However, one trap I think we've fallen into is buying a 72 hour city pass, you feel the pressure to fit as much into that three days as you physically can. I was daunted to read in Copenhagen that most people average 10 attractions in that time. We did eight.
The tourist ferries in Stockholm have been great, and reasonably quick to get from A to B if you time it well. The buses are either empty or overflowing, and it can be a long and tedious route to get where you really want to be...and sometimes they just cancel buses or change the routes. We were with the Stromma tour company, so I count vouch for the other company operating the tour transport.
Arriving into Stockholm mid afternoon, we found the trains to be much cleaner and modern than their Danish counterparts. Working our way from Stockholm sodra to Stockholm Central was relatively easy despite major renovation work being done at Central, which required some long walks, several lifts and a bit of confusion of where the exits were.
We went for a walk to Gamla Stan (the Old Town) to stretch the legs, taking a route across Riksbron, through Parliament House (Riksdagshuset), and down to the park outside the Medieval Museum (Medeltidsmuseum). The museum was free entry and a good way to ease our way into the Stockholm museum trail and how to elbow other tourists out of the way. It was a surprise to find it so busy at 5pm on a Monday.
Parliament House (Riksdagshuset)
Some joyful blood letting illustrated at Medeltidsmuseum
Making our way back across Norrbro, across Gustav Adolphs torg (named after king and Lion of the North, Gustav II Adolph) where the Stockholm Culture Festival was about to get underway with big outdoor stage and beer tent set up in the middle of the roundabout, roads closed off for pedestrian traffic, and food tents popping up in green spaces close by the main tourist routes around Stockholms ström, one of the bays near the city.
Preparations for Stockholms Culture Festival
That subtitle doesn't really do justice to the first museum on our second day in Stockholm. First stop was Vasa Museum (yes, David and Megan, it was well worth it). The Vasa is 69 metre-long, seventeenth-century warship that sank on its maiden voyage in the middle of Stockholm in 1628. Salvaged in 1961, more than 95 percent of the ship is original, been slowly, deliberately and painstakingly restored to a state approaching its original state, including the hundreds of carved sculptural decorations. It is truly impressive, as is the multi-storey building that houses it in cool semi-darkness. Turns out we were one of 1.5 million visitors to have visited the museum over the past year...and it felt like at least a quarter of them had turned up for the two hours we were there.
The enormous ill-fated warship, Vasa
Intricate sculptural detail on the tail end of Vasa
What the sculptural detail would have looked like in 1628
Painted reproductions of the sculptural detail on Vasa
Having caught the hop on/off ferry to the island of Djurgården to see the Vasa, we stayed put and moved on to the Museum of Spirits. I wasn't sure if we were talking ghosts or grog when Cam first mentioned it. It didn't really grab my fancy, but hey, we were there. Other than the fact there were hardly any other tourists in the place, there were some surprises though amongst the twee narratives of alcohol consumption in Sweden, including the story of distilling Swedish whiskey, smell funnels for various alcohols, and a very cool drunken/hangover installation with rear video projections mounted from the ceiling viewed from a series of reclining lounges in the dark...oh and the penis shaped vodka bottle.
Smelling oranges in the smell funnels, one of many in the Museum of Spirits
Perhaps an 18th century vodka bottle souvenir offering from Småland (southern Sweden)?
With the afternoon running out, we made our way back across the to Nybrohamnen on the ferry in an attempt to catch the Royal Stables tour at 3pm. Not being able to find the entrance, we lost some time, tearing into the cafe/ticketing office 10 minutes late. With entry guaranteed thanks to the Stockholm Pass, a cafe staff member led us on a very quick tour to catch up with the English tour guide and entourage. We made it in time to spend 5 minutes with the horses in their stables. The Swedish Warmblood geldings are mainly used as carriage horses for royal occassions, and once tried and tested, tend to stay with the stables until their about 19 years old. They are magnificent animals. Of course, I touched a couple, stroking their beautiful heads and getting horse hair all over me - something I paid for about an hour later when I rubbed my eyes and my horse allergy kicked into top gear. Hard to believe given my history with horses.
