Saturday, September 24, 2011

Walking Shoes

Today we took the train to Stockholm and we walked and walked and walked.  Stockholm is a beautiful city with amazing architecture!  I've attached a link below to some more pictures from this weekend's outing.

We started in the Old City, which is where Parliament and the Royal Palace are, in addition to many tourist shops and cafes.  We saw the changing of the guard in front of the palace, went into the palace chapel, and took a tour of Parliament, which was very interesting.  A few key points of interest were that Sweden's Parliament is like the U.S. legislative branch that creates laws and the Government that acts as the executive branch that implements the laws.  There are 349 members of Parliament so there are no tie votes, 45% are women, and many members are teachers.  Yea Sweden!

We visited the Vasa Museum after a loooooong but beautiful hike along the river, which is a unique historical monument.  The Vasa ship, built in the 1600s, sunk 30 minutes into its maiden voyage in Stockholm harbor.  The large masts were cut off soon after so other ships would not be harmed, but it was found in the 1950s, hauled off the floor of the harbor, and restored.  A weird but fascinating tale that Sweden is able to laugh about now.

Enjoy the pictures! 
https://picasaweb.google.com/101852905683847445633/StockholmSept11?authkey=Gv1sRgCIbAnIanqM3rYg#

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