What a thrill to spend four days visiting Sweden! Mark’s dad, Dale, is 100% Swedish, and their family is so proud of their heritage. Imagine my delight to find out from my DNA analysis through 23 and Me that I was 38% Scandinavian. I was even more thrilled to learn, upon finding my biological mother’s family that my great-grandparents had emigrated from Sweden as well. We definitely felt at home among the Swedes.
This was a four-day weekend for Mark (due to All Saints Day holiday in Europe), so we flew to Stockholm, to make the most of our time. We were really fortunate to have perfect (albeit cold) Fall weather for all but our last day, when it hit a low of near-freezing and was raining steadily.
We stayed at the Stockholm, Slussen Hilton, which was a fantastic location to visit the old town (Gamla Stan). It was an easy walk either to Gamla Stan, or just a couple of blocks to the nearest metro station, which was only one or two stops to the best locations.
For the first two days (Saturday and Sunday), we bought the Stockholm Pass, which gives visitors free or deeply-discounted access to many of the local attractions, plus the hop-on-hop-off bus (and in the case of Stockholm, boats as well). It was nice to be able to show the pass, and have free admission to museums, but the bus wasn’t worth it. I think I’d do it differently next time, knowing how easy it was to use the metro and bus system.
Saturday
On Saturday, we took the 3-hour morning Archipelago Boat Tour. A refurbished steamship takes passengers on a guided tour through the islands in and near Stockholm. This is a really beautiful way to get to know the area – and as an added bonus, you can sit for the whole thing! For all of the walking we do when we visit a new place, having a sitting tour is a real treat.
After the boat tour, we visited the Vasa Museet (museum). The Vasa, a warship built in the 1600s, capsized in its maiden voyage 300+ years ago. It was found buried in mud in the 1950s. The preservation and detail of this ship and its artifacts is astonishing! They’ve got the entire ship displayed in the center of the building, with different floors containing artifacts that wrap-around the ship. As you move from floor to floor, you get to see different levels of the ship. There is also a neat set of models that show exactly how the Vasa was gently raised from the sea floor in one piece.
A super bonus to this museum: they’ve got a really great café, with some of the best Swedish meatballs, potato purée, lingonberries, and pickled cucumbers.
The remainder of the day was spent wandering the streets of Gamla Stan.
Sunday
Our first stop for Sunday was the Nordiska Museet (Nordic Museum), just down the street from the Vasa Museet. This museum celebrates Swedish culture from the 1600s to the present. There were displays of holiday tables through the years (dinnerwear, menus, food and decorations, mostly for Christmas and Easter), clothing (including some pretty funny stuff from the 70s and 80s), toys, jewelry, folk art, and the things of daily life. I thought the exhibits were a little disorganized – the floors aren’t set-up to easily view in chronological order. I also wished that the lighting was better in some areas (not things that needed to be protected from light for preservation). I wanted to see all of the detail of the Christmas morning livingroom! Overall, I’d say go, but it isn’t a must, and it doesn’t take long to view everything. Also, their café pales in comparison to the Vasa Museet’s. MEATBALLS!! They did have a pretty cool exhibit on beer-making, though.
Our second stop was a guided tour of the Stadhuset, Stockholm’s City Hall. The massive brick building, complete with a tower and courtyard, is quite modern (completed in 1923). This is the location of everyday municipal business, but it is best known for the Nobel Prize Banquet, held in the Blue Hall every December. Fun fact: there is nothing blue in the Blue Hall! The original design called for it to be blue, but the architect liked the look of the red bricks so much (hand-distressed to appear old), that he kept the bare bricks. The Blue Hall also hides Sweden’s largest pipe organ, which has 10,270 pipes.
On this tour, you get to go into the Gold Hall, an enormous hall with walls decorated entirely in tiny mosaic tiles, most of which are gold. I’m not exaggerating when I say that the room absolutely glows!
More fun facts about the Stadhuset: Weddings take place in a small hall every Saturday, and anyone can apply to be married there. You can choose a long ceremony (about 5 minutes) or a short one (under a minute). Same-sex couples have been legal in Sweden since 2009.
This afternoon, we took a Free Tour Stockholm of Gamla Stan. Many big cities have these Free Tours – it costs nothing to join the tour, but they expect (and deserve) a tip at the end of the tour. We’ve done a few of these now, and they’re great! The guides always have loads of information to share, they move you through the most interesting parts of the city, and can even recommend places to shop/eat/visit after the tour is done. Kevin shared with us that the old town area is especially popular to live-in, because of the beauty of the historic buildings, but that it is incredibly difficult to find a place to rent or buy. With a 20-year waiting list for subsidized housing, people used to sign-up their children when they were born!
Monday
Our day was spent discovering Skansen, an open-air museum where one can view real historic buildings, homes, and farms (some dating back to the 1500s) from all over Sweden. Because we were here in off-season, only a handful of the buildings were open for viewing inside. I would have loved to have seen more, but what we did get to see was really cool. There are docents in period clothing inside the buildings, and they’re ready to answer your questions. In one 1700s farmhouse, we learned that every family member had their own wooden spoon, which was cleaned and stored in a rack on the wall in-between meals. One small farmhouse may have housed the family (people typically had 6 or 7 children) and the farm workers, all in one room.
Rounding-out the experience at Skansen, they’ve got farm animals of the same breed as would have been present hundreds of years ago. You’ve heard of heirloom tomatoes? This is heirloom livestock!
Tuesday
This was our last day in Sweden, but our flight wasn’t until late afternoon, so we tried another Stockholm Free Tour. It was tempting to stay in and relax in our room, as it was near freezing, and raining pretty steadily, but the tour was calling! Bundled-up and on our way, there were several hearty souls who showed-up for the tour, and off we went! Along the way, we met two young women who were from Juneau, Alaska. We got to chatting, and learned that one of them was originally from Oregon, and had graduated from Western Washington University in 2015 (where Molly goes to school)! Small world!!
