We drove to Stockholm from Denmark over a huge bridge. We think it was at least 30km long! Artur was thrilled that we went over it, because he loves huge man-made structures like that. When we arrived in Sweden, Artur was being very cautious about the speed limits, as he had heard that they were very strict there. However, the excellent roads tempted him to push the limits, as did the lovely Lexus that he was driving. He decided to play it safe, by finding a speedy local to follow. Soon he found a Volvo XC90 which was cruising at about 180 km/h.
We followed him for 3 hours, until we decided that it was time for a dinner break. The speedy driver pulled over at a restaurant, so we decided to pull over there too. When we got out of the car, the two men went over to each other to shake hands and introduce themselves! They were both impressed with each others driving skills. We invited him to have dinner with us, and we chatted about the roads in Europe, the nightlife in Stockholm and Sweden in general. He gave us a tip on a good area to go at night. He had driven from Germany that day, and was hoping to make it to Stockholm, but he was too tired, so he decided to sleep at the hotel (connected to the restaurant), and go the rest of the way, the next day.
We continued driving into Stockholm after our dinner, and once again paid attention to the speed limits, as it was a little easier to get caught near the city. We eventually made it to Artur's uncle Bogdan's house at about 10pm. We came inside from the freezing wind outside and caught up with him. Bogdan, or 'Boggi', as Loren likes to call him, was a sailor for his whole life, and has pretty much travelled the world on ships. He had the time of his life when he was young, and stopping off at lots of places like Australia in the 60s and 70s. Now he is just preparing to retire, and is living in Stockholm as he was based there for many years.After we chatted for a while, we found out that one of Boggi's friends was away, and that we were allowed to use the apartment. There was only one extra room in Boggi's house, so Artur's parents stayed there and we were dropped off at the other apartment.
The next day, we were picked up and taken back to Bogdan's house for breakfast. Everything was ready when we arrived, so we all sat down for breakfast together. We had a look at some of his photos from when he was young, and travelling around the world. There were a lot of pictures of women, as in portraits that had been given to him. Hi five Boggi! He was evidently a bit of a ladies man :)
After breakfast, we all headed to the city in the car. Our first stop was the 'Stadhuset' or Town Hall. It was an imposing building, with a tower that stretched above the horizon. Artur's parents wanted to do something else first, so we went to the Town Hall by ourselves. Our first mission was to climb the tower and see the city from above. 
Soon we reached the front of the queue and we took the elevator. Unfortunately, the elevator didn't go all the way to the top, so there were still a lot more stairs to climb. After we climbed a little higher, we reached a room with a really tall ceiling, reaching up into the tower. In this room, there was a huge dome in the centre, which formed the roof of the rooms below us. All around the room, there were sculptures on display. 
When we got outside, we were very glad that we'd made the climb. It was an incredible view of the city. It's a lot easier to get an understanding of Stockholm, when you see it from above. So much of the city is built on the water, it's like a maze of islands and canals.
The road infrastructure seemed extremely chaotic from above. There were so many highways and tunnels winding in and out of each other, it was like a twisted maze. Driving in Stockhom must be an absolute nightmare. If you don't know the intricate system of roads, and which lane to be in for getting into tunnels or avoiding them, you'd get lost everytime.
After seeing the view, we headed down to have a look inside the great halls of the town hall itself. However when we got there, the line was looking pretty long, so we decided to just head into town. We walked along the water on our way into town, and then stopped when we saw an organic icecream stand. It looked pretty good, and there were so many tempting flavours to choose from. It wasn't the warmest of weather in Stockholm, but we couldn't help ourselves, so we each tried a different flavour. The serving sizes that the girl gave us were enormous! We thought we'd never finish them, but the delicious flavour insisted that we did. If we ever go back to Stockholm, I'm going straight back to that ice cream stand!
We walked to the Kungliga Slottet (Royal Palace), and caught up with Bogdan and Artur's parents on the way. They were on their way to do some of their own sightseeing. As we climbed up towards the Palace, we heard drums and brass intruments. It sounded like there was a parade or a concert going on somewhere. Just as we reached the top, we saw a group of soldiers in bright blue uniforms and funny gold helmets, that looked a bit like the ancient Roman helmets. They were lined up in several perfect rows, with their commander yelling instructions at them. Then they simultaneously moved their rifles and prepared to load them with bullets. Just as we thought some real action was going to happen, the commander came around with a bucket and made them unload and drop their bullets into it, one by one. It was rather disappointing, as we were expecting some loud firing to happen. Obviously it was just a practice for the real thing.
