Wednesday, September 3, 2014

September 1-3 Stockholm, Sweden



We arrived in Stockholm early Monday morning and it was terrific. We caught a cab right at the dock and it took us the Hotel Stureplan which is a great trendy area in the middle of the city. More importantly our hotel room was ready when we arrived at 10 am. It’s a great small hotel, with about 100 rooms and very friendly staff. Our room rate even includes breakfast. A friend stayed at another hotel, I think it was a Radisson, and the breakfast was $35 extra per person.

The first day we paid for a tour on the Hop-on, Hop-off red double-decker bus, and the ticket was good for 2 days. We plugged in the earphones, tuned to the English channel and heard about the information at each stop, and other places of interest that we passed by.

Our first time off the bus was at the Vasa Museum. If you ever get to Stockholm, and don’t have much time, this is the one and only thing that you must do. You’ll see a real five story original wooden warship from the 1600’s. It was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. Here’s a link to the information on their website: http://www.vasamuseet.se/en
 
On day 2 we used the Hop-on bus again, got off in “old town” and also did a free 90 minute walking tour at 6 pm. We are far enough north that it doesn’t get dark until around 9 pm.

On our 3rd and last day here we took a 2 hour boat ride through the hundreds (maybe thousands) of islands that make up Sweden and got off at Sandhamn. It was a quaint town with some streets no wider than about 6’; that’s six feet. See the photos.




This last photo is a beach house on the island from about the 1600s

Tonight we pack and head back to Los Angeles.

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