We arrived in Stockholm, Sweden Friday afternoon. After settling into our Hotel Room, we headed out to explore the local market (funny thing, they all sold fruit in identical cartons at the same price…hmmm…cartel?) and then for dinner and to explore a bit of the city at night.
Stockholm is beautiful. A series of Islands, connected by bridges which make the city quite unique and memorable. As we walked by the Royal Palace, we noticed a stage with a throng of concert-goers. We made our way to the shore and learned that a “Tall Ships Race” (Baltic chapter) was in town. Some of you may remember that G and I traveled to see the Tall Ships Race in Beaufort, NC last July (one of our first posts on this site).
It was fun to see how the Baltic version compared. It’s safe to say that the number of sailing vessels present at this event dwarfed the NC event and Stockholm made an ideal home for the event, unlike NC’s somewhat scattered sites. In fact, while a Brazilian (I think) vessel was the largest at the NC event, there were multiple (maybe 5+) ships of equal size to the Brazilian at the Baltic event. We were in lucky and enjoyed seeing all the HUGE boats AGAIN. What a coincidence.
During our stay, we visited a number of Stockholm’s Islands, enjoyed the Tall Ships festival, made time for an Archipelago cruise (the region is home to ~14-15K Islands), visited Skansen (the local equivalent to Williamsburg), saw a 300 year old Viking Ship (the Vasa) and generally soaked up the culture (or as much as we could with so many tourists in town for the Tall Ships event 
.
We did discover ANOTHER culinary favorite on the trip. Swedish Chocolate Bombs. YUM (don’t let the photo fool you)! I’ve done my best to unearth a recipe, here’s a link.
Now, we’re back in London. Let the interviews begin…
Click here to see additional photos from our jaunt to Stockholm…
What a wonderful and delightful city. I am looking to taking V there soon. Good timing with the tallships. Too bad you couldn’t talk your way to crew on onw of them.
Was the old Viking ship the one that sank in the harbor and was raised 40 years ago?
Good memory! Yes…it’s the one they raised 40 years ago. We saw a video all about it…
As we walked along, G and I commented that “if we were you, we’d be on the ships negotiating a sail” Sorry to say we don’t have your guts or charisma.
You could BUY your way to be a part of the next Race stage aboard one of the ships. ~$1250 would buy you a crew spot for the 24hr sail. Something tells me that ship wasn’t too set on winning
Funny you mention talking your way on board… while we were there, we commented that you would probably talk your way into sailing with the crew on one of the ships.
Yes, the Vasa was raised out of the harbor about 45 years ago and restored. The ships suffered a “titanic” proportion disaster. After years building one of the most impressive warships of the time (1600s), it sank 20 minutes into its maiden voyage when the wind blew it over. It was amazing seeing how they raised it and restored it.