We were bored with the soldiers when we realised they weren't going to do anything but stand in lines, so we headed off to see where the music was coming from. Unfortunately, the music stopped just as we were reaching the huge courtyard in front of the Palace. We saw the men who had been playing, but there were only a couple of them. We thought it must have been a huge band because of the volume of the music. It's amazing how much noise a few people can make! The members of the band were dressed in white, and were chatting amongst themselves and with the adoring tourists.
Now that the excitement was over, we had a moment to breathe and to take in the enormity of the courtyard that we were in, and the huge Palace that we were in front of. In fact, the Kungliga Slottet is the biggest Royal Palace in the world! It has 608 rooms, and it was built on then ruins of Tre Kronor. The Palace sounded pretty impressive, so we decided that their Royal Treasury must be pretty cool as well, so we headed down to see the Royal Jewels!The treasury was probably the richest collection we had seen up to this point. There were only two rooms, but they included only the most important, exciting and valuable pieces. An english speaking guide took us around and explained the history behind each of the pieces, and their significance. The most impressive of all were the crowns. One of the crowns was decorated entirely in diamonds of different sizes, and was the most spectacular piece of jewelry Loren had ever seen. Apparently the diamonds were shown to a Queen from another country, as a way of enticing her to marry the Swedish king. They were not intending to give them to her, just demostrate his power, but she didn't see it that way, so she had them made into a crown for herself. She was a very ambitious queen, and she saw that her husband did not have much power, so she sold the diamonds from her crown, and replaced them with glass, so that she could fund an uprising or war that would make them more powerful. She was discovered, and her efforts were crushed, and the diamonds were replaced in the crown.
There were also some incredible robes on display, which the royal family used to wear on ceremonious occasions, like coronations etc. The robes decorated with a thick strip of white fur decorated with black ermine tails (fur from the tails of small animals). The dress itself was made of deep purple velvet with a fur collar decorated with ermine tails as well. A ceremonial blue sash was tied from the shoulder to the waist. It was quite a spectacular outfit, however it is no longer used, because the queen is very environmentally conscious. She could not justify parading around in animal fur, when she does not want to support the trade.
We heard quite a bit about the Royal family as we left the treasury and continued our tour in the Palace itself. Apparently their son the Prince, is a racing car driver! Their eldest daughter is next in line to become queen, and she seems quite proper and well behaved. The younger daughter is a bit more of a party animal, creating a lot of press wherever she goes. I think one of them was currently dating their gym or tennis instructor, and I think each of them is romantically linked to 'ordinary people', not other royals or people with titles.
Our tour of the Palace was pretty cool as well. The rooms that we saw were beautifully decorated with paintings, ornate furniture and carved ceilings. One room was extremely long, and is a dining for the King and his guests. There is a rule that must be followed when serving dinner to the King and his guests; as soon as the King is finished eating, no one else is allowed to continue eating. The dishes are cleared, and the meal is over. Unfortunately, in the past, there have been Kings that eat very fast. In a room this size, sometimes people have not even been served their food by the time the King has finished, and they go hungry. Fortunately the present King is aware of the problem, and makes sure that he is a very slow eater.One of the past kings was a huge fan of everything French, and you can see the result in the decorations of the Palace today. One of the French kings heard about the passion of the Swedish king, and decided to unload his old tapestries to him, just the ones that he would otherwise throw out. The Swedish king was absolutely over the moon, and treasured them like jewels. Today, there are no examples of early French tapestries left in France, because the kings always threw them out. Students from France have to come to Sweden to see the only ones left in the world. Another quirk of the Swedish king, was to copy the tradition of the French monarchs, and receive his guests in the morning as he was getting dressed. It was the honour of the guest to assist the king in getting dressed, and to be there in such an intimate moment.
After seeing the Palace, we were extremely hungry, and decided to search out a good restaurant. We picked one in Lonely Planet, and followed the map for a long, long way, until we finally found the square where it was located. Unfortunately it was closed, as seems to happen with a lot of the places we choose from Lonely Planet. We couldn't see many other options in the area, so we found our way to a shopping centre food court. It was filled with people of every nationality imaginable. If you looked around, you wouldn't know which country you were in. Sweden is full of immigrants from all over the world, and many of them have settled into the culture here and speak the language. From what we could see while we were there, the number of immigrants seems to almost outnumber the people that were born there. Though it is probably more the case in Stockholm than in other smaller cities in Sweden.
