jpie

So enjoying your photos and so missing spring in Europe! Happy Birthday-sounds like you had a really special celebration!

russ_in_LA

We said exactly the same thing about the Maeght! Very similar in aesthetic and philosophy, but you also get the sea!

russ_in_LA

Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone!!

jpie, I hope we see you both over the summer, or if not, then this fall in PS!

We just finished Stockholm and Oslo, so I have a lot of catching up to do. Will try to work on it a bit tonight.

russ_in_LA

So, we arrived in Stockholm a week ago and took a cab to our apartment in Gamla Stan which is an island in the middle of the city and the oldest part of town. We could have taken the train, but between various neck and back problems, we didn’t want to deal with dragging luggage around the cobblestone streets.

The location of the apartment was ideal, on a pedestrian street, very close to the action but with none of the noise. We had an attractive, well maintained apartment, that we book direct, in a building called Residence Perseus, and I highly recommend it. They have many apartments in the same building and the website does a good job of describing them. Ours was very quiet, with large rooms and a view over the rooftops toward the sea.

My first impression of the city was that it was topographically much more interesting than Copenhagen. I’m a sucker for cities with hills, which enable you to get views from various angles and vantage points. Add to that the seaside location, as well as the ferry access to the various islands, and it made just traveling from point A to B as enjoyable as the destination (excluding an ongoing redevelopment area between Gamla Stan and Sodeemalm, but that won’t go on forever).

Instead of going out to dinner that first night, I made pasta at the apartment. We were tired and needed some down time (and the fact that it was cold and raining may have also influenced our decision &#128521.

Our first morning we did a chilly two hour walking tour of Gamla Stan with five other people. It wasn’t exceptional, but it was a nice way to get oriented. The tour ended at the Royal Palace at 12:15, just in time for the changing of the guard. This one was different than that of Copenhagen, in that there was more of a ceremony before the actual changing of guards.

After a really good lunch at a nearby ramen restaurant, we spent the rest of the day retracing our steps through the area to go inside places we had only passed by during the tour.

I had previously made dinner reservations at the restaurant at the Fotografiska photography museum on Soldermalm, the island just across the bridge to the south of Gamla Stan. The museum is open until 11pm so we would be able to peruse the exhibits before or after dinner at our leisure. I admit that I may have a tendency to over-schedule a bit, so when I found out that the Stockholm City Museum on Sodermalm was: A) also open late on Thursday nights, and B) at 10 minutes by foot, almost exactly halfway between our apartment and Fotografiska, I naturally squeezed that in between. In this case it worked out because the museum was virtually empty, and it was very informative about the history of Stockholm.

Fortunately, after the museum, we did not follow the GoogleMaps route to Fotografiska, which said it was going to be a 30 minute walk (due to the ongoing construction detours). Along the correct (10 minute) route, the gallery has cleverly installed a series of humorous signs to let pedestrians know that they are on the right track.

We arrived at the gallery with time before dinner to see the photo exhibits, which ranged from images from Andy Warhol’s Factory era, to very recent large scale digital art. The gallery restaurant has won awards for its sustainably sourced ingredients, and the almost entirely vegetarian meal (there was some fish roe in one dish) was excellent. The real surprise however was the fantastic view of the islands across the water, with Gamla Stan on one side, and the twirling lights of the Grona Lund amusement park on the other. Even the chilly 20 minute walk home was a pleasure. It had turned out to be a really good day.



View over the rooftops from our apartment

Stortorget square in Gamla Stan

Steeple of the German Church in Gamla Stan

Some random doorway

Former Parliament building

The narrowest street in Stockholm

Changing of the guards

Storkyrkan, Cathedral of Stockholm

George slaying the dragon

6” high statue in Gamla Stan

Riddarholmen Church

Riddarholmen Church - Burial place of kings and queens

Riddarholmen Church

Riddarholmen Church

Headless chicken man in Riddarholmen Church (from a family crest)

Digital art at Fotografiska

Gamla Stan from Södermalm

Adelaidean

Interesting streets, sights and architecture. Thanks for taking us with you!

