Stockholm, Sweden

Monday, December 31, Day 6

We arrived in Stockholm at 1:20pm (still in the same time zone as Copenhagen and Oslo.)




Mode of transportation between Oslo and Stockholm

Taken on our train ride-somewhere in Sweden

We got our Stockholm Card at Stockholm Central Station, and went to check in at the hotel.



Stockholm Central Station.

  Only to find out we did not have adjoining rooms, and, in fact, they were on separate floors.  I'm sure they were full, as it was NYEve, but I did object, and was able to get both rooms on the same floor at least, albeit 50 rooms apart!  The 2nd room was ADA access, so wider halls, different bathroom layout, etc. It made a nice bigger room for when we were all together. It was divide and conquer time. This hotel, and the first ferry were the only times we didn't all stay in one room, or have adjoining rooms.

Stockholm is built on fourteen islands-one of these being Djurgarden, which had a lot of the museums and touristy things to see.  We went to Skansen, which is a large open-air museum founded in 1891, located on Djurgarden. 

Diorama of Skansen

(An open-air museum is a number of period buildings collected.)  There were a number of different years represented at Skansen, with some of the buildings dated from the 1700s, all the way through to the 1950s, with costumed guides throughout.  Follow the link to read more about Skansen here.
 
Skansen was hosting the Stockholm NYEve countdown and fireworks, which was to be broadcast.  We got there about 3pm, and they close at 4.  They would re-open that evening for the fireworks, etc that evening at 11pm.  We stuck around until they closed, then walked around the area, as a lot of the museums I wanted to go to were located in this area.  Most things were closed, as it was 4pm on NYEve.  Stockholm has a much smaller Tivoli called Grona Lund Tivoli, which was located in this area.

  While we were walking around, we realized we had some hungry, tired, cranky kids, who did not want to eat at a "grown up" restaurant.  A democratic vote was held, and Pizza Hut won.  Back to the hotel we went, and we discovered Pizza Hut did not deliver, so G and J went for a stroll, and I got the kiddos ready for bed.  We played some games in the room, and then, as we had two rooms apart from each other, J and I returned to the second room.  At midnight, you could see the fireworks from Skansen, as well as other fireworks.  Also, in the courtyard/park that our hotel overlooked, all kinds of random people were setting of fireworks.  Lots o fireworks.



Skansen's fireworks



Skansen's fireworks, and some in our courtyard



Right in front of our window!

Tuesday, January 1, Day 7
In an effort to beat the crankys and sleepys, we slept in til 8, as nothing would be open on NYDay anyway.  The kids probably liked the breakfasts here the best, as they had crepes with whipped cream every morning, as well as the usual fruits, veggies, breads, yogurts, meats, cheeses, eggs, etc...

We had a noon bus tour planned which would end at 1:15.



Bus tour



Stockholm's Radhus (City Hall) with the three crowns on top.



Home of the Royal Swedish Opera--Swedish flag on top



National Museum



Downtown



The old town

Beautiful architecture

 This was an audio tour (not a real guide-just headphones with narration).  N took his usual nap on my leg, W tried real hard to stay awake--but was very sleepy,  J- who was very upset he received a window seat in the 2nd row, fell asleep (we woke him up so he wouldn't miss too much).  G was feeling quite sleepy, and I managed to nod off a few times myself.

After the bus tour, we returned to Skansen for the rest of the afternoon.



The Glassworks cottage-they were making things that were for sale in the giftshop



In one of the "villages"



Heading toward the 1950s



Beautiful gardens and views also

Rune Stone

Original Rune stone



Swedish architecture

"Smile!"

Thought windmills were a Dutch thing

For dinner, we walked to Gamla Stan, the old beautiful downtown area, and ate at Lucia Leonardo.

  G had three types of herring for his starter, and I forget what I had.  G had the reindeer entree, I had salmon, J had veal meatballs, and W and N shared a pizza.  We had apple pie with honey for dessert-kids got free ice cream, as we waited a LONG time for our dinners.  Still not sure why--the service was real attentive, and everyone else's food was coming out timely.  Must've been a problem in the kitchen with someone's food, though I'm not sure whose.

 

Reindeer



"Swedish" meatballs--They were actually made of veal

After dinner, we were walking around Gamla Stan, looking at the various shops for souvenirs, and I lost my contact.  The temp was about 3C, or 37F, so there was a lot of ice and grit on the ground.  We must've spent 20 minutes on our hands and knees looking for it, amongst the grit they put down for traction at each snowfall, between the bricks in the cobblestone...  but I am happy to report it was found.



Street in Gamla Stan



Where I lost my contact, and 20 minutes!

The shop across the street from where we were had a kind shopkeeper, who kept checking on us.  We had to visit his shop and get some grog to warm up when we found it.  He even had some grog for the kids.




Grog shop

We were all tired, so back to the hotel for the evening.

Wednesday, January 2, Day 8
We again slept in until 8.  Good thing nothing opened until 10.

We went again to Djurgarden, going first to the Nordiska Museum, which I really enjoyed, though I think I enjoyed it more than anyone else.



Nordiska Museum



Nordiska entrance

Impressive view



King Gustav Vasa-the piece of oak wood in his forehead is supposed to have come from a tree he planted



Hard to see, but its embossed leather wallpaper.  How many animals does that take?



