Day 6: Stockholm (Pseudo Day 1)

Today was the first day that Jackie was free of work obligations making it the first day of vacation. To start it right we slept in to finally get over the last of the jet lag. After a late brunch in the hotel room we decided we would try to catch the changing of the guard at the palace. We missed it by about 5 minutes. While we were in the old town of Gamla Stan we did see these different colored mailboxes (for people who care about mailboxes).

From here we caught a ferry across to one of Stockholm's other 13 islands which houses the amusement park, an open air folk museum, and the Vasa Museum. Today we only had time for the Vasa Museum. On our walk over to the museum from the ferry dock we saw Jackie's grandparents' future mode of transportation:

The Vasa was a 17th century warship launched by the Swedes in their war against Poland. Unfortunately for them it only stayed afloat 20 min before succumbing to a gust of wind that capsized her. It was re-discovered and dredged up from the bottom of the harbor in 1961, 333 years later. The boat itself is pretty amazing to behold and we both found the museum to be pretty captivating. 

After the museum we broke for a Swedish 'Fika' (twice daily coffee break), a habit that we both have fallen for pretty hard and are concerned will quickly lead to a caffeine addiction. We walked back to our hotel, again through Gamla Stan, where Jackie found time to do a small photo shoot. Here is some of her best work:

We then realized that we were quickly running out of time to catch the liquor store, System Blorget, before closing. We grabbed a few beers and a bottle of wine, which we are now enjoying as we close out our first full day of unemployment.