Today is the final day of our “5 for 5” (5 consecutive excursion days). We’re beginning to tire of sitting on buses. We’re definitely tired of waiting extra time on a bus for other guests who can’t seem to be where they’re supposed to be, when they’re supposed to be. Celebrity Cruises should keep a list that lasts forever of guests who are late to a meeting time on an excursion. Then all those late people could participate only on excursions with other “late” people, for the remainder of their cruising lives. (sorry for the mild rant)
We liked Helsinki yesterday, but today’s experience in Stockholm was even better. We started at 9:30 with a short drive through the city, arriving at the Stockholm City Hall. I didn’t realize until we were inside that this is the site where the “Nobel Prize Banquet” is held every year. The walls and floor suddenly seemed more significant than the “plain old city hall” I thought I was going to be touring.
Stockholm City Hall, site of the Nobel Prize Award Banquet.
The 2nd part of the City Hall tour was the Golden Hall. Basically, the room was supposed to be decorated with a fresco by a world-renowned Swedish artist in 1919. Unfortunately he died before he had a chance to start. There was no “Plan B.” The room ended up being finished with mosaic tiles sold to Sweden really cheaply after WWI (Germany was broke and needed the money). The only person in Sweden who knew anything at all about how to work with the tiles was a 25-year old laborer. His only artistic exposure working with mosaic tiles was 2 weeks he spent after graduating from high school, working in an Italian tile factory. The room was ugly, the art was ugly, and everyone knows it, thus the appeal?
Next was the Vasa Museum. It’s a huge museum containing a ship that sank 20 minutes into it’s inaugural sailing. Built in the 1600s, it was meant to be the largest warship in Scandinavia and would help the Swedish king conquer the world. There were a few design issues, and down it went. It wasn’t raised until 1961, and is 98% complete. It’s huge and an impressive display. The Swedes sure have a way of taking a mistake and capitalizing on it.
The Vasa
We toured the city a little more, finally getting a chance to eat lunch on our own in the old town city center. It was a picturesque area, and we enjoyed a great meal of Swedish meatballs. Afterwards, we could either rejoin the tour or take time to walk the area and check out the local shops. We’ve seen lots of cathedrals, so we opted for time on our own. It was nice to walk at a relaxed pace and not feel pressured to race back to the bus.
Brick streets, and cobblestone streets. The cobblestone streets are not easy to walk on, and these were better than others we’ve experienced.
Back on the ship, it’s an early sailing (4:00 pm). We get a serious look at the Swedish Archipelago, some of the more the 30,000 islands belonging to Sweden, as we sail away. The captain of the ship referred to our exit as “slaloming out”. It was fun to watch a line of several ships turning back and forth as they worked their way through the islands. It took 5 hours to finally get to the open sea, and the views were so relaxing.
