Wanderlust: Day 15

Off on the "Hop On Hop Off" bus. I would always recommend these tours in a new city as it gives you a great overall appreciation of the landscape. Stockholm was settled 800 years ago. It has 87 bridges spanning the rivers that run into the Baltic Sea. We are staying in the area known as Gamla Stan, which is the old town. It's a popular place to stay as most streets are 'user friendly' with little or no traffic. Lots of souvenir shops and also lots of restaurants and a wonderful history. Lo ts of museums, the Royal Palace, Opera House - apparently when Gustav III was assassinated in 1773 in the foyer (he was responsible for the construction of the opera house) Guiseppe Verdi composed the "Masked Ball" in his memory.
We did a complete loop then around again until we hit the Vasa Museum. The Vasa was commissioned by the King, an impressive war ship with two rows of gun turrets on either side. Unfortunately that made it very heavy and the 120 tons of rocks in the keel was insufficient ballast. On it's maiden voyage, 10th August 1628, it set sail at 4.00pm ... by 5.00pm it had capsized and sank. It didn't make it out of the harbour. 333 years later the Vasa was raised and now it's extraordinary history is on show at the Vasa Museum.
From there we wander down to the ABBA Museum then around to the zoo where we grab the bus to take us to the Haymarket. This is a flower and fresh produce market in the middle of the city. Most of the larger shops are around this area ... Zara, H&M etc. Back on the bus to go home we wander down the main street to check out where to meet the Ghost Tour that we are doing tonight. A quick stop at a cosy Italian restaurant then home to regroup for the tour. A large group but the guide handled it very well. Not particularly scary but he certainly regaled us with lots of stories of Stockholm's gruesome history as he guided us through the back streets.