The Baltics: Stockholm

Once we disembarked from the overnight ferry from Helsinki, we set off to explore Stockholm. Sweden has been populated since about 12,000 BC with Stockholm showing evidence of people from roughly 8,000 BC on. The Viking Age included the Swedes, Norwegians and Danes from the 8^th to 11^th centuries. They were a busy bunch – exploring, raiding, settling – all over the place. The majority of the examples of Viking writing – Rune Stones – can be found in Sweden.

Although we drove all over town looking at everything, our first actual stop was City Hall. The building is not terribly old, having been built in 1907. However, its claim to fame is that the Nobel Prize banquet is held in the Golden Hall. Even though the photo I have included in this post is a tad fuzzy, it does show the extent of the gold mosaics the best of the photos I took while there.

Our next stop was to drop off anybody who wasn’t interested in seeing the Vasa Museum so they could roam around at leisure before rejoining the rest of the group after lunch for a walking tour of the Old Town. We arrived at Palace Square just in time to see the Changing of the Guard. I managed some decent video of it, but just one photo.

The Vasa Museum was amazing! I have mentioned in past posts that I love ships and have some ship captain ancestors. The Vasa is the most magnificent shipwreck I have ever seen. It is the only nearly intact 17^th century ship in the world. As a royal warship, it was extremely ornate and large. It seems that its size was its downfall.

It was built in 1628 and capsized, with all hands, on its maiden voyage, while still in the Stockholm harbor. Some of the crew managed to swim to shore, but about 30 didn’t. In the 1960s, the ship was discovered, raised, reassembled and put on display in a museum built especially for it.

Because the Baltic is cold, it doesn’t have as many of the little creatures that tend to destroy wood, clothing, and even human remains. So they found the ship very close to entirely intact. They also found lots of clothing, dishes, pots & pans, games, weapons, cannons, ammunition, sails, chests, barrels, and even some food and skeletons.

Very intricately carved, the ship would have been quite colorfully painted. They had a model on display, painted in the colors that they thought would have adorned the ship. But I liked looking at the real thing the best. There were several levels of walkways around the ship, so it could be seen from all angles. It was possible to see it from underneath as well.

I spent as much time as I could exploring the ship and its contents which were on display with it. I had lunch at a cafeteria within the museum (so I wouldn’t need to leave until I absolutely had to) and picked up a couple books about the ship before Andrej practically pried me away to rejoin the rest of the group at the Royal Palace.

Kronor Castle, which was built on the site in the 13^th century, burned down in 1697. The new palace was built in the Rococo style in the 1720s. We didn’t have time to take a guided tour of the palace before joining our local guide for our walking tour of the Old Town. Having to choose between the Vasa and the palace, the Vasa had won out for me.

The Old Town had medieval foundations from the 13^th century, but the majority of the town had burned down in the 17^th century and was rebuilt. They built upon the old foundations, so the town still had very narrow streets. The most narrow was a series of rather steep steps (included in a photo here).

We went inside of a very beautiful old church with lots of highly polished dark wood, gold gilding, and paintings. Along the street outside, were several buildings that managed to salvage their original medieval doors. Most of them were still private homes, but here and there was a pub or restaurant or antique shop (with weapons, chain mail, and helmets). What I thought was incredible though, was old cannons and rune stones at the corner of some of the buildings (a photo of one is included).

Before ending the tour, we had some cake and hot chocolate (or coffee or tea) at a restaurant in a medieval cellar. The building had begun as a monastery and later became a prison after the 16^th century dissolution of the monasteries.

The next day I flew home from Stockholm by way of Newark, New Jersey.

Next time —a wonderful 2013 tour of the Western US National Parks.