Stockholm was the end of our cruise.
We were on our own here for three days.
What to do???
We stayed at a Sheraton which was ok but kind of an industrial place. Probably wouldn't stay there again. It was ok though. Decent breakfast included.
Here's a shot of the town hall from our hotel window.
Stockholm is a very nice city. Clean, friendly, happy people, everyone speaks english. It's an expensive place to have a beer but what are going to do? You need beer, right? It's a necessity of life.
We got to the hotel at about 9:00 AM because when you're on a cruise they kick you off as soon as the can to get the rooms ready for the next bunch of people.
So the first day we did the hop-on hop-off bus. Let me tell ya...Stockholm is not Paris when it comes to site seeing. Lots of big old buildings though.
Then we did boat tour -- just a 2 hour tour with really nothing much to see except some islands and water.
We saw some fantastically noisy jet boats having a race. Wish I'd have got some video of them.
And some people trying to get a tan..
That was pretty much it for day one in Stockholm.
Next day was a museum day.
One of the main attractions of Stockholm is the Vasa Museum.
The Vasa was a huge war ship built by the Swedish king around 1628. On her maiden voyage she sank right in the harbour never to be seen again...until the mid 20th century. She was found to be in very good condition (considering the 300 years under water) and was raised up and restored and preserved and put in a museum for everyone to see.
Anyway, she's quite something to behold.
Here are a few of my pictures and I'm sure there are many more better ones available at the link I provided above. And this link.
Just look at the size of her! Look at the people at the bottom right of the picture to get an idea of how big she was.
Here's a shot of a model of the ship showing what she would have looked like.
Some of her original canons on their original mounts.
After the Vasa we did another royal palace. They're all starting to look alike at this point.
And then a refreshing beverage!
You can see that the weather is cooperating today. A beautiful warm, sunny day in Stockholm.
Last day in Sweden and we rent a car to go into the country.
To Uppsala. Old Uppsala actually...there's a reason it's called Old Uppsala.
Vikings lived here many years ago and they are buried under these mounds.
And in this church....
And under the rug...
Is buried Anders Celsius the num-nut who gave us the Celsius scale.
So that was pretty much it for Stockholm and Sweden.. lots more to see but no more time...of to Oslo, Norway tomorrow AM.