Day 7 – Stockholm, Sweden

Stop number two was Stockholm, Sweden. Time for, once again, some limited history for Stockholm. Stockholm is the capital of Sweden, situated on the country’s east coast and is the Baltic Sea’s largest port. Population is about 1.65 million inhabitants that occupy about 14 islands that are connected by 50 bridges. The city has often been called “The Venice of the North” or “Beauty on Water.” The currency in Sweden is the Krona.

The cruise ship made its 5 hour sailing into the port around 4:00am (the view of that sailing was outstanding). This narrow trek was lined with many islands with many summer homes on them. I didn’t get up that early, because we had to leave Stockholm the same way (which was early evening). We decided to walk this one as well. First, we were very lucky, as we were in Stockholm only 3 days before the Royal Wedding of Princess Victoria and Daniel. The city definitely filled with excitement and love – theme of the summer is Love 2010. We watched many people making preparations for the upcoming celebration. Many of the public squares were getting new flowers, ribbons for the light posts and special cleaning. We spent time walking around the old town district, which houses the palace and many small shops and restaurants.

Our next, visit was to try and locate the Jewish Synagogue, which is the oldest standing since WWII. Our map was not very good, so I had to ask for directions from many (and I mean many) locals. We got many different answers and different locations. We finally found it, but missed one of the two opportunities to see the inside (there are two tours during the day). Our walk trying to local this, took us to the new parts of Stockholm. It was a nice blend of the old and the new within blocks of themselves.

My overall impressions:

• Stockholm is another one of those clean cities. Was it just because of the Royal Wedding? I think not.
• There are many different squares and parks throughout the city. We decided to take lunch at one of the parks small café’s. The food was pretty good too!
• Another country that go crazy for their football. I guess coming from America – everything seems crazy.
• If people are looking for a hot dog review. We forgot to get one in Stockholm, but have another stop in Gutenberg.

Odd ball items:

• Wifi was pretty much everywhere. Local places offer free wifi for 30 mins. With the Love 2010, as a gift to the folks, wifi was free all over the city. I was able to connect! Always love cities that make connecting easy.
• People were friendly, but trying to locate anything Jewish was a bit tough. Most of the locals did not know they have the oldest synagogue standing since WWII. When I finally found it, we ran into about 10 people that were looking for it too. They each had difficulty locating it as well, with people pointing them to different locations as well.