This has been a very interesting day for Mom and I. It started this morning. I had finished dressing and Mom was in the bathroom when I heard someone trying to open the door to our room. It was pulled on twice before I realized what was happening. It is a good thing we had the security lock fastened. I opened the door to find a woman from housekeeping trying to get into the room to clean it. Apparently the room had been listed as vacant. I let her know that we were not leaving until tomorrow.
Simona, our guide in Stockholm
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After breakfast, we were met by Simona for our guided tour. Just before we left the entire group decided they wanted to go to the ABBA Museum, most everyone being ABBA fans. I went to the concierge desk to purchase tickets but no one was there. I asked at the front desk for help. It took two hotel desk clerks and three computers to finally get the group's reservation. I was very lucky in that as I was looking at the website I noticed a code for a discount. When the code was put into the computer, it took money off two of the tickets. The code was put in again and two more tickets had money off. The code was put in a third time.. This time it took it off the discount for one ticket. We continued putting in the code five more times for the remaining tickets. Now why it didn’t just take it off all of them in the beginning is just mind boggling. Someone needs to rewrite the code to that program.
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The bus headed out. Simona said she wanted to start the tour by taking us to the highest point you can get to by bus. On the way she pointed out that all of the windows had some form of lighting in them. This is a custom left from the old days. Because the sun set so early, everyone used to put a lamp or light of some kind in the window. Since there were no street lights back then, the light in the windows were used to light the way through the town. If you think about it, it is a good idea. At the overlook we got out for picture opportunities. Simona took a group photo of us.
Then we were on our way to Vasa Museet (museum in Swedish). “The Vasa is the only preserved seventeenth-century ship in the world and a unique art treasure. More than 95 percent of the ship is original, and it is decorated with hundreds of carved sculptures.” (https://www.visitstockholm.com/see--do/attractions/the-vasa-museum/) Simona was our guide through the museum. I couldn’t believe how big the ship was and the details of the carvings all over the hull. One of the most interesting thing she told us was how the ship was recovered from the depths of the Baltic Sea. Divers spent two years digging six tunnels under the ship for steel cable slings, which were taken to a pair of lifting pontoons at the surface. Then it had to be lifted very slowly, 1/18 of the ship at a time. The ship would be raised then sit while the water drained out. Then the process would start again until it was out of the water. A temporary shelter was built over the Vasa until a permanent one could be built. Our guide told us that the permanent building was built right next to the ship. In order for the ship to be place inside, they had to flood the museum and float it in.
Our next stop was Skansen, Stockholm’s open air museum where our bus left us. Simona took her bike out of the cargo bay of the bus and locked it to a pole. She was planning on using it to get home at the end of our tour.
We headed up the hill to the back entrance of the area. Much of Skansen reminded me of the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton, Virginia. setup with different areas representing all of Sweden. The section of the park representing the northernmost reaches of Sweden has a herder’s cabin with a young girl inside as if this were her home. This would have been where the goats or cows would have been brought to graze during the summer months. Each day the goats would be miked. Whoever was in the cabin would churn the milk collected daily and make butter and cheese. We next saw the middle part of Sweden. In the compound representing this area, buildings were in a compound like setting. One of the rooms were set up for inhabitants. Washer women were there to teach any children what had to be done to wash clothes in those day. The last area was more of the southern area and the city with models of shops, stores and living quarters. We also walked through the animal area and saw the reindeer and sheep. Usually there are people demonstrating how things were done way back in the day. Due the unusually dry season this year, there is a law right now in Sweden which makes it illegal to have open fires or even use grills.
Simona walked with us over to the ABBA Museum. She let Linda H. take her bike for a short ride while the rest of us walked across to the museum. Simona left and we went inside to the Pop Restaurant which was part of the ABBA Museum. With lunch over we went in to the exhibit. It took you through the life of all members of ABBA showing how they got started in music to where they ended up. One of the activities in the museum takes place in a dark theater room where someone pretends to perform on stage with ABBA. Evie decided to go for it and did a great job following the movements to their performance of Dancing Queen. I then tried it. I admit that I was a little unsure until Evie went first. It was set with a laser karaoke machine in front of you while the movements were on the floor. I performed to Mama Mia. We wandered around a little more and I discovered that Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson along with Tim Rice wrote the musical Chess in 1986. Now I will have to see what information I can find about this play since I had never heard of it.
We took the ferry to the Slussen stop and had to walk what the gps said was 8 minutes back to the hotel. It was so hot and took a lot longer that 8 minutes even my feet hurt when we got back to the hotel. We went up to the room to rest before heading out to dinner. I decided I wanted to soak in the big bathtub in our room and laid there for over half an hour. Mom went to shower and there was a knock on the door. Someone from Maintenance was asking if he could check something in our bathroom. What he really meant was could we not use the tub right now. Apparently there was a large water leak on the floor below coming from our bathroom. I am thinking OMG, I flooded the hotel when I took a bath. What really happened as the maintenance man explained was the traps are cleaned out frequently. The last time the one for my room was done it was not put back together correctly. So yes , my bath flooded the hotel but it was not my fault.
We met everyone in the lobby for our walk to Eriks Gondolen Restaurant on the 11 floor of a building 4 blocks away. Part of this restaurant sits out over a city block. The view of the sunset was spectacular at almost 10:00 p.m. This was our last dinner together and Victoria’s birthday.
We met everyone in the lobby for our walk to Eriks Gondolen Restaurant on the 11 floor of a building 4 blocks away. Part of this restaurant sits out over a city block. The view of the sunset was spectacular at almost 10:00 p.m. This was our last dinner together and Victoria’s birthday.