In horse heaven at the Royal Stables, Stockholm
In 1997, Boris Yeltsin paid the first state visit to Sweden in 88 years. He travelled to visit King Carl XVI Gustaf in this State carriage with the footman required to make an adjustment for Boris' bulk by jacking up the carriage as he stepped in and out of it. The jack is now on display with the carraige.
Sniffing and blinded by streaming, red eyes, and 10km of walking on cobblestoned streets starting to take its toll on my feet, we had a bit of a tense moment about where to catch the hop on bus back to the hotel. Some blocks of walking, a few words and quite a wait later, we were eventually on a bus taking some liberties with the route due to Stockholm's rush hour. A supermarket dinner and early night needed.
Doing another lap of the waterways on the ferry, then a hop on bus that took us to some interesting outlying areas of the city of big, open green spaces, playing fields, industrial areas and the US embassy, on another circuitous route that didn't quite follow the map, we eventually set down at Hötorget (Haymarket), where 16th century peasants used to bring hay and straw to the King's new barn, later becoming a horse market. In 1856 it became a general market square and there were fruit and vegetable stalls set up there, along with handbag and souvenir sellers, coming to the end of their day in the square. We walked up the shopping strip of Klarabergsgatan, ducking into a few shops with no real drive to buy anything. For me, it's part of getting a feel for the culture - the clothing, the style, the prices, the promotions, the language, the locals. There's still time for when the urge overtakes me.
A twenty-five minute drive later we arrived on a forested archipelago, a few bridges east of the city. Alighting from the bus, we walked into the courtyard of Artipelag, a large, multi-storey concrete and glass box art gallery nestled in the trees with views over the water. It turns out the founder of Artipelag is Björn Jakobsen, and his wife, Lillemor, who created BabyBjörn. They established the gallery in 2012. Needless to say the gallery gift shop has a selection of BabyBjörn products.
Interior of Artipelag
All but the entry to one exhibition and our lunch and drinks were covered by the Stockholm Pass. The exhibition covered by the city pass was dedicated the life work of Italian designer and artist, Fornasetti. Laid out over multiple spaces, it illustrated he was obviously prolific as well as having a family business dedicated to ensuring his designs live on after his death. Some interesting works though that also demonstrated that he was perhaps a better designer than an artist from the handful of drawings and paintings on show - the design works ranging covering crockery, soft furnishings, furniture, opera set design and more.
Fornasetti rug, Artipelag
The second exhibition we saw required us to buy additional tickets, but so, so worth it. This was the collaborative work of Swedish artist Annika Liljedahl and composer, Lo Kristenson, who created a mesmerising collection of insect-like forms accompanied by layers of abstract sound, within the collection podiums or tables, as well as playing in surround from high up in the dark, spot lit space. It was beautiful and left me with all my creative fibres firing.
Works by artist Annika Liljedahl and composer, Lo Kristenson
In between the exhibitions we had a buffet birthday lunch of smørrebrød - the Scandinavian open sandwich on ryebread I've come to really enjoy, washed down with some Artipelag's craft beer. We walked off lunch by following the larch wood boardwalk down through the forest towards the water, snaking off to follow a bark chip path along the water's edge back to the gallery. Cam decided he had to taste the water to see if the lake we were on was salt water or brackish, as it is closer to Stockholm. After a couple of taste tests, the verdict was brackish.
We finished the visit by walking up to the green roof, covered in sedum, for a better view over the trees to the lake and far shores. Arriving by bus we decided to leave by ferry, taking one of the tourist company archipelago cruise boats back to the city. A pleasant way to kill an hour.
We had a conversation with some Aussies from Casuarina (near Kingscliff) at the hop on bus stop as we waited for a bus to arrive to take us back to the hotel. We chatted for a good 20 minutes before finding out the bus had been cancelled and we'd be walking back to our hotel.
Sedum roof, Artipelag
Archipelago cruise boat for our return trip to Stockholm
Åhléns City on Klarabergsgatan
The NK brand in brass. Established in 1915.
Returning to our hotel after lunch, Cam had come back too after failing to reach the last museum he'd been trying to fit in before the Stockholm Pass ran out because the Stromma hop on/hop off bus cut that bit out of the route. As it turned out, the Nobel Museum was a bit overwhelming with information. After some homework on where to get to find our national train to Goteberg tomorrow, booking our rental car in Reykjavik (that ain't cheap!), and downloading some offline Google maps to find our way to our accommodation in Oslo tomorrow, we're ready for an early night.
