Yesterday's tour of the Royal Palace on the island of Gamla Stan was wonderful! English descriptions were on every placard, side by side ,with the Swedish, making the whole experience much easier. I toured the Royal Apartments as well as the Kronor Museum as well as Gustav III's Museum of Antiquities.
What is fascinating about the museum is that it has been in existence and open to the public since 1790. I found it amazing that the King had these artifacts on display for the public to view since that time.
I also toured the Palace Treasury, where crowns and Royal items are displayed behind glass. No photos were permitted, so I cannot share the beauty of these items, some dating back to the late 1400's. One of my favorite displays held 4 crowns, each one ornate but similarly decorated. There were two large crowns for the King and Queen, and two smaller crowns for the prince and princess. Very cute.
One of the highlights of the Palace is watching the changing of the guard everyday at noon. The Royal band heads out of the Armee Museum in Normalm and processes down the streets across the bridge to the palace. Everyone squeezes into the square, behind barriers to watch the event. I managed to peek through some heads to view some of the festivities, but it was difficult to get the full effect with so many tall bodies in front of me.
During the event, a man described what is happening in several different languages, and he announced that the band would be performing. "The music is what it is", he said. For the most part, the music had a strong marching beat. At one point, however, I was surprised to hear the band play, "Nine to Five", the old Dolly Parton hit from years ago. I still can't figure out how that fits into Swedish culture. I actually laughed out loud when they began to play, and waited for a twist in the music, thinking it was something similar to another song. But, nope! My ears were not being deceived. I kept the chuckles to a minimum when I noticed that I was the only one who seemed to think this performance was amusing.
Gamla Stan is a breathtakingly beautiful island, with cobblestone streets and tall building preserved from the 17th century, giving the observer the idea of what the area looked liked during the Middle Ages. Marty and I actually walked over there three nights for dinner. We have tasted some excellent Swedish Meatballs and Swedish Hash. Today's blog photo features Marty enjoying a pork tenderloin on the outside terrace.
Today I'll have Marty along with me, since his work week is over. Today's adventure will include Skansen, an open air museum, and the Vasa, a museum that involves a ship that sunk in the late 1600's.
Photo upload has been painstakingly slow, but you can scroll down to the bottom of the blog and look through what managed to get online.
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