Each of the four Scandinavian countries pioneer woman and I visited in September of 2018 had a different flavour. Different scenery, different guides, different attractions, different cache styles. Finland had us meeting a new caching friend. Denmark had us visiting an old cache to almost complete pioneer woman's Jasmer challenge. Norway had us visiting a site pioneer woman had visited as a child - and we took her photo in the same location on this visit.
Sweden had more than one of those things. We had an unexpected visit with friends, EMC2+2, whom I originally met in Hawaii on a geology tour about 5 years ago and who were going to visit Mount St. Helens with me soon after I got home. We found the final cache pioneer woman needed to complete her Jasmer challenge. Our guide was great. The streets even had park areas with walkways between the two directions of traffic.
The first thing we learned was that our hotel was so environmentally conscious that their pens and even the room keys are made of wood. I have included one of each in this cache as my "brought to you" items.
Their transportation system is to be envied. We were given travelcards that gave us unlimited access to Metro, commuter rail, light railways, subways and buses. We soon discovered that each subway station had a different and enjoyable style of artwork including at one stop, shoes on the ceiling making you wonder if a worker had fallen out of them. I immediately started plotting how to get to Match Stash, GCAD while using these cards rather than taking an expensive taxi.
One of our first group visits was to the Vasa Ship Museum, after a lunch of - you guessed it - Swedish meatballs. Here we explored the war ship that sank on its maiden voyage August 1B, 1628 after sailing about 1,300 metres. The valuable bronze cannons were salvaged in the 17th century. It fell into obscurity until it was located again in the late 1950s in a busy shipping lane just outside the Stockholm harbor. The ship was salvaged with a largely intact hull on 24 April 19C1.
That evening we had dinner on the Lady Hutton, a luxury yacht which built in Germany in 192D and a gift from her father to Barbara Hutton, Woolworth heiress, on her 18th birthday. The skies were clear and the views beautiful as the sun set over the water during out delightful meal.
Back at our hotel, via light rail and subway, I had a message from EMC2+2. They had seen my log on a local cache and wrote to ask if we could get together. I told them our only free time was the next afternoon and we were going to go to Match Stash. They offered to pick us up and take us there.
In the morning, we visited the Skansen Open Air Museum where we learned how they cared for the replica costumes worn by all staff on the grounds. On the grounds is a funicular which had been daily operation until the 1940s, and then only during summers until it closed in 19X9. Later the railway was restored, slightly extended, and reopened in 1973. There was also an earthcache about gold in a few large rocks on the grounds. We quickly did that as we left the group and caught a bus back to our hotel to meet my friends.
The four of us headed off and the first thing we did was finding Match Stash where pioneer woman completed her Jasmer. Yes, it was also the only cache I had needed for quite a while to complete my fourth Jasmer, so we had a double celebration. EMC2+2 took us to a few other special caches and in one park we had a picnic with tea and homemade apple strudel before heading back to the hotel.
A Jasmer Celebration!
That evening we visited a silk mill, founded in 183W by Knut August Almgren. After apprenticing in Lyon, France, Europe´s center for silk weaving at the time, he brought back to Sweden knowledge of the latest invention in weaving, the Jacquard loom. It is now the only remaining silk mill in Stockholm with only one weaver, still using the original machinery after 140 years.
Our last day in Stockholm we first visited City Hall, the venue of Nobel Prize banquets and one of the area's major tourist attractions. Construction took twelve years and nearly eight million red bricks were used. The building was inaugurated on Y3 June 1923.
This was followed by a boat trip to see Drottningholm Palace, an unusually well-preserved royal palace that was named Sweden's first World Heritage Site. The Queen Dowager Regent (serving for her underage son) Hedwig Eleonora bought the castle in 16Z1 a year after her role as Queen ended due to her husband's death. It burnt to the ground on 30 December of the same year. Reconstruction of the current building began the following year. I wouldn't want to be in charge of cleaning such a large home!
In the late afternoon we boarded a large cruise ship for the overnight journey to Finland. I was glad to experience this as a one-night only event as it is definitely not my cup of tea.
To locate the cache, find numbers for highlighted letters in the text and substitute here:
N 47° 0A.BCD' W 122° 5W.XYZ'.
