Day 5: Stockholm Strolling

After a nice restful night in our lovely hostel in Stockholm, we felt ready to conquer the city. We decided to do one of the free walking tours (pro tip: this is always a good call) so we could learn about the city, it's history, and about some of the buildings and places in the city. The below is the best of my memory of what our wonderful guide shared. (Disclaimer: I may not be remembering everything correctly so what I don't know I may make up.)

The tour was covered Gamla Stan, the oldest part of the city and where Stockholm was first founded. It's located on a little island in the middle of the city, so it was well-placed for defensive maneuvers and access to all the archipelagos. 

On the left we have a nice little courtyard bereft of plants or anything green except the oxidized statue/fountain. Regardless, it was very lovely! And then we spied a pretty church across the canal. And some government building. Important stuff there.

Here we have one of the Kings of Sweden. He probably conquered the Danes/Nords/Finns or something. West constantly wanted photos so I felt obligated to oblige every now and then.

A different view of the first courtyard. Then the gate to the palace! We especially loved this little scenic photo so I made sure to capture it multiple times. Once with West.

Once with Sarah. And once by myself. We also passed by an old sculpture of a fox who was homeless to bring awareness to the plight of those who are homeless in the city.

I'm not sure what the picture on the left is? But possibly the pretty flowers or an attempt to show the stage for the festival that was ongoing in the city. We also have the very lovely parliament building and then some stairs leading up to the Opera House.

These pictures are showing some statue man and then a memorial to Raoul Wallenberg who personally helped save thousands of Jews during the Holocaust by providing them protective Swedish government passports which saved them from deportation to concentration camps. A pretty cool dude.

And here we have one of the "ports" where boats and the like dock in the system of canals. And another lovely statue in the park and then we a building that I found aesthetically pleasing.

And here is the lovely National Theatre. It has so much gold! And in the right picture is Margaretha Krooks, one of the most famous actresses to grace the stage in Sweden. She purportedly was not a fan of having a statue because 1) they never looked like the person looked in life and 2) they were always so cold. So of course they decided to make a statue of her that is true to what she looked like smoking cigarettes prior to performances and most importantly created the statue in such a way that hot water runs inside it, keeping her warm for perpetuity.

So of course, we all needed a picture with her as the last stop on the walking tour.

A pretty building (maybe a library?) across from our lunch selection where we got SWEDISH MEATBALLS (not pictured)! 

They gave us some yummy pickles and cranberries as we awaited our delicious main course. We then decided to walk over to one of the adjacent islands that housed the Viking Museum. These are some of the sights from along that walk.

A cool little market and boats along the canal.

If we had more time, we probably would have rented one of these bad boys! But we were content with just getting fabulous pictures instead.

A great and photogenic group, blue gates into the garden, and gorgeous flowers.

Caught Sarah for a candid photo. And then Jon and myself.

We really liked the floral background apparently. And here we have a view of the national history museum. We did not go in (priorities), but it looked cool from the outside!

Our priority was the Viking Museum which houses the most complete and best restored Viking ship in existence. How did they manage to do this, you ask? Well it helps that this Viking ship only made it, oh, about 300 feet on its one and only voyage. I guess Ikea instructions were even harder to decipher in their day. But the ship had remained on the bottom of the ocean for a while until they brought it back up and lovingly restored it to what is shown in these pictures. Technology is crazy, y'all. We have the real ship on the left, and then a model and some rings found on the ship.

This is a depiction of what it would look like inside the ship, with people on all levels. And here we have a canon!

What the ship's deck could have looked like, and then a view from the side to show you how massive this thing is.

Jon and I in front of the top heavy Swedish masterpiece.

Another mini replica and then the back of the ship with all the intricate carved detail.

This was one of the mastheads I think? And then the ship's nest. Presumably whoever was in that at the time of the sinking, they were probably not real happy.

I couldn't get enough pictures if you couldn't tell. It was a pretty spectacular sight!

Back out in the bright light, we walked back towards the hostel to rest our feet. We passed by more canals and the national military museum. We didn't go in (it was free though), but we took a couple pictures.

This car is lovely but just looking at it makes my legs feel cramped. We saw a elephant sculpture among the festival things so of course we had to get a picture! And he we have a picturesque example of how well the Swedes do decorating.

A long walk calls for ice cream! It was delicious! And here the entry to the Nobel museum (I think) and then the church where the Swedish royals get hitched.

More cool government buildings.

A running man statue, that is different depending on the angle you take it in by. And a church spire! Although not nice and crooked like the one in Chesterfield.

A long day of exploring means a nice refreshing cocktail. We definitely succeeded in finding one. It may have just cost us $17. Oh, well. Welcome to Stockholm!