Y3W13 - Two Days in Stockholm...
is not enough! Bottom line is that it was a really fun city. We did as much as we could do with the time that we had as usual, but we certainly could have spent a few more days.
The week was spent doing all of the back to school things. You know, getting schuletütes, getting house shoes. Wait a minute...what the heck are schuletütes? What am I supposed to put in them? Am I supposed to make it or buy it? So, as you can see we spent some time finding out what they were and what I was supposed to be doing with them. All of this had to be accomplished before we left for Sweden because we were returning the day before school started.
Saturday morning at a 6:00am departure, we took off for the drive to Frankfurt Hahn airport to catch our 9:00am flight. The girls were champs I must say, especially since I overslept by about 15 minutes because my alarm didn't go off. We arrived in Nyköping, Sweden around 11:00am, caught a bus to Stockholm city and we were off. We walked around town a bit to get our bearings which led us past the Kungliga Dramatiska Theater (the theater's school produced such actors as Greta Garbo, Ingrid Bergman, and Max Von Sydow to name a few).
Then to a very cool indoor market, that reminded me of Quincy Market in Boston. We made our way to the tourist office to get our Stockholm cards which allowed us free transportation and free entrance to almost everything. It was great.
We began our Stockholm adventure by walking along the Strandvagen to get to Djurgården. We started at the Junibacken Museum, which is a children's literature museum of Astrid Lindgren stories. If you have heard of Pippi Longstocking, this is the author. It was wonderful. I kept thinking how much my mom and my mother-in-law would have enjoyed it. The girls loved it. It was like walking into the world of her stories and they had a train that takes you through a tour of some of her books. Wow, what an amazing start.
Next we walked to the Vasa Museum. It is an incredible museum that houses a ship. The ship set sail in August 1628 and after minutes of sailing her maiden voyage, she sank in the harbor. It wasn't until 1961, that they were able salvage the Vasa. We watched a film about how they managed to salvage the ship which the girls loved. The most incredible thing is the massive size. You expect there to be a ship in the museum but you never expect it to be as gigantic as it is.
We ate at the Sjö Cafe with this beautiful view. And, walked back to the city center while the sun was going down.
Day 2, we knew we had to get an early start. We grabbed a bus into the city center and started with a city hall tour. Bailey especially loves the tours.
The Rådhus is well known as the site of the Nobel Prize banquets and ceremonies. The banquet is held in the Blue Room while the prize is awarded in the nearby theatre. All the Nobel Prizes less the Peace Prize are awarded in Stockholm. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Olso. It was decided that Norway would be the home of the Peace Prize back when Sweden and Norway had a formed a union between them. Since the formal separation of the two nations, some have subtly voiced their disagreement. However, cooler heads have prevailed as it might be a bit odd watching a couple nations fight over a ‘Peace’ Prize.
Next, was our walk through Gamla Stan (the Old Town) with unique shopping areas and the Royal palace. It is also the location of the Nobel Museum. We didn't do the whole museum but we took some time out for a Nobel sundae, complete with a chocolate Nobel medal. We had read that this is where the winners eat the week that the prizes are awarded and if you look under the seats of the cafe, the prize winners typically sign the underside of the chairs.
We didn't have time to take a Fika (the Swedish term for pretty much wasting time having coffee and cake, however, Europeans don't see it as a waste of time) at Chokladkoppen, but we did make Greg go in and purchase some cinnamon rolls (kanelbulle). We had to at least try them on our walk around Gamla Stan.
Then, we took the boat back. We planned on doing the Skansen outdoor museum when we returned but we had a bit of bad weather and Avery somehow misplaced her jacket, so we thought no to the outdoor museum idea. Instead, we changed our train tickets and took an earlier train back to Nyköping so we could catch our 8:00am flight the next morning.
It was definitely a whirlwind tour of Stockholm and we could have used a few more days to relax and take in a bit more of the sites, but I would not trade the two days we had for anything. It was definitely worth the trip and I would love to go back someday.
The week was spent doing all of the back to school things. You know, getting schuletütes, getting house shoes. Wait a minute...what the heck are schuletütes? What am I supposed to put in them? Am I supposed to make it or buy it? So, as you can see we spent some time finding out what they were and what I was supposed to be doing with them. All of this had to be accomplished before we left for Sweden because we were returning the day before school started.
