Stockholm

July 3 - Stockholm

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OK, I have already used the term Venice to describe Copenhagen, so I guess I cannot use it here to describe Stockholm; however, water is everywhere. This time, it is not provided by man-made canals; but by the natural placement of the city over a cluster of islands and inlets. You are not far from a boat from most parts of the old town.

Whereas Copenhagen architecture is no-nonsense, uniform design, Stockholm definitely draws from renaissance Italy. The buildings of the old town built, right into the twentieth century, are neoclassical with a rich facades and colors. It seems Stockholm kept in step with Europe through its history. The old town section near the former royal palace is a series of narrow streets wrapping around churches and opening to plazas like a sixteenth century town on the continent. The surrounding area of old town displays buildings such as the opera house and apartment buildings that depict the wealth of the nineteenth century industrial age. Just outside of that are modern buildings of the later twentieth century. For a city of only 800,000 residences, the city appears larger.

We liked this place. Stockholm is vibrant and scenic. From the dock, we passed by their lake front embassy row nestled against the forest. We saw the city’s amusement park. Tivoli is the better known amusement park, but Stockholm’s is the older. Here and there in this section, you see the older buildings of Sweden that are built of sturdy timbers and painted blues and yellows. These are more of the style in which you would expect Heidi to reside.

At last, we ended up in old town, but before we toured that part, we went to a modern hotel nearby to visit the Absolut Ice Bar. Take that name literally. The entire bar, walls, seating, and the glasses from which you sample the vodka, are made from ice. The ice is natural. It comes from the Torne River in Sweden (I take to be way further North in Sweden). The bartender said that since the river continues to flow that the ice does not contain air bubbles that cloud it. Maybe I did not get that right, but the ice is definitely clear as glass.

Before entering the bar, you are issued a well insulated silver poncho with gloves attached. The gloves are absolutely necessary to hold an ice glass of Absolut. Then, all suited up, you enter an air lock as though you were entering a space station. One door must close before the other is opened. Inside is a bar of solid ice on which the bartender pours you a mixture of flavored vodka. Wish we had paid closer attention. It was delicious, but we could not duplicate it back at the ship’s bar.

We then strolled through the old town and visited the Grand Hotel where we sampled a gourmet smorgasbord for lunch as we looked out the boulevard along the water with the opera house and palace across the way. The food was delectable if expensive. One note here: Each Baltic country retains its own currency. None use the Euro. When you are in one country for just a few hours, it may be wise to check out the exchange rate first. We had no idea the price of lunch. We used the universal money, a credit card, to pay the bill.