Stockholm

Sat 5 June

Yesterday we purchased a seven day travel card and although we will only be in Stockholm for four more days it is cheaper than buying tickets and it allows us to travel on buses, trains, underground and trams anywhere in Stockholm without worrying about zones and we only have to “touch on” when boarding. Another example of an efficient pre paid travel card.

We caught the bus to the Old Town and walked along the wharf to find where our canal cruise leaves next week, it’s almost over the road from the hostel we were originally booked into but we will now need a taxi to get there in time for departure.

We then walked to the Royal Palace which is the official residence of the Royal family, even though they live in another palace out of town, however this is where they carry out their official duties and where their offices are situated.

Our first visit was to the Royal Treasury where the crowns, swords, orbs sceptres and other emblems of royal authority are stored, these date back from the 1500s to the regalia used today and the number and size of the diamonds and other precious stones and pearls in the crowns and other regalia would go a long way to clearing Victoria’s debt. Also in the display was the solid silver Royal Font that has been used for royal baptisms for several centuries and a solid silver throne given as a present to one of Sweden’s queens in the

1600s.

Our next visit was to be to the Royal Apartments but as the Changing of the Guard was due in less than an hour and the guards were already putting up the rope barriers to control the crowd we thought a place at the front would be worth the wait. The Royal Guard has been stationed at the Palace since 1523 and on some days it is a Cavalry unit who mount the guard.

At 12:15 the Naval Band entered the Palace courtyard leading the new guard, the band is rotated so on some days it is an Army Regiment Band and on others the Naval Band, the old guard having already assembled, at the double, awaiting their arrival. We were struck at the casual attitude of the guard as they would walk over to people to ask them to move back over the ropes and when we spoke to one he replied to our question, we also saw an officer walk up to a sentry carrying a bottle of water and give him a drink, we also noticed th

at their were girls in both the old and new guard.

The actual changing ceremony was very formal and different to any of the other changing of the guard ceremonies that we have witnessed in other countries but then every county’s ceremony is unique. While the sentries were being relieved the Naval Band played a bracket of pop and classical music.

After the band and old guard had departed we entered the Royal Apartments and walked through two floors. As with many palaces the ceilings and walls were adorned with painting and many rooms had Rococo decorations, when compared to the palaces in Russia, this one was the poor cousin however the furnishing and other decorations were still very impressive. The palace in the Italian baroque style was built to replace the Tre Konor Palace which was burnt down in 1697, the architect estimated it would take six years to build but like Victorian Government projects the completion date stretched well past the estimated date and it was another 54 years over before it was completed in 1754.

Our next visit was to the Tre Kronor Museum which is actually formed by part of the13th century defensive walls and the plastered brick walls dating from the 16^th century. The museum is under the new palace and contains many artefacts from the old palace and provides an insight into the day-to-day life of the old palace. From there we went to the Gustav III’s Museum of Antiquities which is one of the oldest museums in Europe and was opened to the public in 1794. Most of the marble statues were acquired by Gustav III during his trip to Italy in 1783/84 and comprise many statues and busts from the Roman era.

When we came out from the palace we found that the road in front of it was closed off and

many of the estimated 18,000 marathon runners were plodding past, we don’t know when the race started but we had missed the fast runners as every now a runner went past with a pennant tucked into the back of their shorts, 3:45, 4:00 and 4:15 were ones we saw and this was 45 minutes after the time displayed on the pennant. As the street was closed, the bus we hoped to catch back to the hostel wasn’t able to run, so we walked through some of the old town and caught the Metro back to our hostel.

Tomorrow is Sweden's National Day and the official start to the celebrations for the Crown Princess's wedding on June 19.

Post Script: We have just been speaking to a young man in the hostel who ran in the marathon, the time on the pennants stuck in the shorts of the runners weren't their starting times, the runners were pace makers and the time shown was the time they were expected to take to complete the course so anyone aiming for that time would try to run with them. The race started at 2:00 pm and the runners were passing the palace for the second time when we saw them. Another runner has just "walked" though the lounge and he is having trouble climbing the stairs.