Stockholm Sweden port # 2

Stockholm Sweden was our next port of call.  It was another great day…. We spent most of it in the “Gamla Stan” or Old Town dating from the 17th century.  The official Swedish Royal Residence is one of the largest and most grand palaces in Europe which is located in the heart of the Old Town.  They have quite the ceremonial changing of the guards in the courtyard which we attended and was one of the highlights of the day. 
We also enjoyed the architecture of the Old Town, the Old Town colorful square, and smallest statue in one of the Old Town courtyards.  The highlight was listening to the Swedish Royal Band during the changing of the guards ceremony.  They were AMAZING!!  They played….wait for it…… “All by Myself” by Celine Dion and it was so beautiful.  (I didn’t realize that song was band worthy)!  They were fantastic every one of them. 
We had purchased an on - off bus tour pass for our family at the beginning of the day….which included a water taxi which turned out to be a great way to see the inner waters of Stockholm which is actually made up of 13 different islands surrounded all by water.  Stockholm has lots of neat buildings around the water’s edge.  We rode the taxi to the “Vasa Museum” to the see the great ship that was dredged from the harbor and restored:  
The 17th-century warship Vasa sank on its maiden voyage in 1628 and was salvaged in 1961, with thousands of artifacts, including coins, tools, clothing and other historical items. The ship has been carefully restored, and pieced back together.  The museum even had some of the original sails that were salvaged from boxes where they were stored before having been used.  The boat sank from improper construction, it was top heavy and never made it out of Stockholm.  While we were all in the Museum, it down poured outside.  Which caused problems getting back on our buses.  Half of the people from our group went on the Red on-off bus line and the other half went on the blue.  The red bus was quite full when it arrived to pick up from the Museum stop.  The people inside would not move and let our friends on because they did not want to go upstairs to the wet seats.  It was rediculous……they even made some cutting remarks about Americans who think they can do whatever they want to…. hello, move over we will take the wet seats upstairs if you will just let us on the bus!!!  Jared was pretending to push some friends on the bus down below in one of the pictures. It was almost comical but mostly frustrating to watch all the people on the bus band together and not allow us “Pushy Americans” on the bus.  Luckily they finally all squeezed on and when our blue bus arrived, it wasn’t full at all!  Our departure time was a little early because one of the greatest parts of visiting Stockholm is getting in and out of it in a cruise ship through the Fjords. “A Fjord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created in a valley carved by glacial activity.  A fjord is formed when a glacier cuts a U-shaped valley by abrasion of the surrounding bedrock.”  (Thank you Wikipedia) While the little boys were off at the Kid’s Zone and the big kids were off with friends, Jared and I headed out to the back of the boat to take in the scenery.  The birds were flying right along side of us and the views were spectacular.  I was in camera heaven.  A great day for sure!!