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Published: December 30th 2022
A bunch of mini adventures with the family before and after our Arctic trip. We did a lot over the course of about ten days
Snowstorm When I first arrived by train from Copenhagen, it was snowing. By the end of the day, it was coming down hard. We took the metro from the train station because of the slush. It was so pretty and wintry to see this on first arrival, the new fallen snow covering the trees and roofs. The kids and Aunt D went sledding that night (well, it was probably like 3pm, but it was dark). They enjoyed making snowballs. We visited the Vasa Museum the next day, walking most of the route which took about 30 minutes - the trams were shut down, so our options were limited. The kids complained, but also enjoyed throwing snowballs and sliding around. L carried a little snow man she had made the entire day and left it at the entrance to the museum, picking it back up when we left. I finally convinced her and E to leave it on a bench to keep cold. Otherwise, they wanted me to hold it because their hands were getting
cold. It was an interesting walk back, snow really coming down. At this point, I only had sneakers. I had planned to purchase boots on this trip, but did not get the chance before the snow arrived! We met T at the mall and I was able to get some functional snow boots, which was a huge help. My shoes were wet and stinky the rest of the time.
Vasa Museum T had to work, but the rest of us went to the Vasa Museum. As mentioned above, it was a bit of a slog through the snow and the museum was warmer by just a smidge, so we decided to eat first and had a delicious lunch. Then we toured the giant doomed ship and the stories around it. We even watched a video on the making of the ship, which was surprisingly interesting. We joined an English tour group, which was informative but short. I really enjoyed the museum when I saw it last year and I highly recommend it, but once you know the story it is less fun. However, M was thoroughly invested, having a degree in archaeology. So, K and I took all
the kids back to the restaurant for hot chocolate while D and M continued wandering around.
Junibacken The child's museum was a huge hit. My sisters took all the younger kids one day while the husbands took the older boys to the one's basketball game, and I stayed back to work. They had a great time and came back refreshed. I took the non-Sweden dwelling youngsters back while their parents packed for the flight home the next day. The weather was much nicer and they all enjoyed the museum again. We visited the main room which houses a bunch of scale examples of many children's books - lots of authors are represented here. Then we had a nice lunch before we headed up to the Pippi Longstocking house. Here, the kids played some kind of game where one is the killer and the others have to figure it out (One of Us?). Strange game, but they had fun with the house pretty much to themselves. We then went downstairs where we got some photos in the Pippi plane, a bit of an illusion. I had them position themselves for the first photo, and then they just ran with
it and I think that was the favorite part for all of us today. We then rode the storybook train, which takes you through children's books, but focuses on The Brothers Lionheart. It is a sad story, but this time I bought the book (I have started to read it but bawl my eyes out the whole time, so I need to pace myself). I have previously written on this museum, mostly based on the works of Astrid Lindren, but also referencing other children's stories while having fun.
Royal Stables Christmas Market The day after we got back from the Arctic, we went to the Christmas Market at the Royal Stables. This is the only weekend it is held, so we made sure to put aside time for it. It was quite lovely. It is laid throughout the courtyard and stables, even allowing you to pet the horses with fun names and a bit of background information. You can also view other collections such as carriages and royal cars. Most of the booths are within one of the buildings, with the barn housing the most. I wound up buying a lot of things here, primarily foods
such as gingersnaps, mustard, honey, and saffron cheese. I also bought a few nice things for myself (like a new toque). The kids were fine, but a few of them preferred to hang outside and play in the snow banks. There was a bit of a tiff towards the end, signalling time to go home for naps.
Beer Night out After the Royal Stables, K took the kids back for movie night with popcorn, and hopefully sleep. The rest of us adults went to brewery D had found, which was a 20 minute bus ride away, but we were dropped directly in front of the busy place. We got a table and D and M ordered a flight while T and I had just a glass. We had some tapas, Peruvian theme, and enjoyed the totally 80's decor. They had movies such as Warriors and Tron playing on old style tv's, along with music. It was M's birthday and it was a great way to celebrate!
Skansen While half the kids were at school, we took the other three to visit my (and K's) favorite place in Stockholm: Skansen Open Air Museum. I covered this in
a previous blog, but these two times were different experiences.
When we went with the kids, we first stopped by the (colobus?) monkey exhibit - instead of passing the extra fee for the aquarium. The monkeys were super cute and playful, with long fluffy tails. At one point, one launched itself onto the glass above us. Maybe it wanted to eat one of the kids... we continued on, looking for animal exhibits and others. We got to see moose, wolverine, seals, reindeer, bison, boar, and an adorable Arctic fox.
For the Christmas season, they had some of the old buildings open with friendly representatives there to give you a bit of historical context. The first place we stopped was a small house decorated for Christmas in the 1920's. It was a poor farming family who lived there, many people to one room, but they had a good Christmas dinner set up to celebrate. Next we went across to the school house where a woman had us sit in the classroom while she described the season. Most kids walked from far away, but on Christmas, the teacher had a tree decorated with treats, allowing each child to choose two.
Most were from poor families, so this may be their one special gift. He would feed them seasonal food and let them home early. He would teach in one half of the building while his family would live in the other half. The last building we visited was a book making shop, heated for Christmas and with the worker also living in part of the building. It was all so well done and informative, while being fun too!
We stopped to get lunch at one open place amongst all the closed market stalls, most getting some kind of savory pie and we enjoyed some glügg.
