After a hearty breakfast the crew hurtled down to the hotel lobby to be hugged once more by Mira and Meno.
"Where are we going today?" I asked
"Off to see the Vassa you piratey types" replied Mira and off we went.
The Vassa was a huge (for the times) warship of 64 guns that sank on its maiden voyage in 1628. Thanks to the low salinity of the Baltic's water she wasn't eaten by marine ship worm so when the archeologists found the hulk they were able to raise her and now she is conserved and on display in her own museum in Dyurgaden Stockholm (90 SEK to get in).
What I liked about the museum was that although you could not board the ship you could view it from a height and this certainly helped to give me a much greater understanding of how these ships worked. Mind you given the height of her stern it was no surprise that she was so unstable that she capsized.
From there we wnt on to join Mira for lunch at a restaurant nearby called I think the Blue Door (Bla Porten). I had herrings with boiled spuds, very good it was too for about nine quid.
Then on the cultural museum at Skansen (90 SEK) this is a hufge open air park with lots of old buildings and typical Swedish wildlife. We didn't have much time left that afternoon but we did enjoy watching the grey seals, reindeer, elk, owls and the bears who had a fox rooting about in their enclosure. There were also a lot birds enjoying the park including fieldfares, hooded crows and house sparrows that you don't see so often in the UK.
The big treat for me though was as we were looking towards the opposite shore a red squirrel gamballed out of the undergrowth and ran around our feet, never seen one in the wild before.
So then after a pricey pint (45 SEK about £4.50) at Strandbryggan, a bar on a jetty we hopped on the bus to Stockholm central to visit a SystemBloget.
These are the state owned stores that have a monopoloy on the booze trade. A hangover from the days when the Lutheran church looked down on fun, some of these are pretty grim places where you have to buy your booze from behind a screen. The one Mira took us to was more of a big booze supermarket and the stuff was just flying off the shelves as happy Swedes prepared to get pissed.
Now people say Sweden is pricey for booze, but to be fair though I didn't see much differance between the prices there and in the UK. Having stocked up on drinkies it was back to Mira's flat, stopping only to buy some pasta and for Nick and I to find some more products with rude names in the supermarket. He he the Swedish version of Felix catfood is Pussi.
Once again Mira treated us to a delicious home cooked meal, this time pasta with pine nuts and porchini mushrooms before well stuffed, we boarded the train back to our hotel.
