Our coach ride was an interesting one as we sat at the top of a double decker tour bus, which was great for seeing stuff but horrible if you wanted to keep your breakfast down. There were lots of new roads being built but they were really curvy with lots of round abouts. I worked really hard for 45 minutes not to throw up.
When we arrived into the city it was amazing. Very modern but once we hit the city centre the old world charm set in, if not Old World, just really nice and comfy. We kind of tagged up with newly found American friends, Amy and Shawn, to make the trip into town. They were one of the very few other young couples on the boat who had a 1 year old son, who were American and they actually lived in Oxford. Shawn is in the US military and his tour right now is to get his PhD in organic solar energy. What a cool gig!!! We hit it off from the beginning and it was fun to hang out with them. Amy was just like me in that we had our little sheets with all the sites we wanted to see in each country.
It was the two of us working together to try and find a cash machine to help us get on a Tram to get out to the VASA museum. It took us about 45 minutes to sort everything out and finally get on a tram (#7 for future notes just behind the Opera House). Later we found out that we could have paid with a credit card at a machine at the stop or there was a man on the tram that would have taken cash from us. In actuality it only took us about 8 minutes by tram to get there so we could have walked it in about 30 minutes.
The VASA museum was really amazing and we got there right as it opened so we got about 1/2 hour to ourselves before all the tour groups got there. A 17th century ship that capsized in the middle of the bay on her maiden voyage stayed preserved in the muck of the waters for over 333 years when it was raised back out of the sea. The whole boat fits inside the museum which in itself looks like the masts are raised out of it on the roof. It's pretty cool.
Amazingly enough over 95% of the boat was actually preserved. They used different colored wood to show where they put new but it's amazing to see how perfect it looks. We watched a short film from the 1950-60's that shows exactly how they raised the boat and reclaimed the items and remains in it. It was super cool to see them use all the old scuba gear with the big hose sticking out of the top of the space suit looking garb (like that Cuba Gooding Jr. movie).
It was amazing to see all the things they recovered from the ship. Addie shows off the beer stines, plates and cutlery and buckets used on board.
Harry was more into the heavy artillery.
They said that the reason the ship sunk so quickly is that it was horribly engineered. They wanted to to look very grand so the hull of the ship was set too high out of the water. The underwater hull was too small and the ballasts were insufficient for two gun decks in this warship, so when the first big wind took hold of the sails, she blew over and filled up the boat with water through the canon doors.
We left the museum well after lunch time and decided to walk back towards our rendevouz point with the cruise line. We hoped that as we walked we would find a nice place to eat along the way. Stockholm is such a beautiful city, and Kevin and I loved seeing all the boats. It so made us miss our boat soooo much!
The buildings along the water were so colorful and pretty and we had a beautiful day to walk around and that's exactly how we love to explore new places.
Now if we didn't have the kiddos with us, this is how it would be super cool to explore any city.
All of a sudden we heard a big commotion going on...a band was coming down the street. We happened to remember our friends talking about the changing of the guard at the palace and we figured this was the big pomp and circumstance that went along with it...how cool! They have the whole police escort just like the guards do in London.
After loads of walking and walking we couldn't find anything we could agree on for lunch so we relied on old faithful - McD's...just thought you'd like to see a shot of a real life McDonald's in Sweden!!! We spent 230 SEK on lunch (that translates to about $30US)...at McDonalds!!!
We did quite enjoy our little lunch outside and honestly we didn't have time to sit in a nice restaurant to eat a full meal as by now we only had 2 hours left to eat and make it up to see the Old Town.
As we walked down towards Old Town, just behind the Opera House (our meeting point), there was a huge Viva Brazil concert going on with hundreds of people all over the place. Just 4 hours earlier when we were hunting for any one person to help us sort out the trams. This was a beautiful fountain in that park.
We made our way across the river to the Royal Stockholm Palace which is said to be the largest palace in world still used by a head of state - King Karl XVI Gustav.
We checked out the guard stations like we always do at palaces to measure them up against the Brits. These fellows are pretty good, yet not as rigid as our Brit boys.
We somehow made it up to the palace in time for the changing of the guards...totally a coincidence, but we felt so lucky to get to witness it.
Harry and Kevin standing out in the courtyard as the guards are going through their changing process.
Old Town was beautiful and I so wished we had more time to explore it. Our main goal was to get our souvenirs and get back to the bus. We loved all the narrow streets with tall buildings and cobblestone streets.
The shops and cafes were so quaint. I managed to find us a really cool Christmas ornament, but struggled to find Addison's doll so Sweden will be the only place I will not have gotten her a doll from...shucks! I do still have 70 Krona left over if anyone else ends up going to Sweden and can pick up a porcelain doll for me (it's only worth about $10US).
We only got about 45 minutes in total to look around the Old Town when I could have spent a better portion of 3-4 hours looking around. We did have a bit of time to get a quick photo in the picturesque Stortorget - the Old Square in Gamla Tor (Old Town) - filled with colorful 18th century buildings.
The kids wiped out on the bus ride home and we almost did too. When we got back to tender back to the ship the line was seriously 400 meters long. It was insane how when new busses got dropped off how people totally budged in line in front of us. We made the time go by, by visiting with our friends who we split up from after VASA to explore on our own. It was really great to get to know another couple in a similar situation as us but yet so different. We compared a lot of notes on life in England and just really enjoyed them. By the time to boat started back off through a beautiful cove, the kids were already asking to go to kids club. Again they had a blast and we enjoyed dinner on our own again.
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