"All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it" - Samuel Johnson
Putting the hellish time we'd had in Helsinki the day before behind us, we awoke on the second Tuesday of our cruise in Stockholm. It is a city built on 14 connecting islands, each with their own feel and story to tell (much like, I suspect, Venice!). It was a calm start to the day, as we had to take a tender to shore - Stockholm is one of those places that cruise ships will never be able to pull in a dock at - which only adds to its charm.
Getting up, we walked through our morning routines still half asleep and stumbled to breakfast, relative quiet and uncommunicative. The late nights were starting to catch up with us (not that we'd ever admit to that), we were more likely to blame our next door neighbours who were still insisting on turning on the TV at some inhumane hour!
After we'd fulled ourselves up; many, many cups of tea later, we returned to the cabin to grab our bags and headed to the show lounge as instructed, to await our tender to shore. Now tenders to shore are an experience if you've never done one - they attach a set of floating steps to the outside of the ship, which you then walk down into one of the lifeboats, which have been lowered to play taxi service to the shore. Having done this on a previous cruise, Claire and I were not bothered in the slightest, but it was clear there were a few passengers who were less than thrilled at being bounced about with little between them and the sea.
It took less than 3 minutes to get us to shore, where we were welcomed by our guide for the Old Town and City Hall tour. We'd picked a leisurely mornings walking tour to visit two of the city's highlights but before we got to either of them, we were able to take in a panoramic view over the city's skyline from Fjallgatan.....shame there was a random ship in the way ;) lol!
The gold room tells the story of Sweden's history, although you have to get passed all the gawking at the sheer splendour of the room and the incredible opulence to really take note of what story the images are telling! The hall is dominated by the ”Queen of Lake Mälaren” on the northern wall which represents Stockholm being honoured by the East and the West.
After leaving the splendour of the city hall we made our way into the centre of Stockholm to the old town, where we walked for about an hour and a half around the area, taking in the Royal Palace and Great Square and admiring architecture from the 16th-19th century.
The Great Square has a fascinating, if gruesome, history which defined modern Stockholm, for it was the scene of the Stockholm Bloodbath in November 1520, when, during three days, the Danish-Swedish king Christian II beheaded and hanged 90 people. However, the king wasn't directly responsible for the deed. The archbishop, dethroned and imprisoned by the regent Sten Sture the Elder (who died during the siege) wanted to obtain a redress. So, during the coronation of Christian II, the prominent guests were confronted with the bill of indictment of the archbishop and subsequently condemned for blasphemy. The death sentences were to be accomplished at once, so the square was cleared while a curfew forced all citizens to stay indoors. The executioners beheaded archbishops, councillors, noblemen, and city magistrates indiscriminately. All bodies were burned on the square and it ran rivers of blood. Amazingly, this didn't deter the Swedish from revolting against the Danish occupation and just three years later Gustav Vasa liberated Stockholm.
Now this is the sort of history that would have made school lesson's significantly more interesting!
From the Great Square we walked through the twisting side streets, filled with stunning architecture and which had a really provincial feel. Stockholm has this incredible mix of the old and the new and from hand in hand with each other are modern shops selling the latest wares and then next door, a traditional cobblers or old fashioned patisserie, and yet nothing felt out of place. It was a weird juxtaposition that worked here better than I had seen anywhere else in the world!
The final stop of our walking tour took us to see the statue of St George and the Dragon - a reproduction of the one inside the great Cathedral of St Nicholas, which is believed to represent Sweden's struggle against evil, and the miniature (less than one foot tall) Iron Boy sculpture. This is a favourite with Stockholm residents and tourists alike. The statue is also called Jarnpojke, and was created by Liss Eriksson in 1919. The Iron Boy is found in a small courtyard behind the Finnish Church near the Royal Palace. Nuns at a nearby convent and little old ladies knit caps and sweaters for the Iron Boy to ward off Stockholm's cold winter weather. Many people rub his head for luck or wisdom and leave candy or coins for the small boy.
After three hours of walking and a rapid lesson is Stockholm's history, we decided to head back to ship rather than carry on walking round the old town. We waited a short while for a tender back to the ship and arrived back on board a little before 1pm, in need of a cup of tea and food.
We followed our usual routine of heading to the cabin, dumping bags and heading back out for lunch and settled for lunch in the Compass Rose for a change. Sitting with another couple, we exchanged information about our excursions and discovered they had taken the panoramic Stockholm and Vasa Museum tour. Interested to know more about the Vasa museum, we talked comfortably for about 40 minutes before parting ways for the afternoon.
The story of the Vasa ship has long since fascinated me, as it's recovery and conservation lead the way for the raising and recovery of the Mary Rose in Southampton. The technique that the was perfected on the Vasa, changed the possibility of recovering and preserving wooden vessels for ever. One day I'll get back to Stockholm and pay homage to this incredible vessel, but more importantly to the team that brought her back to life.
