Sweden 2026 - Day 7 - Back to Stockholm .. the Viking Museum

We were late leaving out little cabin in the woods because part of the deal is that we had to do a thorough cleaning job after ourselves (vacuuming, moping, wiping all shiny surfaces, etc.), but at last we were off and around 1 pm we parked near the Viking Museum, which we were both interested in seeing. It was very well done, but it was comparatively small and maybe we could have used our time better in the Museum of Nordic Life. You get what you get.

The age of the Vikings generally extends from 700 to 1100, or what was in Central Europe the first half of the medieval age. I mentioned before that the Vikings were Scandinavian people interested in trade, moving merchandise from the west to the markets of the Middle East. One of the most precious commodities were slaves, which is why the Vikings were known as plunderers and pillagers. Most of the time, however, were farmers that only took one or two exploration/trade trips in their lives,

Géraldine, who is blond and has blue eyes, was happy to see that the Vikings had come into northern France and Bretagne (even as far as northern Spain), thus explaining the blondes found in France and Spain, where otherwise people tend to be swarthy in complexion. I think she should do one of those genetic tests to see what percentage in her ancestry comes from Scandinavia.

After the museum we went for a walk along the waterfront, ate a hot dog like everyone else seemed to be doing, and walked to the cathedral, which for some reason we had not visited before. It was decorated with some pretty impressive statuary art (e.g., Saint George laying the dragon) and has a beautiful organ, but seemed a bit small for a town the size of Stockholm.

On the way back, somehow, I took a wrong turn and we ended stranded on a small island facing the Viking Museum. The only way to get there was to take the regular boat bus service, so we got an extra ride through the harbor as part of my mistake.

Finally, we drove to the airport hotel where we are spending the night, I dropped Géraldine off, and went to return the car. I had booked a ride back to the hotel with the hotels shuttle and manage to catch it just in time. By 6:30 pm I was back, we had dinner, and braced for an early ride to the airport to take our 8 am flight to Helsinki.