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Published: October 17th 2010
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Next stop on the Scandi adventure for Belinda and myself was 2 days in Stockholm. The sun was glorious for a change and it was great to be outdoors and not carrying umbrellas. We stayed in a 5 star hotel just to rejuvenate and fill our tummies on awesome breakfast options. So the combination of just the sun and top accomodation alone, gives me good reason to name Stockholm as one of my favourite Scandi destinations on the trip.
There is loads to do there but we did waste our first morning chasing a document case that I had left on the overnight train from Oslo! All our paperwork for the entire trip was on it.... it was redeemed but sent back to UK so my organisation totally went out the window. Once we were sorted in the paperwork department we could really sink our teeth into the city. They have a hop-on-hop-off ferry service that can drop you at the significant points around the harbour which was really handy too. We took a 1 hour cruise through the canals and saw the local side of things. Everyone has boats! and they are moared all the way along the canals. Although
it was not 'swimming weather' lots of people were soaking up the rays from their little luxury liners.
After the boat ride was the city hall. On the way I purchased a very interesting hotdog. The bun was the size of a small pocket knife and the sausage was the length of a 30cm ruler. Not only was it ridiculously proportioned but it was swalloed in 3 bites and cost me the equivalent of 12 aussie dollars! Very crazy! Everything in Scandinavia is really, really, really, really expensive which is a bit stressful but you have to eat right! So sorry....... back to City Hall. From the City Hall, which is the main symbol for the capital of Sweden, the City of Stockholm is governed. Around 200 politicians and civil servants have their offices in the building. It has the most exclusive ballroom in Stockholm which is frequently used for the yearly Nobel Banquet. Bel and I missed out on going into the building because you are only allowed in on guided tours that happen every hour till 4 but we did take some time to relax in the gardens and walk around the building itself.
After the official business
we headed to Gamla Stan, the old town. The old town is the original Stockholm. The town was set up during the 1300 century. There are about 3000 people living in the old city today. Most buildings are from the 1700 and 1800 century. The place is full of tourist shops which I did not favour so much but we did head there for dinner in the evening where I got to sample classic swedish meatballs. A gentlemen was standing outside his restaurant trying to entice customers (as they do), we looked at his menu but there were no meatballs. But he was determined to have us, so we said if he cooked us meatballs we would come in. A few words to the chef and we had meatballs with mash and cranberry sauce. DELICIOUS!😱
A suprise find on one of the afternoons was the Vasa Museum. The Vasa Museum is a maritime museum, although it only holds one ship. We had to take a ferry to the island of Djurgården, the museum displays the only almost fully intact 17th century ship that has ever been salvaged, the 64-gun warship Vasa that sank on her maiden voyage in 1628. What
a story! Basically she was built for war but was built too narrow for her depth and weight. Despite an obvious lack of stability in port, she was allowed to set sail and foundered a few minutes later when she first encountered a wind stronger than a breeze. Scince the 17th century she layed on the bottom of the sea floor but in 1961 was salvaged. During the recovery, thousands of artifacts and the remains of at least 15 people were found in and around the hull of the Vasa by marine archaeologists. Among the many items found were clothing, weapons, cannons, tools, coins, cutlery, food, drink and six of the ten sails. The artifacts and the ship itself have provided historians with invaluable insights into details of naval warfare, shipbuilding techniques and everyday life in early 17th-century Sweden. It's timber carvings are a grand sight. It is ginormous!. They also have a movie room which shows the salvage process and then the 10 year restoration that took place to get it to its glory today. Fascinating stuff!
Sticking with the theme of boats we took a day trip to the royal residence. Kungliga Slottet is the king and queens
official residence however, after having a large family they moved to a more peaceful part of sweden further down the river, at Drottningholm Palace. Gaurded by the swedish military you really do step into another world. They do have part of the palace open to the public but the gardens are a highlight as you wander around. The front of the palace faces onto water filled with swans and a dreamy atmosphere is created. Not to mention we were in stockholm 2 weeks after the royal wedding of Victoria and Daniel. A real fairytale story when the eldest daughter of the king and queen married commoner and personal trainer. The city had gone royal crazy. There photos were everywhere and you could even buy dish clothes with their picture on them lol.
On the second day we did a bicycle tour of Stockholm which was included in our stockholm pass. It was a very unexpected highlight as well. For one, I am not really a bicylce type but it is true, the minute you get back on the seat and start to peddle you do not forget. The guide on the tour was really great and he took us to
some great parts and would never have seen otherwise. It was a lengthy tour and my butt certainly felt it the following days. We could not leave Stockholm without paying a visit to the original ICE bar. Dressed very inappropriatley, we headed to the very cold bar. Adorned in snazzy capes we drank vodka sunrises out glasses made of ice. We stayed for about 20minutes but the cold just got too much. Jenny has suggested we visit a few bars that evening which we tried to do but after 2 hours of searching we gave up on trying to find them and walked into a bar and had a quick drink. The cab ride home cost a bomb and left a very sour taste on our evening.
Funny times happened at the vodaphone dome, which is apparently the largest domed building in the northern hemisphere. We went in a glass dome to the top of the fish bowl to check out the views of Sweden and of course my height anxieties hit hard. Grrrrrrrr!
Before I arrived in this awesome city I could not wait to feast my eyes on those chizzled blonde swedish boys that I hear so much
about but I think they have all migrated because Bel and I did not see one. We were lucky enough ( she says sarcastically)to be in Stockholm the same weekend as deaf leopard, or some other rock band thats fans have long hair and piercings everywhere. We did spend one afternoon at a really cool bar called Strybryggen (I think) and it was the closest we came to the blonde and the beautiful. Loads of young boys pulled up in their speed boats and jetted off just like the young boys strut their stuff in their hotted up cars down church street parramatta lol. Not seeing those blonde hotties was my only disappointment in Sweden.
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