Today's plan was to visit the Vasamuseet – what’s that I hear you think, well you’ll just have to wait. This is just a short walk from the Navishamn and next to the Wasahamn. On the way, in the sun by the by, we walked along the water front and debated whether this was in fact a better marina to be in than ours. We also idly looked for British boats and sure enough we found one and moreover, it as one we knew, it was Ian of Starburst, ie Ian whom we’d first met in Trosa. He apparently will be 'commuting’ between Stockholm and Trosa for the summer, introducing a variety of friends to the Swedish archipelago. We also met a couple called Tom & Louise on a Najad 37, who are CA members. They will be attending the rally in August so we’ll catch up with them then.

We got to the museum and to our dismay, saw that the crowd was huge so we decided upon plan (b), having ascertained that late afternoon was a better time to visit . Plan (b) was to revisit Gamla Stan to see the churches. On the way we took in the excellent chandlery called Nautiska in which we bought some charts and a pilot to the northern Baltic. Our first port of call was a lovely Lutheran Church called Tyska Kyrkan, built during the period 1638-1642 for the German population and extremely ornately, in a Baroque/ late Renaissance style ( according to DK’s Eyewitness Travel Guide). It was splendid. As was our lunch, in an Italian restaurant where we all had a selection from the lunch time menu – I had spaghetti carbonara and it was very good indeed.

After lunch we then went to find the 700 year old cathedral called Storkyrkan, which amongst other treasures, has a George slaying the Dragon sculpture, similar to the one that featured in yesterday’s blog. This is carved from oak and elk horn and was completed in 1489 and is regarded as one of the finest late Gothic works of art in Northern Europe (DK again). Its purpose was to celebrate the Swedish victory over the Danes in 1471, when Sten Sture the Elder, the Swedish Viceroy, defeated the Danish King Christian 1^st and thereby ruined his plans for Danish expansion into Sweden. I also liked the royal pulpits with their wooden backdrops, carved to look like velvet, they were very impressive.

Our next building we visited was on a separate island, Skeppsholmen, so we headed off for the Modern Museum, as Elaine wanted to go there. However, having examined the merchandise on display in the shop which gives a fairly accurate idea of the art on display and given the cost of entry plus the fact that we were jaded after a big lunch, and we called it quits for the day.

More of the same in the evening – another good day.