Stockholm is the capital and largest city in Sweden with 900,000 people living in the city but with nearly 2.2 million living in the metro area. It was founded around 1200 AD and has long been Sweden’s cultural, political, and economic center. The city is known for its beauty, its buildings & architecture, and its parks. Stockholm is located on the south-central east coast on the Baltic Sea. The city is on 14 islands that are part of the Stockholm archipelago (hundreds of islands on south eastern part of Sweden).
Stockholm is also known as one of the world’s cleanest cities because there is very little heavy industry here. 85% of all jobs are in the service industry: Swedish stock exchange & financial center, high tech, and tourism. It is ranked the 10th largest tourist destination in Europe. The city center area is a “congestion zone” and as such, drivers have to pay a fee to drive there during certain hours of the day. Entrances and exits have unmanned control points with automatic license plate recognition for billing them. It has an extensive public transportation system but it is one of the most expensive in the world to use.
Summertime temperatures are warmer here with daytime highs averaging 68 to 77F but it is not unusual for July and August temps to be in the mid 80’s, as it was today. Winters generally bring cloudy weather with the most rain/snow. The average winter temperatures range from 30F to -4F.
Well, this is the end of our 26 days on the Voyager. YUK! As usual we are not ready to leave but Jane and Charlotte probably are. We disembarked the ship this morning. I must say the disembarkation process was one of the easiest and best. The ship docked at 8 am and a porter was loading our luggage before 9 am. There was a young lady to assist with getting the right size taxi. I thought we would have to use two taxis because of all our luggage but got it in a small van type with some room to spare. Will use the same type for our trip to the airport on Thursday morning. It was a 20 minute drive to the Hilton Slussen located across the river from the old part of Stockholm. I had asked for an early check-in and got an email from the hotel last night saying it was approved (for a small extra fee) but no rooms available when we arrived at 9:30. So we had the bellman lock our bags in back room and we set out to go see the old part of the city. We just had to walk across a bridge and we were in Old Town. Very convenient! Glad we took our umbrellas with us as there several periods of rain while we were out and about. My main objective was to see the changing of the guards at the Royal Palace at 12:15. We arrived 30 minutes early and glad we did as had good vantage point in front, and more importantly, in the shade. People were 5 deep trying to get to see it. We bugged out a little before it ended and headed out to find a place for some lunch. Jane and I had Swedish meatballs with boiled potatoes and Rebecca & Charlotte had schnitzel with fried potatoes. The portions were quite large and with sodas came to $30 each. Prices are high in the Scandinavian countries so thought this very reasonable.
We did some shopping (ok, not me) and more looking around before exhausted and headed back to the hotel. Our rooms were now ready as was 3 pm. We have rooms on the executive floor with a great view across the river of old town. There is an executive lounge where we will be coming to after 6pm for complimentary cocktails, wine, and food. Everybody is still full from the big lunch so not sure about dinner.
I better get the photos loaded on here. Not many captions as did not know exactly what I was taking photos of since we did not have a tour guide as we did on the ship. Not sure what we will do tomorrow as it depends on what the weather is like. I have a good idea providing the weather is good.
Changing of the Royal Guard at the Royal Palace takes place every day at 12:15.
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