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Published: July 10th 2007
And The Rain Finally Ceases
Despite getting tired of the constant rain here in Scandinavia, Kel and I have been really good about getting off our rear ends and going out. On the morning of the 9th we poked around a bit too much before leaving the room in the morning so we sadly found ourselves hungry and with no chance at breakfast. The hotel breakfast ends at 10am and we were ready to leave our room at about 10:15. Instead of rushing out into the rain, we spent the next hour or so in the room while Kel did internet research on Iceland (where we’ll be in about a week and a half).
By 11:30 we were both famished and thus had to get out and about to get some food. On our way out of the hotel we stopped at the front desk to leave a note for Linda and Al, Kel’s aunt and uncle who were supposed to be checking in during the day. Turns out that we missed them by about fifteen minutes as they had already checked in and headed out to see the town. We figured we’d catch up with them
later and stalked off in the rain to fill our tummies.
We had done most of our eating in the old town area which we talked about in our last blog entry. Looking for a change of pace, we decided to head past old town and into the more commercial part of town. Even though it was still pouring down rain, this area of town was hopping at lunch time on a Monday. We walked up Drottninggatan, which is the main commercial boulevard running from old town into central Stockholm. This festive section of town with its multicolored flags hanging everywhere is a tourists delight with shops of all ranges, sizes, and specialties. Eventually we stopped in a cheap kebab place and had the cheapest meal we’ve had so far in Scandinavia - which still exceeded $25 for a fast food lunch, ouch!
I had been pretty grumpy all morning and hoped that a full stomach would end my grumpiness but unfortunately this just wasn’t the case. We spent the next hour walking through the commercial area and Stockholm’s largest mall, Gallerian Mall . Unfortunately, shopping is not something that can consume a ton of our time because
we haven’t the capacity to buy anything due to limited cargo space (and limited $$$ too). After about an hour of peeking in stores and stopping every now and then to actually explore a store in-depth, we found ourselves bored and stumped about what to do next.
I suggested that we split up, which you all know is not something we do very frequently. This would give me a chance to work on my grumpiness by blowing off a bunch of steam walking through Stockholm and try to take a few pictures (in the rain) while Kel got to go back to the hotel, relax for a while and hopefully find Linda and Al. Thus, we parted ways at about 2pm in the center of central Stockholm. I promised I would be back by 6pm at the latest and set off to find my destiny, so to speak.
After taking a few pictures of the area we had been walking in, I headed straight for the tallest spire in the area. Klara Kyrka is the tallest church in this part of Stockholm but isn’t that old or really that cool when compared to other churches in Europe. Despite
the fact that I’ve seen tons of great cathedrals on this trip, I still took a few minutes to try and get some cool pictures before moving on to the next sight.
Next I spent about a half an hour at the nearby Stadshuset (City Hall). This huge squarish building has been the sight of the Nobel Prize presentation since it was built in 1923. It was built of close to 8 million bricks of a very dark red color. In shocking contrast to the dark brick are the multiple statues and domes made out of gold chips. When you fist see this building, especially from a distance, the contrast between the dark red and gold make for a really impressive sight.
After taking a few shots of the statues and building itself I headed towards the east side of town. On my way to some of the islands situated in the middle of the Saltsjön (the main body of water in the middle of Stockholm) I took some pictures of anything interesting I came across including some pictures of Kungsträdgården, a huge square that used to be a garden for the king. Eventually I walked past the
National Art Museum and crossed the bridge onto Skepps Holmen, one of the small islands just east of the old town part of the city.
On Mondays just about every museum in town is closed which led to the island being almost completely deserted. Skepps Holmen houses the Modern Museum of Art and a few other smaller museums which normally attract a pretty decent crowd. Instead I had the island almost completely to myself as I ran around and took pictures of the skyline of old town and a few of the island itself.
I finally ran out of energy when I was on Skepps Holmen and was forced to return back to the hotel. By the time I had gotten back to our room I had walked close to ten miles and taken about 100 pictures (most of them not all that great), but more importantly I was feeling much happier and less grumpy.
