Tuesday morning we decided to take another boat cruise since the sun was out and our tickets were still valid. Since we were there early, we secured excellent seats on the outside of the boat so we had the best vantage point for taking photos:

The obligatory goofy self-portrait.

The National Museum, which I'd love to see next time.

We love the style of these buildings.

Stockholm has the most interesting cloud formations I've ever seen.

After joyriding for about an hour, we hopped off the boat at the Vasa Museum. The Vasa is a Swedish warship that sank in 1628 just minutes after beginning her maiden voyage. She rested just outside the Stockholm harbor for hundreds of years but was salvaged in 1961. Michael and I had seen the Vasa on several travel shows, and had been looking forward to seeing this for a long time. She didn't disappoint -just look at the detail preserved for almost 400 years, amazing!

In addition to the Vasa herself, there were exhibits showing what life would have been like on board for admiral and crew, as well as hundreds of items that salvaged from the wreckage including clothing, dishes, and coins, all painstakingly arranged and researched. Definitely an archaeologist's dream but something that everyone should see when they come to Stockholm.

After the Vasa. we hopped the boat again to take us across to the island of Skeppsholmen, where several museums are located. I had wanted to visit the Museum of Modern Art, but the weather was so beautiful we didn't want to be inside any longer, so I contented myself with taking pictures of the colorful sculptures outside:


 

Later that evening, Michael was craving a hamburger so we walked the few blocks to the Hard Rock Cafe. We've visited their locations before but never actually eaten there. Since the weather was still quite nice we were seated on the patio. Almost immediately, we started chatting with three young Swedish guys
(Jonas, Anders, and Daniel) that were seated at the adjacent table. Before long, they invited us to move our table over next to theirs and before we knew it, almost four hours had passed and the staff was closing up the patio for the night! They invited us to go out the next night and Michael programmed Anders' number into his mobile phone.

As we walked home - now through the pouring rain - we reflected on what had just happened. Not once in six years of travelling, had a group of locals been so friendly and welcoming to us. We fell into bed sometime after midnight, another great day in Stockholm behind us.