After the bustle of Italy, it was a relief to return to Sweden. Alas, all the snow was gone – no white Christmas for us this year. After a couple of days in Vãsterås to reorgainse, we headed off to Stockholm for family festivities – Elspeth’s 90th birthday and Christmas – hosted by Tomas and Cristina. Everyone had lots of fun, and lots of food. Jill and I are avoiding bathroom scales!  Among other “traditional” Swedish activities we watched Kalle Anka (Donald Duck) — the hour-long TV program of various (ancient) cartoons apparently is the program that rates highest for number of viewers of all programs through the year. We had a special treat that Cristina organised:  a choral Christmas concert with a great choir and accompanist, and a great tenor soloist, in a very historic theatre. The place held an audience of about 200, and the place was full.

We spent the following 3 days gently exploring Stockholm.Stockholm is a compact city of about 1.5 million people, with a density of about 5000 people per square km. Compare this with Melbourne – 4.5 million and spread thinly at 500 people per square km. The city lies at the mouth of Malaren, the lake that stretches inland past Vãsterås, and the adjacent patch of Baltic sea has an extensive archipelago of islands (zoom out on the map below to get an impression of how extensive the archipelago is).

The current city site was occupied about 1000 years ago as a Viking settlement, strategically located on trade routes inland via Malaren and along the Baltic coast and beyond.  The core of the present city, Gamla Stan (Old Town) was established on a central island at the mouth of Malaren in about the 13th century and rose to prominence as a trading port on the Baltic. We enjoyed our walks  through Gamla Stan with its narrow cobbled streets and historic buildings and ferry rides.

Gamla stan from ferry

We spent an worthwhile couple of hours in Fotografiska, a private museum currently hosting an exhibition (we have a dream) of 114 fantastic portraits featuring people who have, through their actions, made a mark on the world – peace activists, women’s rights activists … the collection is a powerful reminder that individuals can make a difference in the world.

We also visited the Vasa museum. This museum is centred on the reconstructed remains of the ship Vasa. Built in 1626-1628, the ship was one of the most powerfully armed warships of its day. At the time Sweden was in conflict with a number of Baltic countries including Poland/Lithuania. Seeing the potential of ships as mobile gun platforms King Gustav ordered more canon, and heavier canon that was the norm, making the ship somewhat top heavy. On its maiden voyage, 1300 metres from shore, the Vasa heeled in a strong wind gust, shipping water through the open lower gun ports and exceeding the ship’s ability to right itself. It sank rapidly in 32 m water, 120 m from shore. Despite the closeness of shore, 30 of the crew drowned (swimming was probably not high on the curriculum in the navy of the day). Attempts to raise the ship failed, and it lay, under the cold water buried in mud that excluded oxygen and helped preserve it, for over 300 years. She was rediscovered by an amateur archaeologist in 1950, and eventually raised in 1961. Since then there has been a long process of restoration and preservation, and the museum features quite a lot of data on the preservation processes, what worked and what failed (a lot of what they learned in restoration of the Vasa is now being applied to other recovered wrecks). If you are ever in Stockholm and have any interest in history or archaeology, the Vasamuseet is well worth a visit.

We also got chance to meet up with one of Jill’s old school friends, Ellie and her family for a very pleasant dinner and chat, the evening before we headed back to Vãsterås.