Day 19 - Monday, August 8 - Stockholm

 At 4:30 this morning there was a beautiful sunrise over the islands to the east in the Stockholm archipelago. 

At 7am we are sailing into the port passing many islands - Stockholm is famous for its many islands which have regular ferry service to all of the larger islands. There are over 30,000 islands although many are pretty small.

We had an excursion this morning to the Viking museum and to the National History museum. The Viking museum is a commercial enterprise that has many replicas of Viking gear and what life was like. One part of the museum has ride with cars on a track that go through different scenes and story tellers of a Viking family where the husband has to go abroad to get more silver in order to avoid selling their daughter. His travels have many pitfalls but in the end returns triumphant. It was quite well done.

We then went to the national museum which was opened just for the Viking cruise visitors in order to see the actual artifacts of the Vikings stored there. It includes considerable jewelry, a wooden chest of blacksmith tools and many other items. There are quite a few "Rune" stones which clearly show the ancient writing of the Vikings.

On the way back we stopped at an underground cafe to sample Viking mead (ale) and elk pate shaped like a pear.

After lunch we went on a bus tour around the city visiting many of the sights and stopping for half an hour at the town hall for photos and to enjoy the gardens.

There is water everywhere and there are small ferries constantly darting around, moving between the islands.

This is our last night here. In the morning we move to the Radisson hotel next to the train station and do sightseeing on our own for the day before heading home on Wednesday.

Sunrise!

Harbor view from our ship


Norwegian waffle

Elk pate with lingonberry sauce

Modern day Viking

Rune stone

Blacksmith tools in original wooden box - 1000 years old



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