I woke up to a message from Lufthansa to the effect that my luggage had been located, giving me the location number, and telling me to await further instructions for pickup. Géraldine once again wanted to go to the airport and shout at them, but I convinced to go do our tourist visit to Stockholm and in the evening, after receiving the pickup instructions, go to the airport. I would have hated to miss one sunny day to visit Stockholm.
A 30 minute drive brought us to the heart of the city, where we found a parking garage and left the car for the day (at a very steep parking fee), and walked to the front of the Royal Palace, where the hop on-hop off tourist bus and boat stops. We started by taking the boat to get a panoramic view of the core of Stockholm. This medieval city grew considerably since the 1500's and the waterfront is now lined with imposing public buildings.
Stockholm is located in the estuary formed by the confluence of two or three rivers with unpronounceable names, so every piece of land is either an island or a peninsula surrounded by water.
Stockholm was part of the Hanseatic League which conducted trade throughout northern Europe, and many German and Dutch people lived here, considerably influencing the medieval architecture of the old town. Prosperity attracted trouble, and from 1200 to 1500 the city was the bone of contention between Swedes, Danes, Dutch, and Polish. In 1520 King Gustav Vasar finally defeated their enemies and a brief period of peace followed, just to be followed by the 30 year war (1618-1648). King Gustav II decided to protect Sweden at all costs and built a large war fleet. But they were not very good at designing ships, and on August 10, 1628, their first two-deck warship, the Vasa, listed shortly after being launched and sank in the harbor (it was too narrow, top heavy, and not properly ballasted).
The sunken ship was forgotten, until the 1960's, when a group of marine archaeologists found it stuck in the mud of the bay. Years of hard work followed, and the Vasa was finally lifted from its mud grave, brought to dock, and for years has been the object of careful reconstruction. We went to see it at its museum, and I was shocked at its enormous size (it would have accommodated 150 sailors and 300 soldiers) and a patina that gave it the impression of being a ghost ship.
The bus tour through the city was informative both about the old history of the city, and its dynamic modernity. It has horrible climate, with short summers and long winters, but the inhabitants seem to enjoy being outside year round. Now it is summer, so everyone seems to be taking the chance to go biking, jogging, or play with the kids in one of many parks. In the winter they like ice skating in the frozen lakes or playing in the snow.
The Swedes are very amiable people, all of who speak perfect English. They have an obsession of charging for parking, however, so I was a bit weary about stopping at random for fear of a traffic ticket (but I think it is more the reputation than the reality, because I saw very few uniformed people). Thank God I have Géraldine with me, who keeps me grounded when I look at prices. The Swedish krone is about 10 cents of a euro, so it is easy to covert prices on the fly, and every time I gasp at a price she assures me that it is not so different from what you pay for the same item in France (still, I think that a 6 euro caffe latte is outrageously expensive). Gasoline is cheap, however, at 1.60 euros per liter compared with 2,20 euros in Germany.
I didn't receive a message from Lufthansa about my luggage, so I finally followed my friend's advice and went to the airport decided to fight for my backpack. Turns out that Lufthansa uses a contractor, Aviator, to handle luggage issues, so after not finding a Lufthansa counter I stopped at the Information desk and was directed to the correct door, which was firmly closed. I had to call Aviator and explain what brought me there, gave the luggage ID number to the guy who answered, and was told to wait by the door. Ten minutes later I was ready to call again when this old guy comes to the door carrying my backpack! I was so happy I forgot to show my displeasure at the whole incident (on getting back to the precariously parked car I got the riot act read to me for not asking for proper compensation from my troubles). But all is well that is well, and I hope I have learnt a valuable lesson from the whole episode.
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