Sunday in Stockholm

It was again cloudy and rainy on Sunday and I spent the day walking around a couple of the islands I had not yet been on. The first one I went to was the Gamla Stan, one of the oldest developed islands and was a completely different scene than the rest of the islands I had been on.  There were tiny streets with shops and apartments everywhere and it felt like a very, old small town and it was pretty neat.

 Captions: Top - Street in Gamla Stan

Middle - Smallest street in Gamla Stan

Bottom - Picture walking over toward Gamla Stan

My guide book told me that "A salute battery of four 57-mm rapid-fire cannons is sited on Skeppsholmen and are still in use.  Salutes are fired to mark national and royal special occasions..."  Today was August 8th, which is the Queen's name day, so I was looking forward to spotting the canon fire.  I walked around Skeppsholmen to get a feel for where this may be taking place, but I had a pretty good idea because I thought it was right next to the big boat bar I sat on Friday night -- which I thought would be a perfect place to watch.  I walked up to Kastellhomen, a big castle on the island, and was hoping to go to the top to get some view prior to the firing of the cannons at 1.  But, it looked closed so I headed back down to the boat.  On my way down from the castle, there were 10-15 cars of military personnel heading up to the castle.  I assumed they were getting set up for the cannon firing so I went to my boat, got my glass of wine, set up shop waiting until 1 PM.  But evidently, the cannons were shot off up at the castle, and not where my book / I thought they were going to be.  So, instead I sat on the boat and listened to the cannons going off.  But, I was at least able to see part of the parade ceremony from across the water.

Caption: Top - This should have been my view.. if those are not the "four, 57-mm rapid-fire cannons," I do not know what they are then...

Middle and Bottom - Parade leading up to the Royal Castle

After the disappointing cannon display I found a restaurant which had a Swedish Smorgasbord. The place was quite nice and the food was pretty delicious.