On our 72 hour Stockholm Pass, we again visited eight attractions (between us) using the Hop On Hop Off buses and ferries to get from place to place rather than pay for a public transport card as well. It's great value, but requires a certain determination.
The tourist ferries in Stockholm have been great, and reasonably quick to get from A to B if you time it well. The buses are either empty or overflowing, and it can be a long and tedious route to get where you really want to be...and sometimes they just cancel buses or change the routes. We were with the Stromma tour company, so I count vouch for the other company operating the tour transport.
Vasagaten, Stockholm and our very central location to the city's offerings
Multicultural Stockholm
Arriving into Stockholm mid afternoon, we found the trains to be much cleaner and modern than their Danish counterparts. Working our way from Stockholm sodra to Stockholm Central was relatively easy despite major renovation work being done at Central, which required some long walks, several lifts and a bit of confusion of where the exits were.
We went for a walk to Gamla Stan (the Old Town) to stretch the legs, taking a route across Riksbron, through Parliament House (Riksdagshuset), and down to the park outside the Medieval Museum (Medeltidsmuseum). The museum was free entry and a good way to ease our way into the Stockholm museum trail and how to elbow other tourists out of the way. It was a surprise to find it so busy at 5pm on a Monday.
Parliament House (Riksdagshuset)
Some joyful blood letting illustrated at Medeltidsmuseum
Making our way back across Norrbro, across Gustav Adolphs torg (named after king and Lion of the North, Gustav II Adolph) where the Stockholm Culture Festival was about to get underway with big outdoor stage and beer tent set up in the middle of the roundabout, roads closed off for pedestrian traffic, and food tents popping up in green spaces close by the main tourist routes around Stockholms ström, one of the bays near the city.
Preparations for Stockholms Culture Festival
This was just a taste of the traffic chaos to come, as were were to discover. The hop on hop off bus routes seem to have a fairly loose schedule of pick up/drop off points and routes due to traffic congestion and the festival.
Looking for somewhere to eat on our first night, we wandered down Vasagaten where our hotel is conveniently located right next to one of the Stockholm Central railway exits (and I mean right next door), but all the busy restaurants were so busy they didn't have spare seats. We landed at an Irish American sports bar across the road, O'Leary's, to have burgers and quesadillas served to us by a cheeky Swede with an Italian English accent. Pretty much sums up the Stockholm we've experienced to date.
Another early observation that also affects even a simple road crossing - there are roadworks going on everywhere and lots of building construction and maintenance, with cranes breaking the city skyline in various locations. There's major work being undertaken on Slussen is a major connection between two of the three main islands of the inner city connecting south Gamla Stan to Södermalm. A historic thoroughfare to the city, sluice waters flow via a lock from Lake Malaren to the Baltic Sea. It's here you see cars, buses, bikes and foot traffic converging above the water.
Another early observation that also affects even a simple road crossing - there are roadworks going on everywhere and lots of building construction and maintenance, with cranes breaking the city skyline in various locations. There's major work being undertaken on Slussen is a major connection between two of the three main islands of the inner city connecting south Gamla Stan to Södermalm. A historic thoroughfare to the city, sluice waters flow via a lock from Lake Malaren to the Baltic Sea. It's here you see cars, buses, bikes and foot traffic converging above the water.
From the vices of alchohol to Royal nags
The enormous ill-fated warship, Vasa
Intricate sculptural detail on the tail end of Vasa
What the sculptural detail would have looked like in 1628
Painted reproductions of the sculptural detail on Vasa
Smelling oranges in the smell funnels, one of many in the Museum of Spirits
Perhaps an 18th century vodka bottle souvenir offering from Småland (southern Sweden)?
Next door was one venue on my list - the Viking Museum (Vikingaliv). A cross between the TV series of Vikings (the closest I've been to Ragnar or Bjorn), some archaeological finds and interpretation with timelines, recreated Viking people based on skeleton finds, and a shocker of an 'adventure' ride at the end, I left feeling a little disappointed. The most interesting thing in the place was the red-bearded archaeologist working as a tour guide at the museum...because there's no work for archaeologists apparently.
