by Michael

We spent our last day in Sweden visiting the royal palace on Gamla Stan Island in Stockholm, walking around a trendy neighborhood of Sodermalm, and visiting the Nobel Museum.

The Swedish royal family has been mostly without power for centuries, but retains several estates. Although nobody lives in the main palace, it hosts diplomatic and royal functions, so most of it was closed in preparation for the King’s birthday celebrations — our tour guide apologized many times. The guided tour in the morning was helpful, especially for people like me who don’t know much about the Swedish monarchy.

Our guide explaining the formal meetings that take place in this room between the King and the Cabinet.  (According to Elizabeth, our guide was adorably formal.)

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After months of (not actually) planning, our trip has finally begun!

Obligatory airport departure photo

Stockholm has been a great city to explore on foot — which is perfect training for the Camino.  We arrived in the afternoon following an uneventful 10+ hour flight and took advantage of the Wednesday evening hours at the Vasa Museum.  The museum celebrates one of Stockholm’s greatest failures: the sinking of a huge warship in the Stockholm harbor due to a small gust of wind within 10 minutes of it first taking sail in 1628.  Of course, the museum plays off the failure as being of great benefit to today’s visitors — if the ship had not sunk, it would not have been preserved in the cold Swedish waters for future generations to appreciate (a clever, but valid spin).  The ship was definitely restored with an eye towards the future.  In order to prevent the wood from drying out after having been under water for centuries it was sprayed down for seventeen years with a mixture similar to lotion and then left to dry for another nine years.

The Vasa ship.  It’s hard to tell, but it was massive — approximately four stories tall.

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