Farewell to the Baltics – 5 June 2011

We felt very pleased with our Baltic experience. The weather was terrific, which is certainly not a given in this area, and in true contrariness, the wonderful heat and sunshine of our first two days in Stockholm dropped about 10 C for our final day.

We used the day to visit some more of the sights, using our Stockholm Card. First up was the city royal residence. Not on the same opulent standard of the British Palaces, but still a great place to visit. We also watched the changing of the guard, and felt the same. Maybe we are biased, but the Brits know how to do pomp and ceremony and the discipline of the movement of the soldiers on command is world's apart.

Near the Palace is the Nobel Museum, this was interesting, and we were able to look up Ernest Rutherford's entry as an award winner.

Our final museum was the History Museum, to look at the Gold Room. Years of finding Viking hoards have allowed the Swedes to accumulate a terrific haul of exciting treasure troves. It must be so exciting to stumble on such a find, we enjoyed just looking at them.

A final walk back along the waterfront; a final waterfront meal, and it was time to head home. We really enjoyed Stockholm, it really is a very attractive city with it's various islands (apparently 24,000), walking paths around the waterfronts in many places (some on the Baltic and some on the 120km long Lake Malaren) and lovely old buildings. We wondered if this was due to less destruction during the war. On a hot summers day, it would be hard to beat.

Drottningholm – 4 June 2011

Drottningholm is the residence of the Swedish Royal family, and a UNESCO site as well. The picturesque way to get there is on a boat across Lake Malaren, starting once again from the City Hall. The trip passes places of interest, such as the site of the original Electrolux factory where the only remaining part, the staff canteen, is now a Michelin Star restaurant called 'Lux'.

The Palace was built in the 17th century, and as the Swedish Royal family were not as wealthy as other royal houses, it was a clever use of fake marble to create an opulent look. This applied especially to the theatre, built in 1762, which has wooden curtains behind the boxes, wooden 'marble' fireplaces and so forth. The theatre was 'lost' for over 100 years, after Gustav III, the “Theatre King” was assassinated in 1792. Gustav was passionate about the theatre, but when he was killed, it was left totally untouched, and eventually totally forgotten about.

The third element to the area being protected by UNESCO, is the Chinese Pavilion. This is one of the best preserved buildings of it's type. It was a birthday present for Queen Louisa Ulrika in 1753. Nearby was a fascinating small Chinese styled building which was used by the royal couple to eat alone. The table was raised through a trap-door in the floor, ready set by the servants in the basement below. This process was repeated for each course, with no servants present for totally privacy.

After returning to the city by boat, we attempted to take the Katarinahissen 19th century lift up to the top of the hill in Sodermalm. It was out of order, but there is a modern lift nearby, which provides access by walkway to the old lift where there is a great city view. Nearby is the City Museum, which has a small Millennium Trilogy exhibition, and a walking map about the books of the Millennium Trilogy, and the places they were set in Stockholm. We spent an enjoyable couple of hours looking at the various places mentioned in the stories.

During this time, we also had a side trip to a booked ride on the Sky View – a pod on the Ericson Globe. This is a sporting venue built in the largest spherical building in the world, but the outside has been turned into another attraction – two mini-globes give rides to the top of the globe for a great view.

Stockholm - 3 June 2011

Unfortunately yesterday when we arrived was a public holiday which meant that the Tourist Information office was closed and the consequence was that we could not get the information we needed until 9:00 this morning. So as soon as possible, we purchased our Stockholm Cards and hit the sights.

Closest to the hotel was the berth to board the boat for the historic canal tour. Stockholm is surrounded by water and this trip was on Lake Malaren which drops a metre or so into the Baltic just near the hotel. The boat tour was a pleasant introduction and overview of the city with a bit of history and a few Swedish household names thrown in; Electrolux, ABBA, Alfa-Laval, Nobel, Bjorn Borg, Volvo, H&M, etc

Next door to the quay is the City Hall, visited via timed tour, and the tower, climbed via timed ticket, and juggling the two queues at two ticket offices on opposite sides of the building in order to dovetail the two visits was bit of a challenge but we finally got the times aligned and set off on the tour. The City Hall was built in the 1920s but looks much older, The Gold room is breath-taking as it is completely lined with murals made with mosaic tiles, primarily gold.

The views from the tower make the climb worthwhile and after soaking in the 360 degree views and stunningly clear vistas we returned to ground level and crossed back to Gamla Stan to use the hop-on-hop-off boat for our next stop. Unfortunately the free rides courtesy of the Stockholm Card finished 2 days ago so we decided to walk but after a couple of blocks in the heat we hopped on a bus to the Vasa Museum.

Swedish design has made many names famous but in the case of the Vasa it was particularly poor design that has made the name famous. The Vasa was a new warship commissioned by the King in 1625 and when it was launched in August 1628 it sailed for just 20 minutes before a small gust of wind blew it over and water flooded in through the gun-ports that were open after firing the salute at the launch and it sank in full view of the assembled populace. Fortunately less than 30 lives were lost and the ship sat in the mud for the next 333 years where the brackish Baltic water prevented the normal deterioration due to woodworm. Thus when it was finally rediscovered and retrieved from the mud it was in amazingly good condition and became the world's biggest conservation project as they reconstructed the ship from a 14,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. 30 years later 95% of the original ship was put on display in a purpose-built museum.

The irony is that the greatest maritime design disaster in Swedish history has provided the 21st century with the only example of a 17th C warship with all the intricate detail and many contents and created Stockholm's most popular tourist attraction.
This is definitely a must, on a visit to Stockholm.

From Riga to Stockholm – 2 June 2011

Today, we completed the final stage in our Baltic 'Cruise', by flying to Stockholm. The flight was not until 14.25, so we had a leisurely start to the day, and walked to the large Central Markets. These were colourful and sold everything you might need, except furniture.

The markets extended way past the original market buildings, and the area around contained just as many stalls. We were fascinated by the old women who seemed to have their own corner and stood there with arms covered in stockings. By the look of the stockings, they were designed to appeal to similarly aged women.

We did one final circuit of the old town, before returning to pack and check out. It seemed odd that our door card no longer worked, and at reception we were told we had exceeded our 12 noon check out time. It appeared we had spent two days in Riga, unaware that it is an hour later than Oslo. So our leisurely morning came to an abrupt end, and we jumped on the next bus to the airport, only to discover that our flight was late!

The airport Ryanair use is 80 minutes out of Stockholm, so we finally made it to our hotel five hours after racing out the Riga hotel. But with the long northern days, there was still plenty of time to explore Gamla Stan – the old town. It is largely pedestrianised, and we managed to find the smallest street, which is a whole block long, but only 1m wide. Gamla Stan is an island, in fact Stockholm is built on many islands, and the areas of the city that we could see across the water looked wonderful, there is clearly more to explore during our stay here.