Baltic Cruise 2019, Part 4: Sweden

After a full day at sea, I was ready to see some more of Scandinavia.

Saturday dawned insanely early, and I found myself awake and ready at about 4:00...so I went to the gym and did some sunrise treadmill sprints, because why not?

After a workout and breakfast, I had time to go to the Lido deck and take a few pictures.

Before long, it was time to report to Princess Theater. This was the beauty of doing the excursions offered by Princess: you show up, they give you a color-coded sticker with your group number on it, and you sit with your group until it's time to leave. Then you file out single-file, check out at security, and are led straight to your bus. It's so easy and efficient.

We had a bit of a jaunt from the ship to shore, along a very long pier. I took some pics of my temporary home.

Isn't she pretty?

The bus ride took about 45 minutes, because on a Saturday there is little traffic. Our guide was very cheerful and knowledgeable, pointing out small landmarks in the countryside as we drove in. Side note: it turns out that they kill about 80,000 moose a year in Sweden for population control. I think they might even have more moose than people.

Before too long, we reached Stockholm, and our guide had the bus driver take us to a spot on one of the 14 islands it is made up of so we could see a lovely view of the Old Town.

This area is also near where a large ship called the Vasa sank, in the 1600s, which we would see in a few minutes.

But first, some glare-y pictures from the bus.

So, the Vasa. The Vasa is a 226-foot-long warship that sank in the middle of Stockholm in 1628. It was twenty minutes into its maiden voyage, and this was, of course, quite embarrassing for all involved. For some time, its exact location was forgotten, but in the 1960s, it was found by divers and, because it sank in less salty water, it was very well-preserved. It was later brought up and assembled in its own museum.

This beautiful building was next door to the museum.

A family of geese, with goslings. 

Scale model

The museum was pretty fascinating; along with the ship itself, a lot of artifacts were recovered, and skeletons of the people who perished in the sinking.

Next, we drove here and there, past the ABBA Museum (alas, no time for that one), and a park which our guide casually informed us, is the meeting place for a couple thousand people each Tuesday evening, who show up to sing.

Why am I not living in Stockholm?!

Here are more pictures taken from the bus, so they're not the greatest--window glares, lopsided, etc. But I wanted to give a taste of what we saw. Crappy pics or not, you can see it's a very lovely city, with lots of green spaces, water, and beauty.

We stopped to see part of the Royal Palace, and walked up a big hill into the Old Town. Here, free from most traffic, Stockholm is utterly charming. After our guide was finished with us, we had free time to explore.

Outside the Royal Palace. 

Dad stayed in a little park area to rest his feet while I went back to see where the bus would leave us, then walked back up to meet him.

We had lunch at an excellent restaurant offering traditional Swedish dishes, and of course I had the meatballs and the lingonberries.

Yes, reindeer.

Better than IKEA! 

After that, we wandered a bit, bought some souvenirs, and then had ice cream. Dad went back to sit in the little park area while I got some last picture-taking in.

Pippi Longstocking!

One place I had to visit was this small museum/shop, home to the Dalahorse. The saleslady gave me a little info sheet about them (I purchased a tiny green one, and some Christmas ornaments). It says:

The carved wooden horse is an ancient genuine work of Swedish folk art, once made in the whole country, but later mostly in the district of Dalarna--therefore the name "Dalahorse." Long ago, the horse was not only highly valued property and a symbol of status, but also a working partner and a trusted friend. A horse could be the difference between life or death in a wild and fierce country without roads. No wonder then that people carved wooden icons of the horse." 

Old Town is quite lovely, and some of the buildings reminded me of the architecture of Amsterdam.

The Nobel Museum

Soon, it was time to head back to the bus. Dad's feet were tired, so we took it slow and I took more pictures.

A combination of walking uphill on cobblestones, being in the sun, a good meal, and our insane wake-up time that morning (thank you, jet lag and crazy sunrise times), meant that we were tired and dozy on the bus. Everyone was--I saw many people with heads drifting every direction, eyes closed. I, too, dozed briefly with my head on the window, until our bus driver gently said, "Ladies and gentlemen, we are back in Nynashamn," and we all started awake to the sight of the Regal Princess.

We had an easy evening, and both of us crashed pretty early. The next day we would wake in Finland.

She is Pippi Swimmy, and I don't have a problem I can
stop any time I want.