King Gustav Vasa Entry to Stockholm 1523 re-enactment

How impressive is this? Very, in my book. The preparations for this historical re-enactment of the 1523 Intåg, or Entry in English, to Stockholm with the newly crowned king, Gustav Vasa blew my mind. It took several years of work. It happened a couple of days ago now, to the day, five-hundred years after the real Entry to Stockholm by king Gustav Vasa. They marched from Medborgarplatsen on Södermalm to The Royal Palace in the old town, where I took these photos, before continuing to the main square Stortorget. I didn't count them, but there were at least 250 participants. Dressed like country jacks, musicians, burghers and valley people. They were from all over Europe. Think about the work to make all these costumes. Amazing. Photos from the square tomorrow.

And the band played on

Five-hundred years ago, we got a new king. Gustav Eriksson, better known as Gustav Vasa. He arrived to Stockholm from Strängnäs with his personal guards, Högvakten, on the 24th of June 1523. To celebrate that 500 years later, on the day, Högvakten and the marching band Marinens Musikkår performed a few songs here at Medborgarplatsen before marching over to the Royal Palace. I followed them there and have a few photos from what happened at the Royal Palace and at Stortorget later that day to show you in the coming days.

The Royal Barge

I have a few photos of the Royal Barge to show you. In Swedish, known as Vasaorden, and Kungaslupen. Owned by the Swedish Navy. It spends most of its time at the Berga naval base in Haninge, next to my favorite beach, btw. Only used for Royal weddings. Or visits by the Japanese Emperor. Or when Queen Elizabeth II visited. And also, one hundred years ago during the opening ceremony for Stockholm City Hall, a building designed by Ragnar Östberg. Back then, or two years before, the original barge was destroyed in a fire. A replica was built in time for the celebrations a century ago. And it was also used by the King and Queen last week as they made their way to the gala dinner at City Hall. The barge is 18 meters long. Made from oak. It takes 18 able seamen to navigate the oar-driven barge, and they could be seen practicing that on early mornings out on the Riddarfjärden bay last week.

Classic speed boats

This is how real speed boats look. From the recent Stockholm City Hall celebrations. There is a boat club at the Långholmen island. Only open to wooden boats. It is called Heleneborgs båtklubb. Every time I walk by there, I stop to marvel at the many beautiful boats on both sides of the canal. They had a presentation of some of their boats, and a few others as well. The guy presenting them told us a few facts about every boat. He also interviewed a couple of the skippers.

Some sad news

Some sad news. This is a view towards the very popular and classic amusement park Gröna Lund on Djurgården. I took the photo a couple of days ago. At the time, the park was open, and I could hear people screaming of joy from all the different attractions. Then, yesterday as I was on my way towards Djurgården I opened my phone to check some breaking news, and read that there had been a fatal accident on the blue rollercoaster ride Jetline, that you can see here. You can read about it on the BBC. One people died. Nine others taken to hospital, three with serious injuries. Since the accident, many eyewitness reports have been coming in about issues with the ride. The park will be closed for a week. Police are investigating.

City Hall Regatta

Stockholm City Hall turns 100 years. The celebrations have been going on for over a week. I have been there a number of times. All these photos, and yes there are quite a few, are from a regatta. It was called Stadshusregattan. Held out on the bay, Riddarfjärden. There were several different classes and many different races. Modern boats. Female only crews. And my favorite, the century old boats. The weather was amazing. People were out in force. Both on dry land and out on the water. Enjoy!