On Friday, we arrived in Stockholm Sweden. But before we arrived in Stockholm, they suggested going up on deck about an hour before we were to dock. The reason for this is to watch as the ship sails in the archipelago of Stockholm. It is comprised of 24,000 islands some of which are inhabited by people. The lucky ones have electricity and fresh water. They travel into Stockholm via private boats or they even have shuttles which transport people into Stockholm.
After docking, we started off the ship on our excursion for the day. Shortly after we started, the bus came to a high point in the city where we could take pictures of the skyline. Then we proceeded to see the sights and history of Stockholm. It is very rich in history. They at one time had all of Norway and Finland and were considered the largest country in Europe. Several of the kings went to war over the land and eventually they lost Norway and Finland. In fact, the king who lost Finland for Sweden lost his life since people were so upset. I saw many signs advertising an IKEA sale which starts at the end of July. I didn’t see and IKEA, but here is where it all started. They did have a tour which took you to the birthplace of IKEA, but we did not go on this tour.
We visited a museum which held a ship called the Vasa. At its time, it was the largest ship. However, they day it set sail it sunk within 10 minutes where it stayed for 300 years. Apparently way back when they were more concerned with how the ships looked over functionality. When looking over this ship with 95% of the original material still on it, you can see what happened. The ship was very top heavy. In other words, the majority of its weight was out of the water. Well, a strong wind blew and it started to tip. They were able to correct it, but another wind blew and this toppled the ship. After visiting the Vasa museum, we then proceeded to Old Town Stockholm location of the palace of the king. This was very impressive. Next it was on to Helsinki, Finland which is about 150 nautical miles from Stockholm on the Bay of Finland.
Helsinki is a small city located on the coast of Finland. They are very proud of finally gaining their independence from first Sweden and then Russia. Our tour consisted of highlights and history. We drove through the city and looked at the various buildings – a mixture varying architectures from modern to much, much older styles. From here we went to an open air museum where they have homes representative of one found all over Finland. While there we were treated to a cinnamon roll and tea or coffee. The homes were quite small to retain the heat in them and also since they are not a very tall people. They only have about 4 months of nice weather and daylight. Hard to imagine it being dark most of the time but it is for most of Finland 8 months of the year. Helsinki does not have the midnight sun, but up north in Lapland they do where it is 24 hours of light on June 21. Unfortunately, they start to lose daylight quite rapidly after this time. It was a tiring day and we came back and took naps. However, I am sure we will be well rested for our 2 days in St. Petersburg, Russia.
More after our visit to St. Petersburg Russia.
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