tripplanner001

Looking forward to more from Stockholm. Given that you're already in Oslo, did you feel that seeing three cities back to back was too much? We typically enjoy big cities but have been staying away from heavy city-focused trips since COVID. Just don't prefer to be indoors and masking all day (I know it's not required in most places nowadays, although I still do in indoor crowded places and on public transport). Just curious.

ms_go

Enjoying your report. We've been to most of these destinations, but only scratched the surface - and I'd like to go back for more. We stayed at Residence Perseus a few years ago and loved the apartment and location.

russ_in_LA

I most definitely feel that 3 cities back to back is too much. We mostly walk everywhere and my feet are rebelling. I would normally have broken it up with some countryside, but we saved the fjords for the end on the hope that the weather would be warmer there later in the month. Many roads don’t open up until mid-May. Although we loved seeing the flowers everywhere at this time of the year, in retrospect, this trip would have been ideal in early June, putting the fjords between two of the capital cities.

TDudette

What a nice apartment view! The architecture of Stortorget Square sent me to Google for an actual name: Is it called Gothic? DH and I loved the square of them in Bruges. Don't know why it has taken me so long to look for a name. On my small kindle screen, it looks like the two of you in silhouette before a photo? Please keep the photos coming!

Maribel

Russ, I'm enjoying your ongoing report so very much that I've decided it's time to put Scandanavia on the front burner. Just a couple of questions if you don't mind--from where did you fly into Copenhagen, and from there, what airline flew you to Stockholm (or did you take the train)?

Because Finnair now has a non-stop flight from SEA to HEL, it may make sense for us to reverse your itinerary and start with Finland.
Thanks and looking forward to more of your exquisite photos!

russ_in_LA

Hi there! We flew Air France, departing from LAX and changing in Paris. Would have prefered non-stop on SAS but…price. Every subsequent flight has been SAS. Very short flights but long security lines (45 min). If you can buy a ticket that includes Fast Track through security for not much more cost, consider it.

russ_in_LA

I’m afraid I don’t know the name of the architectural style of the buildings on the square, I know only that they were built in the 15th century and the facades altered in the 17th. Yes that’s us doing a “selfie” in front of a digital art video which had a mirror across from it so that it can be viewed from either direction.

russ_in_LA

I forgot to mention previously that, after lunch on our first day, we also took in the Medieval museum, which is located among the underground ruins in the front of the Parliment building, which were discovered when they were excavating for a (fortunately) never realized parking structure. Incidentally, both this museum and the City Museum in Södermalm are free.

So, picking back up with the report, on our second day in Stockholm, we walked five minutes to the ferry stop and took a 20 minute ride to the green island of Djurgåden, which contains the amusement park, Gröna Lund, as well as a handful of museums surrounded by grassy lawns and trees. These include the Nordic Museum, the Viking Museum, and the Abba Museum, among others, but our goal for the morning was the Vasa Museum.

The Vasa was a wooden warship built in 1628, and became famous for sinking in the harbor less than 1500 meters into its maiden voyage. It sat at the bottom of the harbor until 1961, when it was salvaged with the hull mostly intact.

After years of drying out and restauration, you can visit not only the ship itself, but exhibits containing the belongings of the 30 people who perished aboard. There are viewing platforms at various levels which enable you to get close to the detailed carvings on the ship, and the displays of the crew’s recovered belongings give a fascinating view into the day to day life at that time. This turned out to be our favorite museum of the trip, so far.

We had lunch at the nearby Museum of Sprits, which was surprisingly good for a small museum cafe. What had caught our eye while we were there was the temporary exhibit of French duo, Pierre et Gilles, with their hybrid photo/paint portraits framed by fantastical scenes in hyper-saturated color.

The main part of the museum focuses on the history and culture of alcohol in Sweden. We learned, for example, that in the 19th century, a law was passed allowing the home distilling of alcohol. The cheap liquor lead to a workforce that was perpetually intoxicated, with a corresponding plummet in productivity. Eventually, a temperance movement formed, which resulted in rationing in the early 20th century, and finally, the current monopoly of state run liquor stores today. This explains why we couldn’t buy wine in the supermarket the first night when we went grocery shopping. All take-away alcohol (i.e., not consumed on the premises, like at a bar) is now sold only through these state stores, of which the closest was a mile away. (Sam survived without wine that night.)

