Stockholm Wrap up

View from a bridge.

Last evening in town. Dinner cruise.
 The crew splicing rope.

Half Moon.

 
 Passed a Jolly Roger, glad they didn't attack!

 Random bikes. Interesting top tube.

 Bike taxi.

Coming back into the Stockholm harbor after 3 hr. dinner cruise from Vaxholm.

Kista, Sweden

Rode to the office today from the Hotel in Stockholm. It's about a 50-60 min. ride, assuming not too many wrong turns are made. After 8-9 years of not making the ride, it was fun to do it again. This time, there were signs to Kista....
This puppy was borrowed from the Hotel Scandic. 44 lbs. of single speed muscle...not a fixie but I had to learn how to use coaster brakes again.
Was a fun ride! Rode to "the office" 3 of the 4 days when the bike was available plus to meet the rest of the crew for a work dinner a couple of islands away from the hotel. Great city to ride bike in. Used the T (subway) to get to the office on the 4th day.

Stockholm, Day 4

Day 4 was spent on the water and taking a bus tour.

This was a panoramic view of outside of the Stockholm City Hall.

Just an old cool shot of an 1960's NBA photo. Bill Russel and Wilt Chamberlain.

 More shots of City Hall. Where they do some of the Nobel Prize festivities.

 Local kayakers. City Hall in background.

 A shot from the water tour. Every rock had sun-bathing Swede on it today.

 Some really cool old sail and power boats.

 Stockholm has cool bike rental program. Ride and Park.

 Like-a-bikes are everywhere it seems.

 While cruising through a side street to go see a local old church I noticed a young gal selling her home made jewelery. I called Lynn back to take a look the selection. She bought the blue ones on the lower left and a bracelet. The gal spoke very good English and when I asked in what currency she wanted to be paid she said Swedish Kroner or Euros....then she said American dollars would work, as well, as she was going to Miami later in the summer with the family of a friend on an ice skating competition trip. Glad we could help in her cause.
Best buy in town!!!

 Double decker open top bus tour.....the trees occasionally entering into the passenger compartment was a neat touch.

 Lynn made me take this, some kinda fashion guy, I guess.

Stockholm, Day 2 & 3

Spent most of 2 days in museums. The first was a Viking/Historic Museum. It was ok. Seems the Swedes are tired of the Viking image as a bunch of rapists and plunderers....makes sense in today's world, bad image for sure. They had a display where 2500 kids drew pictures of Vikings. The comment made by the Museum? to the effect: "Very few helmets were ever found in the ruins of Vikings and never one with horns on it". Getting a little sensitive, maybe? They were farmers and traders, don't ya know.

Lynn on the street just off of our Hotel.  Pedestrian traffic only.

 Bike been here awhile, gopher buried the back tire, where's Ty Webb ( from Caddy Shack fame) when you need him?

 From Skansen animal Park (zoo).

 LHT's. (Long Haul Truckers)

 Random shot on the street, yep boys, she's loaded.

 Depicting the waifs in Sweden in the 1700's. Very next display was of a bedroom chamber of a Noble...of which they never used to sleep in as it was too large a room to actually heat. Over-riding theme to me was many worked and sacrificed for the benefit of the few.

 King Gustavus Adolphus....and his great Hall made in his memory, which is now the Nordic Museum mentioned above.

 Interesting clocks from late 1850 and 1780. left female, right male.

 Cool chair.

 and bench.

 The Great Hall. Was supposed to be much, much bigger but ran out of money, around 1890 or so.....ya think? The King sits off to the left at the mid-point.

 A great Museum is the VASA Museum. Built in the 1600's it's maiden voyage went 1500 meters. Great restoration. Reminded me alot of the Civil War display in Vicksburg about the USS Cairo, what was raised near the same time in the 1960's. This is well worth the time to visit.

 Model rendition of it heeling over and sinking when water entered her open cannon ports. Was just too top heavy for the design/ballast. At least 15 people died when they were trapped in the vessel. For 333 years their bones remained in the ship, one still had his shoes on, and are now on display at the museum.

 The Vasa is 98% original.

 She was very ornate with hundreds of carvings that were painted in brilliant colors.

Another stop was at the Nordic Museum, which was pretty good. Had a nice display on the indigenous people of Sami (formerly Laps or Laplanders). A lot of parallels to the Native American Indians and how they were almost wiped out by the invading peoples. (Swedes, Finns, Norwegians and Russians).