Friday, July 13, 2018- Stockholm, Sweden

Friday, July 13, 2018- Stockholm, Sweden

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The approach to Stockholm involves picking your way through an archipelago of thousands, if not tens of thousands of little islands.  It never really got completely dark last night, and we had to pull the curtains to get it dark enough inside the cabin to sleep.  We began passing all sorts of little islands during the wee hours of the early morning.  

We had breakfast in the buffet as the ship was getting tied up, and we could see the Pacific Princess was also in town, tied up on another wharf a few piers down from us.  We had no trouble meeting up with the SPB-Tours representatives, who were actually in the terminal building this time.  We drove around Stockholm, learning that it is situated at the junction between an 80 mile long lake, and the sea.  There are locks that separate the fresh from the salt water.  The locks were undergoing extensive renovation.  We drove by their sports stadium, which looks a bit like a Roman Colliseum on the outside, and which hosts hockey and football (Soccer).  

Our first stop was Stockholm’s City hall, which looked like a medieval fortress, complete with keeps. This is apparently where Nobel Prizes, other than the Peace Prize are awarded.  We saw that the Peace Prizes are awarded in Oslo, Norway.  That leaves Physics, Chemistry, Physiology (Medicine), and literature.  A Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (Swedish National Bank’s Prize in Economic Sciences) is commonly referred to as the Nobel Prize in Economics, it was not a prize established in Afred Nobel’s will in 1895, but it is announced and awarded much as the other 5 prizes are.  

Stockholm City Hall

Plaque depicting Nobel Physics, Chemistry, Medicine (Physiology) and Literature prizes

The City hall is on the banks of the lake in a majestic setting made all the more enjoyable by another day of perfect weather with temperatures in the mid 70’s and clear blue skies.  

Our next stop was a viewpoint overlooking the bay, into which the locks from the lake empty.  This bay is over 100’ deep, and was the location of the sinking of the Vasa, a 17th century 64-gun warship that was salvaged in 1961, and now is the centerpiece of the Vasa Museum.  

Stockholm Harbor

Our next stop was Gamla Stan, or Old Town.  This is the home of the Royal Palace, and surrounding village of narrow streets, churches, and endless shops.  We walked down the Västerlånggatan where the Målerås glassworks shop caught Janet’s eye.  They had some exquisite and expensive looking artworks in glass that looked like something we would have started collecting years ago, when we were collecting things.  Fortunately, we’re now in a downsizing stage, so that’ll save us more money for future cruise vacations instead.  

Målerås glassworks

We also walked around the town square, which features a Nobel Museum.  After having seen so many European “Old Towns”, it’s hard to get too excited about narrow winding cobblestone streets, just like seeing another European cathedral after having seen so many earlier in the cruise.  

Gamla stan, Stockholm

We also saw the smallest public monument of Stockholm, Järnepojke, or Iron Boy, or Little Boy Who Looks At The Moon, which looks more like a table centerpiece set in the middle of a small courtyard behind the Finnish Church.

Järnepojke, Iron Boy, Little Boy Who Looks at the Moon

Our final destination was the Vasa Museum, which houses a salvaged 17th century warship called the Vasa, which sunk in Stockholm harbor on it’s maiden voyage due to a design flaw that made it top heavy.  The king, at the time, had demanded that a second deck of guns be added to the ship.  When the ship heeled over in the wind, the lower gun deck ports become submerged and flooded, sinking the ship in 1628.  Because it sank in brackish water, it did not fall prey to shipworms, and was remarkably well preserved when it was rediscovered and salvaged in 1961.  It is an amazing ship, and after seeing it, it’s easy to see where the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series drew their inspiration from for the Flying Dutchman and Black Pearl.  

Vasa Museum

The woodwork is fantastic, and it is a huge wooden ship that was capable of hoisting 20 sails on its 3 main masts and bow spirit. It is 226’ long and 38’ wide with a Tonnage of 1,210 tones. She was crewed with 145 sailors and carried 300 soldiers.  Amazingly enough, only 38 men lost their lives when she went down in Stockholm harbor.  She was equipped with 64 guns.  There was an interesting turret near the stern that housed musketeers for close in battles.  

90 percent of the hull is original, while 70 percent of the stern and 80 percent of the bow are original because these had broken off the ship when she hit the bottom of the harbor.  We could have easily spent another 2 hours in that museum, but we had to rush through because our ship was scheduled to leave Stockholm by 2pm.  

Our SPB Tours team got us back to the ship with plenty of time in reserve.  Our bus driver was wearing a cast on his left arm, and was driving one handed.  When we asked what happened to his arm, he explained that some young thugs jumped him just outside his home trying to steal his smart phone.  He gave chase and got his phone back but fractured his ulna when the thug threw the phone back at him to make an escape.  Wow, we had no idea life in Stockholm could be so rough.  Speaking of rough, I forgot to mention that when we rode the subway in St. Petersburg, a man sitting across from us had a classic Glasgow smile scar, and certainly looked like someone who would be involved in a gang.  Anyways, the bus driver said his trip to the ER with X-ray and casting his arm cost him just $40.  That hidden side of that coin is Swedes pay close to 50% of their income in taxes. 

We enjoyed tea and scones as the ship made it’s way out of Stockholm harbor.  On it’s way out to the Baltic Sea, the ship started by following the Pacific Princess through a maze of hundreds if not thousands of islands. Many of the smaller islands are no more than glacially carved granite mounds covered with trees, not unlike a scene from the San Juan Islands, except greener.  There were some impossibly small islands that had houses on them.  

There were also lots of Swedes having fun on the water in jet skis, recreational boats and on the shores of the many islands.  The Regal Princess passed through several channels so narrow that someone on the shore or on a dock could have easily swam out to the ship.  We passed one dock covered with swimmers and sunbathers where a boy sang out a Swedish folk song at the top of his lungs.  When he finished, he jumped off the dock and into the water.  It was pretty cute.  There were several jet skis that raced out from the small islands to play in our ship’s wake. 

 It took several hours for the ship to clear the islands and enter the Baltic Sea proper.  We had another impossibly perfect sunset, and even at 10pm, the air temperature was 70 degrees.  The weather we have experienced on this Baltic cruise has simply been amazing.  

It was Italian night in the dining room.  Janet had spaghetti and meat balls while Ben had Italian pot roast.  Both main meals were excellent, but the eggplant parmigiana appetizer was the highlight of the meal.  

We caught the early Showtime production of “Bravo”, featuring popular opera and show songs and a guest soprano.  We have seen this production on other Princess Cruises.  This production was a step fancier because the Regal Princess stage has more extensive video backdrops and stage effects, but the soprano tended to drift too much off the tempo of the operatic numbers ala American Idol.  Ben can’t stand that, especially with classical numbers, so that knocked this show down in ranking for him, but Janet enjoyed it just fine because she didn’t notice there was anything wrong with the soprano’s tempos. 

Ben popped open one of our bottles of champagne to enjoy while watching the sunset.  We watched Murder on the Orient Express in our stateroom, passing on “The Liar’s Game”, and called it an early night.  

Tomorrow is a sea day, and our last full day of this cruise.  So sad.