After lunch, we went to visit an area called Stureplan. It was quite a pretty place, filled with pubs, clubs and restaurants, and fancy shopping centres. One major landmark here was a bus stop in the shape of a giant mushroom! Around the stem, there were telephone capsules attached. In bad weather, people huddle under the roof of the mushroom for shelter. We stopped inside one of the shopping centres briefly, as it offered better protection from the wind than the mushroom.
We decided to have a look at Kungstradgarden, which is a popular public park in Stockholm. We didn't quite make it there though, as we came across an exhibition in the street that caught our eye. It was a display of funny signs from all around the world. Some of them were names of hotels or restaurants, but most of them were street signs. We had seen a couple of them before, in emails or in books, but never so many all at once!
The display was in a square that had a mini road or footpath along the edge of it. The signs were displayed along the sides of the path, like street signs. They were full size, and at the foot of the pole there were descriptions of who took the photo, and what country it came from. We laughed so hard at some of the signs, and captured our favourites on film.
Soon we headed off to the subway, towards the Slussen Station where we were meeting Artur's family. Everyone was pretty hungry by this point, and we were very eager to find somewhere warm to sit down. Unfortunately it took a while to find a restaurant that suited everyone, but eventually we found one that looked warm and cozy. It turned out to be a Czech restaurant, but we found some tradtional Swedish food there as were. Loren tried some herring, which was surprisingly nice, considering she is not a big fan of it. The men had pork knuckle, a heart feast of crispy skin and lots of meat. We were pretty tired after dinner, so we went back to our little apartment and watched a movie on DVD.
The next morning we were picked up early for breakfast, before heading out for some more serious sightseeing. The weather was looking fairly horrible, so we decided not to see the outdoor museum that we had in mind before. Instead we headed off to the Vasamuseet. It was an amazing museum, dedicated to a Swedish ship that sank off the coast of Sweden 300 years ago, and was recently recovered and restored. The museum is constructed around the ship itself, and several floor rise up all around it, so that you have an excellent view of the enormous ship from all angles.
Model of the Ship, as it once would have looked.
The ship was sent to assist the Swedes in the war to conquer Poland. If it had succeeded in making it to Poland, Artur might be speaking another language today. It was a very powerful ship, and the king had high expectations of it. The problem with the ship was that it was unstable. The huge mast in the centre was enormous, and they hadn't put enough weights at the bottom of the ship to balance it. As a result, the boat sunk not long after it left shore. We felt sorry for the sailors and soldiers that died, but we were thrilled that they didn't succeed in conquering Poland.
The most fascinating thing was hearing about how they managed to excavate the boat from the ocean floor, and bring it up in one piece. The ship was encased in thick layers of sea mud and sludge, which actually helped to preserve it. Once they removed the ship from the water, they had to empty all the mud from inside the ship, but it was a painstakingly slow process, because they didn't want to lose anything from inside. So they went through the mud to find every small artifact that remained in there. Once the ship was emptied, they had to try to preserve the wood that it was made from. It had been immersed in water for so long, that it would probably decay or disintegrate quickly if the water was completely dried out from it. So they sprayed the structure with liquid petroleum until every surface was covered with the stuff and the wood was sealed. They had to scrape off all the excess, but it turned out to be extremely efficient.
On the other floor of the musuem, we saw exhibits on what the sailors lives would have been like, how the ship was run, and we saw items that had been recovered from the ship. The different floors of the museum helped us to see the ship from all angles, which was pretty cool. The front of the ship was absolutely covered in sculptures of gods and mermaids and anything else imaginable. It reminded Loren of the 'Muppets on Treasure Island' movie where the old muppet men are attached to the front of the ship, and always have some funny comment to make about the voyage.
Next we decided to visit the Nordiska Museet, which was inside a huge renaissance style building that looked like a Palace. The museum was the National Museum of Cultural History.We were given audio guides, which was helpful, and made our tour around the museum much more interesting and meaningful, but not necessarily fast. The first floor had a great exhibit on wooden carvings. It was like a gallery, more than a museum exhibit in that the items were made by current artists, not dead ones. Loren was inspired by their work, and started to think about trying some wood carving when she gets back to Australia.
The coolest exhibit was the one on furniture, surprisingly! (But I suppose this is the country where Ikea originates from) The exhibit was on furniture through history, and what it says about the people of the time, and their socio economic status. We moved from furniture of the present time, back to each decade that preceded it. It was cool to look at how the design of the furniture morphed from one decade to the next. People moved from extravagantly styled wooden furniture from the 1800s to more practical pieces, then gradually those practical pieces picked up fashion trends of their own, which changed with time.
