Day 9: Stockholm

We got up and went the harbor to find breakfast but there really wasn't anything open, so we went back to the hostel. After we ate we went back to the harbor for a canal tour, which was really nice and relaxing and a good way to see the city. We then wandered the Old Town. We stopped in the Cathedral where the current Crown Princess was married. We also wandered by the German church.

At 1:00, we went to the royal palace ad watched the ceremonial changing of the guard, which was very cool. There was a lot of very impressive marching and a band. The bass drummer was very good. It sounded almost like cannon-fire when he let it rip. Many of the soldiers were female, which I thought was a great thing. 

After the changing of the guard we were starving, so we set off to find lunch. We ended up down a little street at Irishlooking-pub serving traditional swedish food, swedish beer, and playing Irish music. It was a great little place. Then we stopped in the Cathedral where the current Crown Princess was married. 

We then went to Nobel Museum. It was neat little place. It had information on the prize and every prize winner for all the categories. We all spent quite a long time looking at the mission for peace exhibit which combined all the categories. Mom and I stopped for Nobel ice cream, which has a well deserved reputation for being very good. All of the Chairs have been signed on the bottom by Nobel prizewinners. 

All of us went to the Royal Armory, which had very interesting exhibits on the royal family. It's amazing how many Swedish monarchs died in battle, or had horses shot out from beneath them. We learned about Queen Christina, who was a totally different woman for her time. Mom and I were in there so long that we had a person shoo us out. 

Mom and I walked some more through the town center and got food for dinner from a co-op. We found a big park, it was beautiful. We also found a Czech beer tent in the park. We caught the tram back to the hostel, where the other three were waiting. We decided to head back to the beer tent for dinner instead of doing a picnic. At the beer tent there was a cover band. The band members were British and Polish, they were singing American songs, and they had an Australian Elvis lookalike come on stage. It was a fun evening.