WorldTravelReynolds

Ridderholm Church. Burial place of most Swedish monarchs. Only used for this purpose now.

Ahhhh, beautiful Stockholm! We made it! What started out as a wonderful visit turned out to be a potential nightmare. Keep reading and I’ll fill you in We had an early breakfast so we could catch our tour bus. Ganilla, our tour guide was so pleasant and very knowledgable. Her other job is a Marine Archeologist. This lady knew her stuff!

Front grounds of City Hall has some beautiful shells and other statues in the garden

Our first stop was at City Hall. We had to get in as soon as we could because the President of Stockholm was on his way and they were preparing for his arrival. He was scheduled to discuss and sign preparations to enter NATO. This meant we had to do our tour and get out or we would get caught in the traffic. The City hall was absolutely beautiful. Green and White granite everything. Floors, stairs and banisters. It was amazing!

A panoramic view of the inside of City Hall.

This is where they have their meetings and discussions. Another room that was more historic in nature with writings on the walls from prehistoric times. It was covered in these tiny tiles that shown like gold. Very shiny and pretty!

The 10,000 organ pipes are high in the ceiling and piped through tunnels in the ceiling to be heard all through City Hall.

Organ in City Hall built by E.F. Walcker in 1925

The waters are not the beautiful blue Atlantic sea rather a brackish type water. Stockholm is situated between the Baltic Sea and a big lake and about 50% is salt water. There are 15 islands that make up Stockholm. You can get to each island by boat, ferry or car. There are about 10 million people here between all 15 islands. Most of the people live more northern Stockholm.

Granite floors and staircases had a lot of beauty. This is where they hold most meetings.

The natives speak many languages. Mostly Swedish but also Danish and Finnish Swedish, a combination. She said if you knew one language you could easily pick up on the others but have to be careful with the meanings. We found everyone spoke English really well. It amazes me how they can switch from one to another with such ease.

Another room at City Hall that depicts the prehistoric era. The walls are made with gold colored tiles that made the room shine naturally.

The circle of life – If you’ll look at the photo story at the top- Right to left shows a baby and then at the end on the left is a funeral.

The inventor of dynamite lived here. He used the dynamite to build many of their tunnels and bridges. To begin with they had about 60 bridges but more use of the tunnels for trains and public transportation has helped with traffic. Boats are a main source here. Used for transportation, pleasure and fishing. 1 in 13 people own a boat. I guess it’s just a necessity.

Apartment homes

Condominiums on the water. So pretty

The Nobel Prizes, left in the will of inventor Alfred Nobel, in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine and literature are awarded here, while the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway. She said know one knew why they are not all awarded here. Kings and Queens do not have power here. They don’t even live in the castles. They are ambassadors. The most powerful is the prime minister and his 22 appointed minions, I mean ministers. 😉

Beautiful tulips of all types.

The castle, from the part we saw was beautiful. It was under renovation so we only saw parts of the outside. It is not open to the public. There are armed guards out and barriers due to the Russian/Ukraine war.

Replica of the VASA Ship before it sank

Our last stop was at the Vasa museum. It is a Swedish warship built between 1626 and 1628. The ship sank after sailing roughly 1,400 yd into her maiden voyage on August 10, 1628. It is said that the King ordered the warship out to sea but she was so heavy with artillery and unstable. A strong wind pushed the ship sideways and it took on water and sunk.

Original ship restored after 330 years sitting on the seabed.

Left side of ship

15 people died in this disaster. The ship laid at the bottom of the sea for 333 years and was rediscovered by amateur archaeologist Anders Franzén. It took over 1 1/2 years to recover it but the amazing part is about 80-90% of the ship was intact. The brackish water does not allow the worms that like to eat wood near the ship. Most of the ship was restored. The wooden dowels serving as nails were replaced with metal and the sails and rope/line were replaced. 

Replicas of some figures around the ship

Figurehead of a lion on the front of the ship.

It was a beautiful ship it’s amazing to see that after that many years, its in such great condition. While walking around the ship, I realized something was missing. My backpack. I normally do not carry it but the captain of our ship suggested we take our passports just in case. We usually leave them in the safe.

Wonderful pastries and coffee

I typically don’t panic about things until I know for a fact its true as in we cant find them. So, I calmly tell Chuck, expecting to get yelled at but he was nice about it. We were pretty sure we knew where it was. Hopefully it is still there. We stopped and had some free time before the ship tour so we had coffee and pastries in a cafe. The young lady waiting on us was very interested in talking to us since we were Americans. The funny part was she said she watches and keeps up with our politics for entertainment. I told her to join the club!

Castle Guard. The colors for Stockholm are blue and white.

Front gate to the Castle

To sit in the seat/bench I had to take the backpack off. I just forgot to pick it back up. We remembered the name of the place and talked to Ganilla, the tour guide. She looked it up on her phone and although there was an address, she could not find a phone number. I couldn’t find one either. We came up with a plan. Because we were too far for the bus to drop us off or for us to walk, we finished the tour, which wasn’t much and then Ganilla was going to guide us to the bakery in a taxi. Luckily this was her only tour today.

The old town. Shops, pastries and coffee houses.

A Royal Theater

When arriving back at the ship, there were no taxis so the sweet, generous bus driver drove us back to the castle, which is near the pastry shop and dropped us off. Ganilla suggested we tip him. We told her all we had was US Dollars and she said that was ok. We were happy to! The guide walked us back to the exact place and the young lady was still there.

View of the entire city from a high bridge

She did indeed put my backpack behind the counter hoping I would return. This girl got a big hug! The guide walked us back to an area and called us a taxi. She too got a hug and a big tip. She went out of her way to help us an we are eternally grateful. I have copies of our passports and we had our drivers 

Beautiful color on the businesses. Many cafes here

license with us so if anything happened, I’m sure we would be ok but it would be a drawn out issue. She said you are lucky. I said, no ma’am, God was looking for me! In the end, it turned out to be a nice day in Stockholm. We will be here two days due to not making a stop in Russia so tomorrow we go to see the famous Archipelago.

We had a nice dinner and met a couple from North Carolina, Lea and Larry. Such a run couple to talk to. We watched a crazy juggler/comedian from the UK. He was something else! Then we went back to the room and watch the sun set over the balcony at 9:30 pm. What a beauty!

Many wooden boats. Love them!

May God bless you and keep you safe!

Chuck & Lea Ann