buildings have been brought in from all over. There are actually people who dress up here and tell about their particular area of the park. It's very family-friendly, probably even moreso when the weather is really nice. There is also a section of Swedish wildlife, but sadly, most of them were staying warm inside. We also got to see some glass-blowing here.
We also ate lunch here. I had a smoked salmon sandwich, and Josh finally got his Swedish meatballs, complete with potatoes and lingonberry jam.
One of the neatest (aka nerdiest) parts of Skansen was the Apoteket. This is the Swedish word for pharmacy. The pharmacy was actually the Crown Pharmacy. It is three rooms. The first room was the pharmacy area. The second room was a laboratory. The third room was a storeroom. All of the artifacts are originals. This was definitely a neat place to visit!
After Skansen, we hopped back on the ferry to Gamla Stan. We dropped off some of our bulky jackets and walked by Parliament. This put us back on the main island of Normalm. We ate dinner at Taco Bar--a small piece of Mexico. Mexican food was surprisingly tasty in Sweden, though it was no Los Compadres. We walked back to Central Station (I'm determined to make these T passes worth the $ we spent on them) and took the T back to Gamla Stan. Then we stopped in a coffee shop where Josh had coffee and I had a vanilla milkshake.Now I'm back updating my blog and trying to stay awake until it gets dark so I can take some pictures of the buildings by the water...
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