After lunch we walked five minutes to Skansen, which I had read was an “open air” museum of traditional buildings, moved from locations around the country and reassembled. We have been to similar museums in Japan and found them fascinating, but this wasn’t that. Although it did have a few old wooden structures scattered here and there, with no information or descriptions, it turned out to mostly be a zoo and park for small children, which didn’t hold much appeal for us.

Thankfully we had bought a 24hr transportation pass, good on ferries, buses and the subway, so we made a quick escape and headed by bus to the Millesgården, an art museum and sculpture garden located on the island of Lindingö. It was nice to see a different part of the city, and the sculpture garden in particular was a serene break from the buzz of the city center.


Gamla Stan from the ferry

Skeppsholmen Island from the ferry

Boat for hire on Skeppsholmen Island, from the ferry

Vasa museum

Vasa museum

Vasa museum

Vasa museum

Millesgården Museum

Millesgården Museum

Millesgården Museum

Millesgården Museum

Millesgården Museum

Millesgården Museum

Millesgården Museum

Millesgården Museum

Millesgården Museum

Millesgården Museum

TDudette

Gravity defied incredibility.

thursdaysd

Surprised by your take on Skansen, I remembered enjoying it. Went back and checked my TR and I wrote: "Overall, I enjoyed Skansen, which offered some good views of Stockholm, some interesting buildings and fewer people than I expected, although I was sorry for some of the animals." It's a big place, maybe you didn't get far enough in.

I didn't get to Millesgården, which was obviously a mistake, great photos.

russ_in_LA

We were surprised too, because it’s the type of thing we both usually like. I should mention that none of the buildings were open, so we couldn’t walk around inside. We spent about an hour there, so I’d say we say about 75% of it, although quickly.

mjs

We are flying from ARN through Oslo to BGO in a month. Flying SAS Plus Smart. Arrival at airport 1- 2 hours before flight reasonable?

russ_in_LA

I would say arrive at least 1-1/2 hours before your departure if you have fast track security (your boarding pass will say) and 2-1/4 hours before if you done.

russ_in_LA

For our last day in Stockholm we decided to start with the Swedish History museum in Östermalm. It was overwhelming. I think we both hit our saturation point just after finishing the Viking Age, when we noticed that there was also a large prehistoric section (which we skipped). We finished off with the section focusing on the period since Sweden became a country, which had a time line on the floor which related to the exhibits, and was a bit easier to digest.

My favorite part of the visit however was the orchestra that was rehearsing in the great hall of the palace which houses the museum. We sat and watched for a while, and I recognized the melody of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 from my university music appreciation course (one of the very few I can correctly name). It was also a nice accompaniment to the museum visit, as the music drifted through the hallways and found us as we wandered through the various eras of Swedish history.

It was such a gorgeous sunny day when we finished that we decided to walk the 2.5 km back to our apartment. This took us past small marinas on the south shores of Östermalm, and Norrmalm, and to the bridge in front of the Parliament building, which enabled us to get some photos of the grand 19th century buildings lining the shore.

So, in the end, I think we enjoyed Stockholm even more than Copenhagen for some reason. Of course, it’s difficult to form an accurate option with only 4 days in each place. I really liked the connection to the outdoors, with all the islands each having their own personalities. I had read that 42% of workers in Stockholm commute to work by bike, so it was nice to see this testified by the good use of the dedicated bike paths we saw all around the city. There is a lot more on our list that we could have seen and done, but four days seemed like a perfect amount of time for this trip.

Next up: Oslo



Rehearsal at the Swedish History Museum

Skeppsholmen From Östermalm

Swedish marketing techniques

Parliament building

Norrmalm from Strömparterren Park with Sun Singer statue in foreground

Gamla Stan

balthy

IME Stockholm is prettier than Copenhagen, with all the islands and it is very beautiful in summer and winter for that matter. Copenhagen is more of a "cool" city and the food scene much better than Sweden. If you spend enough time in Sweden you'll know what I mean.