Stockholm

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A weeken trip to Stockholm in March is great to see the snow covered islands of the Swedish capital. We stayed in the south island of Sodermalm, quite a large island with some nice open spaces, many of which were filled with sauna parks and ice hockey rinks. At this time of year, the Sauna's were cranking and all of them were private use only (unfortunately).

First stop on the weekend trip was to the small island of Gamla Stan, which contains the royal palace, and we arrived at midday in time for the changing of the guards. I've seen the changing of the guards in quite a few countries now and I think the Swedes put on the best show.

From there we headed around the narrow cobbled streets of Gamla Stan before heading north over the bridge to central Stockholm. The harbour was completely frozen over, with a whole stack of boats sitting dormant waiting for the ice to melt so that they could be taken out again. It would be interesting to visit Stockholm in summer. As if the zero degree temperatures were not cold enough, we headed to the Absolut Ice Bar, just near the central station. The ice bar just felt like a big freezer but it is a novelty to drink out of an ice glass and stand at an ice table. These ice bars seem to be propping up all over the world and are a gimmick for a one-off really. So my only ice bar experience will be in Stockholm.

We went out to a few bars that night in central Stockholm, starting at a music venue where we saw some live music that was pretty good before heading to a club that was quite busy. There were two things that completely shocked me about going out in Stockholm - firstly, the price of a drink. I know Sweden has 25%!V(MISSING)AT, but it was easily twice as expensive as anywhere else in the world to buy a drink. Secondly, the stunningly good looking people in the club. Every second girl looked like a supermodel and I found myself constantly double-taking thinking it was a celebrity in the club.

The next day nursing some rather sore heads, we went to the very nice park area of Skansen. Skansen contains Stockholm's best tourist attraction, the fascinating Vasa ship museum. The Vasa museum is in a building that houses the shipwreck of the Vasa, a huge viking ship which was too top heavy and sunk just 100 metres into it's journey in the main harbour of Stockholm in the early 15th century. Amazingly, in the early 20th century it was discovered at the bottom of the harbour, perfectly preserved due to its sheltered location. It was dragged out of the harbour and placed into a shed with a very well done museum built around it. The museum gave many interesting facts of viking life and made me understand why Stockholm has 25%!V(MISSING)AT, they are still paying for their excessive viking wars! The ship itself has some brilliant wooden carvings on the front and has that spooky look about it like as though it is the pirate ship out of The Goonies.

Just next to the Vasa ship is Skansen Park which is a bit of a cross between a Zoo and some botannical gardens and contained a crazy amount of animals I hadn't seen before which thrive in the cold climate. Sea otters, seals, elk, moose, reindeer, there were plenty too look at. Most of the animals I had eaten earlier in Estonia, so it was interesting to see what they looked like alive!

The brisk cool air and interesting sights helped cure the hangovers and before we knew it was back to the UK after a very enjoyable weekend.

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