Day - 22: Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Starting Location: At Sea En-route to Stockholm, Sweden
Ending Location: Stockholm, Sweden
The sail into Stockholm is a great one as the city lies a couple of hours southwest of the shipping entrance from the Baltic Sea making for a long sea detail passing many islands and rocks, some populated, others not.
By 7:30 AM we were moored at the "large ship" terminal of Stockholm. This was our disembarkation day and by 9 AM we were off the ship with baggage in hands and hooked up with our driver for the ride into town.
After our brief ride into town we arrived at our Stockholm hotel, The Hotel Reisen located in the "old town" of the city. We were assigned a harbor view room.
With time to wait before our room would be available Sheila and I walked around the "old town". Of course, as ever there were statues of green people. In Stockholm we would soon learn that it was a city of Gustafs, seems there have been 16 or so iterations or King Gustaf with Carl XVI Gustaf having been the king since 1973.
We returned to the hotel around 11 AM for lunch, in this case a great cheeseburger. After lunch we moved into our room but soon headed back down to the lobby to meet our guide, Marcia, for an afternoon in Stockholm. Marcia introduced us to our driver, Monica, with her very comfortable car.
For about two hours we drove through the city with Marcia describing the history and newness of Stockholm. In hindsight we should have done a bit more planning and offered specific locations to Marcia for visits. In any case we passed through museum island and saw places that could draw us back but didn't stop. That said, we returned to the "old town" Monica and the car were released and with Marcia in the lead, hoofed it from there. The value of a guide comes with the detail, we could see buildings and monuments on our own but the guide provided the details.
We visited the Swedish palace including the chapel where there had just been a "royal wedding". Seems that the prince just last week married his new princess. In Sweden, the successor to the present king will be the crown princess as they crown the first child not the first male child.
Both women and men stand guard at the crown palace; don't think I've seen that in London or other cities of the world.
Around 5 PM we were back in the hotel and rearranging our baggage for tomorrow's flights home.
We had diner in the hotel restaurant where we met fellow cruisers, this time a couple from New Zealand. We dined separately but together (adjacent tables) and shared travel experiences. We had both been to many places but the trans-Siberian rail trip from Mongolia might be hard to top.
Ending Location: Stockholm, Sweden
The sail into Stockholm is a great one as the city lies a couple of hours southwest of the shipping entrance from the Baltic Sea making for a long sea detail passing many islands and rocks, some populated, others not.
By 7:30 AM we were moored at the "large ship" terminal of Stockholm. This was our disembarkation day and by 9 AM we were off the ship with baggage in hands and hooked up with our driver for the ride into town.
After our brief ride into town we arrived at our Stockholm hotel, The Hotel Reisen located in the "old town" of the city. We were assigned a harbor view room.
With time to wait before our room would be available Sheila and I walked around the "old town". Of course, as ever there were statues of green people. In Stockholm we would soon learn that it was a city of Gustafs, seems there have been 16 or so iterations or King Gustaf with Carl XVI Gustaf having been the king since 1973.
For about two hours we drove through the city with Marcia describing the history and newness of Stockholm. In hindsight we should have done a bit more planning and offered specific locations to Marcia for visits. In any case we passed through museum island and saw places that could draw us back but didn't stop. That said, we returned to the "old town" Monica and the car were released and with Marcia in the lead, hoofed it from there. The value of a guide comes with the detail, we could see buildings and monuments on our own but the guide provided the details.
Once again St. George has slain the dragon.
We visited the Swedish palace including the chapel where there had just been a "royal wedding". Seems that the prince just last week married his new princess. In Sweden, the successor to the present king will be the crown princess as they crown the first child not the first male child.
We would have never found the "smallest sculpture" or the "narrowest street" if unguided.
Around 5 PM we were back in the hotel and rearranging our baggage for tomorrow's flights home.
We had diner in the hotel restaurant where we met fellow cruisers, this time a couple from New Zealand. We dined separately but together (adjacent tables) and shared travel experiences. We had both been to many places but the trans-Siberian rail trip from Mongolia might be hard to top.
Having a great night view from our room was a nice way to close out the Northern Europe travels.
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