Goodbye to Stockholm (Tue., Aug 22)

This is our final day on the tour and the third in Stockholm. We started with a tour of the Royal Palace (Kungliga slottet) and a guided tour of the Royal Apartments. The picture on the right is the 10 am changing of the guard at the palace at the side entrance. They do a more elaborate version at noon. 

The statue in front of the royal palace is Jean Bernadotte. He is a French commoner who rose to Field Marshall under Napolean and ultimately became King of Sweden in 1818 when the royal family had no heir. His family still rules in Sweden today.

Part of the tour of the Royal Apartments took us through a room that very much resembles the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles. 

After the palace we went to the Nobel Prize Museum, which is right around the corner. The museum was interesting and reminded me of the Baseball Hall of Fame, but this time with Nobel Prize winners instead of players. The photo on the right is the exhibit for Wilhelm Röntgen, who was the first Nobel Prize winner in Physics in 1901 and the discoverer of the x-ray. I believe the item in the exhibit was his original x-ray tube. There are a lot of famous winners in Physics including Marie Curie and Albert Einstein and an equally impressive list of winners in the other fields such as Literature, Economics, etc.

The final stop today was at the Riddarholmen Church, which is the burial site for most of the Swedish Kings and Queens. The photo on the left is the tomb of Gustavus Adolphus (aka Gustav II Adolph) who died in 1632. It is the oldest tomb in the church, and he was one of the most influential kings in Swedish history. He was king during the Thirty Years War which firmly established Protestantism as an accepted religion and helped raise Sweden to the peak of their power in Europe.

To close this trip, I'd like to talk about the "Three Crowns." The Three Crowns (Tre Kronon) is the national emblem of Sweden and has been since the 14th century. It is the symbol that Sweden's international teams wear in competition. I wish I had a good explanation for where the name came from, but the truth is that no one exactly knows. 

The Three Crowns as a symbol has further been appropriated in Denmark as a symbol the Kalmar Union (1397 to 1523) or more specifically the period when Danish monarchs ruled over the three kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden and Norway. That is a point of Danish national pride and a minor put down of Sweden. Turns out that Norway and Denmark are envious of Sweden, at least in sports, and the Swedes are the team they can rarely defeat. Sweden has twice the population of the other two Scandinavian countries, so they have a bit of an advantage.

With that, we say goodbye to the countries we have visited. We had a wonderful time despite being really tired a few times from all the walking we did. Our phones say we walked sixty-five miles. That's quite a bit for a couple of old people!!!