Goodbye from Grinda

Our last day in Scandinavia was spent cruising on ferries in the archipelago (chain of islands) surrounding Stockholm, with a few hours walking around on the small island of Grinda.

We were amazed by the beautiful scenery throughout our ferry ride and time flew by as we kept busy chatting with another family from Seattle. Of course we also had some coffees and a pastry to tide us over until lunch on Grinda.

Grinda is a peaceful island with a rustic vibe where the majority of inhabitants are campers. Upon first landing on the island, it became apparent that our choice of visiting Gripa was a wise one considering the many islands that make up the Stockholm archipelago. It reminded Sam a lot of his hikes in the Sierras and the relaxed atmosphere made for a leisurely couple hours.

We had lunch at a harborside cafe where we ordered salads that were a refreshing balance to all the desserts we have been treating ourselves to on the trip. We were enjoying our time so much that once we finished our meal, we realized we needed to quickly complete our hike across the island to catch our ferry back to Stockholm.

The remainder of the day was spent returning on the ferry and walking once again through Stockhom's Old Town for a last stroll through this wonderful Swedish city. We stopped for some dumplings and to pick up some diapers for Henry. As you can see, Henry was so excited for his new diapers that he insisted on carrying them all by himself the whole way home. We spent the rest of the night packing for our flight and although we are sad for our Scandinavian journey to be over, we are excited to get home and see Teah who we have missed dearly!

 

A Ship and Stroll on Djurgarden

We began our day with a scrumptious smorgasborg of cereal, breads, meats, and cheese provided by our hotel. Filled up and ready to see some sights, we headed out trying to decide if we wanted to make the trip to see Vasa, the Swedish warship museum. Having already visited a Viking ship in Norway, it was a toss up, but we heard so many accolades about the prized 17th century discovery that we concluded it was a must see spot in Stockholm.

The construction of Vasa began in 1626 and took two years to complete with four hundred men artfully crafting over a thousand oak trees into the most heavily armored ship of it's day. Unfortunately, Vasa also ended up being a predecessor to the Titanic. However, unlike the Titanic, Vasa never even made it out of the Stockholm harbour. Thousands of locals came to watch the ship depart on it's maiden voyage and sadly within twenty minutes of leaving shore a gust of wind blew her over causing the ship to take in water and quickly sink to the floor of the Baltic Sea.

Multiple failed attempts were made to rescue the boat in the months following its catastrophic voyage, but the naval powers of the time could not lift such a heavy vessel from the ocean floor. Even more valuable than the ship itself were her 64 bronze cannons, of which 62 were retrieved in the 1630's leaving only two for the eventual archaeological find years later.

Over the following 333 years, Vasa sat on the floor of the Baltic Sea. It wasn't until the 1950's that a Swedish man set out looking for the ship. In the early 1960's, with the help of the Swedish Navy, he successfully retrieved the vessel from the bottom of the sea. Had the Vasa sunk in any other part of the world, bacteria would have deteriorated the ship's wood so badly that little would have remained so many years later. However, the Baltic Sea is unique in that it has a low salt content and is so cold that a common wood eating "ocean worm" found nearly everywhere else could not survive in this environment. So although it is unfortunate that the ship sank so long ago, it would not be here for all to view had such a blunder not occured with Vasa's maiden voyage.

The Vasa went through an extensive preservation process since it was lifted from the Baltic Sea and is now a sight to see with the vessel being 98% original. During the preservation process, a great deal of research was done in regards to the ship. In addition to finding out much about life in the 17th century, scientists concluded that the ship was engineered in a manner that made it destined to sink. Not only was the ship top heavy, but it was also too narrow and lacked an adequate quantity of stones in the ballast hull for such a massive ship.

We were quite impressed by the size and preservation of the Vasa and found the video and tour very informative. The sight is definitely a must see on any trip to Stockholm and was a great way to start our 2nd day of touring Sweden.

Once we finished visiting the Vasa Museum, we stopped for some kebab pitas and continued strolling along the island of Djurgarden. The island of Djurgarden varies greatly from the surrounding islands in that it is a national park. Besides housing the Vasa and other Stockholm museums, it is mostly covered in greenery and waterways. We walked the island's entire waterfront and enjoyed the beautiful weather that we have been so lucky to have during our trip.

The stroll ended up being a little longer than expected, but with little else on our agenda for the day, we took our time and admired the beauty along the way. The only stop we made was half-way through our walk when we found a cafe in the harbor for cappuccino and cheesecake.

Feeling tired from yet another day logging miles on our feet, we headed back to our hotel to find a good spot for dinner. The remainder of our night was pretty mellow with a little walk to an Asian cafe where we quickly devoured our tasty meal.

 

Charmed by Stockholm

While our introduction to Stockholm this afternoon was brief, we surely were not disappointed. After checking into our hotel, we headed to Gamla Stan, an island described as the "Old Town" of Stockholm. Up until the 1600's all of Stockholm fit onto this relatively small island that consists of a lake to the west and the Baltic Sea to the east.

As a brief insight to Stockholm, the city is made up of a network of 14 islands woven together by 54 bridges and has a population of 2 million residents (20% of Sweden). While today we ventured to see the most historic part of town, the city has numerous districts made up of modern structures and has successfully incorporated high-tech, environmentally focused transportation throughout the city.

We first-hand found it quick and easy to maneuver on the city metro and found ourselves in the historic "Old Town" within ten minutes of leaving our hotel. Wow... what a difference from St. Petersburg where we would probably still be walking. j/k

Gamla Stan Island can best be described as a location overflowing with character. The streets undulate in all sorts of directions, consist of buildings of numerous shapes and sizes, and are reminiscent of a painters palette with color schemes on the facades that vary from door to door. All of this occurs on narrow streets where the elevation is changing with each turn you take.

We felt like we could just walk the streets all day as we both agreed that this was probably one of the most charming European city centers we have ever visited. While on Gamla Stan, we visited a couple of different churches, walked around the Royal Palace, and popped into a few of the local stores.

Our trusty Scandinavian tourist book once again did not disappoint as we took the author's recommendation on a vegan/vegetarian restaurant where we delighted in all sorts of different foods that the Armenian chefs prepared from their native land with influences from throughout the world.

After dinner we took the scenic way home stopping by the lakeside of the island for a glass of white wine and apple strudel at a waterfront cafe. With such a late start to the day, we were pleasantly surprised at how much we got out of Stockholm on such a limited time frame. Fortunately, we still have two more full days in store before having to say good-bye to Scandinavia and heading home.