Days 5 & 6
Monday - Tuesday 18th & 19th August 2025 - Stockholm, Sweden
Last night on the Baltic Queen was the best night’s sleep on our trip so far. Slept right through to 7.00 am (apart from the G phone call). The time now though, is 6.00 am Swedish time. Breakfast on the ship was fantastic, the buffet spread being extensive again.
The approach to Stockholm in the ferry winds its way through the archipelago of 25,000 islands and the scenery was just beautiful making the crossing from Tallinn to Stockholm really enjoyable. When told yesterday that it was a 14 hour crossing, we thought it sounded too long, but it was indeed that time.
The only thing that spoilt this crossing, was the lack of control around the passenger’s exit, where everyone crowded the single exit way and at times people arriving in the lift to the departure floor, had no way of getting out of the lift it was so packed. The ferry line should have had a better departure plan in place, and if we had known how bad it was going to be, we would have waited in our room until the initial rush was over.
From the ferry straight onto a bus for a 4 hour tour around Stockholm, the tour leader pointing out the various attractions, museums etc. and means of getting around the city by public transport. We stopped at the City Town Hall (which hosts up to 100 weddings EVERY weekend), and the final stop was a walk around Gamla Stan, the old town of Stockholm. Of course this area was heavily tourist orientated with numerous souvenir and food shops.
Sweden is a kingdom, even though the king has little power, it is governed by a parliament. Sweden is now a member of NATO effectively giving up the neutrality they held onto during the last two world wars. It is another sign of the nervousness being shown by Scandinavian and Baltic countries.
Stockholm is generally referred to as ‘Beauty on Water’ and
‘Venice of the North’, which is understandable as the city is built upon 14
islands. It is surrounded by Lake Mälaren, and the Baltic Sea. The city’s grand
public buildings, palaces, rich cultural history, and museums tell her
700-year-old history beautifully.
The hotel we are staying at is in the suburbs, about a 20 minute drive from the city centre. Upon arrival, our tour guide gave us directions to supermarkets and eating places nearby. Tania set out for the supermarket, but the directions proved to be a little inadequate, and in the wrong direction ! Anyway, all was sorted and we had a tasty Thai meal sitting with new friends from Tasmania.
Today was the first real time we have had to catch up with writing the blog!
The bus left the hotel at 9.00 am to drop us off in town to spend however we liked. We chose to first visit the Vasamuseet (Vasa Museum). We caught the public ferry transport SL line taking 10 minutes to Djurgarden Island where a number of museums (including the popular ABBA museum) and attractions are located. Djurgarden Island used to be the King’s exclusive hunting grounds and the blue painted entrance gates to the hunting park are still there. The king gifted the island for public use and there are now many attractions, including a theme park and private dwellings on the island.
The Vasa was a warship built for King Gustiv I from 1626 to 1628 and it sank on its maiden voyage only 25 minutes into the trip right in the Stockholm Harbour. Crowds had gathered from far and wide to view the pride and joy of 1 of the 3 ships in the new Sweden’s fleet and now the outcome of their efforts had to be down played. Resting on the ocean floor 2 of its masts were still visible above the water so they were quickly removed to avoid embarrassment to the King and those involved. An enquiry was instigated by the king to try and lay blame for the disaster, but as all directions theoretically originate from the king, along with his personal involvement in design change requests, the process quickly went quiet. It lay on the seabed for 333 years and was finally re-located and salvaged in 1961. Today the Vasa is the world’s best preserved 17th century ship, magnificently adorned with hundreds of carved sculptures and 98% original. We spent 3 hours in the museum and found it very fascinating.
Following this and always with a map in hand, we walked around the harbour back onto the mainland side of the city marking our route of exploration. The buildings here facing the water are magnificent and are occupied by Swedish rich and famous persons. We headed into the main shopping strip filled with exclusive shops and restaurants to window shop their wares… Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Gucci and many stores unfamiliar to us. As we often do, we stumbled across an unexpected highlight… the Saluhall which is a stylish indoor market with up market food stalls and eating places. Our daily coffees have not been cheap on our travels, varying from $8 to $10 Aussie equivalent per cup, but expecting the liquid gold in the Saluhall would be considerably dearer.
Thousands of steps later and through many more streets and public parks, we made our way back through the Gamla Stan old town to meet the bus at 5.00pm to take us back to our hotel. With only breakfasts so far included in the trip, we then walked to the local restaurant - ‘Vastertrop Restaurang’ for dinner with both of us having a delicious lasagna and salad.