Duke's Excellent Adventure!: Stockholm - Viking Museum, Royal Armory, and IKEA!

June 28, 2012

In the beginning of my contract, Stockholm wasn't always an embarkation day. That meant that I was free to run around the town and even take a few excursions. Today started in the Viking Museum, then we traveled to the Royal Palace (which is the biggest palace in Europe btw) to visit the armory underneath. Later that day, I met up with Marcy and we had an adventure taking the public transportation to IKEA, which was awesome.

Our first artifact is actually an example of ancient graffiti. If you look closely, you'll notice runes on the shoulder of the lion. My guide is telling me that they are not by the same hand as the person who made the statue.

Okay, so lesson one: Vikings were taggers.

Inside the museum was a room that was originally a bunker. This round underground room was called the gold room, and for good reason. Every artifact in this room was made out of solid gold. In this room, photography was strictly prohibited...

That's why this one is so out of focus.

Anglo-Saxon Runes!

If you recognize the writing above, then congratulations! You are as big a dork as I am. Yes, go ahead and grab your J. R. R. Tolkien books and compare all of his elvish and dwarvish runes to these. You will find them quite similar. In fact, if you're looking at the illustrations from his first book, The Hobbit, you'll notice that they're exact copies because at the time of his writing The Hobbit he had yet to develop his own runes, so he just took these.

The upper story was completely devoted to the history of the church in Sweden.

A Runestone for "The White Christ."

When Christianity was brought to Sweden, he was easily accepted by the population as simply another God of the Norse pantheon. Here we have a runestone dedicated to that new god The White Christ. It wouldn't be until many years later that Christ would be fully understood as the one and only true God.

Viking Weapons! Ooooh! Sharp.

More Viking Weapons! Awesome.

Next Stop: The Royal Armory underneath the Swedish Royal Palace.

Yes, the horse is real!

Above, that is King Gustav's horse. Two things: just about every king of Sweden was named Gustav, and yes, that's his actual original horse. No, that's not a copy or a model. That is King Gustav's original horse thanks to the wonders of taxidermy. What a thing to keep.

The royal armory is peculiar in that it is a museum that keeps all of the sets of clothes that each individual king of Sweden was assassinated in. Morbid?

This get up to the right was worn by king Gustav the something or other (probably) when he was assassinated at the opera house. I was told that the Swedish men point to this king as their example of why they should never have to take their wives to the opera.

Armor and Weapons. What more could you want from a museum?

In Sweden, the royal treasury would splurge for Weddings, Coronations, and Funerals. This suit of armor was commissioned for the funeral procession of another King Gustav (why not?). It is made out of solid gold.

C3PO meets Bed-nobs and Broomsticks

Checkers - invented by the Swedish

Oh, and upstairs somewhere in the armory was this little display. Apparently, the Swedish invented Checkers.

You don't even have to know Swedish to know how to play checkers. The language clearly states, "Om du kan hoppa över en bricka." I mean, I could have told you that.

After my morning excursion was over, I met up with Marcy and we set out on a whole new adventure. We spent the whole afternoon and early evening traveling to Ikea and looking for a chair for the room.

Subway in Stockholm

You know how Ikea is a pretty big deal in the states? Well, it's an even bigger deal in its homeland. Not only is it the giant furniture store that we know and love, but it's a full scale buffet restaurant as well. People bring their families just to eat at Ikea. And why not? The price is right, and it tastes great.