We visited the glass blowing factory, of course, as it is my favorite. The kids and M watched the glass blowing demonstration, while my sisters and I explored the shop. Sadly, they no longer had the type of drinking glass I had previously bought and which was broken a few months ago. There also seemed to be limited supply of many items. But I did buy a large, unusual vase, which is my new favorite.
K and I returned that Friday for the Christmas Market, which is only available on the weekend.
It was awesome. It was busy, but not overly so. We did an initial walkabout the many stalls; I was happy as almost all were clearly handcrafted, unique items. So I wanted everything. I did buy a couple of gifts, one of them at a woodcarving shop run by a friendly older couple. They have beautiful carvings of cities in various forms, like coasters.i bought my sister and her hubby a wall hanging depicting Stockholm as a keepsake for their time there. I wanted one for myself but it was too big. For myself, I got a toque, a pillow, and a couple of other small items. We got some hand held food for lunch as well as glügg of course.
Skansen is so worth a trip if you are ever in the city. Three times there, and all different experiences. Also the couple are found at www.woodlymade.com
Smorgasbord T had booked us a lovely Christmas season smorgasbord at the Town Hall. So we dressed up, left the kids at home and walked to the restaurant. It's down in the cellar below town hall and we were given an awesome table all by itself in
the back of the dining area. Our waitress was so friendly and engaging. She wanted to know where we were from, thinking we were Canadian - just one of our group is. She made recommendations on our drinks, staying with wine or beer and ending with a choice of two types of schnapps. I choose beer (it seemed more fitting) and the harder schnapps, which had a licorice flavor to it.
The meal was amazing. Traditional Swedish foods with little cards telling what they are. D, who went to university in Finland, was all over the many choices of pickled herring smoked fish. They had many types of meat options such as moose, boar, venison, etc. These were pretty much all the first course. The other side had traditional dishes, such as cauliflower terrine (delish), celeriac with walnuts and mustard, vegetable gratin, plus many others we couldn't even try because we were getting so full. Finally, lots of dessert options; our waitress recommended to me to try the saffron cheesecake, saffron pancake, and chocolate mousse, so I did. Yum!
It was decorated so well and they were very friendly. What an amazing evening.
Other There were
so many other things we did the whole time. We visted Gamla Stan for the Christmas Market a couple times. I saw my niece performing gymnastics then we went to eat at a Jamaican pop up, which was a very interesting place. We liked it but would not go back.... which is fine as it is a pop up - very cool, man. My niece also had a piano recital that I got to see a well as meeting my nephew's friend with his family. K did some good home cooking, such as Swedish waffles.
M, T and I went to an Irish bar at the T-Centralen station (table pre-booked) where we watched M's Team Canada play in the world cup. He was just hoping that they would score their first goal ever in the World Cup. We sat down right as the game was starting, and he went to the bar to order drinks.... Almost immediately, Canada scored - he looked up to see and did a lap around the dining area, super excited. They had scored in the first 2 minutes, looking to be off to a good start, but wound up losing 4-1 to Croatia. He
claimed all he wanted was that first score.... so, yay?
Metro Stations The Stockholm Metro has been called the Longest Art Gallery in the World. I was hoping to see more but due to the hectic time of year and family functions, I figured I'd explore more the next time. However, I did love seeing three of the top ten on this trip.
Rådhuset is our main one, and it has the impression of things from above posting down into the earth. The walls and ceilings have the natural rock exposed and some items such as a "root cellar" peeking thru. It was designed by Sigvard Olsson.
T- Centralen I was at frequently and this is where all the lines come together. The blue line seemed to be the most artistic. The walls and ceiling are also carved into the rock, either painted blue or with blue accents. I rode the green line, which was nice, but I didn't see anything that stood out.
Kungsträdgården was definitely the most intricate of the three. Artist Urik Samuelson contributed a lot to this station, wanting to represent the "king's garden" from above. Previously, a palace
was above but burned down a couple hundred years before. He means to convert that many ruins can be seen all over, building on top, but things like bottle caps may be our time's legacy. The main hall also had design on the ceilings that made me think it was like a nuclear bunker or something, still unsure. And the escalator down has keyboard depictions on the ceilings. Just lovely.
Stockholm Arlanda Airport This may go very low on my airport rankings unfortunately. My sister had warned me that once it opened up after covid, it was chaos. But it's Sweden! Surely not! I seriously may avoid flying thru this airport next time, definitely not flying out thru here. I may take a train and visit expensive Oslo instead just to avoid it. It was not the most fun experience last time, but it was covid, so fairly quiet. This time: chaos. Security took forever. There are few eating options once you go thru immigration. And the immigration line was the end of road for me.... I waited 15 minutes behind 4 people and the woman at the desk was having great difficulty. I sympathize, really. But
the guy in the next both was clear his line was NOT open. When he finally decides to open it, do you think he asks for the next one? No. He says the people in the back, waiting less time, to come forward. W. T. F. And when I finally got my turn I was livid. My gut was nice enough but zero apology. If he had at least apologized it may have soothed me a bit. But that's when I determined it was my last time flying out thru and gives them a bad ranking for various reasons. Ugh. Rant over.
Anyway!!! Am Anson and fun fun fun trip with the family! Just wish it could have ended on a high note.
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
I second your opinion about Arlanda Airport.
Signage was not clear so I ended up being dropped off at the opposite end of the airport from my check in and gate. I had to walk (pulling two heavy suitcases which my wife insisted I take with me) 1.6 KM to get there. At least, when the agent saw that I was having difficulty walking any further, she arranged for handicap assistance for my transit in LHR and DEN. You had such an amazing time in Stockholm.