Steve's Excellent Swedish Adventure
Trip to Stockholm
While Tommy put in a few days work, Joe and I took the high speed train to Stockholm, the Swedish capital. The train was extremely smooth and zipped along at 100 mph. The cars are built to automatically tilt into a turn to handle the higher speeds. The two hour ride zipped by in nothing flat. Stockholm is a beautiful city, built on 14 separate islands. The area east of Stockholm is part of an archipelago consisting of over 33,000 small islands and outcroppings.
Our first stop was the Vasa Museum, home of the 17th century warship, The Vasa. The Vasa has a glorious history, built by King Gustav Vasa in 1628, the ship was the first to house two cannon decks on each side (previous ships only had one).
The ship was to be the pride of the Swedish fleet in their war with Poland. Over 300 finely crafted wood sculptures adorned the ship. Unfortunately, with the two cannon decks it was a little unstable. On her maiden voyage she tipped over and sank less than a kilometer after leaving the port in Stockholm. There she lay forgotten until 1961 when she was found and a national crusade was undertaken to raise her. The composition of the Baltic waters preserved the wood in remarkable condition and she was raised two years later. Years of cleanup and restoration followed until her new home was opened in 1990. To keep her in good condition the museum is very cold and dark. The only decent picture taken was of a lion head that adorned the underside of each of the cannon covers.
Next to the Vasa Museum is the Nordiska Museum housed in a very attractive old building and containing artifacts of Swedish culture. Our next stop was the island of Gamla Stan, the "Old Town" section of Stockholm. The narrow cobble-stoned streets with water fountains are now home to many cafes and tourist shops. Also housed in this section is the Royal Palace where the King lives. Even the King admits he's not too bright, but he does have an attractive family.
Along with coffee, the Swedes do like their ice cream. There are ice cream shops, booths, and carts everywhere. This shop in Old Town, with the girl making the waffle cones, was very popular.
Sightseeing proved to be a very demanding endeavor. After traipsing around on Tuesday so much, we slept in until 10:30 on Wednesday and missed the free breakfast at the Adlon Hotel, home of smallest elevator I'd ever been in. Was just as well, as it rained all day. We did visit city hall, a beautiful building completed in 1923. The "Blue Hall" inside is the home to the Nobel Prize dinner, Stockholm's premier social event.
As Tommy had to work another day, he couldn't pick us up as planned, so we took a 5 hour train ride back across the country to Boras to stay with Tommy's sister Ulrika until he could get us later.