Family & Stockholm

This weekend my brother, Donny, and sister-in-law, MaryAnn came to visit. They arrived late on Friday night after a full day of travel. They stayed here at the school in a house a stone’s throw away from ours.

Saturday morning we hopped in their rental car - a brand new Prius - and drove to Kalmar, where we walked around all morning, had lunch and walked some more. Then we drove back to the island and toured the south of the island. We explored Stora Alvoret, a great barren limestone plain that covers most of the island. We discovered ancient Viking burial grounds and even found an ancient fortified village.

On Sunday we left for Stockholm. We stayed outside the city in a nice hotel that served a stand-out full breakfast buffet. Mmm. Sunday night we took a train into the city and Donny led us on a guided walking tour of Old Town from his Rick Steves’ Scandinavian Tour Book.
It was quite informative. We had a nice Greek dinner in the evening before retiring to our room to watch the most recent episode of The Office. The next day we thought we’d try to drive into the city rather than take the train, even though Rick Steves said “only a Swedish meatball would try to drive in Stockholm.” Well, it didn’t go so well. We got completely lost, trying to follow directions that were in Swedish. We felt like meatballs, alright. Finally, we gave in and returned to our hotel, only to take that train back into the city. We visited the Vasa Museum, which holds a wooden warship that sank in Stockholm Harbor during her maiden voyage in 1628. It was really cool. Here’s a little history on the Vasa ship that I learned: The Vasa was built during the 30 Years' War of 1618-1648, when Sweden had lost a dozen ships and needed vessels to support King Gustav II Adolph's military campaign in the Baltic. The ship was the largest in the history of the Swedish fleet, with an extra cannon deck that the king himself had ordered during the Vasa's construction (which turned out to be not smart). On August 10, 1628, the vessel departed from her mooring in front of the royal palace with some 130 crewmen and wives on board. As she sailed slowly through the islands that separate Stockholm from the open sea, a wind caught the sails, and the top-heavy ship unexpectedly began to go under. Water poured through the open cannon ports (thanks a lot, King Gus), and the ship sank in the 105-foot (32-meter) channel.

Although most of the crew and passengers escaped, some (including the ship's cat) went down with the Vasa. Sporadic salvage attempts took place over the next 50 years, but the ship was all but forgotten by the end of the 18th Century. Then…in 1961, the ship was found again and raised out of the harbor before it was placed in a museum very close to where it was found.
After the Vasa Museum, we visited a grand outdoor museum and zoo, called Skansen.
In the evening we went back to Old Town and found a nice Italian restaurant, lit by candles, for dinner. We had a fantastic meal. After dinner we walked the old, very narrow cobble stone streets of Old Town, before we found a spectacular ice cream place, recommended by our new friend, Rick Steves.

I had 2 scoops chocolate and 1 scoop Raspberry gelato in a fresh waffle cone. Dee-lish! Props to Rick.
It was great to have our (English speaking) family come for a visit. We had a great time together and laughed a lot.