Mon. July 18: Exploring Elegant Stockholm

Our second day began with sunrise at 4:28 AM this morning! After breakfast our group split and went off to explore Stockholm. Beth, Dave, Meg, and Gary went on the city bus tour and Page and David went exploring on their own. It couldn’t be a more perfect day… just like the Swedish flag… bright blue and gold.

We were all pleasantly surprised at how beautiful Stockholm is, with a rich Viking history dating back to 1000 AD. Dave said, "It instantly became one of my favorite cities." Stockholm is 1/3 green space, 1/3 water ways, and 1/3 developed spaces with cobblestone streets and gorgeous architecture. There are 14 islands in Stockholm and 57 graceful bridges- the entire Swedish archipelago is made up of 30,000 islands! There are two locks in the city that connect the Baltic Sea's salt water and Lake Malaren's cobalt fresh water. The water quality in the lake is so high that reportedly you can drink it straight from the Lake. Household in Stockholm recycle all but 1% of their household waste- no wonder it is the "greenest" city in Europe!

David and Page set off for the Vasa Museum, one of the popular attractions in Stockholm. To get to the Vasa Museum, we walked for 25 minutes along the Strandvagen, gazing out the boats moored along the wide esplanade. We noticed how several boats were actually "homes" with potted trees, herbs, and flower boxes on their decks.

On August 10, 1628, the Vasa, an enormous Swedish war ship,  set sail on her maiden voyage and sank in Stockholm Harbor after sailing only 1400 yards! The ship was commissioned by the King of Sweden and was laden with very heavy, ornate carvings and 25 cannon. It was richly decorated as a symbol of the King's ambitions for Sweden and was one of the most powerfully armed warships in the world at that time.  It turned out the ship was very top heavy with too much weight on the upper decks.  It became unstable and tipped over and sank shortly after it left the dock, with citizens, ambassadors, and dignitaries watching from the shoreline in horror! Three hundred and fifty years later the ship was located in the harbor, buried in a clay which kept it perfectly preserved. It was resurrected, cleaned, and moved into the present day Vasa Museum, completely intact. There are 7 floors in the Museum where you can stand to see this magnificent ship from the bottom of its hull to the top of its crow's nest.  After leaving the Museum a proud Swede told us that Sweden has the world's best submarine - one that could stay under the water for 350 years!

We left the Vasa and walked over the bridge to the Gamla Stan (the old town) with its cobblestone streets. Good thing we wore good walking shoes today!

 We walked past the Royal Palace where a female guard was on duty.

We continued into Gamla Stan (the old town) with its central courtyard and narrow cobblestone streets. We noticed several interesting menu items posted by the many cafes lining the courtyard.

We visited the Nobel Museum and were immersed into the creative and inspiring world of some of the greatest scientific minds, writers, and passionate human rights activists. The Noble Museum's aim is to spread knowledge as well as to create interest and discussion around the sciences, culture, and peace. When you walk into the museum, the first thing you notice is a cableway of banners on the ceiling making their way through the museum like the track at the dry cleaners. Look up and you see that each banner features one of the more than 900 Nobel laureates.

One large exhibit hall featured "Sketches of Science". A photographer came up with the brilliant idea of asking recent Nobel Prize winners in science to draw a picture depicting their discovery and then he photographed them with their drawings.  It was a fascinating and playful look into their brilliance and creativity with so many of their discoveries having a significant impact on our lives and the progress of science.

The Museum also contained display cases that featured Nobel laureates with personal artifacts such as the Dalai Lama's glasses, Watson and Crick's original DNA model, Roentgen's X-ray tube, letters from Einstein, and Marie Curie's lab equipment. The artifacts from the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize were especially touching- the shawl Malala wore when she accepted the Nobel Prize and Shirin Ebadi's towel, which she purchased at an Iranian prison store. As a human rights lawyer, she represented a family whose son had been killed when a student protest was crushed. She was then arrested on charges of manipulating testimony. The world is a better place with brave human rights activists like Malala and Shirin.

 We stopped for some quick shopping. We couldn't leave Sweden without bringing back a book for Emma by Sweden's famous children's book author!

Dave, Beth, Gary, and Meg went off to explore Old Stockholm.  First stop- City Hall. City Hall is the site of the annual Nobel Prize ceremony. Beautiful architectural details and sculpture. Care to guess how old it is?  It was built in the 1920’s to look like a historic building!  The iron church spire across the lake was inspired by Eiffel’s Tower as a turn-of-the-century replacement when the original wood steeple burned.  

 

The statue seen below, The Iron Boy, sits in a chapel courtyard in the old town (Gamla Stan).  Rubbing his head is said to: 1). Return you to Sweden; 2.) Give you good fortune; 3.) Make you Pregnant; or 4): Restore the hair on your balding head… but no hair on this guy’s polished dome from all the rubbing!  

To see the immense size of this statue, check out the next photo! 

 

The Iron Boy is a favorite of Old-Town residents.   People bring him food, knit him clothes, even bring tiny skis and a snowman in winter!

We all headed back to the ship for our muster and departure to Helsinki , Finland. As we cruised through the archipelago we were all struck by how similar the view of the islands and landscape was to Maine, the 1,000 Islands or Northern Michigan.We ended our day watching the sunset over the Baltic Sea at 9:42 PM and set our clocks back an additional hour prior to our arrival in Helsinki tomorrow.