Wednesday August 15th, 2018 Stockholm, Sweden

Tricky sail in through dozens of small islands (though we were fast asleep) to get to the city of Stockholm which itself is situated on several islands.

Took a taxi to the Abba museum; we got there early to miss the crowds. The museum is located in a picturesque “museum park” along with several other facilities – very nicely done.

“Abba The Museum” has lots of memorabilia and interactive exhibits where hands on participation is encouraged – including singing and dancing. We had a great time.

Next we walked over to the Vasa Museum.

The Vasa was a 16th century ship that sank only 1300 meters into its maiden voyage when a light wind caused it to capsize. The ship sank to the bottom of Stockholm harbor where it lay buried in mud until 19XX when a large recovery effort was started, and the ship was reconstructed and housed in a purpose-built museum. The ship is incredibly well preserved, and the restoration work magnificent.

A short taxi ride took us to the old part of the city, Gamla Stan where we had a nice lunch at an outdoor café. We wandered through the narrow cobbled streets, looking in the tourist shops, past the Nobel Museum and on to the royal palace. The palace is still in use and has the usual contingent of guards.

Not having the time for a visit into the palace we walked around the outside and quite by accident discovered a way onto the interior courtyard. One corner of the courtyard had been set up as an outdoor café with a small food truck and seating area; we had the most amazing piece of strawberry cake!

The sail out of Stockholm was very interesting back out through the many small islands and channels to get to the Baltic Sea. We watched from our balcony as beautiful country houses set in the lush forests drifted by – it was a bit reminiscent of the pacific northwest of the USA.