July 1, 2007 day 9 SWEDEN Stockholm

This is the view of Gamla Stan from our hostel window.


Here's a view of Skeppsholm--an old castle type of building beside our hostel, which is painted yellow, on the left.

I woke up earlier than the kids to pouring rain. I was disappointed since the major thing on our agenda today was to take a boat tour in Stockholm's archipelgo. Stockholm is made up of many, many islands. I read a tourist guide that said there were over 24,000! I sat on the windowsill of our little room and wrote in my diary, read my daily readings, some of the Psalms, and did a lot of thinking. What an great view we have! Across the water is Gamla Stan and the Royal Palace. There are sail boats and cruise ships and people walking and jogging in the rain and birds calling to each other. I really savored these quiet moments.


Suddenly Robby woke up in somewhat of a panic. He thought we had missed breakfast because it was a couple minutes to 10:00. I reminded him that it was Sunday, and breakfast was until 11:00 today rather than ending at 10:00. At any rate, he was hungry! We headed downstairs to find the breakfast room while Carina got ready, and were treated to quite a spread. This was, by far, the best breakfast we had so far--such a plentiful array of cheeses, jams, yogurts, breads, cereals, etc., etc. We feasted and took some samples to get us through the rest of the day. We really like the youth hostel set up. We had our own private room, rather than share a large room with strangers, but you have to do your own clean up, rent sheets, do your own breakfast dishes, etc. You can even cook your own meals in a common kitchen and share food with others who have donated to the common bins. It all seems like kind of a 1960's thing, but you can't beat the prices compared to even the cheapest hotel one can find in high season in Europe in the summers.

We were all smiles when we finished breakfast and saw that the rain had passed, and it was going to be a wonderful sunny summer day in Stockholm. We started out our day on the subway to Cosmonova--Sweden's natural history museum and IMAX theatre. Michael had recommended it, and we had seen pcitures in a brochure. That was Robby's first choice for the day. What a great museum it was! There were rooms about Sweden's wildlife, special exhibits about the body and the brain, an especially interesting exhibit about global warming and how it specifically has affected Sweden's climate--all including many interactive displays. The IMAX film we wanted to see--the deep sea--was sold out before we arrived, so we opted for one on the Amazon, which was fascinating.

After the film, we finished exploring more of the museum and then headed back to Gamla Stan for more checking out the walking streets and the local color.



We found an awesome little restaurant called Cafe Art, which was nestled deep under the ground in an old cellar. I had a nice chat with the owner while she made us Sweden pancakes and waffles. I had to know some of the history of this place. She said it dated from around 1620 and survived a great fire that burned the original Royal Palace and much of Stockholm in the late 17th century. Supposedly, the man who owned this place, which was originally a wine cellar, provided drink for the ruling monarch, Kristina.

After more walking and looking at the palace, we took a two hour boat cruise through two locks, under 15 bridges, and all around the closest islands to Gamla Stan. We learned so much! This is definitely something I've always wanted to do. There were headphones with the narrative in English so that helped a lot.

Here is a view of our youth hostel from the boat:

We ended our day with Carina's choice--to visit yet another Hard Rock Cafe. We took a bus that brought us right to the door stop. What a great Hard Rock, and being that it was Sunday night, it was almost empty. We opted for just dessert since we had just eaten a few hours ago in Gamla Stan and since just a plain hamburger was $17.50. The cheapest Hard Rock Cafe t-shirts were nearly $60.00 each. So we had a brownie and ice cream split between us three. We decided to call my sister, Christine, and surprise her since she is a disc jockey and loves the type of music blaring on the Hard Rock speakers.

What a surprise it was when we called her and suddenly her favorite guitarist Carlos Santana comes on the big screen videos! That was so cool.

We made our way back to the hostel after a really fun day, but first we decided we needed to explore Skeppsholm a bit more. It's a really great little island with three art museums, fun sculptures reminscent of Pompidou Square in Paris.

The kids went back to the hostel then while I continued on the island Kastleholm, which is connected to Skeppsholm. It was beautiful watching the sun finally start setting over the city with the lights from Gamla Stan getting brighter to illuminate the little cafes and pubs. All around, a great day in Stockholm was had by all!