The only ravens seen to date are painted ones or stuffed ones (below)
The only ravens seen to date are painted ones or stuffed ones (below)
With the afternoon running out, we made our way back across the to Nybrohamnen on the ferry in an attempt to catch the Royal Stables tour at 3pm. Not being able to find the entrance, we lost some time, tearing into the cafe/ticketing office 10 minutes late. With entry guaranteed thanks to the Stockholm Pass, a cafe staff member led us on a very quick tour to catch up with the English tour guide and entourage. We made it in time to spend 5 minutes with the horses in their stables. The Swedish Warmblood geldings are mainly used as carriage horses for royal occassions, and once tried and tested, tend to stay with the stables until their about 19 years old. They are magnificent animals. Of course, I touched a couple, stroking their beautiful heads and getting horse hair all over me - something I paid for about an hour later when I rubbed my eyes and my horse allergy kicked into top gear. Hard to believe given my history with horses.
In horse heaven at the Royal Stables, Stockholm
In 1997, Boris Yeltsin paid the first state visit to Sweden in 88 years. He travelled to visit King Carl XVI Gustaf in this State carriage with the footman required to make an adjustment for Boris' bulk by jacking up the carriage as he stepped in and out of it. The jack is now on display with the carraige.
Sniffing and blinded by streaming, red eyes, and 10km of walking on cobblestoned streets starting to take its toll on my feet, we had a bit of a tense moment about where to catch the hop on bus back to the hotel. Some blocks of walking, a few words and quite a wait later, we were eventually on a bus taking some liberties with the route due to Stockholm's rush hour. A supermarket dinner and early night needed.
Open air, great views and Stockholm locals out and about
Catching an almost empty bus to the ferry pick up, we headed back to the island of Djurgården and the Skansen open air museum. Keen to see some open space, on paper at least, this place looked like it had just that, with great views over the city and surrounding waterways.
On our walk there, we exchanged brief words with another Aussie couple who we'd heard talking on the ferry who were headed for the ABBA Museum (having come off a massive cruise ship). They weren't the first Aussies we'd encountered on arriving in Stockholm - they're everywhere. I helped a couple in the Coop supermarket on our second night with working out the difference between two types of rice cakes. They were impressed I could read Swedish! Call it my school girl Latin or interest in language, but it wasn't too hard to work out.
Skansen is yet another odd Nordic museum - a hotch-potch of reconstructions, souvenir shops, food stalls, overpriced cafes (and that's stretching the definition), pony rides, children's petting zoo, and a sad collection of Nordic animals including wolves, wolverine, moose, a sleepy bear, seals, otters etc. However, the views from the top are impressive AND we saw lots of Swedish grandparents with their young grandchildren, young families, and dads on parenting duty with toddlers and babies. There's also a Baltic Sea themed aquarium, with a strong conservation message. It's not an attraction I'd put on the top of my list, or even in the top 10, but I'm not disappointed we went. I did see my first Scandinavian wildlife other than birds - a squirrel dashed out in front of us on arrival.
The view over Stockholm from the top of Skansen
Early 19th century replica farmstead from northern Sweden, Skansen
One lone brown bear trying to get some peace and quiet from the visitors at Skansen
Moon jelly fish in the Baltic Sea Aquarium at Skansen
The view over Stockholm from the top of Skansen
Early 19th century replica farmstead from northern Sweden, Skansen
One lone brown bear trying to get some peace and quiet from the visitors at Skansen
Moon jelly fish in the Baltic Sea Aquarium at Skansen
I'm yet to see a live raven (only stuffed ones), but many hooded crows, western jackdaws and Swedish magpies - all members of the Corvidae family.
I was actually museumed out at this point, but given we had to walk past the ABBA Museum, it almost seemed sinful not to go in. It wasn't covered by the Stockholm Pass and cost about A$77 for the two of us to enter, but it was fun. I even discovered that there were ABBA Arrival clogs with ABBA stamped in the leather, to go with the release of the album in 1976. I received that album for Christmas of 1977.
