Scandinavia 10 Djurgården island

Saturday, June 13
We walked to the ferry to Djurgården island. Stockholm is built on an archipelago, with lots of islands. Supposedly there are locks separating a lake from the Baltic, but I don't know where that is. We did see some fairly large cruise ships in Stockholm, but no freighters. The ferry was packed—standing room only, and I think we were the last ones on (also the last off—they unloaded from the other end). Djurgården has several museums, an amusement park, and a LARGE park with green space. The ferry dock is right next to the amusement park.
   We walked to the Vasa museum, which houses the Vasa, a large warship completed in 1628, and which sank intact within 30 minutes of launching. It was raised in 1961 and has been preserved 98% original. It had 2 gun decks and lots of elaborate carvings. Unfortunately, it was a bit top-heavy and bottom-light, so a cross-wind did it in. This was all during the 30 Years War in northern Europe, so we learned a little about that,too.

(to be continued)

Cranky Old Hag in Scandinavia 9 Tre Kronor

Then we went to Museum Tre Kronor, which means Three Crowns Museum, and which was in the basement of the Palace. It contained a lot of history of the palace, and areas that used to be the foundations, exterior walls, a kitchen with a hearth and a well that had been excavated under the present palace, etc. The palace was begun in the 1200s and grew through the 1600s, when it burned and had to be rebuilt. So we have seen another medieval castle/palace on this trip! Many of the rooms we saw had barrel vaults, and we saw places where the defenders climbed up the inside of the exterior walls to shoot crossbows at attackers. What was the top of the exterior wall is now in the basement!
  Following this, we decided to look for a place to eat in Gamla Stan, and we found a small cafe that sold sandwiches and baked goods. Larry got a roast beef sandwich on a really good small loaf of bread, and I got an open-faced sandwich with shrimp, hard-boiled eggs, mayo, and arugula. We split a piece of chocolate cake for dessert. Very cool cafe.
Thus fortified, we walked back to our hotel. We found a route that did not involve any steep hills and just enjoyed the sun and the water and the scenery.
(to be continued)