Let’s start today with a cool factoid. Did you know that Stockholm is located in an archipelago of more than 34,000 islands? Yep, and getting to the Swedish capital by ship requires you to sail through a good deal of it, which is a real treat. I’m an early riser, so I’d likely have been up early to watch it anyway, but today I had a lot of company.
Sailing through the narrow channels looks a lot like sailing up a river, but this is the Baltic Sea, not a river. Not only is it very pretty, but the islands are dotted with summer cottages, many of which I looked at longingly. I remembered this as one of the highlights of our Baltic cruise in 1993, and it was great to enjoy it again.
But on to Stockholm, a city of a million people, though the larger metro area doubles that number. We liked Stockholm so much on our earlier visit that we scheduled a tour that would take us to many of the same places, though like yesterday in Helsinki we added a trip to a smaller community some distance from the city.
We began with a short bus ride to the old city, which sits on the island of Gamla stan. Old Stockholm has many of the same narrow cobblestone streets we’ve seen in other European countries, and we enjoyed a walking tour that took us past, among other things, the Nobel Prize Museum. Yes, it’s true that pursuant to Alfred Nobel’s will, the annual Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway, but Nobel was Swedish, and the rest of it happens here.
Not surprisingly, Gamla stan is also where we found the oldest church in Stockholm. Storkyrkan is the Cathedral of the Church of Sweden, and was consecrated in 1306. It sits at the top of Slottsbacken, a long plaza that goes all the way down to the water, with a great view of the National Museum and Grand Hotel on the next island. The Royal Palace is also there, but it was all wrapped up for renovation, and we couldn’t see anything but a false facade. There was more, but we needed to move on, and I need to move on with this report because our next stop was awesome.
The Vasa Ship Museum is the most visited museum in Sweden, and deservedly so. The Vasa was the greatest and most powerful warship of its time, which lasted only a few minutes. The magnificent, 64 gun behemoth was built on the orders of Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus, and was launched with great fanfare in 1628. Unfortunately the ship was dangerously unstable, with too much weight in its upper hull, and just 1400 yards into its maiden voyage it encountered a stiff breeze and promptly tipped over and sank.
Fortunately for posterity, the frigid water in Stockholm harbor preserved the Vasa amazingly well, and she was recovered in 1961 almost entirely intact. Today she rests quietly in a huge, climate controlled building, where visitors can almost get close enough to touch her. We’ve been there twice now, 31 years apart, and I was blown away both times. This is truly a bucket list-worthy exhibit, and one any visitor to Sweden, or Scandinavia for that matter, should try to work into their itinerary.
We weren’t done though, because we still had a ride out into the countryside ahead of us. Sigtuna is a pretty little town of fewer than 8500 residents, about 45 minutes north of Stockholm. It’s got a lot going on for its size, though, as it’s home to a well preserved 13th century church, the ruins of three more churches dating back to the 11th century, and the oldest main street in Sweden. Those attractions have made Sigtuna a popular tourist destination, and we got to see all of them. Actually, all but the ruins of St. Peter’s, which eluded us, but we saw the ruins of St. Olaf’s and St. Lars, two 12th century stone churches, along with St. Mary’s, a 13th century Dominican structure that is now a Lutheran church, still in use and looking much younger.
What the two church ruins had that I really liked were some Viking Age runestones. Runestones are stone carvings that were erected to honor the dead, usually a loved one or someone important. I’ve known about them for years but had never seen one. Now I’ve seen three or four.
Stora Gatan, labeled Sweden’s oldest main street, is now a shop lined tourist attraction, but it was nice enough to walk up and down its three or four main blocks. The town hall, which is claimed to be the smallest in Sweden, is adorable, though there isn’t much of anything inside.
With Sigtuna pretty much covered and light rain beginning to fall it was time to retreat to the bus for the 50 minute ride back to Stockholm and the ship. We’re here overnight tonight and don’t leave until 5:00 pm tomorrow, so we’ll have an opportunity to see some different things or go back to the old city, where we felt a little rushed today, and poke around and enjoy the ambiance. We’re not sure at this point, but whatever we do, we’ll be sure to take you along, so watch for our day two report on Stockholm.
Sailing through the Stockholm Archipelago we passed hundreds of little islands like this, many dotted with summer cottages.
Occasionally we passed larger homes on the islands.
We even passed a few communities where the islands lent themselves to natural harbors.
This was more the norm though. We passed scenes like this for more than four hours as we sailed into Stockholm.
Stockholm’s old city is home to the Nobel Prize Museum. Did you know that Nobel invented dynamite, and that an explosion in one of his plants killed his brother?
Fun street in the old city.
The smallest public sculpture in Stockholm. The shiny spot on its head is where people rub it for good luck. And yes, I did.
Cool statue of St. George and the dragon in a small merchant square.
The Stockholm Cathedral is the oldest church in the city. The obelisk in front of it honors one of Sweden’s kings.
The National Museum is on the next island.
That’s the aptly named Grand Hotel across the water.
There are great old buildings wherever you look.
Speaking of great old buildings, this is the Nordic Museum.
At the Vasa Ship Museum. In four years this incredibly well preserved warship will be 400 years old.
Closeup of some of the rigging.
Great detail of the stern. When it was launched all of this was beautifully painted, but the paint was lost during the centuries the ship was at the bottom of the bay.
This is the Vasa’s only surviving cannon. There were 64 of them onboard when she sailed.
The ruins of St. Olaf’s in Sigtuna.
A runestone outside the ruins of St. Olaf’s.
St. Mary’s. You would never guess this church dates from the 13th century, would you?
Inside St. Mary’s. Lutheran churches are more plain than the Catholic churches we’ve visited.
Still, that’s an impressive altar.
Not much left of St. Lars. The third 11th century church ruin, St. Peter’s, is across town and we never did see it.
The Sigtuna town hall is adorable.
The oldest main street in Sweden is lined with shops designed to attract tourists.
On the other hand, this cute library kiosk is intended for the locals.
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