Stockholm, Sweden- Part 2 (Post #20)
Sorry we have not blogged in a while. It wasn’t that we were lazy but rather our connection at the central train station was down in Stockholm. Plus, we had the 48 hour Stockholm card that allowed us access to many museums, other attractions, and free public transportion so we felt like as long as the clock was ticking we should be doing Stockholm card things. Thursday, June 30th, among other places, we went to Skansen where we visited an excellent wildlife park in which we were able to enter some of the animal enclosures. Here’s a picture of Mike in the cage with some lemurs.
We spent Friday, July 1st cramming in as many museums as we could fit in. We started out by taking the metro to yet another Stockholm island, Lidingö, and then catching a bus to the Millsgarden. This is was an interesting sculpture garden and house owned by two famous Swedish artists. Here’s a photo of some sculptures.
After this we caught the bus then metro back to the cetral part of Stockholm and went to the Royal Palace. This is the largest palace in Europe with over 600 rooms and these rooms are huge. We saw the royal apartments where former kings and queens entertained people. There is still a royal family and they currently live somewhere in the Royal Palace. We also saw the treasury where all the crowns, swords, and jewels of former kings and queens are kept and we saw the thrown where all past, present, and any future kings will be crowned. Next we went to Gamla Stan, another island, and climbed the town hall tower to get an awesome view of the city and take pictures. It has been raining and cloudy in Stockholm and on Friday it was finally sunny, which made for a beautiful panaramic view.
Towards the end of the day Mike went to a piercing shop on Serdermalm, a Stockholm island, and bought some new earings (larger gauge), then we decided to venture into this place called the Vampire Lounge. We were initially a bit hesitant about going in there because some potential clientele were a bit extreme looking (lots of colored hair and facial piercings). It turned out it was indeed strange but the decor was very well done – in a weird vampire sort of way. Even the bathrooms were unique – black, peuter, and red with art embedded in glass structures in the floor. We had some very interesting drinks including Count Dracula and the Impaler (as in Vlad).
On Saturday, July 2nd, we went to the central station to store our packs while going back to Serdermalm to see the independent film, Hotal Rwanda. This was an incredibly powerful movie and we recommend it. It is quite serious and heavy as it deals with the genocide of many of the Rwanda people during a civil war in 1994. The movie is based on a true story. We were 2 of 3 people in the theater because it was such a nice day out. The movie was in English with Swedish subtitles. We then went back to the central station, retrieved our packs, then headed to a metro stop where we would walk to what we thought would be a ferry to Helsinki. This ferry actually turned out to be a large cruise ship. (See the next post for details on the cruise from Stockholm to Helsinki.)
You can see more photos of Sweden (and Denmark) by clicking
here
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Tags: Category #6: Sweden
Michele Harmon
Mike – your hair is already growing out. Are you going to have it cut or keep it cut on the road or grow it back out again? I’d be freaking out to have some unknows person in an unknown country messing with my hair, but I’m probably a lot more vain!
My favorite picture is “some idiot standing next to some thing.”