Sunday, October 1, 2023
This is our first day of an overnight stop in Stockholm. I woke up without an alarm. Slept pretty well last night. Went for coffee at the Grand Dutch Cafe and then watched the sail-in on the Stockholm archipelago until we were ready for breakfast.
Today’s independent tour has been very convoluted. Originally the ship was to dock at 8:00. A group of us were going to meet in the Ocean Bar at 9:00 and walk off together for the meeting point of Guru Tour’s WALK THROUGH STOCKHOLM’S OLD TOWN.
Tour Description: Join us on our Old Town Tour to enjoy the beautiful island of Gamlastan and understand why the Vikings chose this island to create their next capital. Our tour is designed chronologically so you can experience history just like the city did. We will start from the Viking Era, the German influence in the country and the Danish clash which led to the most important Swedish event: the Stockholm bloodbath in 1520 followed by the succession of Gustav Vasa. The tour ends in Stortorget, by the Nobel Prize Museum.
Then we were notified that the ship would not be docking until 10:00 because of the tidal conditions. One of the women who first contacted Guru Tours kept us informed about the time changes to our tour.
Our guide decided that a 1:00 tour would work, and we would meet at the Royal Opera House. I checked to see how far the Opera House was from the ship. It was over an hour walk so I bought us HAL shuttle tickets.
I kept getting varying reports about how long it would take the busses to reach the drop-off point because of road construction and traffic. We ended up on the 11:00 bus. We were dropped off at 11:30. The Opera House and a park were across the street from the bus drop-off/pick-up point. We had to take our passports off the ship today too which I still hate to do.
It wasn’t long before I needed to use the restroom (dang that large coffee). Luckily, I had the FLUSH app on my phone. It showed that the nearest public restroom was at the Museum of Medieval Stockholm. The museum admission was free and there was no charge to use the restroom either (a number of restrooms charge .50 or 1 Euro). Win-Win!
We spent some time looking around the museum and then made our way back to the Opera House. Eventually we were joined by the rest of the group and our guide Christian.
Our walking tour was supposed to be two hours. However, it ended up being three hours. We walked up and down hills of cobblestone. The day was sunny, but the wind was brutal. Christian had a lot of information at each stop. In my opinion, too much detail for me. I think he could have talked less, and we would have been finished in two hours. The majority of the group, including us, were exhausted.
Lots of statues in Stockholm.
About half-way through the tour, we were treated to a parade where most of the people were dressed in animal costumes. Christian said it was a protest, but I didn’t see anyone carrying signs or saying anything, so I don’t know what they were protesting.
One of the things that Christian emphasized was that people who live in Stockholm are almost cashless. They use a sophisticated debit card, or they use a credit card for almost all purchases. In fact, when we got ready to tip him for the tour, he pulled out his personal debit/credit card reader. However, most of us had Euros to give him. He didn’t reject them.
We took the shuttle back to the ship. Walking over all the cobblestones really wore out my legs and back.
I liked the tour except for the length of it. I don’t feel like it followed the tour description of a chronological order. However, we learned some history, some societal information, and some current events. Christian was a personable young man who really loves his adopted home of Stockholm.
I went to the New York Pizza and Deli and brought us back a pizza and a couple of beers to have in our room for dinner. The movie Fast X was showing on the screen in the World Stage tonight. We skipped the movie, took some Tylenol, and called it a very early night.
Travel Trivia
Sweden
In 1909, Sweden became first country in Europe to establish national parks.
Sweden is known for its sweet tooth, as the country ranks as the fifth largest consumer of chocolates in the world. The average Swede enjoys 14.6 pounds of chocolate each year.
Dynamite, the pacemaker, ultrasound, safety match, astronomical lens, marine propeller, refrigerator, and computer mouse are all famous items that were invented in Sweden or by Swedes who weren’t living in Sweden.
Swedes are well known for their love of meatballs and the dish is highly popular in the country, usually served with gravy and boiled potatoes, so much so that the IKEA furniture store serves them in its stores around the world.
Although Swedish people pride themselves on leading a healthy, outdoor lifestyle that includes eating well, the country holds the record for one of the highest number of McDonalds restaurants per-capita in the world.
One of the most popular flavors of ice cream in Sweden is salmiakki, or salty licorice, which can also be coal black in color.
Halloween has been celebrated in Sweden only since the 1990s and it is celebrated on Maundy (Holy) Thursday just before Easter. Children and teenagers mainly dress up for fancy parties and ghost parties, light lanterns, and venture forth to scare their neighbors and trick-or-treat.