A super trouper having some fun at the ABBA Museum
A super trouper having some fun at the ABBA Museum
Birthday celebrations on the art archipelago
Day 4 brought Cam's birthday with it, starting with a video call home. It was time to get out of the city, and hopefully away from the cruise ship crowds (again). Luckily for us, the pickup bus stop for the destination was half a block from our hotel. There were about 20 of us all up on the bus.A twenty-five minute drive later we arrived on a forested archipelago, a few bridges east of the city. Alighting from the bus, we walked into the courtyard of Artipelag, a large, multi-storey concrete and glass box art gallery nestled in the trees with views over the water. It turns out the founder of Artipelag is Björn Jakobsen, and his wife, Lillemor, who created BabyBjörn. They established the gallery in 2012. Needless to say the gallery gift shop has a selection of BabyBjörn products.
Interior of Artipelag
All but the entry to one exhibition and our lunch and drinks were covered by the Stockholm Pass. The exhibition covered by the city pass was dedicated the life work of Italian designer and artist, Fornasetti. Laid out over multiple spaces, it illustrated he was obviously prolific as well as having a family business dedicated to ensuring his designs live on after his death. Some interesting works though that also demonstrated that he was perhaps a better designer than an artist from the handful of drawings and paintings on show - the design works ranging covering crockery, soft furnishings, furniture, opera set design and more.
Fornasetti rug, Artipelag
The second exhibition we saw required us to buy additional tickets, but so, so worth it. This was the collaborative work of Swedish artist Annika Liljedahl and composer, Lo Kristenson, who created a mesmerising collection of insect-like forms accompanied by layers of abstract sound, within the collection podiums or tables, as well as playing in surround from high up in the dark, spot lit space. It was beautiful and left me with all my creative fibres firing.
Works by artist Annika Liljedahl and composer, Lo Kristenson
In between the exhibitions we had a buffet birthday lunch of smørrebrød - the Scandinavian open sandwich on ryebread I've come to really enjoy, washed down with some Artipelag's craft beer. We walked off lunch by following the larch wood boardwalk down through the forest towards the water, snaking off to follow a bark chip path along the water's edge back to the gallery. Cam decided he had to taste the water to see if the lake we were on was salt water or brackish, as it is closer to Stockholm. After a couple of taste tests, the verdict was brackish.
We had a conversation with some Aussies from Casuarina (near Kingscliff) at the hop on bus stop as we waited for a bus to arrive to take us back to the hotel. We chatted for a good 20 minutes before finding out the bus had been cancelled and we'd be walking back to our hotel.
Sedum roof, Artipelag
Archipelago cruise boat for our return trip to Stockholm
Shop 'til you drop in downtown Stockholm
On our last day we went our separate ways. Cam headed to the Nobel Museum, and I went in the opposite direction, heading towards Regeringsgaten and the shopping sites of Mood and NK Stockholm (Stockholm's David Jones is said to be cherished by locals). Finding little of interest, including another bad coffee (making a week of bad coffee), I headed back on to Hamngaten for a look through Gallerian, a shopping mall reminiscent of many in central Sydney where I did find an Officeworks/Bunnings lovechild in the form of Clas Ohlson - everything from stationery to travel gear, electricals and digital to bathroom and kitchenware, hardware and pet items. It was hard not to walk out with just a few small things. My wanderings took me back down Klarabergsgatan into the small but affordable Lindex with its strong a strong reuse/recycle message (where I picked up a wool/alpaca mix jumper for A$60) to the iconic Åhléns City store (Stockholm's Myer). Completely restricted by available luggage space and the weight of that luggage, it was more about seeing what was on offer, interacting with the locals, people watching (mostly teenage girls shopping with their mothers...a universal experience), and spending time doing things at my pace.
Åhléns City on Klarabergsgatan
The NK brand in brass. Established in 1915.
Returning to our hotel after lunch, Cam had come back too after failing to reach the last museum he'd been trying to fit in before the Stockholm Pass ran out because the Stromma hop on/hop off bus cut that bit out of the route. As it turned out, the Nobel Museum was a bit overwhelming with information. After some homework on where to get to find our national train to Goteberg tomorrow, booking our rental car in Reykjavik (that ain't cheap!), and downloading some offline Google maps to find our way to our accommodation in Oslo tomorrow, we're ready for an early night.
Next stop: Oslo
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