Stalking Stockholm

When DJ and I were sent to Basel in 2010, we thought we were going to have 3-5 years to travel through as much of Europe as we could. We had hoped to do that in three ways.  1.  By taking Saturday excursions every week we were in town and that we didn't have church obligations.  2.  By utilizing Huntsman holidays given to employees in Switzerland.  3.  By using part of our vacation days to beef up some of those holiday weekends, take some planned short vacations, and take one major cruise each year (leaving time to visit our kids in the US, of course).  We had even picked out some cruises with a travel company that we wanted to take---one to the British Isles, one to Mediterranean with a land tour in Italy and then the cruise part leaving Rome and going to Greece and Turkey, and one to Scandinavia.  Year number one was up on July 1, 2011, and we had done numbers 1 and 2, and some of number 3, but we hadn't been on one of our dream cruises.  We knew by then that there wouldn't be a whole second year, or a third year, or a...

We decided to see what we could do.  Our dream trips weren't available, but we found a cruise on the Baltic that we could squeeze in during July that hit some of the Scandinavian countries we wanted to see and a few other places that we never dreamed we would visit, but, boy, are we sure glad we did.

So on Friday, July 23rd, we flew to Stockholm, Sweden.  We were to board our ship on Saturday, but we didn't want to cut it too close on our flight, have it be late, and then miss our ship.  It worked out perfectly.  We got up really early, flew to Frankfurt, made our connecting flight to Stockholm, made it to our hotel, and TOOK A NAP!!!  We're getting old AND we are either up late because we're busy, or we're not sleeping well.  We were tired!  We figured with a nap and a late lunch that we would be ready to hit the streets of Stockholm for a "Rick Steve's Walking Tour".

So that's what we did and then we took the train into the city as we were staying out by the airport.  We first had to find our way to the island of Gamla Stam (did you know the city of Stockholm sits on 14 islands).  All of Stockholm was on Gamla Stam in the early days.  Thankfully, it wasn't too far from the train station.  Along the way, I saw this building and loved it:

And then as we walked we saw all this:

Don't you love these fancy-dancy water main covers:

This is at one of the entrances to the palace:

This is the National  Museum:

The palace is so big that I couldn't get a shot of the whole thing from where we were (I probably needed to go across to another island), but you get the idea.  This is actually a shot of one of the narrower ends.  Some photos of detail follow:

 

This statue of King Gustav III is where our walking tour was supposed to start (we kind of came in through the side door).  Anyway, Gustav was the one who turned Stockholm into a sophisticated and beautiful European capital from a not-so-impressive Scandinavian port.  Wowsers, did he do a great job!

As we turned the corner and walked up a broad, cobbled boulevard, you could see this church straight ahead.  This is Storkyrkan, Stockholm's cathedral:

As we turned back around, this is what we saw:

Over to our right---a third side of the palace:

Looking forward, a little closer to the cathedral, there is an obelisk, honoring the merchant class of Stockholm for its support in the war against Russia in 1788:

Across the way to the left is the Finnish church (Finska Krykan) which originated as the Royal tennis hall!  When the Renaissance occurred in 1527, people could have church services in their own language instead of Latin.  Finns worshipped here, German's got their own church, and the cathedral went to the Swedes.

Just around the corner is a little courtyard:

In that courtyard is Iron Boy, the tiniest public statue amongst the 600 in Stockholm.  He's not much bigger than a fist!  Swedish grannies knit little caps for him in the winter.  The statue is said to honor the orphans who transferred cargo from sea ships to lake ships before the locks were built in Stockholm.  The artist says that the boy is simply a self-portrait of himself looking at the moon.  Some people rub his head for good luck---so, of course, I had to try it:

Next on our walking tour was Stortorget, Stockholm's oldest square.  This square oozes history, as well as awesome Amsterdamish architecture.  During a Danish "power grab", many of Stockholm's aristocracy, merchants, and priests challenged the Danish.  They were brought to this square and beheaded.  Rivers of blood were said to have run through the streets.  A son of one of the victims escaped, went into hiding and appeared again, only to lead Sweden in a revolt which resulted in victory.  He was then elected as their first king.  Gustav Vasa ushered in a great period in Swedish history:

 

The most famous building in the square is the Stock Exchange.  It now is home to the Nobel Museum which pays tribute to some of the world's most accomplished economists, artists, scientists, and politicians. 

Exiting the square to the right, we came to another side of the cathedral: 

On our way, DJ tried out this cool-looking phone booth:

The cathedral is guarded at the gate by the statues Caution and Hope:

Along the narrow streets were signs of older times all around.   This shot shows a hoist used by merchants to lift goods into their attics.

 

On a street corner this cannon barrel was erected to pay tribute to the memory of the son of Torsten and Frogun, all detailed in old Nordic script.

You know what this is, just a random cool door shot:

Some not so good shots of the German church.  Sweden formally became a Lutheran country before Germany. Hence, this is the first German Lutheran Church:

A random statue as we walked: 

We stopped at a cool outdoor cafe on a little street and enjoyed good food and people watching.  Our next stop was Jorntorget, a customs square in medieval times and the home of the first Swedish bank in 1680.  DJ posed with this little dude in front of the bank.  You will notice the barred windows and the unique door of the bank that follow:

We continued down Jarntorgsgatan and went to the area called Sussen, so-called because it is here where the locks join the Baltic Sea on the left and the freshwater Lake Malaren on the right.  For some reason I didn't take water shots, but the following shot is across the water to another island and the statue below is that of Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte,a nobleman from France invited 200 years ago to establish the current Swedish Royal dynasty:

We wound our way up through a major shopping area for tourists, not stopping to buy (YET).  Then we retraced our steps and caught these gorgeous shots looking across the water just as the sun was going down.

After walking a lot and a lot in the dark, we were a little disoriented while we were trying to find the alley that led to the Arlanda (the train going to the airport)---aren't we always, at least once on every trip.  But...after another adventure, we found it, made our way back to the hotel, changed our after-cruise hotel reservations in Stockholm to one in town, and got to bed.  We had a big day coming up!