Circumnavigation of the Baltic 11

And on to Stockholm

We had a leisurely start as we didn’t have a long drive, I packed the stowage room with some semblance of method, but of course it will turn out that it will all be wrong, it always is! We paid our bill, said our goodbyes to the lovely family and hit the trail. Our girl on board (the other girl) took us on a very nice route across country, along nice bye-ways, through  woods, along lakes and passing nice red painted farmsteads, but it all had to stop as we hit the main N/S arterial motorway the E4. We decided to have a break at Uppsala, popping into a large shopping “we have it all” type complex. We were looking for a place to eat, but espying a supermarket, we thought we may as well have a look and see what they had on offer, we bought various foods (prawn cocktail, chicken legs, bread rolls, frozen berries, oranges and peaches) and had a picnic sitting in our camper on the car park.

Our girl (the Sat-Nav) had been playing up the past few days saying that the wrong cable was attached, as we hit Stockholm, she really went to town, no directions, just when you really need a girl she lets you down. With a bit of jiggery pokery  I managed to get her going again, I must say the Swedes are not very good at sign posting the way to campsites, well at least in Stockholm they aren’t.

But we got to our pre-booked campsite, it is a pure RV site, sited on an island called Langholmen, the RV site is attached to a park, we got plonked right under the Västerbron, quite a busy bridge, with a lot of Vroom-Vroom. It can no way compare with most of the other sites and pales when compaired with the last one, but it is in Stockholm and very handy for the underground.

We got settled in and then decided as it was a wonderful afternoon, to walk along the Söder Mälarstrand passing all manner of craft to the Gamal Stan (Old city, Alt Stadt).

We spent a wonderful few hours drinking in the atmosphere and a beer.

We watched the changing of the guard The Royal Palace, went down into the Royal Weapon collection and the coach museaum.

We then walked along Skeppsbron with its wonderful views of the Swedish National Museum, the Cruise liners and Ferries docked in the Strömmen, there was much coming and going on the water, I loved it. 

We had bought a 72 hour public transport ticket, so we decided to put it to good use and get the underground back to Hornstull, just a hop and a skip from the campsite. We settled down, me to watch the German-Mexico game and Linda to moan about “bloody football”.

We had a nice cold supper of chicken and pasties (must say the pasties though not Cornish were very tasty), we drank a couple of pinks, these rounded off the G&T that we had, had drunk earlier (Linda two so was a little giggly.

A fine first day in Stockholm, tomorrow it is the Vasa Museum, I am looking forward to this very much, the last time I was in Stockholm, it was very new and they were still working on the conservation, that was 20 years ago.

Day 2 Stockholm

Up, showered and a cup of coffee, we were at the T station (The Stockholm underground) of Hornstull just after 08:00, we got off at Slussen, caught a ferry from the quay and rounding Skeppsholmen we got off at the stop of Djurgärden, just below the Ferris-wheel, Big Dipper and other funfair attractions. We walked a short way to the Vasa Museum entrance and saw a small que waiting, in next to no time we were inside, hardly anyone about (the reason why we had come so early). I got my Rucksack stowed away in the lockers and then we set about getting some photographs of this amazing vessel and its amazing if tragic short lived career.

A little of the History of the good ship Vasa.

During the 1600’s, there was a bit of a scuffle going on between the Swedes and the Poles about who was the boss of the Baltic. Good king Gustav II Adolf (of the family Vasa) decided enough was enough and set about building 4 new ships much larger than any that had ever been built in Sweden before, they would have 2 gun decks armed with a new style cannon. The ship was designed and in the main constructed to a new and untried design by a Dutchman and his brother. Everything was going along just fine, until the morning of her maiden voyage in 1628, fully victualed, crewed and all sails set she warped out into the channel. She had been made ready to give a full broadside salute, so all of her gun ports were open and cannon run out, the decks were full of the seamen and their families who had been allowed aboard for a short passage to Djurgärden where they would go ashore while soldiers and equipment would be taken on-board before setting sail to show the Poles who was boss of this part of the Baltic. Alas this was not to be, a gust of wind, made the ship keel and because the ports were all open she took on water, a lot of water, she started to sink, she went down quite quickly and a lot of the seamen and passengers lost their lives.

