Stockholm, Sweden
Under crisp clear blue skies and strong winds, about 70 of us alighted this morning from the ship onto Zodiacs for the scenic morning ride up the Djurgården Canal and into Stockholm Harbor. Either way you enter Stockholm, the views are breathtaking; particularly when, as today, the sky was clear and the sun lit up the city skyline.
The canal was dug out in the 1830s along the marshes of Djurgården Island to provide the king with a scenic entry to the city. It is narrow and lined with Linden trees. Some of the oldest local oak trees, several hundred years old, can also be found here.
Partly swampland, the island of Djurgården was once a royal hunting ground. In recent years, it has been converted to the world’s first urban national park which attracts over 70 species of wetland birds. The park is a popular summer running spot with locals. The canal remains an exceptional and scenic way to enter Stockholm.
As we entered the canal, the wind subsided and the sun felt warm. Under the first traffic bridge, a very pleasant surprise awaited us. Hotel Manager Henrik Ahlberg and his staff appeared in a Zodiac with hot chocolate laced with whisky or schnapps served with warm freshly-baked cinnamon rolls.
Thus fortified, we continued on our way, passing several small museums before entering a wider area from where we got an extraordinary glimpse of the magnificent Scandinavian Gothic structure, the Nordic Museum.
Shortly on our left a small antique log house appeared clinging to the high hillside. Here we had come along the grounds of the Skansen Open Air Museum, a destination for one of the morning adventures. Not far from the shore, on a little grassy hump near the water’s edge, a bronze Jenny Lind, the Swedish Nightingale.
A closer view of the Nordic Museum then came into view – with its ornate towers and glass roof that floods the giant atrium, it is a masterpiece of glass and light. The building was dedicated in 1890 although it was not completed until 1907.
On our right, the canal now widened and the city’s elegant Fin de Siècle strand came into brilliant view. Originally built as facades for the 1897 World’s Fair, they became so popular that buildings were actually built behind them and today form some of the city’s prime real estate.
At this point we turned into the harbor and the Vasa Museum came into view. We then passed the ship building island on our left and headed straight for the old city and its impressive government houses, main church and royal palace situated around a small plaza that extends down to the water. These formal buildings are quite austere, reflecting the cultural preference of Swedes to a certain artistic reserve combined with a feeling of solidity.
The National Geographic Explorer was docked right alongside the old city, having entered through the main shipping lane which was equally scenic and enhanced by David Barnes’s fascinating commentary in the observation lounge on the upper deck.
After a quick breakfast, we set out again in different directions. Half of us took walking tours of the Old Town, or Gamla Stan, a once-fortified city built with narrow cobblestone streets and tiny quaint alleyways.
Another group crossed the harbor on Zodiacs to the open air museum of Skansen. Founded in 1891, Skansen is the first open air museum of its kind and has served as a model to others in the U.S. and in Europe. Historic houses, villages and farmsteads have been recreated by bringing real structures from all over Sweden in order to preserve a sense of traditional history of rural life – a subject that is rarely part of the formal written history.
The afternoon was left for private explorations and many of us stayed in the city for lunch. The sun shone brightly all day and as the wind died down, the afternoon air became warm. Toward evening thin clouds rolled in, blotting out the sunset, but luckily the good weather continued to hold and the evening remained mild and dry as we explored this magnificent city on our own.
