An Old Town with Magnificent Views

We arrived in Stockholm on Sunday after a short fifty five minute flight and took the Arlanda Express train from the airport to the central station. They were running a special so it cost about $45 USD total for the three adults to ride on the eighteen minute train. Kids ride for free on many of the trains and buses which is nice. If we didn’t take the Express train, the total ride time would have been closer to fifty minutes. From there we took the metro one stop to Gamla Stan.

When we arrived, our Airbnb was not ready but they allowed us to drop off the luggage. We are staying right in Old Town and have the most gorgeous city views. Our apartment is at the top of the building and the kids counted over ninety steps that we climb each time we come into the apartment. I am so thankful that we only had to carry our luggage up one time. That was tough enough.

We ate lunch at a delicious Italian restaurant named Restaurang Michelangelo (yes that is a g at the end and not a t) and then walked around Old Town and admired the beautiful shops and buildings. The cobblestone streets are lined with shops, restaurants and at night, rats!! EEK!! It is so clean here so I wasn’t expecting to see rats but I did and I almost fell to the ground. Those of you who know me well know that I do not like rats and squirrels. 🐀

After lunch we enjoyed delicious coffee, tea and pastries at Sundbergs Konditori before heading to the apartment to get settled. We are finally back on a normal sleep schedule and are looking forward to the Monday boat ride.

We slept in for a bit on Monday. Jon met up with a coworker for coffee and when he returned, we toured the streets of Old Town, ate delicious Belgian waffles covered in Nutella and then headed to Stromkajen where our boat tour was located. The Stockholm archipelago is the largest archipelago in Sweden and consists of ~24,000 islands. Touring by boat or ferry allows you to see several of the islands at one time. We took a one and a quarter hour boat ride around the islands. The views were stunning! It was chilly and windy but a great experience. While waiting on line to board the boat, Pete asked Jon to pull out his loose tooth so Jon did just that. What a special memory for Pete. He lost his first tooth in Sweden!

Once the boat tour ended, we walked back over the bridge to the Stockholm City Hall, most notably known for the three crowns on the spire as well as the location for the Nobel Prize banquet dinner held every December. It began raining and was getting cold so we looked up the best restaurants for Swedish meatballs. We ate at Stockholms Gastabud Bar & Bistro. The food was great. The kids loved the meatballs which were served with thinly sliced pickles, homemade mashed potatoes and lingonberries. Yum! I ate salmon covered in a dill and butter sauce served with potatoes. It wasn’t the healthiest salmon dish that I’ve ever had but it certainly was the most delicious. To celebrate the loss of Pete’s first tooth, we ended the night at Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream. It was a great day filled with a lot of walking, beautiful sites and wonderful memories.

We started Tuesday morning with a free walking tour that we booked online through freetour.com. We love these tours. They are tours that often times are conducted by students who have so much knowledge about the history of the area. You tip at the end and give the amount that you feel the guide deserves. This tour was conducted by Alex of Nordic Freedom Tours and he was awesome! We learned so much that we wouldn’t have known just by walking around on our own. The Great Stockholm Fire of 1625 destroyed a fifth of the infrastructure at the time. We walked the streets to learn just how large this fire was. We also stood at the location of the Stockholm Bloodbath of 1520 and discovered how this relates to the Game of Thrones. The tour lasted two hours and we needed something warm to drink. We stopped into Kaffekoppen, a restaurant next to the Nobel Prize Museum and had coffee, hot chocolate, salmon pie (quiche), tomato soup, chicken pie and vegetable lasagna. Each meal is better than the one before.

After lunch we toured the Nobel Prize Museum. Touring museums is not my favorite thing to do on vacation but I was excited to see this museum. Nobel wanted the world to be a better place like many of us do and wanted an award that would honor those who “have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind.” The recipients are amazing individuals who have done so much good for this world. I left there feeling truly inspired. There was a short video by Wangari Maathai that I saw at the end of the tour that really inspired me and made me think for the rest of the day. I encourage you to look this video up on YouTube. The hummingbird among other animals are forced out of the forest when a fire strikes and many of the animals stand around helpless, not knowing what to do. Even though the hummingbird is small and unable to carry too much water at one time to put out the fire, the hummingbird still tries. We are reminded to be like a hummingbird and do the best that we can. I think what I enjoyed the most is seeing how much the kids enjoyed this museum and the creative and innovative ideas Mariana shared with us of how she wants to help make the world a better place.

We still had time before our dinner reservation so we toured the Armory Museum at the Royal Palace. We stopped into the Burger King near our Airbnb to get warm and JT spotted Adam Schiff, a US Representative. That made JT’s night for sure. Jon initiated conversation with him and before we knew it, we all were in a group photo. You never know who you will see or meet while traveling.

This is our last full night in Stockholm and we are in love with this city. I know I have said this about many other places that we have visited but I may have found one of my favorites. It’s a very safe and clean city and a place where we could feel at home. I will definitely be sad to leave. We couldn’t leave without having dinner at the oldest restaurant in Stockholm, Den Gyldene Freden, which was established in 1722. We enjoyed Swedish meatballs again (I couldn’t have the meatballs last night due to my allergy) and they were delicious. Jon had the poached cod dish and Pete had a meat dish with beets and a fried egg. If you like Swedish meatballs, this is definitely the place to get them.

We packed up Wednesday morning and headed to the central station to store our bags while we toured this magnificent city one last time. Our flight to Amsterdam is not until 7:10 pm, giving us the opportunity to see more of Stockholm. From the central station we took the light rail to the Vasa Museum. We attended a short twenty minute guided tour around the museum and then watched the twenty minute video on the history of the ship. The Vasa was built as a warship. At the time, Sweden’s biggest enemy was Poland/Lithuania. It took two years to build the ship made of oak in the Stockholm shipyard. The 760 sculptures were not meant for decoration; they were meant to send a message that Sweden was powerful. The beautifully painted Vasa was ready for the maiden voyage on 10 August 1628 and after only twenty minutes, a gust of wind hit the ship and it tipped over. Water rushed through the gun ports and in ten minutes time, the Vasa sunk. There were over 200 people on board and 30-50 people died. The exact number of people lost is not known.

The Vasa sat under water for 333 years until 24 April 1961. Today, 98% of the ship is original. Some missing pieces had to be replaced because divers weren’t able to find everything. The replica pieces are lighter in color and easily distinguishable from the original pieces. The sculptures are now brown in color as the pigments disappeared while under water. No one was ever held responsible for the sinking of the ship but what is known today is that the ship was very unstable and was too top heavy. This museum is a must see while in Stockholm.

We had lunch before boarding the Arlanda Express back to the airport. Next stop…Amsterdam!