Vasa Museet

Port side; the scale defies depiction, at least on my camera

Richly carved fantail

Carved gunports

Large scale model, depicting how the Vasa had been paitned (according to chemical analysis)

I had thought of the Swedes as rather severe people, yet there are all these instances to the contrary; this sign is right at the exit from the Vasa Museet, advertising the Nordic Museum next door

Vicki adds:

Stockholm—June 23, 2009

We have had a great visit here and the weather has been glorious—full sunshine but only about 70 with a light breeze. In a few minutes we will head for the cafe with its free wireless, post our blogs, back up TOM TOM and head out of town. I know Mark has talked about our “precious” Tom, but as the navigator of this adventure, I can't emphasize enough how wonderful he/it is. Having navigated 7 previous European trips, I know. If you are planning any trip to unfamiliar territory, get yourself a GPS.

We have walked over 20,000 steps everyday for several days (Mark adores his pedometer-he is on #3). City sightseeing requires lots of walking but the almost 12 hour day we put in on Sunday was definitely more than I want to do. We had a 24 hr Stockholm card which gives you free transportation and admission to all the museums, palaces, etc. Most cities in Europe have them but you really have to press yourself to get full value so this has been our first one. I don't think they are designed for the elderly! Admissions get to be terribly expensive though—averaging about $12 per person per site. In Ireland we got 20% off nearly everything for being over 60. However, there were no discounts in Germany or Denmark. Here in Sweden you have to be 65. It will be interesting to see what the different countries do—in New Zealand you had to be 60 but a resident of New Zealand. I guess they figured if you had the money to travel, you had the money to pay full price. Luckily, Sweden has been cheaper than Denmark so we are pretty much staying within our budget—especially when we can camp under the bridge (more about that in Mark's blog soon.)

Stockholm City Hall

City Hall from "our" island, Langholmen

Ceiling of city council chambers, Viking ship upside-down theme...

The gold room

Strindberg mosaic in gold room

The blue room, where the Nobel prize banquet is held; this is the view you'd get, as an honoree, walking toward the grand straircase, escorted by the Mayor, King and Queen, et al.

Of course, if your credentials are not quite up to it, there is always the back door to the blue room, which I carefully reconnoitered...

Older Stockholm

A shopping street on Gamla Stan

Said to be one of Stockholm's oldest buildings

Parliament

On Knights' Holmen, buildings once belonging to the noble estate, now public buildings; Sweden's nobility is now merely "private" (but they do have an association and meet every few years)

The Center for Free Democratic Eelections gets its own island

Changing of the Guard

Palace entrance, main guard station

Vicki stood right next to the main guard guy

The band arrives; every other day, we were told, they arrive on horseback

Procession of new guards

Team captains meet at mid-field, shake hands, toss coin

Opening kick-off

The new guard is installed; and the band played on

Gamla Stan, Royal Palace, City Hall, and Vasa

Sunday, after careful calculation, we bought a Stockholm Card, good for 24 hours of transportation, museum and other admissions, and headed to the Gamla Stan, the old city. Stockholm is comprised of 14 islands in a lake that opens to the sea. Gamla Stan is the oldest of these and the site of the Royal Palace, which is still used for state and royal events. We toured the palace, the royal apartments, the royal treasury, the royal armory, the royal gift shoppe, all interesting, if not overwhelming. The highlight of the palace tour was the changing of the guard, which took place at 1:15 (and for an hour or so more; the band played on...). 

From Gamla Stan and environs, and after walking some of the old streets, we headed to the Stockholm City Hall. City halls are important buildings in the Scandinavian and Germanic countries, and nothing beats Stockholm's. It is not nearly a century old, but is well known for its setting, its size, its tower, its Italian/piazza lay-out, and most of all, for hosting the Nobel Prize banquet every December 10th (Nobel's birthday). (Dyn-o-mite!) The English tour was very good. It is also a working city hall, with administrative offices all about, council chambers, and the rest. And, nearly unique among city halls of my experience, it even has a sizable gift store. 

From the City Hall, we crossed town to the Vasa Museet. Early in the 1600's, to conduct a war with Poland, the Swedes built a giant warship, the Vasa, largest of its day (think Elizabethan; more than 200 feet long). Unfortunately, it had design problems, so to speak. It was launched, provisioned, manned, and sailed exactly 1300 meters before catching a breeze, capsizing, and sinking in the harbor. There were various attempts at raising the Vasa, but eventually it was forgotten. 300 years passed. In the early 1960s, through the persistence of one man, the ship was found, and, with 20th century engineering, raised. The Baltic is really a very big lake, brackish at best, and sea worms do not devour the wood as in other places. So the Vasa that was raised was very largely intact (even the sails and rope and clothing). Much conservation, and a little restoration occurred, and the ship is now on display at the Vasa Museet. It is, simply, one of those things one has to see to believe. Its size alone is fairly staggering. The amount of wood carving all over the vessel is no less impressive. (It was designed to impress the enemy). No pictures can do justice to this sight. But I tried. 

From the Vasa we raced back across town to the vicinity of City Hall again to catch the last historical canal tour of the day, a one-hour narrated voyage that we were glad we did not have to pay for. Interestingly, it took us right by Langholmen, the island on which our “campground” is located. Also the national prison, now a youth hostel. (Bringing back memories of my 1982 Columbus Monthly article on potential uses for the Old Ohio Pen). The Swedes are so smart. Despite the boat ride, subway, buses and trams, we still logged 22,000 steps on the old pedometer.

