Wow, what a day. I would say we were up with the sun but the sun comes up at 3 am so…
We hopped on a boat this morning and took a two hour trip through the archipelago to Birka- a viking settlement that was abandoned over 1000 years ago.

The city just looks like a field of grass, but bits of the low wall around it and the protective fortress are still visible, as are all of the couple thousand burial mounds. We ate a quick lunch at the island’s restaurant (a delicious genuine Swedish smorgasbord) before we were taken on a guided tour of the island.
And now prepare for a history lesson.
Vikings didn’t have horned helmets- they were made up in the 1800’s to make them look fiercer.
A viking is actually a job title. Vikings were about 1% of the people and they were the ones responsible for raiding/pillaging.
The vikings wouldn’t go to battle if they weren’t positive they could win. Instead, they would trade with them.
Vikings discovered Greenland, Iceland, and Newfoundland during their era (750-1100 AD).
They believed hair held all your power, so everyone had their own special comb.
When they died, their bodies were burned in a boat (with their combs, jewelry, and knife) then covered in stones, and finally buried in dirt, which becomes a burial mound.
Vikings are awesome.

Unfortunately, it rained again today, although there was no thunder and lightning like yesterday. Fortunately, we don’t melt in the rain. After the tour finished at the very top of the island, we ignored the path back down and mountain goat-ed our way down the other side of the island. It was so cool to stand at the top of an island in the middle of a viking fortress and look out over the archipelago. Really beautiful and inspiring.

After clambering our way down, we went over to the small reconstruction of Birka and wandered around. The houses are pre-medieval and therefore extremely un-waterproofed. They also had giant fire pits in the middle of keep everyone warm during the freezing winters. Stockholm is at nearly the same latitude as Anchorage, actually. And Amsterdam is the same as Portland. I thought that was really interesting.

Dad wandered out onto the ricketiest looking dock I’ve ever seen-

There was an opportunity to cook bread over an open fire, but we didn’t want to stand around and wait our turn in the pouring rain and went to check out the museum.

All in all an amazing day. Michael made countless Skyrim references and I filled up a memory card.

Strangely, it was on the way back to Stockholm that is really struck me that we were in Sweden. I was sitting at the back of the boat, watching out the huge windows when a little sailboat came through our wake with a Swedish flag flapping behind it.

You can see the boat in the righthand corner, because I was too busy going “Oh. I’m in Sweden” to take a good picture. But that was the glorious view behind the boat, not that you can really tell because of the lighting. Whoops.

We’re not sure what we’re doing tomorrow, so stay tuned.

Also today was cloudy and we there was a chance we had meatballs. He he.

Hello! Time is flying and we can’t keep track of what day it is any more. Feels weird, but we’re having fun.

We were all laughing over tacos at home tonight about how unplanned our trip is, and how weird it is to be eating tacos in Stockholm. Don’t worry we will have meatballs one on one of our nights here. Back to planning – I use to be much more of a planner. When Wayne and I went England 20 years ago, I remember having a multi page daily itinerary for London. I think I’ve found a pretty good balance between extreme planner and just winging it.

Amsterdam thoughts – it was more relaxing than Paris. The architecture was quaint. I loved looking at all the different houses along the canals. Seemed more relaxed but with so many tourists everywhere it was hard to tell. Of course walking past “coffee Houses” while inhaling was likely to cause a relaxed attitude 😉 Along the same lines of Paris – Cheese is still amazing! Old Amsterdam is my favorite cheese and now I can say I actually ate it in Amsterdam.

Stockholm was another culture shock. The words make no sense. I didn’t realize how much of our language is influenced by French and we could often guess at what we were reading. Not here. We rode the hop on-hop off bus today which helped the words start to sound like words instead of just random noises.

Our apartment is actually somebodies home instead of just a rental property so it’s very comfortable, well stocked and has amazing internet. It was built in 1901 so it’s much newer than our Paris apartment but still has lots of character.

Some pictures of Amsterdam

Wayne in his happy place! Flashbacks to Lake Como apartment 🙂

My favorite reading spot in the house boat.

Lions on the base of a lampstand in Amsterdam’s central plaza. Gorgeous details make the whole city beautiful.

Stockholm architecture is much less ornate but colorful. Looks like the buildings are covered with stucco. There are graceful turrets on several buildings. One area they described as being based on Paris architecture. I saw some very basic similarities. Overall, after Paris and Amsterdam I can see why Ikea products look like they do. No nonsense frivolity here yet still a sense of beauty.

There are so many blonde people here.
It’s funny that in the other cities, people looked at us and switched to English immediately. Here though, particularly if Michael or I are up front, they chat away in Swedish.
Stockholm isn’t nearly as grand as Paris or as quaint/Neo-Gothic as Amsterdam. There are hints of Paris in some of the doors and windows, but most everything is practical and fortress-like. Even the palace in the center of town is a flat face of stone with more windows than decorations. But that’s not to say that Stockholm is ugly. It’s very nice! It’s just not in the same classification as Amsterdam and Paris.
We spent the day seeing the main sights of Stockholm on the bus. The most impressive thing was the palace and the nearby opera house.

Looking back at everyone’s pictures, apparently we were all so unimpressed with the palace that we didn’t take pictures. Whoops.

After seeing a few of the sights, we got off at an open air museum that showed all the different architectural styles over the years, focusing on 1400-1800. There was a beautiful old church with obviously ancient tapestries draped along the walls and a belfry that was was at least 70 feet tall and painted bright red. It looked like something out of How to Train Your Dragon.

The city was surprisingly empty in comparison to Amsterdam and Paris. Apparently only about a million people live there, but it seemed like less than that.

Tomorrow we’re spending the day at a viking village from 750. That’s right, pre-four digit dates. I can’t wait.

First things first: your finger/toe crossing worked, because the apartment we’re staying in has fast, wonderful internet. I’ll be spending the evening adding pictures from Amsterdam to all the posts. So enjoy that!

But Stockholm. Driving into the city, it reminded us all very strongly of Washington. The rural look, trees everywhere, and most of all, the drizzling rain and heavy grey clouds. The taxi ride through surprisingly heavy traffic was silent except for our driver’s occasional sighs and yawns. Not the most pleasant guy ever.

The lady who’s apartment we’re apparently borrowing was exactly the opposite. She spoke perfect English and cheerfully showed us around the amazing place. It was built in 1901, but everything is in great shape and the kitchen has been remodeled recently. And it’s fully stocked, to our complete amazement. Small comforts, eh? And we have a washing machine. We’re all very happy, needless to say.

The area we’re in seems to be suburbs. Freshly painted apartment buildings over practical stores, clean sidewalks more than a foot wide… Trees. Lots of trees. The farther north we go, to more modern things get.

The grocery store was a little scary though. If I hadn’t felt so awkward, I would have taken a picture of the prices, so you’ll just have to trust me. The first thing we saw when we walked in were bananas for 14,90 and coffee for 49,90. It’s scary to look at, even though we know everything’s in kronors (6.75 kronors for one dollar).

Tonight we’re reveling in the wifi and the chance to actually cook. Tomorrow we’re on ye old hop on hop off bus to see a lot more of Stockholm. I haven’t taken any pictures today, but watch out for Amsterdam pictures going up.