Last Year's Travels: Stockholm

Our first trip last year was to Sweden for a couple of days in Stockholm. This time it was just myself and M - our youngest stayed home with her sisters in charge. It was January. It was cold! Anyone with any sense was indoors ...

... or not! Even in January the main streets of the old town, Gamla Stan were busy 

I hadn't realised that Stockholm is built on a series of islands, so travelling anywhere meant crossing bridges.

It was the sort of weather where doing things that involved being indoors were most appealing. We visited the royal palace where we watched the changing of the guard before scuttling back into the warm.

An unexpected discovery was the Museum of Medieval Stockholm. A plan to build an underground car park for the Swedish parliament building had been abandoned when an archaeological dig discovered part of the medieval city wall and various other medieval sites. The car park site was instead used for a museum incorporating the archaeological finds and various full scale reconstructions.

On our second day we took a ferry to Djurgarden in search of more (indoor! warm!) museums.

In a complete change from the previous day we went for a bit of pop culture at the ABBA museum. We grew up during the ABBA years and M once saw them perform live, so we could hardly miss this one. 

For me the highlight of our trip was the Vasa museum. The Vasa warship sank in Stockholm on its maiden voyage in 1628 and was salvaged virtually intact in the early 1960s. It is now beautifully displayed in a purpose built museum. The photographs below don't do it justice - I couldn't find an angle that gives a true impression of its size.

Part of the carved stern of the Vasa ...

January may be a cold time to visit, but Stockholm does winter well. We didn't skate, but it was fun to watch. 

  

There were even some Christmassy reindeer brightening up the cold evening.

One small cautionary tale ... We knew that alcoholic drinks would be expensive in Sweden, so were surprised to find brandy on a restaurant menu at a very reasonable price. I wasn't tempted but M was, to two glasses. It was only when the bill arrived that we realised that the brandy was priced per 10ml, not by the glass. Oops!