Gamla Stan

We awoke to beautiful weather on Saturday and spent the day exploring central Stockholm. Here's the view of our hotel from across the water -- it's the one in the middle with the orange awning.

We began the day by walking along the water towards Gamla Stan (the old town), which offered nice views of the waterfront.

While in Gamla Stan we visited the Stockholm Cathedral and the Royal Palace, which are both visible in the picture below (center and right, respectively).

The palace was particularly impressive, with over 1,400 rooms and some extremely ornate decor. Here are some examples.

Outside the palace we stumbled upon a parade involving the Royal Guard. I trust that no one makes fun of their pointy helmets given the machine guns that they're carrying.

We spent the balance of our time in Gamla Stan just wandering the cobblestone streets, which in some cases trace their origin to the 13th century. I liked the architecture of the centuries-old buildings.

The following alley's claim to fame is being the narrowest in the city (1 meter wide). It also apparently cameod in a Moby video, though I didn't have the motivation to confirm whether either of these items are indeed true.

Next we headed to the Vasa museum, which turned out to be the highlight of the day for me. The Vasa is a Swedish warship that was built in the 1620s and sank less than a mile into its maiden voyage. It was salvaged largely intact in 1961 and is now on display in the museum.

The ship is massive -- over 200 feet long -- and was designed for a crew of nearly 500 (including soldiers). Ignoring the obvious shortcoming of sinking on its maiden voyage, the design and engineering was pretty incredible to see in person. It's hard to believe that it was built nearly four centuries ago.

We finished the day by taking the "Under the Bridges of Stockholm" tour, which is a two-hour boat ride that takes you around Stockholm on both the Baltic Sea and Lake Mälaren. During the journey you travel beneath 15 of Stockholm's bridges (hence the tour name) and through two locks that connect the lake to the sea.

The tour afforded nice views of the city and also included an audio guide that provided interesting commentary on Stockholm's history. Typically I'm not a big fan of organized tours, but I would highly recommend this one as it's a great way to see (and learn about) the city.

For dinner we went to another great fish restaurant (clearly there's is no shortage in Stockholm). We learned an important lesson, though -- be sure to make reservations. For the second night in a row, we had to wait nearly an hour.