Stockholm, Sweden ~ McC Ab Test

We sailed overnight from Helsinki to Stockholm, on the Viking Line "Gabriella". She is a larger version of our Cook Strait ferries (2,400 passengers plus 400 cars), but quite a bit nicer inside. We were surpised to find a large duty-free "supermarket" on board, and many passengers buying trolley loads of alcohol and cigarettes, etc.

We had the upper deck of the Grabiella to ourselves.

A typical scene on the approaches to Stockholm.

Stockholm is quite a long way from the open sea, behind a maze of islands and channels which the ferries have to negotiate to reach the port. There is almost no tidal movement in the Baltic Sea, and there are thousands of houses on little islands, often just a short distance from the sea and each with their own jetty and boat.

We walked into the crowded narrow cobbled streets of old Stockholm town.

In the little square in front of the Nobel Prize Museum (not shown here). Classic Stockholm houses.

We took the number 7 tram and rode out to the Vasa Museum, a large building built to house the sailing ship Vasa. More than 1.5 million people visit this museum each year, to see the almost complete ship, restored after being raised from the seabed and painstakingly reassembled and protected in a process which took over 30 years. The Vasa was a huge warship build by the swedes and launched in 1728. It spectacularly sank almost immediately, before it was even out of the harbour, and lay on the seabed for over 300 years before being raised and restored.

The size of the Vasa is impressive, especially up close.

Near the Vasa Museum is the "Open Air Museum", which includes houses and other buildings from other places and times in history.

A traditional farmhouse, in the Open Air Museum.

There is also a bit of a zoo there. This is a caribou (reindeer).

An exceptionally neat wood pile.

Our next journey is by train, from Stockholm to Copenhagen. Almost all of the five and a half hour trip is in Sweden. We started with a three-minute metro ride from Stockholm Central Station to nearby Sodra. Apparently the long-distance trains cannot currently operate from the central station because of all the major construction work going on.