Day 6
Sleep? Where did you go my friend? :) Last night after dinner we were going to watch a movie, but figured we wouldn't make it all the way through, so we thought we'd try to go to bed early (10ish). Probably an hour went by and I drifted off, but Guy fought it for some time, and finally tried reading for a bit to get sleepy (Betty...he doesn't want to give your Kindle back). I woke up and it was daylight! I had my alarm set for 4:30am because I didn't want to miss the spectacular views of the archipelago, a smattering of 24,000 tiny Islands. Supposedly breathtaking as the sun comes up. So in a panic I thought I had missed it, but the clock said 3:45. When I looked out I saw nothing and went back to bed, but afraid I'd miss it, so I looked out again. Then it started...the first tiny island out of hundreds I'd see. The morning was overcast so the spectacular sunrise views were not going be an option today, but the clouds were beautiful and I caught glimpse of a faint rainbow and woke Guy up to look at the giant moon hovering over the water. That was worth getting up early for.
Some of the islands were so tiny they consisted of some rocks and one tiny bush, but others were larger and had homes on them (sometimes just one home tho). The islands started out as tiny flat protrusions out of the water, but by the time we got to Stockholm they sprouted into much more. I hesitate to call them mountains, but they are pretty good size compared to their early morning beginnings. We passed a small grouping of houses that looked like it could almost be a small fishing village, but I'm sure these home owners aren't working that hard. As we snaked our way through the island filled waters, the views remained consistently the same, so I headed back to bed a little after 5 just to rest a bit. I knew I had a long day ahead, so I grabbed at least an hour. I set the alarm for 7 and I was up again to get ready for breakfast. At this point we were really closing in on Stockholm (the archipelago was supposed to take at least 3 hours to navigate through). Now the "islands" have turned into much longer and taller stretches of beautiful scenery. We are really close, and have been at other times, to the land, so I assumed we were that close to land on the other side of the boat as well. I was tempted early to go up top and see everything instead of the one sided story from my balcony, but it was pretty chilly and channel 7 on the TV shows a camera on the front of the ship, so I just looked at the full view from the Tele and saw the "real" thing from my room. Plus I knew we would be going out the way we came in, so there would be a chance to see the entire thing again (I'm looking at it now as I type...from the upstairs lounge that has a panoramic view - plus a jazz band is playing *bonus!!*) Stockholm is compared to Venice for all the waterways surrounding it, but it isn't Venice. ;)
After a bite to eat, we waited in the coffee lounge for Charles from Boston and his group. They were in our "Dave" group in Germany and last night at dinner we bumped into them. He said they have 7 and if you had 9 people you could do a private tour of the Vasa Museum. So we said we'd be happy to be 8 and 9 because we were going there first anyway. Here starts our welcome to Sweden...a good screwing over by the cab driver. Of course money here is the Krone and 70 of them makes about $10 US dollars. Those of you who know my math skills, let's just say I'm better off not buying anything here. I have no idea what I'm spending. haha. What was posted as the customary fee for a taxi from the boat to the museum should have been about 200 Krone, the cabbie stuck us for almost 900. This was about $120 US for the 5 of us. We argued for quite some time, then our other group came over and they were charged $70 US. Still taken advantage of, but we finally got our guy down to $100 US. Still, not good. In the museum we asked the worker what it should have cost and he said around 200. He said it is sad, but this happens all the time. It is not illegal to own a private taxi and charge whatever you want. Being Sweden newbies, we had no idea as these guys were in the taxi line outside the ship mixed in amongst the real taxis. Of course we could have taken other means (bus, water taxi) to the museum, but we wanted to get there asap, as Dave recommended. It is the hottest tourist spot in Stockholm, so getting there early was a must. When we paid to get in, you could have a private tour if you had 10! We were obviously just a 9. So we paid for 10 to get the private tour but somehow we got shoved in a group of about 40. Not really the morning we had planned from the night before, but I can tell you that when we walked out of the museum at noon, there was a line so unbelievably long to get in the museum that we actually became "ok" with the morning cabbie rip-off.
Ok, the Vasa museum...what an amazing sight. Not really a fan of the "Viking" era, I was still amazed at this ship. A bit of history... *insert yawn here* . The Vasa was a ship built in Stockholm in the 1600s on its way across the Baltic to pick a fight with Poland. It was one of the longest most ornate ships in the fleet. When they set her loose on her maiden voyage, she went about a mile, turned over and went down like a rock. Everyone escaped except for about 25 people (you will see some bones and facial reconstructions in the photos from today). Ok, so maybe our morning wasn't quite as bad...compared. So for several hundred years, people knew it was down there, but basically they forgot about it. In the 1950's some dude located it and got the government to agree to pull-er up. After getting it out of the water, they scooted it into a drydock where they enclosed it, thus becoming the museum. This didn't happen overnight, however, as the cleaning, uncovering, and piecing back together took years. It is now 98% intact, all original except for the areas in a lighter wood so we can see what wasn't original. I was fascinated by it. All that work, that disappeared under the water after about 20 minutes. The pictures won't do it justice, but I'll put some up today anyway.
After the Vasa, we separated from our friends and took a boat to Old Town where we walked along the tiny cobblestone streets, took some pictures of the guard in front of the Royal Palace (much like in London), found a bakery for a snack and looked briefly for some goodies to buy. An ink pen was about it. Thumbs down on the shopping so far. As of now, my suitcase will still close. More of a photo day than a shopping day, but all in all, it was really good. We had to be back on the ship at 3:45, so really we couldn't enjoy the town like we could have, because we were always watching the clock, but I think we covered a pretty good area in the time we had, and the Vasa was the goal for the day, which we didn't rush through at all.
We took a water taxi back to the boat. It was called the Hop On Hop Off because you could buy one ticket for the day and take it whenever you wanted. The bad thing was you had to follow its route. We had over an hour to get back to the ship, and we were actually thinking about walking back to it, but it began to rain and I didn't really want to walk that far, so we Hopped On. We got about a 40 minute view around the area until it stopped at our boat. It was raining pretty good, but it was the HUGE puddle we had to step in to get back to the ship that made me start to get a bit cranky!! Guy had one foot completely submerged, where I just got half a shoe full. We squished back to the boat and was glad to be back. We grabbed a quick snack and Guy headed for the cabin for a nap...which I'm not sure is a good idea since our sleep is all messed up, but it gave me a chance to blog about today. There is full sun right now and I'm going to go grab my camera and head to the top. I'll make a note on the pics as to the latter views.
Tonight is formal night. Out come the sparkles and my legs are fake bronzed and ready to go. From the menu it looks as if I'll be having escargot, tomato soup and sirloin Oscar. :) Last night our food was good as well. Caprese salad, shrimp cocktail and filet for Guy. I had mushroom polenta, broccoli soup and fresh mozzarella filled meatballs. I enjoy seeing the ladies all dressed up, so that will be fun tonight. Gotta run and take some pics. It is a beautiful evening. Will send more pics when we have free internet. Just picking a few each day. Tomorrow Helsinki! xoxoxoxox
P.S. Dad, in Warnermunde, it was white asparagus and STRAWBERRY season. I'll add a picture of their strawberry stands for you to see. Figured you'd get a kick out of it. :)
P.S.S. Cara...thanks for the use of your ipad SD card reader. I still have it and keeping it safe!
