Stockholm

Our final stop in Sweden was Stockholm, the capital city. Stockholm has a humongous selection of museums and we had to plan our time carefully to make sure we got to do most of the things we wanted.  Rather than staying in a hotel, we used airbnb to rent an apartment in the bohemian Södermalm neighborhood. The first thing we noticed about Stockholm was that there was no snow!  In fact, our entire time in Stockholm was above freezing.  The heat wave continues!  

We arrived in the late afternoon and visited the photography museum, a short walk from our apartment. It had some neat rotating exhibits. Next we had dinner at Tradition Restaurant, know for having classic Swedish dishes. Yes, David got Swedish meatballs! We finished the day with a very interesting night at Oliver Twist bar. Drunk Swedes are a lot more talkative than sober Swedes and some of them sure do love Twin Peaks!

Our apartment. Much more space than a hotel!

(O_o) Swedish is a fun language...

Finally!  Some meatballs.

Janice enjoying some local beer and potato dumplings

On our first full day in Stockholm, we covered a lot of ground (13.4 miles of walking, according to David's fitbit). We explored a few neighborhoods, took in the views, and walked around Gamla Stan, the historic center of the city. Gamla Stan is located on its own island, and features narrow streets and a lot of neat shops. Sure, it's touristy, but it's fun. The highlight of the day (and one of the highlights of Sweden) was the Vasa Museum. It's a museum built specifically for a 17th century war ship that sank just off Stockholm on its maiden voyage. The ship was finally raised and restored in the 1960s, after more than 300 years under water. The Vasa is surprisingly intact, with some really elaborate carvings. It was definitely one of the most unique and interesting museums we've ever visited.

Our street in Södermalm: Folkungagatan

They start hockey players pretty young in Sweden

You're a rikstelefon!  Anything with an 1800s western saloon door is fine by us!

Atlanta has achieved world domination through Coca-Cola

View toward Gamla Stan

A square in Gamla Stan

A surprisingly huge sci-fi bookstore

Staying cool in Gamla Stan

There's water everywhere you look in Stockholm

More walking? Our feet are tired!

A neat piece of art showing the city's daily water and electricity use

Boats and architecture in central Stockholm

The Vasa

The back of the Vasa

Beautiful architecture on a random building

The next day we went on a winter boat tour of the Stockholm archipelago. It was a much warmer day than average, but was still chilly with the wind blowing off the water. There was a huge tour group of Russian teenagers on our boat, but luckily they were relatively well behaved. It was neat to see the city from the water, even with no snow. Our next stop was the Nobel Museum. It's a little small (they're moving/expanding soon), but had neat kiosks with information on every Nobel prize winner. It was fun to search through and find some familiar winners, like Martin Luther King Jr, Watson and Crick, Al Gore and the IPCC, and Doctors Without Borders. After, we watched the changing of the guard at the royal palace and then toured the palace itself.

Unusually warm and sunny for a winter boat tour!

Gamla Stan from the water

Gröna Lund! Unfortunately closed for the winter. :(

It was a bit windy and Peter is very delicate, like a flower

Walking in Gamla Stan

Exhibit on the precursor to the polio vaccine Nobel prize

The changing of the guard

Our new Swedish boyfriend

More like Sir Tastes-like-crap

On our last day in Sweden, we visited the Nordiska Museum. It's in a neat historic building, and houses exhibits on Swedish life and culture. This would be a good first stop for people visiting Sweden - it includes everything from a comprehensive exhibit on the indigenous Sámi people to a display on the use of stripes in contemporary Swedish design.We took another long walk around a few different neighborhoods, taking in the architecture and streetlife, and stopping by the Saluhall, a big food market.

The front entrance of the Nordic Museum

Inside the Nordic Museum

Swedish people from the 1970s! Run!

A taco truck! Unfortunately they were out of tacos.

The Saluhall

Yummy Vasterbotten cheese

There wasn't much snow for the children's winter Olympics festival!

The central library

Sweden was a great destination and a unique country. All in all, over the course of the trip we walked about 75 miles in 10 days. We saw frozen lakes and mountains, fjords and reindeer, a major world city and small Scandinavian hamlets. Going in the winter provided a unique experience with a cheaper price tag. Maybe we'll come back some day in the summer, but  in our opinion winter is the time to go. Before we return to Sweden, there are 150 more countries in the world we haven't visited...yet!