After lunch we made our way out on to deck to take a walk around the promenade level, which afforded us a 360 degree view of Stockholm. After a wander, a gossip with various passengers and few members of staff, it was time for a cup of tea and the afternoon quiz. Which we once again, sucked at! general knowledge is not our strong suit!
With the weather not being quite hot enough to warrant stripping off for sunbathing, we returned to the cabin to see what the rest of the afternoon had in store. With nothing catching our attention, I told Claire I fancied trying to have a nap. I was tired and had the beginnings of a headache coming on, that I wanted to try and nip in the bud before the possibility occurred that it would evolve into a migraine. There was only one problem. Our noisy neighbours were in their cabin and had the TV on at full volume again! Earphones, smothering ourselves with pillows and banging on the cabin wall did nothing to relieve the issue and so I suggested we move somewhere else that was guaranteed to be quiet and hope that the peace along with the painkillers would see off the headache.
So we wandered up to the ships explorers lounge, where the library and games room were situated to search out a scrabble board. Only, the scrabble boards were all in use and neither of us are exactly ofay with the rules of chess sooooooo connect four it was! Ok, not the quietest game around I'll admit but we did have a laugh and decided after a few rounds of 'stategic' playing that speed was the essence of the game. Don't think, just drop! goodness knows what our fellow passengers must have thought of us giggling away in the corner but no one complained so hey!
Having passed a happy 40 minutes in this manner, we moved out of the games room to the lounge to do the daily trivia sheet; suduko, wordsearch, crosswords etc. What we hadn't realised was that we were going to have to dodge flying beanbags, as the daily Boules tournament was underway. More time was spent watching the beanbags hit every fixture in the room and not land anywhere near the jack then was dedicated to solving the cryptic clue of the day.
When the game ended, and thus our entertainment had ceased. We made a move to get a fresh cup of tea and actually attempt to tackle the suduko out on deck and so passed the next hour in comfortable silence as the final passengers made their way back on board and we watched the life boats being returned to their stations. As the afternoon neared 5:00 we made our way below deck and back to the cabin to shower and begin preparations for our evening on board.
We finished dressing and decided to break our usual routine and seek out a cocktail or two before dinner, which lead us to the happy hour in High Spirits, where the nightly Bingo was in full flow. We enjoyed watching the other passengers on board get excited as the numbers they wanted came up and the faces fall of those who wanted something else - people watching should be a sport, especially when watching bingo players!
Cocktails drunk we made a move for dinner and were seated at a table for 6 alone. Thinking little of it, we ordered our meal and wine and awaited our first course when another couple were seated with us, at the other end of the table and then a few minutes later the final 4 seats were filled. By this point we were being served our starters and were in the midst of some conversation or another and as our fellow diners had seemed unresponsive to our greetings thought little of it to carry on with our topic of choice. Our first course finished we were then made to wait as the other 6 passengers were served and ate their first course and in some cases, first 2 courses, before we received our mains. This wouldn't have bothered us if the rest of the table actually engaged in conversation but after numerous failed attempts to get any of them talking, Claire and I simply wanted to dine and dash. It was not to be.
When dinner was finally over, we made our way up to High Spirits for the quiz of the night, Strain the Brain and spent 40 minutes or so trying to work out what an earth was going on. Admitting defeat we made a move to get seats in the show lounge for that nights show, the second of the visiting ship's comedians, Andy Wilkins. As it turned out, we should have got their earlier as there were only a limited number of seats available right at the back. We settled in, attempting not to slide off the folding leather seats and awaited the show.
It wasn't worth it. As a comedian, neither Claire or I found him funny and in places I was cringing and looking for the escape route. Much of his material was the same as we'd heard the week before and what was original, lacked any real punchlines. We were sorely disappointed. But comedy is one of those things which is personal and much of the room seemed to be enjoying themselves.
After the show, we went to wander around the Broad Street Shops and not feeling tempted to part with money, headed back up to high spirits to watch that night's game show - Weak Link (yep, their own version of weakest link!) It was rather fun, but I'm so glad I never take part in them. Other than the fact I don't think I could keep a straight face, my general knowledge is utterly appalling.
With the show over and most of the passengers making their way back to their beds, we made our usual move out onto deck for a nightcap and a gossip. After telling Robyn she'd done wonderfully we settled into our usual routine and finally hit our beds about 2am, looking forward to our day at sea!
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wow what a fab read.....i was just haveing wander through your blog..was a bit fed up..but started to read and then just couldnt stop..it all sounded fabulous except for the lousy comedian..lol!!!!!i have never taken a cruise would be too confined for me but id do hve good sea legs...what a experience you had wonderfful read enjoyed it very much hugs sassyxxxx
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