stockholm, sweden

Stockholm is a city of 14 islands linked by boats and graceful bridges. It is widely acknowledged as one of the world's most beautiful cities and is often called the Venice of Scandinavia. It is also as famous for being the home of the Nobel Prize.



As we were arriving in Stockholm early that morning my mother noticed that the waterway we were sailing through was lined with lush islands covered with cute little quaint Swedish homes. She was up earlier then I was and sat out on the veranda and watched as we passed all the beautiful homes and I woke up just in time to see the ship pull into the port. Everything was so beautiful and we got a taste of what was yet to come.

Our first stop of the day was the Vasa Museum. The museum was built around the 17th century warship "Vasa", the oldest, fully-preserved ship in the world which has the distinction of sinking on its maiden voyage in sight of the King in Stockholm's harbor. The King was a stubborn man who wanted to build the world's most magnificent and powerful battleship as a sign of his power and wealth and demanded that it be built longer and taller then the average warship. He was advised against his decision but ignored the warnings and told them to build it. As it was setting sail a gust of wind caused the "top-heavy" ship to swing too far and began to fill with water. 15 minutes after it set sail it slowly began to sink in the harbor as the King, and the rest of Stockholm, watched.

After examining the massive ship that was restored in 1961, we learned that the ship was buried in silt for most of those 333 years, preserving wood that should have rotted long ago. They also found several remains of the sailors that drowned with the ship and have restored their faces to what they would have looked like in 1628. As you can see in the picture below, they were a little creepy. When thinking of the Swedish people and how they take such pride in the Vasa one question was raised, "What kind of country puts so much work into celebrating and showing off their biggest folly?"

After the Vasa we drove through several of the islands as we passed the medieval Old Town, the Royal Palace, the Parliament building, the National Museum, the famous parade row (one of the streets along the water lined with magnificent buildings that lead to the Royal Palace) and then we made a stop at Fjallgatan where we were able to view 8 of the 14 islands of Stockholm. The view was amazing. I hate that my camera doesn't do it justice but after seeing this site I think Sweden became my favorite of all of our destinations.

After checking out the sites we were given the choice to go back to the ship or stay in the city for 3 more hours and then catch a bus back to the ship. Of course, we weren't going to waste the rest of our day doing nothing on the ship, so we jumped off and did some exploring of our own. We walked through the fashion district but we weren't in the mood for clothes shopping, so we crossed one of the many bridges and shopped on all the little cobblestone streets surrounding the Royal Palace.

This afternoon was my favorite time on our trip. My mom and I were finally able to go off on our own and find the local shops we had been looking for. My mom bought some beautiful pictures of Stockholm and some souvenirs for Shae. One of our finds was a jam made from a rare berry that can only be found in the forests of Scandinavia called a Cloudberry. The cute girl in the shop told us it was amazing on top of ice cream but I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't tried it yet so I don't know if she was telling the truth.

Next we ventured over to the royal palace to see the changing of the guards. It was fun to see the strict guards as they did their little routine and traded places. My mom said it wasn't near as big as the one at Buckingham Palace but it was fun to see how much pride they took in defending their Royal family. After the guards we made our way down one of the cute little cobblestone streets where we found a little cafe for lunch. We weren't starving but we noticed a common item on several menus was a baked potato with any topping you could think of. My mom and I decided to try the seafood salad on ours and it was delicious. I don't know if it was all the dill they put in their salad or just the combination of the potato with the salad but we loved it and it was the perfect lunch in such a cute little city.

Our time was up so we crossed the bridge and waited a really long time for the bus to pick us up and then it was back to the ship. Typically we would spend our nights on the ship eating a nice dinner, watching the performance for the evening and then going to the movie theater to watch the newest movie they were playing (I know, we're boring) but this night we were anxious to get back to our room after dinner so that we could sit out on the veranda and watch as we passed the beautiful islands and homes as we left Sweden. Call me old, but I loved this. My mom and I wrapped up in blankets and sat out on the balcony until it got too dark to see. My mom, of course, had her video camera out and would zoom in on all the beautiful homes as we imagined what their lives were like and secretly wished that we could come back with our families and stay in one. My mom has traveled a lot and she always talks about how much she loved Switzerland but the best part of the night was listening to my mom talk to the video camera as she continued to refer to Sweden as Switzerland, "Now here we are in Switzerland ... I mean Sweden ...".

The next day was spent relaxing at sea before our big day in Berlin.

The Vasa


A replica of the ship


One of the creepy sailors


Sites of Stockholm







Shops in Stockholm



Changing of the Guards






The islands as we left Stockholm