Two interesting things happened after the Helsinki blog. When we got back to the ship after Helsinki, we went out to our balcony to look out. They must have been painting while we were gone, because Frankie got fresh paint on her shirt from the railing. After half an hour of scrubbing in the sink, she phoned the passenger relations desk and asked them to launder her shirt and they could do some other laundry for us while they were at it, and send someone to clean the railing. Well, the railing still hasn't been cleaned, but the paint is probably dry by now. We saw other railings and deck furniture that had been splattered as well, very messy. We sent our laundry off and went to sit in the sun on the deck. When we got back to the room, laundry services had returned our laundry and said they would only do the one shirt. We had that rectified with a very insistent call to the front desk, it was the least they could do.
Then we went off to dinner later than we had wanted to, but it seems everything happens for a reason. There was a couple seated next to us, only a few feet away, and he seemed so familiar to Frankie. Finally after half an hour, she used an excuse to start a conversation and the question that is invariably asked is, "Where are you from?" Yes, Frankie was right! It turned out to be one of her Bible college professors (from 25 years ago!), plus she taught his grandson in grade 3, plus his son is her physiotherapist. What an incredible coincidence!
Now onto Stockholm, Sweden. Sweden is a large country, sparsely populated, and forests cover half the land. For several hours before and after port, we sailed through 25,000 islands of the Stockholm Archipelago. Stockholm is called the Venice of the North since it is built across 14 islands linked by boats and bridges. It was founded in 1252. Since they have not been at war since Napoleon's time, they have not experienced the destruction that other European countries have suffered.
Sweden still has a royal family, but since Sweden is an egalitarian society, the monarchs are not allowed to wear the crown jewels, not even for their coronations, in order not to provoke envy among the people.
It was a short port visit today, we were only in port from 8 am til 2 pm, so we had to pick only a few things to see. When we got off the ship, we hopped onto a hop-on hop-off boat. The first thing on our list was the Vasa Museum. The Vasa was the royal flagship (carrying 64 cannons) that sank 20 minutes (1500 meters) into her maiden voyage in 1628. When the ship was almost finished, the king had ordered one more deck to be built against warnings that this would make the ship top-heavy. The sailors had been allowed to bring their families aboard; about a third of the 150 people aboard died. It was a great embarrassment to the king and his navy. The ship remained there sunk in the harbour until they could find a way to raise her. One idea was to put a zillion ping pong balls under it, but what they did was place two barges alongside it, string cables between the barges, and support the hull that way. It actually started in 1959 and took two years to accomplish. The ship is the oldest perfectly preserved ship in the world. Also, 12,000 artifacts were recovered.
We hopped back onto the hop-on hop-off, and made our way to Gamla Stan - the oldest part of Stockholm. This section of the city is over 8 centuries old. It is made of narrow cobblestone streets loaded with shops. We found the narrowest street in Stockholm where you can touch the wall on either side. We bumped into the Nobel Museum, the Royal Palace, and the Riddarholmskyrkan, the thousand year old church where all the Swedish kings are buried.
We took the hop-on hop-off scenic route to get back onto the ship, and spent the afternoon and evening relaxing and watching the islands of the Stockholm Archipelago as we sailed by. It was a lot like cruising through cottage country in northern Ontario. Oops, had to change clothes because it was formal night. It should be called Yuck, Too Much Perfume Night.
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