Saturday, May 21

Even though it was my son's birthday (sorry I wasn't there) back home, it was a slower day for us in Stockholm. Being that it's the weekend and we only have a couple of days left, we had only one formal activity and then the group was invited to do whatever they wanted the rest of the day. For most, that meant some good shopping time.

The day's event, however, wasn't shabby as we toured Gamla Stan or "Old Town". This is the area of Stockholm where the king and queen reside, where Parliament meets, and where a lot of good history took place. We toured both the King's Palace and the Armory Museum underneath the palace. We also walked a bit around Gamla Stan and took a look at some of the older buildings.

Most of us capped the day off by going to the newest "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie that premiered this week.

Here we are in the shadows of the north side of the King's Palace with the Parliament building in the background.

Stefanie, Meagan, Heather (hidden), Jeremy, Marcy, and Eric wait inside the courtyard of the palace. We're just about to go inside.

This is inside the King's Palace...one of the many beautiful rooms. We didn't have a guide for this one. We just walked through on our own. The king's flag was flying so we knew he was in the palace, but we didn't see him.

"Sir" Jeremy and his squire, Troy, getting set up for battle (inside the Armory Museum). Good thing no one caught us talking this armor off the manikin and putting it on Jeremy. (Just kidding).

We got outside just in time for the changing of the guards...I hope this video works for most of you.

Back in the courtyard now, while the guards actually did their changing. There were a lot of people who wanted to watch!

As a group, we tried to find this, the smallest statue in Sweden. I was looking behind the wrong church. This is actually behind the Finnish Church near the palace. Jeremy, Eric and I went back to investigate. Eric found a guide who got us close to the place and then gave us good directions. After walking right by it a couple of times, we saw it. People leave coins and do as we are doing...rub it's head for good luck.


I'm not sure about the timing of future posts. We leave next for Turku, Finland on the ferry and are staying in a hotel in Turku. I'll add more posts when I can access the Internet again.