It turned out to be perfect timing for me to be on happier ground. When I returned to the room Kel had left me a note that she was hanging out with Linda and Al upstairs in the hotel lounge. Linda and
Al just happened to be in Stockholm for one night after a cruise of Scandinavia before they were going to fly back to the States. We were here, they were here - a great coincidence! After dropping off my stuff in the room, I headed upstairs and Kel, Linda, Al and I spent the next two hours talking upstairs while having a few drinks. At about 7 we split up briefly to get ready for dinner and then proceeded to a really nice seafood restaurant on the water’s edge in old town.
As we’ve often said it’s always great to catch up with friends and family when we are traveling. Linda is Kel’s Mom’s identical twin sister (quite a mouthful, no?) so it was doubly nice for Kel to meet up with Linda because she is, of course, the spitting image of Leslie, Kel’s Mom. (Fun fact: Kel’s dad is an identical twin too . . . crazy.) At this point we’ve run into more of Kel’s relatives this year than we usually do in 18 months or more back home. Linda and Al have spent bunches of time in Europe so they were full of good advice for
the next few months in Europe. After dinner we returned to the hotel energized by our time socializing and seeing family.
It Finally Stops Raining The next day we woke a bit earlier so we could have breakfast with Linda and Al before they left for Berlin. The breakfast buffet that we had missed the day before was well worth getting up a little bit earlier. We got our chance to say good bye and spend a little more time with Linda and Al which was well worth getting up a bit earlier.
After bidding adieu to Linda and Al we set off to spend the day on Djurgaden, an island in the middle of Stockholm’s Saltsjön which was once reserved as the King’s hunting ground. Today, this island is used as a giant playground for Stockholm’s residents. It has a decent sized amusement park, an outdoor folk museum, and a couple of decent museums. All these things, plus some nice green spaces, add up to a nice haven for folks to get some time in the outdoors during the few warm months in Stockholm.
We took a ferry over to the island and
then set out for Skansen, the huge outdoor folk museum/zoo/concert hall/history museum. We spent the next two or three hours roaming Skansen and even stopped to get a lunch of Swedish meatballs before heading on. While geared mostly for children, many of the recreations of old Swedish farm houses and buildings (think Williamsburg or Plymouth Plantation in MA) are really interesting. And, as you all know, we always love a chance to see more animals. In particular we really enjoyed the bears, the moose and the reindeer.
Reindeer are native to this part of the world and roam freely up in the northern parts of Sweden. One of Sweden’s ethnic groups, the Sami, spend most of the year living, what we would consider, normal everyday lives. Then, in the middle of the cold arctic winter, clans of the Sami take off of work and take their kids out of school. For two months the Sami live completely nomadic lives in the wild herding, you guessed it, their packs of reindeer. In order to safely move their reindeer from one pasture to another they must closely watch and herd the packs using at least some modern technology, snow mobiles. The
Skansen has not only the reindeer but also traditional dwellings that the Sami used in the northern Swedish wilderness. Pretty interesting stuff!
After getting a thorough view of Skansen, we walked a few blocks down the island to the Nordic Museum. Similar to the National Museum in Copenhagen, this museum is a giant collection of all sorts of history and culture of Sweden. We had expected to breeze through the museum pretty quickly but found ourselves interested enough that we actually stuck around for a couple of hours.
Of particular interest were the exhibits on Swedish meals through history, the fashion exhibit and a really cool photographic exhibit. The one that was really the coolest was the mock up of large family meals throughout town. This one hall had at least ten different dinner tables set up with a mock up of a full feast starting in the 1500’s and then moving up to WWII. It’s crazy to see how meals, foods, and table settings have changed over time and reflect changes in society and technology. Something as simple as the fork has progressed much over the last five hundred years. This may sound dull to some of
you but I promise that it was actually pretty cool.
By time we finished at the Nordic Museum it was time to head back to the hotel to get a bit of rest before dinner. We got scammed a bit by a tour company operator who we asked about the ferry home. She sold us tickets which were about double the cost of the ferry we could have taken back to our section of town. Thankfully double the price was still pretty cheap, but I personally felt stupid for falling for a sneaky trick. Oh well, these things happen even to the most seasoned traveler.
Later that night we headed out into Old Town to find some dinner. It’s always strange to head out at 8pm and have the light look like it’s 4pm. This phenomenon will only get worse as we head further north. I’m glad I don’t live this far north because I’m not sure I would ever get used to it.
Well, hope everyone back home is fabulous! We miss you all!
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