Palace frontal view Entry to royal chapel Pix are not allowed in the Palace, but I could not resist this one, in the Treasury, of costumes the royal kids dressed up in back in the early 20th; from British Columbia King for a Day 

Helsinki in (Less Than) a Day

We arrived in Helsinki about 10AM Friday, in more rain. We decided to forego the bus tours, etc., and just did it ourselves, buying a day-pass on the local public transportation, about 14 euros for the two of us. Helsinki's major sites are pretty close together; and, given a few more hours, we could have done it all on foot. By noon it had cleared, and we visited the harbor, the harbor produce market, the Senate area, all the neo-classical buildings, the Protestant Dom, lunch at Kapelli's, then the Parliament buildings, the music center Finlandia, the Church in the Rock, the Oopera (stet), the Sibelius monument, and then the Orthodox church, hopping on buses and trams when needed. The tram drivers spoke superb English and gave us helpful advice. In view of the holiday (see below), most everything commercial, except the market, was closed...a good thing for us.

It was an interesting place, almost exotically different, Russian, sort of, and we are pleased we made the trip. (We are not going to St. Petersburg, since the Ruskies seem not to really welcome independent tourists; visas are time-consuming, expensive, etc.). Helsinki was founded in the 17th century and, unlike most European sites, has no Medieval nor earlier past.

We are even more pleased that we didn't drive. It would have taken days and days and cost hundreds and hundreds.

We got back to the Gabriella in time get a window table for two for the buffet/smorgasbord, for which we had been preparing (fasting) all day. I am sure we have had better meals, but few more memorable. See illustration for the menu. I am sure I tried each and every seafood items and all the Scandinavian items, plus much more, the Mediterranean and Asian. And cheese. And desserts. I actually liked the herring, in all its varieties of preparation. There were four varieties of caviar. And free beer and wine. Only the cheese course was lacking in variety.

We spent the next few hours digesting. About 11 we went up to the band/dance area and spent a few hours there. All this was occurring on midsummer eve, a high Scandinavian holiday, and these people know how to party. The ship was all decked out in greenery, and at midnight there was a special live performance, American discotheque from the 70s. Sort of. But it was entertaining.

We were back in Stockholm by 10 the next morning, the rain ended, a beautiful mostly clear mid-summer day on which we simply lazed about the campground, reading, puttering, exploring the island of Langholmen, and planning our next travels.

Arriving in Helsinki harbor

The (Protestant) Dom; the interior very sparse, except for statues of Luther,
Melancthon, et al.

The Senate Square statue of Czar Alexander II, who was
nice to Finland (no statue of Stalin)

The blue building in all the travel guides...city hall

National art museum

National theater

Details from the 1931 Helsinki train station, said, by
Michelin,  to be of "National Romantic" style

Just about everything was closed for Midsummer Eve, but, thank god,
Kapelli's was open

In Kapelli's, Rodin's very famous "Young Girl Dribbling an
Imaginary Basketball"

National history museum

Parliament

Finlandia Hall, part of the national music complex

Interior of Church in the Rock; it would make a great Unitarian church

ACeiling of Church in the Rock; 14 miles (or was it light-years?) of copper tubing

Sibelius monument; he did play organ, right?

The Russian Orthodox Dom

Ditto

Cruisin' the Baltic

Our ship, the Viking Lines' Gabriella, left Stockholm in rain about 5PM. Our stateroom, on deck 2, was actually fairly nice, for the price...larger than many guest-house rooms we stayed in in Nepal, with private bath, hot and cold water, heat, etc. Luxury for $26 a night, including the trip. Thanks, Vicki.

It's not exactly a cruise...the travelers are about 55% Finnish, shopping in Stockholm and duty-free, 40% Swedes, partying, gambling, and shopping duty-free, and 5% actual tourists like us. The ship stops briefly in the Aland islands, an “autonomous” province of Finland, and that makes it an international (as opposed to inter-EU) voyage. The duty-free prices were only a little better than Stockholm, IMHO.

The Stockholm archipelago runs for more than 100 miles and contains some 24,000 islands and skerries. All of them are glacially-polished metamorphic rock masses, most large enough to accommodate forests, most with summer and other homes, but few permanently inhabited. The cruise-ship/ferry route runs up through these islands, staying fairly close to the mainland for a couple hours. Then it enters open sea for a bit, and, then, the Aland islands, another archipelago, this time with even more islands. Fly-over in Google Earth and you will get some appreciation of the matter. I had no idea there was any topography on earth like this. Then some more open sea, and you enter the archipelago around Helsinki, more islands, more forests and red-painted houses and buildings. The cruise/ferry route is pretty well established and marked, and there is radar and GPS, etc. Some of the islands we passed were scarcely 100 feet away, really close for a 50,000 ton ship moving at 20 knots. It's hard to imagine doing this 100 years ago, or 200, or 1000. Little wonder the Vikings became such proficient sailors.

Our ship, the M/S Gabriella

A tall ship entering Stockholm harbor as we leave

In Helsinki old harbor

Skerries in the rain

More islands, now near Helsinki

The buffet menu (see next entry)

Midsummer's eve sunset

Us ringing in the new...wait a second...summer solstice

The Gabriella's midsummer's eve entertainment extravaganza

Midnight sun...well, not quite at this latitude...it just never gets very dark