Just three sites today and we fell into the apartment spent. We started with a fascinating visit to the Vasamuseet, a museum built specifically to house a 1628 warship that sank on it’s maiden voyage in Stockholm’s harbor. It was raised 333 years later and is now preserved with amazing related exhibits. Just across the street we then took in the Nordiska Museet in a wonderful building finished only about 100 years ago. The Folk Art display could have kept me there for the entire day but the other floors which explored trends and traditions, life work and play in Sweden were all interesting too.

Breaking for a traditional smorgasbord, not another until MAYBE Oslo, we enjoyed chatting with our waiter whose story turned out to be that he left Chili as a very young child with his parents who were persecuted by Pinochet in the ’70s.

A walk around Skansen which claims to be the world’s oldest open-air museum housing a collection of about 150 original historical village and farm buildings moved to Stockholm from all over Sweden. It is a kind of Williamsburg crossed with Disneyland. But the authentic historical part made Kristin Lavansdatter come alive for me.

We are now more familiar with the layout of the city and its wonderful blend of Baroque and Neo-Classical buildings with exciting contemporary architecture. Sparkling water at every turn and trees make the city a very soft space even with traffic and loads of people.

We are considering a walk to track Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomquist tomorrow among other attractions.

Each day we still wake up with excitement and anticipation of a new adventure. The weather seems to be unrelentingly perfect. Residents of Stockholm complain about the heat but for the most part with lots of water it is very manageable. Stockholm has the feel of a major European capital with miles and miles of a mix of historical and contemporary buildings. Although it is much more crowded than any place we have been to date and bustles with energy, traffic and noise is almost subdued–very quiet, seldom honking and traffic moves in an orderly rather than agggressive way. Of course many people take off for the month of July so that might also be a factor. Maybe it is the water and trees everywhere or just the beautiful weather but everyone seems to be savoring the moment. Like most Baltic big cities, there is a lot of construction and road building everywhere. Summer, after the thaw is the only time it can be done

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