There was a cool game at the beginning of the exhibit, where you were given pictures of people, and then pictures of rooms, and you had to guess who belonged to what room. They had the answers nearby, with descriptions of the person and what they did for a living. It was pretty fascinating to see how much you could tell about how old a person was, whether they were single, male or female, what kind of job they had, just by their room.
There was also an exhibit on clothes and shoes over the ages. Loren loved this exhibit, and could have spent hours going over each item in detail, but we discovered it too late, and had to rush through. There were dresses from many different historical periods but not so many modern ones. However the shoes were displayed from every era, right up to today!
There was so much more that we saw too, including an exhibit on the Sami ethnic group, who are native to this area of the world. The exhibit showed their traditional dress, and their way of life. It also showed a great deal about how they have struggled over the years, and the troubles that they still have today to cope with the legal system and with fitting into the Swedish way of life. They feel that they are discriminated against, and that it was started by scientists who came to measure their people anatomically, so they could see the difference between them and the Swedish people.
The Grand Ferry to Helsinki
After this, we left quickly so that we could catch our ferry at 4pm. We arrived on time and drove onto the biggest ferry we had ever seen. It was like a cruise liner, in more ways than just the size. This boat was like a town of its own. For relaxing and maintaining the body, it was equipped with spas, saunas, swimming pools on the roof, a beauty and hair salon. For shopping, there was a street running down the centre of the boat, with a ceiling that went up at least 5 floors. It had shops of every kind, selling expensive designer brands and even normal shops with reasonably priced things. There were souvenir shops, shoe shops and perfume shops, and on one of the floors below, there was a supermarket!
For eating, there were restaurants all along the street, a few cafeterias, other restaurants, and a huge buffet style restaurant on some of the lower floors. For drinking, there was an English style pub, and a bar and even a nightclub on the very top level of the boat! For entertainment, there was a huge theatre with stepped levels of seating with tables, where you could drink and watch the evening's entertainment or if you got bored of the show, there was a casino in this same section of the boat. There was also a cinema, a children's indoor playground, that had been temporarily set up in an enormous conference room, and miles of deck to wander and pretend you were Leo or Kate on the Titanic.
We settled quickly into our room, as it was an overnight ride, and then set out to explore our new entertainment complex. We went shopping along the main street, and checked out the restaurants on the way, keeping an eye out for somewhere to eat that evening. We explored everything that we could find on board, and checked out what the entertainment would be in the theatre for that evening. It was so much fun to wander around and see everything that was on offer. It was like suddenly finding yourself on a luxury cruise ship, with no idea of how you got there. We weren't expecting much more than a room and somewhere to eat, but we got a lot more than we bargained for.
We entertained ourselves over dinner, by making origami shapes with our napkins.
In the evening, we all met up for dinner at a grill restaurant on the main shopping strip. The food was really good, and we all had a great time chatting about our trip and the amazing ship we were on. While were eating, and throughout the day before that, there were clowns, mimes and characters on stilts, playing around on the street outside us. The mime was following people and mimicking them, which was pretty funny to watch, except you hope that you won't be his next target.
After dinner, we headed to the restaurant to see the acrobats who were scheduled to perform there. We arrived in time to get some good seats, and watch the acrobats make their first appearance. They came out and revved up the crowd for a while, with some little juggling tricks. Their tricks grew more and more complicated as the show went on, and they did some cool flips in the air as well. They brought kids out of the crowd every now and then, so that they could participate in their tricks. It was a good show, but definitely aimed at children. Loren got bored of it fairly quickly.
After the show, we went to the English pub, for a few beers. Loren tried a cool beer that was a strong porter beer, but with a hint of chocolate flavour to it. It was really good, kind of like guinness, but with a little extra flavour of chocolate. We took our drinks outside onto the adjoining deck and watched the sea for a while. It was pretty cold, and there was a very loud Australian there, so we decided to go for a walk around the deck. We ended up walking around the entire ship, which was pretty cool, as we saw a few of the main decks that we hadn't noticed before. Eventually we made it back, and retreated into the warm air of the ship.
Before bed, we decided to check out the nightclub on the top floor. It was pretty packed with people, but no one was dancing, much to Loren's disappointment. Instead, there was a karaoke night happening, with plenty of drunk people making the most of their turn on the microphone. We weren't in the singing mood, and Loren didn't feel like trying to start a dance revolution, so we headed off to bed. 
To see the photos from the post in slideshow mode, click on on the link below:Stockholm pictures
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