Friday in Stockholm

I shortened my original vacation with Nicholas / Lisbon by a day or two so I could take a long weekend in Stockholm in the summer before it became a winter wonderland.  I took the early morning Ryanair flight to the "Stockholm" Nykoping airport - Stockholm is in quotes because it's a good hour plus form the city center.  But, I purposely took on Friday so I would have time to take the long bus ride to the city and back without wasting too much time in the city.  This airport was probably the smallest airport I have ever flown to/from as there were only 2 baggage claim areas and I think only 2 airlines use that airport.  The airport was so small they did not even have an ATM which meant I needed to use the currency exchange booth for the first time since I have been in Europe and was not very happy about it.  However, Swedish money is play money because 1 USD = 7 SEK or Swedish Kronor so I was carrying around thousand Kronor bills like it was nothing... mostly because it was nothing.  I took the hour and 15 minute bus ride to the center and was looking forward to the day ahead because the weather was perfect, warm, and sunny.  I happened to arrive right when the Changing of the Guards was taking place for the Palace - very similar to the Changing of the Guards Ceremony in London, but was less people and you can get right next to them as they march down the streets.  It was again great timing and I went to grab a quick lunch and check into my hotel to get rid of my bag.

I quickly then started walking around and was amazed by how much water is surrounding the city.  The city itself is comprised of 14 islands that are all connected by bridges and walkways and in the winter, by the frozen water.  I headed over to the Vasa Museet (museum) which is a completely reconstructed war ship that sank just after leaving Stockholm in the 1400s.  It was pretty remarkable that they were able to recover almost the entire ship and piece it back together.  Only bad thing is you couldn't walk on the ship itself but still worth the visit.

 Captions: Top - Vasa Museet from the outside

Middle - Pic of the ship's deck

Bottom - Big ship, crazy detail around the outside of it

After the Vasa Museet I walked further down the Djurgarden island and over to the Junibacken, a children's museum (Junibacken) that is mostly devoted to Astrid Lindgren, the author of Pippylongstocking!  I didn't remember her being Swedish but I remember watching Pippylongstocking a lot growing up.

 There she is!

 After the Junibacken I headed over to the outside museum called the Skansen.  I decided not to head into it as it was pretty big and there was not a whole lot in there that I was interested in.
It was such a beautiful day, I spent quite a bit of time just sitting along the water and parks, enjoying the views and watching the beautiful Swedish people go about on their day.  Most of them were getting in their boats for an evening on the water and I thought I should do the same.  Venturing over to another island I found a huge boat that was really a restaurant / bar and I jumped on there and grabbed a glass of red wine and climbed up to the front of the boat and sat there and watched the hot air balloons float over the city and the sun set in between the buildings.  Check out the pics!

 The boat in the middle picture is where I watched the sunset from.