Stockholm, Sweden

DISCLAIMER:  If this blog is not posted in a timely manner it is 100% the fault of the Princess Cruise Lines WiFi setup (during this portion of my trips).  It is both expensive and unreliable!

We left Denmark about 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, bound for Sweden, which is actually connected to Denmark by a bridge, remember (point here being that is how close they are, just 6 miles) but sailed all that night and the next day (Thursday) arriving early Friday morning.   According to an announcement by the captain, since the ship could not go through that new bridge it had to go around the long way AND getting a ship this size into Sweden safely is a very tricky exercise.  There is something called the Great Belt that is so shallow that it requires the skills of a local pilot to lead the way.  In addition if there is too much wind (don’t know what that would be) they cannot dock in Stockholm at all – but we made it just fine.

Sweden is a country of islands (at least 40), lakes (maybe 100,000), canals (many),  bridges (57), and locks (2).  It is approximately the size of California with 9 million plus people.  Their national language is Swedish which has many words that are similar to English – but not enough that I could understand anything unless it actually was English.  They have a monarchy with the current king being Carl (which is Charles in English – did you know that?) XVI Gustav.  (Don’t know why they say it that way instead of Carl Gustav XVI.   There’s a statue of a guy on a horse in Stockholm and he’s Carl XIV John.)!!

Stockholm is the capital of Sweden and is built on 14 islands.  It is often referred to as Venice of the north or the city floating on water.  Sweden has 8 political parties, (Yikes!  Can you just imagine that?) and they are all represented when the City Council meets at City Hall.  There are 101 members and 51 of them are female.  But the amazing part is the building in which they meet.  A couple of pictures won’t do it justice but at least it will give you an idea.  Activities for Noble prize winners (dinner and dancing) are held there.

How did this get in here?

 The Noble Museum – has pictures of ALL prize winners.  I didn't have time to see them all but did notice our President (and our almost president, Al Gore -not pictured here).

 The royal palace no longer houses the royal family but it is used for business transactions and ceremonial occasions – when they are not in City Hall.