24,000 Islands

Sunrise was at 3:30 this morning. I wonder how people adjust to this. The sun was below the horizon, but not by much so that the horizon and sea never really grew distinct from one another. I now know when those two Kroyer paintings were executed --- It would have been just this time of year when the horizon, sea and sky seem to blend into one magnificent and ethereal color somewhere between cerulean blue and ultramarine. We had begun to pass through the archipelago of islands (24,000 of them to be exact) that make up Stockholm harbor. Stockholm is a series of Islands as so many of the cities we have visited on this cruise have been.
I woke up several times before I finally crawled from bed at about 8:00 a.m. It was warm and sunny in Stockholm. Everyone said we were blessed with incredible luck to be here when the weather was so good. I posted the blog and checked my email since it apparently is speediest early in the morning, and then went to breakfast. Kathy got up and joined me and we went down to catch the hop-on-hop-off bus. Once we arrived in town we headed to the Royal Palace (the official residence of the monarchs). It seems to be very different from the castles we have seen so far. The interior is much darker, with lots of highly decorated ceilings. The ceilings, however are done in relief around the edge and then the figures seem to reach out and support the central part of the ceiling on which the standard fresco is painted. The decorations are much darker with less gold leaf or perhaps just gilt -- whatever the reason, the effect is less ostentation. Some of the rooms have marble walls with intricate brass patterns over them giving the effect of square columns. The rooms seem a bit smaller or at least narrower, but many of the affectations of the French Court just before the revolution were in evidence here as well. Not quite as opulent as the French court, but certainly beautiful in a slightly more austere and restrained way. One of the rooms was redone in 2001 by current architects and designers to celebrate the monarchy. It is bright with modern Scandinavian design. The carpet is white with large designs of wild flowers and leaves scattered in what seems to be no pattern. The chairs are mid-century modern design with bright red coverings and the walls are the blue that we think of as Scandinavian blue --- that sort of robins egg blue. Many of the carpets have the cabbage roses that Eric and Isodore Sojoquist put in their home --the coloring of which now makes complete sense, though to me at the time (I was 14) it made no sense at all --- it was like something out of the mad hatter's tea party --- with blue and pink walls and lace curtains and those carpets!
The city was very clean and mostly modern, with the old town and its medieval streets, one of which was only 35 inches wide! There were of course, the cobblestone to contend with, but the palace was well designed for access. The elevator we rode in was a royal elevator which had been in use for 140 years. The interior was polished wood with floral designs inlaid ornately into the wood. After our tour of the palace we went for a tour of the city seeing the city hall, and a number of other sites. and arrived back at port by around 2:00 in the afternoon. Hot and thirsty we went in and had lunch and then found our way to the crews nest. It is such a beautiful day it was a pleasure to sit out on deck and read or write or simply watch the other boats come and go.
At around 5:00 p.m. the deck began to fill up with people who wanted to watch the spectacle as we left Stockholm. Few people got up to watch us come into port at 3:30 a.m. to see the archipelago. There were children gathered feeding the sea birds who hovered to catch any scrap of food. They shrieked with delight as the birds came right up to take the food from their hands or catch it in mid-air. These must be children of privilege. I know that it costs thousands of dollars to do a cruise and I honestly have difficulty imagining having enough money to take a family vacation in this way. Not only is there the cost of the cruise, but then there are the souvenirs, the cost of tours at each port of call and the cost of extra food and treats. A cup of European coffee costs about $2.80 at the moment. (that is also true for coke)
Across from our ship was a Swedish Amusement park. There are two monstrous giraffes that look like they were made from erector sets and were rides from long ago. The ship began to move away from Stockholm. It took more than three hours to progress through these islands that lead to the open sea. All ships must be through the archipelago before sunset--or they may come in after sunrise. Of course at this time of year --- that means there are only a few hours when large ship traffic is halted. The guide told us that most homes along these islands are multi-million dollar homes. They often belong to T.V. stars, rock stars or BANKERS. They must conform to rigid building codes that adhere to standards from the last century. NO glass modern structures here! It is hard to imagine what this is like when it is raining and foggy..... or frozen over during the dead of winter. I wonder what all this light does to plants and then what all the equal amount of darkness does to them during the winter months. Perhaps they store large amounts of energy for the dark time.....it would be a question worth finding the answer to. It finally dawned on my why I burn so much worse here --- it is because the sun stays higher in the sky -- for example it is now 6:30 but the sun is about where it would be at 2:30 at home! I home I simply don't go out between 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 -- But here that would be impossible.....
A seagull sailed past using one leg to scratch himself --- a funny sight since I don't usually think of birds as itching or scratching themselves! I went to bed early as the fog was closing in around the ship. Kathy got up around midnight to photograph the sunset -- such as it was then headed to bed herself.
Sea Day -- June 30th
I awakened early with a sinus headache (my first since coming on the trip) and sneaked out to have breakfast leaving Kathy sleeping! I met two women at breakfast who were members of a large church group from the Atlanta area. They travel together quite often. It is a Catholic congregation and their priest is traveling with them. One retired early and does a lot of volunteer work with children. She has helped get books for her local school library. She also has had Japanese exchange students and described a touching story about her father who fought in World War II meeting one of the students. He went into his office and took out a diary -- from a Japanese soldier who apparently was treated on a U.S. ship but died and was buried at sea. The sailors were instructed to destroy any diaries -- but for some reason he had kept this one all these years. The young girl read from the diary and described conditions that this young Japanese boy had faced -- hunger and battle and she began to weep. The family contacted someone at the U.N. and ultimately the diary found its way back to the family of this young soldier. His Mother had died just the year before this time in her 90s, but his sisters found comfort in knowing at last what had happened to their brother. I told Fran that this would a great story and deserved a telling to an audience of children. I got her name, address and email. Perhaps it would make a good children's book.
It is no longer foggy, but there is a haze and the sun is not bright as it was before. The waters of the Baltic are different -- long fingers of brown (maybe sediment stretch out around the ship. Between them are the deep blue waters of ocean. I wonder if these are areas where the bottom is nearer the surface or if there are merely streaks of water that come from rivers and deposit mud into the water. The water in the Baltic is brackish which means it is neither salt or fresh.
I connected with Kathy a bit before lunch. She was busy trying to reconcile the bill for this cruise before we leave tomorrow from Kiel. We depart the cruise early so that we can catch a train to Frankfurt and then on to Lake Como.After we took care of business, including leaving our passports with the purser's office I came back up to the explorations lounge. It is my favorite part of the ship. There is a large lounge where people can drink --- and look out on the sea (it is at the fore of the ship) It also houses the library which has also games, a large computer lab where very wealthy older folks come to email 3-4 lines to a relative or friend for 12.00 a whack!! In the evening there is a stringed quartet and pianist who play lovely gentle music....classical classics ---Chopin etc. Very peaceful.
Tonight, I will pack and organize for the train travel coming in the morning. It is difficult to realize that we will be traveling for nearly another month before we go home!