Where in the World is Jo?: Stockholm, Sweden

Stockholm is the largest city and the capital of Sweden and is situated on approx 20 islands. Stockholm is also referred to the Venice of the North so there must be a few cities in competition for that name.

We passed through an archipelago of 24,000 islands and islets at 2am this morning on the way into the Stockholm harbour. Since we weren’t up that early we are planning on skipping the formal dinner and finding a good viewing area and enjoy the scenery as we leave this evening. We’ve had about a couple of hours of twilight the past few days and the sun is shining the rest of the time.

Stockholm is a very beautiful city but small in comparison to many cities in Europe. The old buildings are amazing. We went on a city tour and than a tour of the Vasa Museum. The Vasa was a richly ornamented navel vessel, built in Stockholm in 1628. She took 3 years to build but sunk after only sailing 1300 metres. The ship was too top heavy and the Vasa capsized and sunk.

Many tried to salvage the Vasa but she was finally bought to the surface again in April, 1961 after spending over 300 years at the bottom of the harbour in the middle of Stockholm. The Vasa was so well preserved that when she was salvaged, she was able to float unaided.

There are reminders of the wedding of Crown Princess Victoria and her husband Daniel everywhere on postcards, plates, cups and whatever else they can put images on. The weather turned a little cool today which we enjoyed.

Tomorrow we will be in Helsinki.