The spring in London has been off to a great start... but there is nothing like kicking off the summer with a mini holiday away! Stockholm was the perfect place to get in the proper summer mood and celebrate our first month of wedding bliss.
Jeff worked with a few short term secondments over the winter, one of them being Anton who is from Stockholm. He gave us some great tips and recommendations for our long weekend away.
We flew out Friday after work and arrived fairly late. Saturday we were up and out, ready to explore. Anton recommended the Old Town as a great starting place. With the little allies and small locally owned stores, it is easy to wonder around for a morning.
We saw the Noble Prize Museum.
After wandering around some, we eventually made it over the the Vasa Museum.
It is the oldest 17th century war ship preserved in the world.
It sailed for a total of 17 minutes into the harbor before tipping over....
They say it was not wide enough at the bottom to be stable.
When it was finished, I can only image it was a sight to see though...
Overall, it was quite an interesting museum. They really did a lot by pulling an old boat of the harbor and putting it in a building for people to look at haha. It is the most visited museum in Scandinavia. Afterwards, we stopped to get a bite to eat by the water.
Jeff was expanding his taste buds with Swedish beers.....
It was also quite interactive. They had a stage that people could get on and sing with Abba via holographics... the popular options were Dancing Queen or Mama Mia!
Afterwards, we wondered back to the hotel and enjoyed the nice sunny weather.
We had dinner reservations at this place with a unique menu. The menu was tapas style, where you choose between 3, 5, or 7 small plates. Each plate focused on a different flavor, such as garlic, coriander, soy, etc, rather than the actual food that was served. One of my favorite things was the fish and chips that was served, but the flavor was focused on soy. One of Jeff's favorites was the crab and avocado with a slice of toast, that was focused on the coriander flavor of the toast. Each dish was also paired with a drink, some where wine and some were beer. It was very delicious and a great way to celebrate our 1 month anniversary!
The next day we ventured out to an outdoor museum and part zoo. We had great views looking back over Stockholm.
The peacocks were roaming around free..
We saw some wandering around people looking for food...
The bear was quite interesting and probably the most active bear we had ever seen. He was pacing back and forth and climbing whatever he could get his paws on. I think he was looking for his mate and cubs that were across the path and separated from him.
These were the tiniest monkeys I have seen! and so cute!!!
After our visit to the zoo we grabbed some lunch. Anton mentioned prawn toast was a very popular swedish dish, so we gave it a go. It was pretty tasty and felt very fresh, since we know it was probably locally caught. Stockholm is one of the cleanest cities in the world and has one of the highest life expectancy. They get one year for maternity leave and everyone gets basic insurance.
The weather was so beautiful, we decided to enjoy a boat tour around the city. We choose the Tour under the bridges and learned some interesting facts along the way. Sweden has been free of conflict for over 200 years. So there has been no destruction of historical sites and no behavioral changes due to war.
This is one Anton's recommendations for swedish beer.
Not sure if you can see it from these pictures but the swedish were soaking every bit of sun ray they could... including sun bathing on the rocks! haha
Here the proper beach was loaded with the sun seekers!
A view from the boat looking over at the town hall. This is where they host the Noble Museum award ceremonies every year.
Another view looking over the city from our boat ride. Stockholm is beautiful!
After our boat ride, we met up with Anton for dinner along the water. Jeff and Anton look like twins in this photo! haha
A beautiful Stockholm summer sunset!
We wondered around the base of the Town Hall..
The founder of Stockholm is buried here...
Since it stayed light for so long, we found we had some extra energy for one more stop in the evening... off the Icebar we went!
We were given special jackets and gloves to enter the sub temp room!
We each got a drink made out of an ice block. They were quite tasty :)
The Icebar was in a hotel..this is the view from the other side of it.
Last but not least, we went on a mission to find some swedish meatballs for lunch before heading out to the airport. I have to say there were pretty good and worth the extra effort to find some!
Special thanks to Anton for helping with all the travel suggestions on our trip! We had a good time in Stockholm.
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