There were a few attempts to salvage her as not only did she have a lot of war goods on her but she had sunk in a busy channel in the harbour, very dangerous to other shipping and also very embarrassing to the powers to be as the masts were still visible above the water, these were removed and the all of the cannon (with the exception of three) were salvaged by breaking through the main deck. And there she lay for 300 years until a persistent young marine archaeologist named decided to try his luck and find her. Using a piece of equipment called a lead sampling bit (still in use today) he retrieved a core sample of oak; this was to prove the start of a fantastic recovery and reconstruction voyage. They raised her by using a well tried out method of raising wrecks, but never anything this old or in this state. They were aided by the fact that the Vasa had lain in water that was brackish ( just very slightly  salty), this prohibited the ability for ships wood-eaters (a sea-snail) that bores into wood below waterline and can and does cause great destruction to wooden piers, piles and most of all wooden ships hulls.

By tunnelling under the hull in 6 places, passing 6 steel hawsers under her attaching these to submerged pontoons, then pumping out the pontoons she was slowly raised to the surface. She broke surface on the morning 333 years after her maiden voyage and was then taken first to a provisional dock and then into her final resting place in a specially constructed dry-dock on the island of Djurgärten (Now the Vasa museum).

Of course there must have been a cause hadn’t there? Well the board of enquiry looked for a culprit (or scape goat), The designer and head constructor had been the Dutchman, alas he had died the year before neither seeing the completion of her construction, nor the maiden floundering. The board looked to the brother as a likely culprit, he shrugged his shoulders and said he was only following the design of his brother and more to the point the King, well no one was going to blame Merry Old King Vasa, so they said that the hull was not broad enough in the beam, there was not enough stone ballast and the new cannons being lighter and placed on the lower gun decks had added to the instability of the ship. So no one got the blame, BUT, the 2 ships later built carried much more stone ballast and were 1meter wider in the beam. One of them was such a success that she lasted 33 years, a goodly age for a wooden ship in those days.

I had visited the Vasa just after she had been put into her final resting place over 20 years ago (I was in Sweden for a World Speedway Final) it was fantastic then and what has been done since is amazing, not only on the ship but also the displays and description of the events of the sinking and the raising of her, well done Stockholm.

After visiting the exhibition, we walked over the bridge to Strandvägen  and caught the bus to Hötorget (we had been informed that there is a market there). We alighted and after a bit of trial and error found the underground market. It is well worth a visit, not large, but well-presented and everything that you would wish for and a bit more on diplay. I actually found what I had been looking for the past 3 weeks, Elk meat and also a very well informed game dealer who sold it to us.

We then decided to have a late lunch, we visited a great little fish stall, I ordered Moule-Frites and Linda a small trio of starters. Both our meals were exquisite and the cook was a hoot even though he tried to talk me into having a plate of different types of herring.

We then walked back to the station and caught the underground back to Hornstull and our campsite, we had a short nap and then got into our glad rags to go out on the town, Langholmen has a quite lively eating scene and we had seen a few very nice restaurants, we settled for the Tapas Bar. We got the last two seats at the bar, ordered our 4 tapas each, our glass of Rioja for me and Linda a pink that she had drunk with her lunch. Everything was perfect and our friendly neighbour at the bar, who was called Celia, and the owner of a famous Stockholm institution a bakery that made the best cinnamon rolls in town (her words not mine) she was a hoot, she actually got rid of her date so that she could talk to us. She left saying she was going across the road to were there was live open-air music taking place.

We finished off our Tapas and wine and went to suss out the area, we found her bakery and followed the music, they were playing 60s and 70s music, sounded all very nice, but as you had to pay to enter we walked on.