"Female" and "Male" clocks.  More later

  This museum was basically the cultural museum of Sweden, telling of their people, as well as the Sami culture--much more than reindeer herders.  From there, we went to the Vasa Museum, which I'd heard was just fabulous...  All of my guide books and research said it was pretty good, so I'd really wanted to go.  There was a LONG line outside that was moving ever so slowly.

Diorama of what the Stockholm harbor looked like in 1942
Vasa was built in the harbor used by the Navy from 1723-1969

  We finally got out of the slow line, and went to Livrustkammaren (the Royal Armory), which housed various royal carriages, clothing and costumes.



He could be the mascot for the museum

Royal Coach

Coronation coach

Even royal sledges!

Check out the "wide" dress in the back.  And the more modern dress from Princess Margaret in the front.

Royal cloak--gotta love all those tails embedded into the white fur.

The red portfolio in the above picture is from Napoleon, used for foreign newspapers, found in his carriage when it was captured at the Battle of Leipzig in the early 1800s.

 W and N got real tired at this museum--we practically had to drag them from exhibit to exhibit.  W would find the chair in each room to sit on and lean against the wall.  Toward the end, he finally started to perk up-got his 2nd wind.

Two tired kids

Home we went.  Kids went to bed by 7:55 (could be the earliest time the entire trip-but not sure on that), and were sleeping by 8.  G and I were not far behind!  I really give W/N props for being troopers.  I'm not sure if when I was 6 or 7 years old, how I would have reacted to see museum after museum, even with the fun stuff interspersed (sledding, Ice Bar).  It is fun going to different areas, and travelling in new ways, but after awhile (like 8 days!), it can get old.  J is one thing--he really enjoys that kind of thing.  W is pretty average-will look at some, but after awhile, he tires of it.  N really does NOT enjoy it, but he was a trooper!  This explains why we did our second activity on Day 9.

Thursday, January 3, Day 9
We checked out and dumped the luggage, then headed off to Djurgarden, again!  Our first stop was the Vasa Museum, which we "had" to see, according to everyone.  And everyone was right.  They opened at 10, and we were there.  My research had said there was tour in English at 1, which we planned on attending.  G came back from looking around, and he'd overheard that there was an English tour at 10:30!!  Score!  It was the 5 of us, and a gent from Australia on the tour.  It was a fabulous museum--laid out real well, great tour guides, good information presented in an appealing way--it was great.  ALL the kids enjoyed it!  Essentially, its a ship from the 1600s that sank on her maiden voyage, still in the harbor.  The many cannons (64, although it was built and could hold 72) were too heavy, the boat was top-heavy, and all the gun doors were open, which let the sea water in.  It really is a very interesting story, from its building and sinking, the inquest that followed, to finds on board, how they were able to raise the ship up, and its preservation.  You can read all about it here.



Look at all the carved statues-still intact.  98% of the boat is original.



Ship was quite impressive-pictures don't do it justice.

More intricate carvings-including the Swedish coat of arms.

 After the Vasa, we went to Junibacken, which is a museum dedicated to Swedish children's literature and the creations of Astrid Lindgren, perhaps best known for her Pippi Longstocking works.  (Junibacken is a place in another of Lindgren's books featuring Madicken.)  The kids had fun with this.  Although J really enjoys museums, he also really enjoys being a kid yet, and he was able to enjoy this museum as well as he enjoyed the conventional museums.



Unfortunately, there was a long line here as well.



Skrot



"Say cheese!"



"You're the apple of my eye"



Pippi's house, Villa Villekula-her monkey's even on the roofline on the left side of the house

As long as we're on the topic of kids, they wanted to take a picture of this McDonald's.  They liked that there were 250 seats in it, though we never had any of their food.

They also really liked the hotel elevators.  There was a bank of four.  Each one had a different genre of music playing within-rock, pop, jazz, and "Clarion Living" (we were staying at the Clarion Hotel Sign).  The rock elevator had a guitar on the ceiling with written music coming out of it, neon lights and played hard rock music, the pop had a disco ball and played (what else?) pop music, jazz elevator had a saxophone, and Clarion living played more modern instrumental music (not even classical).

Disco ball in the elevator

 Then it was time to fetch the luggage, and get taxis to the ferry port.  The tour books tell you to only trust 2 certain taxi companies, as Sweden does not regulate its taxi companies, and the taxis can charge whatever they like!  We had to go into 2 taxis--didn't all fit with all the luggage and all 5 of us.  The first driver spoke pretty good English--he was going to send a colleague of his to fetch the other half of us.  G and N went in the first taxi.  I got in the next taxi that came by from that company--but lo, it was not G's driver's colleague, but a driver that did not speak English very well!  It took awhile for me to convey to him that we needed to go to the Tallink-Silja ferry terminal.  The driver was very kind and friendly.

The Tallink-Silja line was a nicer ship (Our last ship would've been a Carnival, this was more like Royal Caribbean.).  There was more staff on  hand to welcome us aboard, and there was a wonderful 4-piece band just as we got off the gang-plank.

Welcome aboard

   There were also various shows on board on the main promenade.  Better yet--when G had checked in, the kind woman got us a larger room-so we were all able to stay together, not even adjoining rooms!  Our room overlooked the promenade.  The food at the evening meal was better, although, the breakfast buffet that was included was only ok-I think the hotels had better breakfasts.

One cabin for all of us.  4 beds on the sides (upper bunks folded in), and the sofa pulled out.

Our ferry departed Stockholm at 5pm, headed for Helsinki, Finland.  Stay tuned for the final portion of our excursion, Days 10-12,  coming soon.  To be continued....