Final Scenes from Stockholm

Royal Palace

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Stockholm.  It's a vibrant city with lots of great outdoor activities, culture, and food.  We spent both nights walking through Gamla Stan (Old Town) in the center of the city, seeing both the Royal Palace as well as Stockholm Cathedral (Storkyrken).

Interior of Stockholm Cathedral

We immersed ourselves in all things Nobel.  We visited the Nobel Prize Museum and learned about the history of the prizes as well as learned about previous winners and their accomplishments.  Of special meaning to us was a new temporary exhibition that just opened this month that focuses on the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Stadhuset

One fact about the Nobel Prize I didn't know is that the prize in Economics is not one of the original five prizes (Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Literature, and Peace).  The economics prize is actually the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel and has only been awarded since 1968.  


We also visited the Stadhuset (City Hall) where the annual Nobel Prize Banquet is held after the prizes are awarded each December.  Fun Fact -- the 

Scarf worn by Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzi

largest pipe organ in Scandinavia is in the City Hall.  I'll have to mention that at work when I get home.

We paid homage to Sweden's foremost sculptor Carl Milles at Millesgården, an outdoor sculpture garden at his home and workshop on the island of Lidingö, high on a bluff above the water.  He dominated the Swedish art world in the first half of the twentieth century until his death in 1955.

Millesgården

Our final stop as we left Stockholm was to Drottningholm Palace, current home to the King & Queen of Sweden and a UNESCO World Heritage site.  As it is still the main royal residence, only a portion was open to the public and those sections are decorated in much the same way they would have been in the 1600s when the castle was built.  Immediately behind the palace is Drottningholm Palace Park, with both a 17th century Baroque Park and an 18th century English-style garden.  The grounds are immense and we walked from one end of the park to the other, in much the same way the royal family has done for the last three centuries.

Drottningholm Palace

We've picked up our rental car and have started our drive across Sweden.  We'll stop for the night and then tomorrow, finish the drive to Norway.  Next up........Oslo.

Djurgården

Vasa

Djurgården is another of the islands in central Stockholm and is very popular with both locals and tourists.  It's the home of several museums including the Nordic Museum, Vasa Museum, Viking Museum, and Skansen -- the world's oldest open-air museum featuring Swedish history from all regions of the country through buildings, farmsteads, and other artifacts disassembled, moved, and reassembled on a hillside.  ABBA The Museum is also on the island.

Besides ABBA, our two favorites were the Vasa Museum and Skansen.  The Vasa Museum was purpose built to preserve, protect, and commemorate the 17th Century Swedish warship Vasa.

Original Wooden Carving

The Vasa set sail on August 10, 1628 on her maiden voyage and sank in Stockholm harbor.  She was too top-heavy and capsized.  Rediscovered nearly 330 years later, the ship was raised with its hull nearly intact.  The raising of the Vasa was filmed and the footage is shown in the museum's theater.  It was quite the engineering feat to raise such a large wooden warship without damaging it.

How same carving would have
appeared in color.

One of the unique things about the Vasa is the ornate wooden carvings that adorn the ship from stem to stern.  Most of these carvings along with masts and catwalks were recovered during the excavation.  In fact, 98% of the ship is original.  In 1628, these carvings would have been richly painted in vibrant colors.   Theses colors were lost while the ship remained at the bottom of the harbor, but replicas are shown in the museum as to how they would have originally appeared.  For me, probably the most impressive part was the vision and commitment to raise the ship and create a specific building to restore and preserve it for future generations.

1400's Storehouse

In much the same vein, Skansen also seeks to preserve and document Swedish history.  Again, the vision of its founder, Artur Hazelius, is impressive.  It opened in October 1891 to showcase Swedish life before the industrial revolution.  There is a storehouse that dates back to the 1400s, and the Seglora Church from 1730.  The church is one of the most popular for weddings in Sweden, and one was taking place the day we visited.

Seglora Church -- waiting for the bride and groom

We spent an entire day on Djurgården and while we received a total immersion in all things Sweden, we really only scratched the surface and could have easily spent another entire day seeing all new things.  We'll have to add that to our list for repeat visits.

Sweden's Largest Export

We're loving our time in Sweden and today got to experience first hand Sweden's largest export.  Of course I'm speaking of the legendary music group ABBA.  Stockholm is home to ABBA The Museum and it features all things ABBA related -- music, movies, costumes, etc. -- and we learned all about the collaborations of Björn, Benny, Frida, and Agnetha.

Just hearing the name ABBA -- you now have Dancing Queen going through your head and you're visualizing Mamma Mia (the movie or musical).  The museum is very interactive, letting you become the "5th Member" of the band in the recording studio and in music videos.  They save these to their website and you can download them later.

There's lots of memorabilia from both the band and the Mamma Mia movie.  Sure it's campy, but we had a lot of fun.  I auditioned to be the 5th member of the band, which you can check out below.  Mona cheered me on, but I'm certainly not going to quit my day job.

Hello Stockholm

We've made our way across the pond and after a change of planes in Copenhagen, we've arrived in Stockholm.  We flew SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) for the first time, saving our pennies so we could splurge for Business Class.  It was such a great experience, I'm going to be thinking about it every time I fly coach from now on.

After going through customs, we boarded the Arlanda Express Train that gets you from the airport to the central train station in less than 20 minutes.  We then transferred to the Tunnelbana (subway) and found our hotel two stops later.

Stockholm is comprised of a series of islands and we're staying on Södermalm just across the water from the historic center of Stockholm known as Gamla Stan.  We're close enough to the water that we have great views of the City from our hotel.  We're only here for two nights and there is so much we want to see and do.  It's almost 10pm as I'm typing this, and the sun still hasn't set.  Looking forward to long days so we can explore all that Stockholm and the rest of Scandinavia has to offer.

25th Anniversary Trip

We celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary in August, and because of work schedules, we're celebrating early with a two-week trip to Scandinavia.  First stop is Sweden followed by Norway and ending in Denmark.  We couldn't fit in Finland so we'll have to do that another time.  Once again, Mona's parents are traveling with us although I'm not entirely sure how they've finagled their way onto our anniversary trip.  😀

Seriously, I'm glad they can still travel with us.  They're soon to be 80 and 82 and while they may not go hiking with us, they still get around pretty well.  Looking forward to exploring new cultures, hiking the fjords, and decompressing from work.

We're on our way.  Next stop.........Stockholm.