Land of the 4AM sun.

We awoke for the first time this morning at 4 AM because of the brilliant sun making its way through the crack between curtains in our room. Bob woke up again at 5AM and I slept until 7.   We'll have to work on sun-proofing the room better tonight!

We went down to breakfast, which had many options. I chose the European route. And I had my first Swedish meatball.

Our first destination was the Vasa Museum - here was the plan for getting there. But Stockholm is not in neat grids, so we took a circuitous route at first - but we eventually got there.

And we played with the camera in our elevator on our way!

We passed this imposing statue on our walk.

We reached our destination, the Vasa Museum. First, there was a video detailing the building and 30-minute maiden (and only) voyage. Then there was a 25-minute guided tour. Next came lunch and then another hour checking out the rest of the museum. 

Another view of the ship.

Now we're up 3 levels.

And here's ornate work on the stern of the ship - originally, it was painted but now it's thought that it could ruin the wood.

Bob's standing on the mast thingies trying to keep his balance.

And here he is looking into the scary end of a cannon.

Swedes certainly have gotten a bit taller since 1628!

This is actually a miniature!

Bob with stuffed rat in the gift shop -- no, we didn't buy it!

We then walked along the water to the small garden connected to the museum.

We came upon this open air cafe connected with the Absolut Spirit Museum.

Bob had some French cider.

I  chose an Absolut sin cocktail.

We took a tram part of the way and walked down Master Samuel street and back to our hotel.

And then we did a totally touristy thing - we checked out the local ice bar, where you pay a fee to be extremely cold while enjoying some type vodka cocktail in an ice glass...

It's sort of an igloo.

And here are the ice glasses.

Our next adventure was to walk to Gamla Stan (the old town) in search of dinner. We came upon one of the narrowest streets in the world, according to Bob.

We found a decent place through trip advisor and had a lovely meal.

I had a salmon appetizer.

Bob had smoked reindeer.

We both had roasted reindeer.

My raspberry pie.

Bob's apple cake.  Total comfort food and totally hit the spot. Bob's already asleep - ready for bed but the sun doesn't set until 10:00, half an hour from now.