Stockholm: The Swedish Capital

Day 09: Stockholm, Sweden.

We’ll rewind todays blog to last night.

We’re consciously trying to get out in the evening and enjoy the midnight sun and all its glory. We couldn’t not get out on the bikes and to cycle around the beautiful lake that was besides us. Very glad we did as once again the sunset didn’t disappoint.

Stockholm, the Swedish Capital.

The plan for today was a short 150KM drive into Stockholm. Do some washing. See some sights. Head out and sleep.

That plan went OK. Not perfect, but OK.

Once we’d arrived into Stockholm we quickly realised the roads were crazy. Navigating them was very frustrating and difficult at times. With loads of road works, closures and other nuisances, it meant we got lost more than once. Finding parking wasn’t easy, but we managed it in the end.

First job was to get the rucksack on and head to get our laundry done. But before that we needed cash out.

We had found an ATM and unfortunately we got our card rejected. Confused, even more frustrated and puzzled we walked around in circles for a little while until we found a second.

Rejected. Again.

Nat then tried her card and successfully withdrew money, and then joked about us not having any money in the joint account.

We didn’t. Looks like those bloody Danish bridges took all our money!

(Don’t worry, we have enough money it just wasn’t in the right account).

Once we’d managed to sort the washing out and get them in the machine and out. We had enough time to leave it whilst it did its thing and head towards the public library.

Libraries aren’t really my thing but this building was incredible and so awe inspiring. I read a book or so a month but this place made me want to read a book a day. It’s so magical and I could have easily spent hours here looking through the books and wandering down the spiralled staircases.

After our washing was done and we’d done the trip back to Doris to drop it off we only had a few more hours left on our parking ticket. Here’s where things got fun.

LIME SCOOTERS!

They’re paid electric scooters that you can whizz around the city on for a relatively small fee. We hopped on one each and got back across the city towards The Vasa Museum.

 

The Vasa Museum

The Vasa Museum is home to the most incredible and in-tact ship, warship, in the world. That warship is The Vasa Warship and it is breathtakingly beautiful and 100% worth coming to Stockholm to see.

The ship is 98% original and nearly full intact from the day it was built. How? It sank just 25 minutes into its first test run and sank in shallow waters and left to be forgotten about.

On August 10th 1628 the Vasa Warship set off on its maiden voyager when an engineering disaster ended the ships life early. With a double floor of guns it was the first of its kind and still in the developmental stages of design and engineering. Unfortunately, the first floor of guns was too low and this made the ship ever unstable in the water.

Struggling to stay upright, the ship easily swayed right to left. Unfortunately the gun ports were open and water quickly entered the vessel and quickly sunk the 69m long warship.

The detail, carvings and sculptures on this warship are incredible and they seem so wasted on a ship. But back in the 17th century visualisations were a great way of showing wealth and authority. Because of such intricacies the ship took nearly 20 years to rebuild and get fit for the display in the museum.

If you’re ever in Sweden, make sure you visit the Vasa!

 

Vikings in Uppsala

Once we’d finished in Stockholm we headed North towards, Uppsala. It’s been a long day so we wanted somewhere relatively close to Stockholm but quiet enough to get a good nights sleep. It just so happened that the heart of Swedish vikings meets that criteria.

Lots of viking history surrounds this place and it is said to be the place of viking pilgrimage. Where vikings would gather every 9 years and celebrate, sacrifice and feast for 9 days straight.

One of the main reasons of this is because there are three significant mounds that are here. The myth says that they’re Thor, Odin and Freya. The Norse gods. With such gods laid to rest here, it must be a pretty special place.

We didn’t really get a good look around here, but we will do in the morning and I’ll be make sure to do enough research to really scare you with some viking history.

 

Tonights camping location: Uppsala, Sweden. (CamperContact: Click here).

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