I saw the end of the under 21 football match (much to Lindas annoyance, well she’s not German) and then it was beddy byes.

Day 3 Stockholm

Bat and bird boxes on the wall to the RV Park

Saturday morning dawned bright and clear, so up and ready we headed of up the hill to Cinnamon Celia’s Bakery, where we had a coffee and cinnamon bun. We were served by a woman who must have been Celia’s sister as she was the spitting image of her, also in the back-ground bakery was an older version of Celia, she had said that her 83 year old mother was still working in the bakery and that it was in the third generation. We sat in the sun and watched the comings and goings apeople came in for rolls, bread or breakfast, what a wonderful place.

Our Camper from the bridge

Linda on the bridge

Celia's Bakery

We then hopped on the underground and headed to the T-Central as Linda wanted to check out the train lines, times and locker storage. This done and everything ready we headed for the main centre as we had been originally aiming for Art Museum, we disagreed about where and what it actually was and decided to discover Stockholm by going our separate ways, as it turned out we had almost visited the things we both wanted to visit but at different times and from differe3nt directions. I went first to the Museum of Modern Art on Skeppsholm (took bus 95).

The start of the Swedish yatch race was taking place that very weekend and the main event, that was a race of over 3 days started on Sunday so all the yachts and crews were tied up at the piers and there was a lot of nautical business on land and on the boats,

I whiled away a bit of time then walked to the Opera house taking the opportunity of photographing Gamla Stan and the Royal palace from a different position. At the rear of the Opera House is a very fine Church(St Jakob) but alas it was bolted and barred, but just adjacent is the Kungsträdgärten, with its massive bronze statue of Karl XII. There was also a lot going on, street food, performing artists (an Aussie was performing some tricks) and wall painters, as well as a lot of other stalls selling the normal bric-a-brac. It was nice to sit out in the sun and watch all the performers and viewing public.

I then headed back towards the Hötorget (Haymarket) to see if I could get a bite to eat, alas it was 16:00 and closing time, but across the road was a nice what would be called in Singapore a Hawkers Market, down stairs is a fantastic food hall with all manner of food outlets, selling Far Eastern, Near Eastern and European foods and all for around SK 100 for a large plate and a drink. Wonderful. I then went to the T-Central hopped on the train for the campsite.

That evening we went out eating, this time a very respectable Sushi, again just up the road at a place called Helen’s Sushi bar. We had mixed dumplings and a mixed sushi all started off with a very tasty miso soup.

Then it was home watch a bit of Tatort and then to bed.

 Day 4 Stockholm. Off on our different ways.

Linda flying home and I bringing the camper via more leisurely route and pace. I set off down the E4 in the direction of Norrköping and the Göta Canal, I had been here many years ago and had a faint memory of a supposedly meteorite that had been positioned at one end of it (I don’t know if it had been by gods or mans hand). I thought as I was passing so close and there was a campsite on the ADAC map I may as well pop along and see if I could find it, so that is how I ended up at another wonderful campsite, right on the canal banks called Skeppsdockan,  a canal dry-dock, this is just before the canal passes through a small town called Söderköping.

I got wonderful TV reception (important as Germany were playing Chile in the final of the confederation cup, I bet that Linda is angry at missing that), the Wi-Fi was great if you sat on the veranda of the reception building (I was able to get photos of Aiden from Japan where he is taking his first foreign holiday). It was scorching hot so I walked along the banks of the canal and took a few photos. There is also a very nice youth hostel (Vandrarhem) on the site, it and all the  out buildings have been completely renovated to a very high standard and are used for the ablutions, washrooms, toilets and kitchen all first class.  I spent a lazy afternoon, sitting in the sun reading my e-mails, looking at photos of my grandson in the Land of the Rising Sun (I am feeling just a tadge jealous). I later watched my new found allegiance win the Confederation Cup in Russia.