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Stockholm was a warm 0 degrees and after Kiruna quite nice, we even got a peek at the sun for while. It’s just so well connected by public transport, you can almost get anywhere in under half an hour.
The evening we landed, we visited the Stockholm arena to see the SkyView, the largest spherical structure in the world. And of course we had to climb right on top of it to see if the air was any different up top!
The next place was probably one of my favorite places in Stockholm, Gamla Stan (Old town). It had its own charm with cobbled streets, a million shops and some great food! You could literally smell Christmas on these streets.
Don’t miss the boat tours in Stockholm, its a great way to get to know the city before you decide to see all the other places!
Vasa is 400 year old ship, the biggest of her time which unfortunately sank during her maiden voyage in 1628. Some interesting facts about the ship
- It weighs 900 tonnes and it was lifted as is from the sea bed, 30 meters below the surface. She was lifted up 333 years after she sank!
- The surface of the ship was treated for 17 years with polyethylene glycerol to preserve the wood and make sure she does not collapse on herself.
- She had 64 guns, her cannons could fire 250 kilograms of ammunition in a single broadside, and when the heavy iron shot left the muzzles, they travelled near the speed of sound. For a brief few minutes, she was the most powerfully armed ship in the Baltic, if not the world, a floating fortress to be feared from Reval to Copenhagen.
- She sank because she was too tall and too narrow for her weight, when the wind caught its sail it started taking water through its gun ports and sank
- Most of the information of the Vasa, was put together from the Spy notes that the Danish ambassador was sending back home!
Most ships that era were decorated with lot work and she was painted Red actually! You can’t see her color now, but she must have been a slight to behold when she set sail – more than 50 meters tall and 70 meters long!
After being awed by Gustav’s ship, we decided to visit his palace
Next his place of worship
Before we bid adieu to Stockholm
Returned to Gothenburg the next day with one sole intention, the cake buffet of Steinbrenner and Nyberg!
$125 Kr for a soup and cake buffet, you start off with 7 different types of cake and they replace the cakes that are over with different cakes. My personal favorite was the salted caramel and chocolate cake.
The rest of day went in shopping at the mall, earrings, clutches, perfumes, Single Malt, Vodka. We made sure we covered all our bases. The evening was spent in another Thai restaurant and delightful walk down Haga( Old town in Gothenburg).
Some shots of Gothenburg all decked up for Christmas
Next destination was a the busy Copenhagen! What we didn’t expect was it to be so cold, thanks to a stiff breeze that would chill us to the bone. Visited the zoo to see the Polar bear and he couldn’t be bothered too much by us. He just showed us his butt while he munched away on something. The lioness’s where far more enthusiastic.
It was raining the next morning but a little bit of rain would not deter us
The Christmas Market in Copenhagen, it was 10 in the morning, we were hungry and cold and decided the best thing to much on was some hot french fires and some great cinnamon crepes.
Half a kg of nougat later, we left. The entire population of Denmark is apparently 6 million but that day it felt like half off it was at the famous Tivoli Gardens
If everything had gone as planned, then I would have said The End! but well Qatar had other plans for us. Our flight from Copenhagen was delayed by 4 hours thanks to cargo door not closing properly.
A new Airbus A 350-900 which was delayed
We missed our connecting flight to Bangalore and Qatar decided to send us to the Maldives before heading back to India, so we reached Bangalore a day later after seeing this beautiful place.
Yeah, its THE END!
Thanks for reading, comments and suggestions are always welcome!
Musings of a wanderer 
Enjoyed reading your blog of the Northern Lights. Makes me want to plan a trip there!
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Iceland is just a couple of hours away 🙂
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