Saturday morning at a 6:00am departure, we took off for the drive to Frankfurt Hahn airport to catch our 9:00am flight. The girls were champs I must say, especially since I overslept by about 15 minutes because my alarm didn't go off. We arrived in Nyköping, Sweden around 11:00am, caught a bus to Stockholm city and we were off. We walked around town a bit to get our bearings which led us past the Kungliga Dramatiska Theater (the theater's school produced such actors as Greta Garbo, Ingrid Bergman, and Max Von Sydow to name a few).
Then to a very cool indoor market, that reminded me of Quincy Market in Boston. We made our way to the tourist office to get our Stockholm cards which allowed us free transportation and free entrance to almost everything. It was great.
We began our Stockholm adventure by walking along the Strandvagen to get to Djurgården. We started at the Junibacken Museum, which is a children's literature museum of Astrid Lindgren stories. If you have heard of Pippi Longstocking, this is the author. It was wonderful. I kept thinking how much my mom and my mother-in-law would have enjoyed it. The girls loved it. It was like walking into the world of her stories and they had a train that takes you through a tour of some of her books. Wow, what an amazing start.
Next we walked to the Vasa Museum. It is an incredible museum that houses a ship. The ship set sail in August 1628 and after minutes of sailing her maiden voyage, she sank in the harbor. It wasn't until 1961, that they were able salvage the Vasa. We watched a film about how they managed to salvage the ship which the girls loved. The most incredible thing is the massive size. You expect there to be a ship in the museum but you never expect it to be as gigantic as it is.
We ate at the Sjö Cafe with this beautiful view. And, walked back to the city center while the sun was going down.
We stayed in what turned out to be a really chic hotel that was once a liquor warehouse. Yep, we are all about style, AND hotels that have family rooms that can fit all of us.
Day 2, we knew we had to get an early start. We grabbed a bus into the city center and started with a city hall tour. Bailey especially loves the tours.
The Rådhus is well known as the site of the Nobel Prize banquets and ceremonies. The banquet is held in the Blue Room while the prize is awarded in the nearby theatre. All the Nobel Prizes less the Peace Prize are awarded in Stockholm. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Olso. It was decided that Norway would be the home of the Peace Prize back when Sweden and Norway had a formed a union between them. Since the formal separation of the two nations, some have subtly voiced their disagreement. However, cooler heads have prevailed as it might be a bit odd watching a couple nations fight over a ‘Peace’ Prize.
Next, was our walk through Gamla Stan (the Old Town) with unique shopping areas and the Royal palace. It is also the location of the Nobel Museum. We didn't do the whole museum but we took some time out for a Nobel sundae, complete with a chocolate Nobel medal. We had read that this is where the winners eat the week that the prizes are awarded and if you look under the seats of the cafe, the prize winners typically sign the underside of the chairs.
Stortorget square is also the famous site of the Bloodbath of November 1520. When the Danes lured the Swedes into the square and executed 90 men while everyone watched. If you look closely, you can see three canon balls left over in the sides of a couple buildings.
We didn't have time to take a Fika (the Swedish term for pretty much wasting time having coffee and cake, however, Europeans don't see it as a waste of time) at Chokladkoppen, but we did make Greg go in and purchase some cinnamon rolls (kanelbulle). We had to at least try them on our walk around Gamla Stan.
We took a boat to where the archipelago begins to a place called Fjäderholmarna. It was so nice to be on the water and it was a restful small place. The girls climbed on the rocks and played. We ate at one of the small restaurants (there were only a few to choose from).
Then, we took the boat back. We planned on doing the Skansen outdoor museum when we returned but we had a bit of bad weather and Avery somehow misplaced her jacket, so we thought no to the outdoor museum idea. Instead, we changed our train tickets and took an earlier train back to Nyköping so we could catch our 8:00am flight the next morning.
It was definitely a whirlwind tour of Stockholm and we could have used a few more days to relax and take in a bit more of the sites, but I would not trade the two days we had for anything. It was definitely worth the trip and I would love to go back someday.
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