STOCKHOLM 


It was a bit cloudy in the morning.
Many sea gulls followed us through the archipelago on the way to Stockholm.
The streets were a bit wet from early rain.
A Swedish 7-Eleven.
The first stop on our morning excursion was City Hall. It holds a council chamber and several halls for meetings and exhibitions and such. This is the Blue Hall where they hold the annual Nobel Prize banquet.
Upstairs is the Golden Hall is a big gold room. The walls are covered by over eighteen million mosaic tiles of gold and glass.
Here is the building from the outside. The building was completed in 1923 but it looks a lot older than that. Maybe they used old bricks.


You can see just how overcast it was in this view toward the Old Town from City Hall.
The Opera House. Gustavus III had a bad night here in 1792. He was assassinated at a masked ball. I think the guy on the horse is Charles XII. He's pointing east toward Russia. He and Peter the Great didn't really get along.
A different view of the Opera House. It was opened in 1782.
Stockholm has its own little Tivoli Garden. We'll see the famous one in Copenhagen a little later.
A view from a hilltop to the Gamla Stan, the old town of Stockholm. It is a small island in the middle of the city.
We spent some time in the Vasamuseet or Vasa Museum. As we go through these photos, I'll tell you the story of the Vasa which is on display here. Notice the little Japanese ghost at the bottom of the picture.
You may figure out from this model that the Vasa sank. How it sank is sort of stupid. In the 1620's Sweden was at war with Poland. Gustavus Adolphus ordered new warships including the Vasa. It was built to be the greatest of them all with 64 guns on two gundecks. Its maiden voyage was August 10, 1628. The people of Stockholm flocked to see the mighty ship set sail and show the seafaring strength of Sweden and its king Gustavus Adolphus.
The Vasa set sail and fired a salute. But there was a gust of wind that caught its sails and the ship began to list to port. Water gushed through the open gunports and the ship sank only moments into its first voyage. The ship was salvaged in 1961. When they did they found the remains of twenty-five skeletons. Kinda creepy.
I don't remember how, but they figured out that the stern of the ship was colorfully painted. This is how they think it might have looked. I think they analyzed microscopic paint chips. Actually I know that's how they did it. (I looked it up on the web.)
This is what it looks like now. They did a remarkable job with the ship considering it was underwater for almost 350 years. It rests intact on blocks in the middle of the museum. The trouble is that the method they used to preserve it when they raised it is now slowly destroying it, so they need a new way or it will deteriorate.
Some boats outside the Vasamuseet that did not sink.
More boats across the way.
I have no idea what kind of birds these are.
The Nordiska Museet or Nordic Museum. Nice looking building.
This is the Royal Palace of Sweden. Photos were not allowed in the palace and I didn't feel like being thrown in the Swedish pokey, so I kept my camera put away.
The guard outside the gate.
Stuff in the Old Town is old. Take that brick house on the right for example. It is very old. Like at least over five hundred years old old. I think that's right. I know it's old.
A shopping street in Old Town.
You can't really make out the name of the shop in this photo, but it is Gray's American Food Store. The windows were full of cereals and other wonderful American crap.
I'm not sure this isn't the Postal Museum.
The National Museum of Sweden. The statue is of poor Gustavus III.
An old church next to the palace.
A square in the Old Town. There are some interesting buildings across the way. They have a touch of Dutch architecture.
The weather cleared in the afternoon for the trip out of Stockholm.
I don't know what the red buildings are. If it isn't, it would make a nice location for a resort hotel.
Beautiful blonde Swedish women. Beautiful Swedish scenery. Who could ask for more?
Imagine living along the shore and boating all the time.

Sure is purty, ain't it?

TO COPENHAGEN