Aug. 4 - Stockholm

So glad to be returning to this city ( we spent 5 days here many years ago when I was presenting at an international Quality in Healthcare conference and loved it).  We decided to take the hop on/ hop off BOAT from the ship - the first time we'd ever heard of one - with Patty and John.   We stayed on for the entire route, admiring this beautiful city of 14 islands and many bridges.  Then we rode to Gamla Stan  (old town) and Patty and John went on to the Vasa Museum which we had seen on our previous trip.  This is the museum of the restored 17th century ship that sank in the harbor on its maiden voyage and was resurrected in the 1980s in pristine condition (probably due to the temperature and salinity of the water).  It is definitely a sight to behold.

Sunrise - 3AM

Sailing into Stockholm

Islands in Archipeligo

We wandered around the narrow, cobble- stone streets, bought Art his requisite Tee Shirt and found our way to the Royal Palace.  Whe we got there, we discovered that the next stop on the Hop-on Hop-off boat - from where we got off- would have been the palace so we decided to call the walk, mostly uphill, our morning exercise since we hadn't gone to the gym in the morning.  Took some picturesbut, since we were more than an hour early for the changing of the guard, we continued on our wander around old town.  We found a little cafe and stopped for coffee and excellent Swedish coffee cake - apple and raspberry.  Then continued on our way back to the boat and on to the ship.  A relatively short but very nice visit.  We were a little sorry that we hadn't ventured outside of the tourist area but looked forward to the gorgeous sailaway promised for this evening.

The highlight of the day really was the 4.5 hour sail though the great Archipeligo made up of  30,000   Islands (according to Google).  Obviously we didn't see them all.  They range in size from tiny and uninhabited to large with small communities and large estates.  On our last trip, we did a ferry ride from Stockholm to the upper part of the Archipeligo and got off for a stroll through one of the villages and a bit to eat in a little cafe before catching the next ferry back to the city.  We had lots of discussions and we sailed this time about how the residents lived and commuted in the winter time, how they generated electricity, if they used propane for heating and cooking, etc.  Need to do some research when we return.

Tonight was another formal night so off we went to get dressed in time for our nightly social time in Michael's Club.  Another lovely day on the Constellation.