Stockholm

The next stop on our journey north was Stockholm, Sweden. It was a two stage train trip with the first a crossing of the Oresund bridge, that is both a bridge and underwater tunnel, joining Sweden with Denmark. Very cool engineering!

We then changed trains in Malmo for the trek to Stockholm. The scenery along the way was beautiful, lots of forest and lakes with typical Swedish villages and farm houses blended in.

Once in Stockholm it was only one stop on the metro to our Airbnb in Gamla Stan, Stockholm’s Old Town. The cobblestones were the worst yet, and with our bags are getting heavier with each souvenir we’re worried the wheels won’t last the trip.

We were relieved to see our apartment had blockout curtains; we had been struggling with the daylight hours – sunset around 10pm, sunrise around 3.30am and our last stay had no curtains on some windows so we had the full experience.

After dropping our bags we went for our usual exploring and hunt for supplies. Gamla Stan is actually a small island, one of 14 that make up the archipelago of Stockholm, and the 30000+ that make up Sweden. It wasn’t long before we were crossing a bridge onto our next island – Norrmalm, via a very grand city gateway that’s part of the Parliament building (on its own island).

In our search for supplies we soon discovered that the sale of wine is controlled through government owned shops called Systembolaget.

Sweden introduced centralised government controlled alcohol sales in 1955 in order to control per capita consumption. It sounds archaic, but once we found a store it didn’t seem much different to Australia having bottle shops. The store we went to was huge, like a Dan Murphy’s and very popular! Great income for the government.

Our exploration of the islands continued the next morning with a 10 minute ferry ride to Djurgarden – which is where many museums are based. The ferry’s are a great mode of transport here, very much like Sydney Harbour.

Our first booking of the day was at the ABBA Museum, at Opening time! We were the first there and Bel was pumped. It was a bucket list moment and she couldn’t wait to get in!

By the time the doors opened there was a big crowd queued up, all of a similar vintage, but with accents from all over the world.

The museum was great, giving insights into the forming of the band and the back stories of the members.

Bel let loose and did everything that was on offer.

We left ABBA with Bel on a high and made the short walk to my bucket list moment, the Vasa museum.

The Vasa is a time capsule of 17th century life. It’s a Royal wooden warship that was salvaged from the Stockholm harbour almost completely intact some ~350 years after it sank in 1628. The damaged components have been carefully restored and the wood treated to prevent further rotting. A bit like the Titanic it sank on its maiden voyage, due to bad design, only making it a bit over 1km into the harbour.

When we walked through the entry doors my breath was immediately taken away. Wow! It’s such a magnificent site.

The Transom was covered in carvings, which would have been brightly painted at the time

The ship is huge, photographs can’t capture the scale. It looks magnificent and the museum provides fascinating insights into its construction , life at the time, living on board, and the ongoing preservation efforts.

The Vasa didn’t decay because shipworms couldn’t survive in the low salinity

The detail on the ship was incredible, with over 700 carved sculptures. It was built under instruction from the then King Gustav, who wanted two ship levels of canon, making it very tall and why it is believed it sank so easily.

An example of how the sculptures would have been painted

After the museum we caught another ferry home and this time grabbed a spot at the front to take some photos of the harbour. Very picturesque.

The cutout stone walls remind us of Sydney Harbour

The view back to Gamla Stan and bridge to Sodermalm

Back at Gamla Stan we found a spot on the harbour to enjoy the afternoon sun.

It was like being at the opera bar, they just need a bridge and opera house

The place was called Mister French and we recommend it, it was extra busy on the day as the Stockholm marathon was on and there were many thirsty runners.

We continued the museum theme the next day, starting with the Nobel Prize Museum. It’s on Gamla Stan, so an easy walk.

It is such an inspiring place to visit. The people recognised here really have made a difference to the world. We have so many superficial TikTok stars in our media today, but these are the real ones that we should be celebrating.

All of the Australian winners. We were able to read about each one

Every prize winner is shown on the cards that circulate on the ceiling

Australian, Howard Florey, was on one of the feature walls, for his discovery of Penicillin – although Fleming did get the headline

After lunch we jumped on the Ferry again to Djurgarden, this time for the Museum of wrecks.

It’s a museum about shipwrecks, with the most interesting part being the VR experience. We went because it was part of our bundle with Vasa, but probably wouldn’t have gone otherwise.

We finished the day with a walk after dinner into Norrmalm.

It’s the Nordic way to integrate feature with function

Parliament House – on a small island between Gamla Stan and Normalm

Our last day started with lots of island exploring by foot, firstly in the told town..

And then a walk over the bridge to Sodermalm…

The view from Sodermalm back to Gamla Stan

Before a lovely lunch on the harbour back at Mister French…

We finished it with a cruise around the Stockholm Archipelago. It gave us a better perspective of the number of islands and the numerous island suburbs, many of which are old industrial areas being transformed into apartments.