20260409,10 Stockholm and the Baltic Sea

The airport express train is FAST. 180 km/h for the twenty minute trip (Union-Pearson anyone?). The tracks were tunnelled under the runways, so that the platforms are very close to the gates. Brilliant.

Rob and Will arrived from Toronto through Copenhagen ahead of schedule, and we quickly boarded the next express downtown, with a fifteen minute walk to the hotel. Will, in a very creative way, found an excellent public swimming pool. The three of us swam lengths and enjoyed a sauna after buying swimsuits and goggles. A good way to shed some airline cobwebs.

Back to the hotel to check in, and made a reservation at a restaurant that had a couple of herring dishes. After a bit of Old Town strolling we had a fantastic meal. Will had a fresh herring entree and a fried herring main.

Now the first jetlag compensating sleep, to get ready for our all-day private walking tour with Mecki.

The hotel breakfast was fantastic. Good thing, because Mecki kept us BUSY. First was Stockholm City Hall, an absolute wonder. Built between 1911 and 1923, its 8 million red bricks enclosed a huge variety of rooms and large spaces and a huge tower.

The dinner for the Nobel Prize laureates and their guests is held in a fantastic room, with space to seat one thousand. The sweeping staircase down is for the entry of the winners. The dinner must be an absolutely stunning event.

We followed Mecki onto a bus headed for the ferry to get to the Vasa Museum. The Vasa was a huge Swedish warship which sank about twenty minutes into its maiden voyage in 1628. It was well preserved in about 30m of cold Stockholm harbour water, and was raised and salvaged in 1951. It was on temporary display until housed in the fantastic Vasa Museum in 1988. The King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus, insisted on huge garish decorations and a second row of cannons which made the ship so top-heavy that it overturned.

Mecki then escorted us around the Stockholm harbour, past beautiful avenues with lavish stores and palaces. We finished our tour at the Royal Palace.

Stockholm is a fantastic city, built on seventeen islands scattered between lakes and the Baltic Sea.

The next morning we toured the Nobel Prize Museum, a collection of items donated by the Nobel laureates and their families. The items can be anything, either related to the laureates field or just something that meant something special. There are pieces of research equipment, and odd things like a trumpet, or a pair of clogs.

It is sobering to walk amongst all these items, and read about the most brilliant people of the last 120 years.

Alfred Nobel was a chemist who became incredibly wealthy after discovering and manufacturing dynamite. It is said that he was inspired to create a foundation after overhearing someone describe him as “The Merchant of Death”. Six subjects are honoured with prizes each year: Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Medicine, Economics and Peace.

We then took a one-hour train to NynaShämn to catch the 18-hour overnight ferry to Gdansk, Poland.

The ferry was built in 1980 in Soviet controlled Poland. Comfotable and spacious, it has a Soviet era feel to it. No matter! Our three bed cabin was perfect, and the dinner was plentiful and delicious. The sea was smooth, breakfast was good, and we disembarked at noon in Gdansk.

Our guide met us at the dock for our tour, which deserves a blog post of its own. Stay tuned!