Stockholm - day 7

Since Kel only had to work a couple hours on our last saturday in Stockholm, we spent most of it together, doing some touristy stuff.  The morning was again spent in Gamla Stan. We started off by venturing inside Storkyrkan, the old church (c. 1279) that is next door to the Royal Palace.  the place was phenomenal:









We hung out some more at the Royal Palace and caught part of the guard ceremony:



And then we spent time at Stortorget Square, which is right next to the Nobel Museum.  This square is interesting, because it is a historic site that relates back to a horrible massacre that happened in 1520
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_Bloodbath
but nowadays, serves as some sort of an open-air market.  I mean, this is a place where, several hundred years ago, the invading Danish promised amnesty for the Swedish nobilty, but, lying through their teeth, proceeded to cut everyone's heads off.  But now you can buy some pretty candles while standing on the grounds.  ...huzzah?...



There's also a wishy-washy tale of one of the buildings surrounding the square.  The building in the photo below has a cannon ball embedded in the corner of it, just above the sign.  See it?  The story goes that this is a Danish shot at the island (plausible), and that the ball embedded itself right where you see it (bullshit?).  Who knows.  At any rate, it makes for a cool story for young kids, or something.

 

After leaving Gamla Stan, we took a tram over to see the VasaMuseet.  This museum houses a 1600s warship called the Vasa, which happened to sink shortly after embarking on its maiden voyage, right off of Swedish land.  Several attempts were made to right it and bring it back to shore, but it wasn't until the 1950s or 60s that modern equipment could do such a task.  The ship was supposedly 95% intact, and it's super impressive to see in person.  Here is a vid and some pics:





  







All right, I'm tired of writing.  Time to get some sleep.