It was a dark and stormy night…in Oslo, the night before we were to take the train to Stockholm. With a heavy rain, some parts of the rail route were washed out, so we took a bus for a couple hours and caught the train in the town of Arvika in Sweden. This added a few hours to our journey, but it was another interesting little adventure.
Arriving late into the Stockholm Central station, we walked just about 10 minutes to our hotel - the Sheraton. It was in a great location, allowing us to walk to many attractions, and there was also a “Hop-on Hop-off” bus stop right out front.
Riding the bus (and we recommend this is nearly any city) you get to see many of the different local areas, and you get a decent narrative as well. And in Stockholm, you also get access to a hop-on hop-off boat - that will come in handy later.
We started off with a stop at the Ice Bar. Thought this looked pretty cool (cold) online, but a bit hokey when you get there - they just funnel you through a small area of ice sculptures, pour you a drink and snap a few photos. This was a “don’t need to do it” kind of thing - but still fun to see.
Stockholm has amazingly beautiful buildings - everywhere. And beautiful parks as well. We visited the Skansen Park - a 75 acre open air museum with over 150 original buildings that were moved here from around the country to help preserve a view of traditional Sweden. There is also a zoo which allows you to see some of the local animals.
We also visited the Östermalms Saluhall - the farmer’s market, with many good stalls and great food to try.
One of the best Museums we visited was the Vasa Museum. It houses the Vasa - a fully intact and restored 17th century ship. The vessel sank in the harbor, just a few minutes into her maiden voyage in 1628. After salvaging the cannons from the vessel, the ship was forgotten until the 1950’s when she was found and recovered. After restoration, she was moved to a permanent location. There are some good videos and more information about the Vasa in the museum website - Vasamuseet.se.
We had a chance to visit a very small slice of the Stockholm Archipelago - and by just visiting one island and seeing maybe 20 others on the way, it was a very small slice. There are around 24,000 islands and islets in this incredible archipelago. Beautiful islands and amazing homes - summer homes? Vaxholm is one of the biggest towns and was a great place to visit for a day.
Remember I said the Hop-on Hop-off had a boat as well? Time to visit the ABBA Museum.
It was fun to see some of the history of this famous group from Sweden, and since we had already had one “concert” while in Stavanger Norway, we thought we needed to continue the journey. There were a couple interactive parts of the museum - the best being the holographic stage where you could be a part of the group. No videos of us, but here is one as an example.
https://youtu.be/1L-z_6Skmwo?feature=shared
A fun few days in Stockholm, and yes - the Dancing Queen lives on!
Next stop - Helsinki.
Take care,
Tim & Eileen
