Wendy and Jim's Travel Blog
Scandinavia Day 2 - Stockholm
A fun and lovely day except for the fact that Jim has now shared his cold with Wendy. Yuck!
We got an early breakfast and went to walk out to meet our guide for the morning. The tour was entitled Old Town By Foot. This guide was great! He managed to fit in facts about Sweden and Stockholm as well as pointing out major buildings, telling stories, and entertaining us for two hours.
Sweden is the size of California, the 3rd largest country in Europe but has only 10 million people. It is a constitutional monarchy, 30% of its residents are immigrants, and everyone pays 30% (or more) in taxes which covers medical care and schooling for all including college. Post Ice Age glacier melting created the many islands that make up this city which is why it is called the Venice of the north. Stockholm however is still rising out of the sea, while Venice is sinking. Sweden hasn’t formally been at war since 1814 and its residents are mostly cheerful and happy with very little poverty, homelessness or political discord 
The old city is known as Gamla Stan. We walked through tiny streets, (and past one or two tinier than you could fit through!), mostly pedestrian except for an occasional small car trying to squeeze through. 
We passed the Royal Palace, Parliament, an old building with a rune-covered stoneViking stone that was transported and and added to the building for construction purposes. Eventually we ended up in the central square where the Nobel Museum resides. 
Here we left the tour and went into the Nobel Museum. There is a moving conveyor belt on the ceiling from which hangs pictures and short statements from each Nobel Laureate. Our guide gave us some pretty common background on Nobel himself, then directed us to the rest of the museum. Each Nobel prize winner is asked to provide something that represents him or herself to the world. This is where it kind of broke
down. There was no particular order and the signage was horrible. We looked at a few, tried to find people to whom we were more familiar, but were unsuccessful. We left somewhat disappointed. 
PWe then did a 10-15 minute walk to City Hall (Stadshuset), passing the Royal Palace and theOpera House (under renovation). We were now out of Gamla Stan. 
City Hall is a large dark, eight-million brick building with a tall tower that dominates this part of the city. Built in 1923 it is still the functioning city hall. It was a Saturday which means that anywhere from 10-50 brides get married here. ( Sorry, no pics of this). One room on our tour which hosts these events was closed. But the place is huge and impressive. Our first stop was the “Blue Room” so named because the architect, who was constantly changing his mind originally planned it in blue, then changed it although the public kept calling it that. No blue whatsoever! However, this is the room most famous for the annual 1300 - plate Nobel Prize banquet help each year. Pretty impressive.
Our tour progressed to the chamber where 101 men and women of the city council meet once a week. 
The last room was the Golden Hall— aptly named as the glittering gilded mosaic walls were lined with frescoes depicting various elements of Swedish history. 
Back onto the ships for naps. Since we both felt lousy, we ordered room service for dinner and watched the port talk for the next day. < Previous
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