During the Sweden and Poland war the King of Sweden had a battleship made to fight in the war. It sank in the harbor on its maiden voyage in 1629. They raised it out of the water in 1961 and restored it. It it 90% original. The ships name is the Vasa. Cool huh.

We went to a village where they showed what it was like to live in Sweden in the 1500's. It is called Skansen. Some of the buildings were built during that era.

It snowed almost everyday we were in Stockholm. It was cold but very neat. Notice the straw roofs under the snow. This is Skansen also

Stockholm is very old,dating back to 1500 A.D.in some places. Stockholm is located on the shores of the Baltic Sea and is also made up of about seven islands,so there is lots of water all around.

Here is our hotel in Stockholm. We are on a hill so the streets are steep to walk down.

We spent the night on the cruise ship and in the morning we were passing by many islands in the Baltic around Sweden. Many of the small islands had houses on them. The house on this island doesn't have much yard space around it.

We took a cruise ship from Riga to Stockholm, to spend Christmas in Sweden. As you can see it was snowing when we left Riga. I never thought I would need a winter coat on a cruise but I guess you do when you sail on the Baltic in December.

More of Christmas in Riga, at Lido.

Christmas in Riga is cold but beautiful. Merry Christmas to everyone.

Winter wonderland in Riga. Some cool old churches. Looks like something out of a story book.

People like to walk along the beach even when its freezing out. The picture of melinda shows a women dressed out in a Russian coat and hat. she stoped and turned around. I guess she is camers shy. Notice how dark the one picture is of the people walking along the beach. The picture was taken at 3:15 PM.

Here is a brick wall that protects a building from high tide on the beach. Also the brick arch is connected to the Riga fort dating back to the 1500's.

Everyone loves a parade. Latvia was showing all of their military forces for this one.

After the military parade, there was a 21 cannon salute.

After the memorial they put a path of flowers up to the freedom statue. Here are some older or retired Latvian soldiers dressed in there uniform.

After the ceremony the President of latvia walked by and shook hands with people from the crowd. After the ceremony the President spoke at an military parade. He is walking with the V.P. and his top military leaders to start the parade.

After the ceremony and the familys of fallen soldiers where done with the ceremony, people from the crowd also came and put flowers at the foot of the freedom statue.

This holliday was more like an Independence day and a Memorial day combined.

Today was the last day of Latvia Independance day, and we got the day off. Wa-hoo!This morning there was a memorial at the freedom statue. The where taking turns laying flowers ant the foot of the statue for the soldiers who have fallen during the war. There military was present and a military band playing memorial songs in the background.

Changing of the guard at the freedom statue.

Here is the medieval part of town. They serve medieval food in the cellar.