Three Days in Stockholm
Stockholm is a great place to visit, if you have money. The Nordic countries have a reputation for being costly and that’s pretty much true. Museum entry costs roughly 20 euro per place, per person. A no-frills sandwich and a pet bottle soft drink costs you 10 euro and so forth. The Swedes seem to be well off though, everything looks kind of “rich”. I saw nothing run-down or neglected anywhere. Just wondering what kind of pay checks people are bringing home.
That said, I arrived at my hotel in the late afternoon and since it was a bit off the beaten track, I didn’t bother to get back into town that evening. Instead, I wandered along the waterfront to a supermarket ten minutes away. I love going to supermarkets in the countries of the world, just to test what kind of wondrous stuff they have there. Then, for lack of other possibilities, I had a pricey dinner in the hotel, which wasn’t even very good, too much frying fat on the plate.
The next morning I bought an all you can ride ticket and ventured by bus into town. A shopping street leads to the Swedish parliament and to the King’s palace behind it.
To take a look at its innards costs you the standard 20 euro. The palace looks much prettier inside than outside though and is worth the investment.
On the journey goes to a church, which is included in the price and turned out to be the not so super interesting burial church of the kings and queens. Next I ventured to the Stockholm city hall for a late lunch and a guided tour through the hall, whose highlights are the blue room, where the Nobel price winners banquet is held and the golden hall which is clad in gold leaf mosaics and quite impressive.
After a short bus ride to the old city center, I wandered there through the pretty and narrow streets alongside many other tourists, then by bus back to the hotel.
The all you can ride ticket I bought was also valid for the water bus and on day two I took that one to the “amusement” island Djurgarden. My first stop there was the ABBA museum. I’m not a particular fan, but it just felt like a must see if you’re there. The museum comes with the heftiest price of them all, around 23 euro. It’s very nicely done though, also trying to be interactive, with karaoke opportunity and even a singing on stage opportunity. It describes ABBA’s climb to fame, shows many costumes, all those gold and platinum LPs, guitars and other equipment, plus life-size wax figures. There, of course, is also an extensive shop for memorabilia and a cafe attached.
I next visited my personal highlight of the trip – the Vasa museum.
Vasa is the name of a failed warship. One of the Swedish kings ordered it to be built and ship construction took over two years from 1626 to 1628.
The day of the maiden voyage came in August 1628. The Vasa left Stockholm and was supposed to pick up soldiers on a nearby island and then to go to Poland with which Sweden was at war at the time.
After a mere 1000 meters, a gust of wind made the Vasa keel over, water flowed in through the open gun ports and she sank within minutes. She was too top heavy with two gun decks and not wide enough, apparently. A major design disaster. More than thirty people went down with her, stuck in the hull. The others were saved by boats nearby. The ship lay in the harbor in 32 meters of depth for 333 years until she was raised in 1961. I don’t know how long it took to restore the ship and when it moved into its current location, but it’s pretty damn impressive. You walk into the concrete building and there is this huge, complete, 400-year-old ship, which is 98% original they proudly say. The restoration work is never finished. These days they are replacing all the bolts that were inserted in 1961 with stainless steel ones since the old ones are rusting.
They claim at every corner that the Vasa is unique and I do believe them. It’s the biggest restored ship of its kind etc. It survived for so long because the Baltic Sea water is brackish, with low salt content that prevents e.g. ship worm from being around that would have eaten the wood.
The museum around the giant ship is very nicely done too, describing the life and work of the shipbuilders, the town in 1628, and also the salvage work for the Vasa. On seven stories you can see the Vasa from bottom to top. It feels like you are on the set of a pirate movie, only that the ship is real.
I have a weakness for ships and the ocean, admittedly, but I was so impressed with the Vasa that I can honestly say that museum alone is worth a trip to Stockholm.
The Vasa could not be topped and my last stop for that day was the Skansen outdoor museum, which is a kind of Nordic park including traditional human endeavors from glass making, shoe makers, pottery etc. and a small zoo with Nordic animals. It was a warm afternoon and all the beasts were soundly sleeping, wolves, elk, bears, seals, otter etc. all snoozed peacefully in their generous enclosures. The only guys up and awake were wild boars 
