Sweden – Day 8 Royal Palace and Storkyrkan

Another drippy day.  We started at the Royal Palace. They have guards outside in rather Prussian-looking helmets and small scale relief ceremonies throughout the day.  Around noon they had a larger ceremony with a marching band and of guards, although it was the Queen’s birthday so I don’t know if this happens everyday. 

Changing of the Guard with music and marching.

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Our next stop was the Storkyrkan, which literally means the big church.  This has a long history with multiple expansions, a dispensation for having its steeple taller than the palace, and multiple religions.  When Lutheranism replaced Catholicism, all of the saint iconography was removed, except for this really cool statute of St George and the Dragon. 

Storkyrkan

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We then lunched in Gamla Stan (Old town) which has very narrow cobblestone streets and lots of restaurants and shops.   This is where we found the scifi bookstore, sfbok.se.  

Then, because still raining we went back to the Royal Palace and visited the treasury where the fancy crowns and jewels are kept, and the anitquities museum, which has various displays of items from the several times over the years that the palace has burned. 

 

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