Stockholm, Sweden - 18 Aug 2000 My photo albums of Stockholm
	Gamla Stan - The Old Town We arrived at 8am and we set off at around 9am. Purchased our Stockholm cards for the day at the little kiosk on the quay and set off towards the Centre. It's a 20-25 minute walk along the quay and Stadsgårdsleden, past the Viking Lines terminal to the city. The Sundream, here again too. There was a shuttle bus provided all day, but for £3 each. Really for those who can't walk very far. Public transport here is confusing, so many different lines. But we eventually found what we needed. An underground train into the centre of the city to start with. Stockholm is built on about 20 different islands and gets confusing when you are only there for a day, as they refer to each island as a destination, not the actual thing/place you want to visit. Walked down the main shopping street in the centre, Hamngatan much nicer than the other cities; often referred to as the Venice of the North. We then took the bus over to Skansen to visit the Aquarium. Not particularly good and I'm sure anyone paying the fee [free with the Stockholm card] would be a bit annoyed at the rates. We walked to Gröna Lunds Tivoli [the amusment park], only a couple of hundred yards away, along with hoards of other people, including about 3 coaches only to find the place wasn't opening until 3pm. Hmmm, on a friday in the holiday season? So we walked back around the edge of the island, very pretty looking over the water, to the Vasa Museum. I thought this would be a quick trip and a bit similar to the Mary Rose, but it's really excellent. The ship [ war ship sank on maiden voyage out of harbour in Stockholm, but in 1628] is in prime condition and whole. All sorts of exhibits. Even Howard was kept amused. We ended up eating lunch in there, extremely pricey but it would have taken too long to get back to the ship. We then walked along a bit more, before taking a bus to the main island. We alighted at a small marina on Strandvägen and walked across to Strömgatan to take the Royal Canal sightseeing tour boat for an hour around Djurgården, Sweden's only national urban park. A Royal island with museums of art, history, natural history and culture along with stage shows, theatrical performance, tropical plants and animals. Very good, but just before the end it poured down with rain. Bucketfuls. It stopped as quickly as it started and was soon bright again. We then walked to yet another island across a bridge, Gamla Stan - The Old Town dating mainly from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, but many walls remain from the medieval town. Past the Royal Palace and Cathedral where we wandered round the alleyways full of little shops etc. By now it was 3.30pm and we had to be back at the ship by 4.15pm. We hadn't even bought any souvenirs! Time seems to fly. So we got a few things in a shop, jumped on a bus to near the quay where we were, but still had half a mile to walk. There was a little tourist place by the ship where we bought a couple more things and sent a postcard to Anna-Maria [Howard's nursery teacher, who lived here for 7 years] and boarded. Beverley went off to play bingo again! She seems to like it:) Left Stockholm and the trip down the fjord is beautiful. Out on deck most of the time until dinner. Afterwards, Howard went to bed and Beverley and I played cards and watched the show. Comedy and cabaret tonight. On Hamngatan
	My photo albums of Stockholm

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