FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2008, HARWICK, ENGLAND

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2008, HARWICK, ENGLAND - Overnight, we had arrived at our port Harwick, England.  Sylvia & I had a late afternoon flight departing from London Heathrow Airport (LHR) so we left the ship rather early for the long bus ride to that airport.  It was our first of many times of using London Heathrow and we soon came to despise it even then.  We decided to eat a late lunch in a TJ Fridays at the airport and were somewhat taken back by the cost of the meal.  Our arrival flight in the USA was through Chicago O'Hare where we had to collect all our luggage, clear customs, then recheck it for the connecting flight to Dallas (DFW).  It was a very long day.

WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, MAY 14-15, 2008 AT SEA

WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, MAY 14, 2008 - AT SEA  Days "at sea" are sometimes uneventful and this was no different except for one short occurrence.  We caught up on some sleep and (on Thursday) eventually packed our bags for departure, and then we waited.  The short occurrence exception was about mid-day on Wednesday.  With an announcement from the ship's Captain we were told we would soon be crossing underneath the Oresund Bridge.  Who would have thought there was a bridge to cross underneath out in the open sea?  Well, there was and we crossed underneath the Oresund Bridge which is a combined railway and motorway bridge between Sweden and Denmark.  The bridge runs 5 miles from the Swedish coast to an artificial island in the middle of the strait.  The crossing is completed by the 2.5 mile Drogden Tunnel to a Danish island.  The Oresund Bridge is the longest combined road and rail bridge in Europe and connects two major metropolitan areas:  Copenhagen, the Danish capital city, and the Swedish city of Malmo.  It connects the road and rail networks of the Scandinavian Peninsula with those of Central and Western Europe.  A data cable also makes the bridge the backbone of internet data transmission between central Europe and Sweden.  The international European route E20 crosses via road, the Oresund Line via railway.  And, here it is with vehicles moving on it.

 And, then we go back to boredom...

That evening, we dined together in our dress-up clothes and I again show you the picture that I posted earlier.  obviously Sylvia & Jim (from TX) in forefront; (clockwise) Alan & Val (from England); Claudette (with red hair) & Josh (from Las Vegas); Ian & Penny (from England).

TUESDAY, MAY 13, 2008, STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN

TUESDAY, MAY 13, 2008 - STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN - This was the last port for the cruise and we arrived overnight just as we had on previous occasions to a beautiful day in Sweden.  The pictures below were taken in the docking area.  (This was our last port stop before returning to Harwick, England).

 We noticed quite a few attractive buildings as we traveled through the city.

I particularly liked this white building with all the curves.  You will see it more than once.

We stopped for a visit to see the Vasa, a Swedish warship built between 1626 and 1628.  The ship foundered after sailing about 1,400 yards into her maiden voyage on August 10, 1628.  She fell into obscurity after most of her valuable bronze cannon were salvaged in the 17th century.  In the late 1950s she was located again in a busy shipping lane just outside the Stockholm harbor.  The ship was salvaged with a largely intact hull in 1961.  She was housed in a temporary museum until 1988 and then moved permanently to the Vasa Museum in the Royal National City Park in Stockholm.  The ship is one of Sweden's most popular tourist attractions and has been seen by over 35 million visitors since 1961.

During the 1961 recovery, thousands of artifacts and the remains of at least 15 people were found in and around Vasa's hull by marine archaeologists.  Among the many items found were clothing, weapons, cannons, tool, coins, cutlery, food, drink, and six of the ten sails.  The artifacts and the ship herself have provided scholars with invaluable insights into details of naval warfare, shipbuilding techniques and everyday life in the early 17th-century Sweden.

Traveling on through the city I took the following pictures of very attractive buildings, some probably homes, some apartment homes.

Note the bicycles parked along the street.

 This seemed like a very pretty area of businesses with apartment homes above on the left and walking & meeting places in the center.

 I took this picture framing the  church steeple between the buildings.

Note the rostral column behind the fountains

 We returned to the docking area.

The Stockholm archipelago is the largest archipelago in Sweden and the second-largest archipelago in the Baltic Sea (the largest being across the Baltic in Finland).  This archipelago extends from Stockholm roughly 37 miles to the east.  In a north-south direction, it mainly follows the coastline of two provinces.  The shipping routes from the Baltic to Stockholm pass through the archipelago.  There are three main entrances for deep-draught craft.