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!

One Night in Northern Norway: Narvik and the Northern Lights

After spending a day and a half in Kiruna, we extended our trip north of the arctic circle and went to Norway. We left Peter's car in Kiruna and took a train to Narvik, Norway. We didn't opt to drive because the road conditions can be pretty bad this far north in the winter. While this wasn't the case this year, the train was still a great way to travel and offered some amazing views of the mountains between Sweden and Norway. Narvik is located at 68°25′14″N, and is the farthest north we've ever been, barely edging out Paul's previous trip to Coldfoot, Alaska by about 1° latitude.

The train station in Kiruna.  David nearly wiped out here on the ice. Again.

The border between Sweden and Norway is very snowy and mountainous

First train station in Norway. Middle of nowhere! 

Our first view of Ofatfjord, the fjord next to Narvik.

The train wasn't crowded, so we could spread out and look out the windows. There was a snack car at the far rear of the train and lots of sleeper cars for those taking a longer voyage. The train was a really nice and affordable experience and we'd highly recommend travel by train in Sweden and Norway. After the 2.5 hour train ride we finally arrived in the city of Narvik and made our way to the hotel, which was just about a 15 minute walk from the station.

The train station in Narvik, Norway

Hehe. Full fart advertisement at the train station.

Here's the view from our hotel window.  Cute!

After a break at our hotel (the Breidablikk Gjestehus), we wandered through the city streets. Narvik is a very cute small town, full of Scandinavian charm. The city is nestled between the fjord and the mountains and offers some great winter scenery. It's probably one of the cutest cities we've visited in our travels and we'd highly recommend a day or two visit if you happen to be in the area. One thing to keep in mind while planning a trip to Narvik, and Scandinavia in general, is that food, alcohol and lodging are not cheap. The one meal we ate in Norway outside of our hotel was a dinner at a nearby bar/restaurant. The food was nice, but nothing special, and cost (including a few beers) nearly $300 for four people.  Ouch!

The roads in Narvik were treacherously icy

Unlike the time we spent in Sweden, Norway was actually kinda sunny!

Scandinavian housing

Fjord sunset

Narvik city proper

Go Ducks!

That night after dinner, we went for a walk to try to view the northern lights. The woman at the tourist desk in the train station gave us directions to a park by the water in a darker part of town, and told us we might be able to see the northern lights "if it was cold enough." We noticed that a lot of people in Sweden and Norway seemed to think the northern lights are somehow tied to temperature. In fact, they can happen at any time, it just has to be dark enough and clear enough to see them. After sitting for a while in the park (and freezing our butts off... and also drinking a bottle of wine) we started to see some faint glimmers on the horizon just as we were leaving. It wasn't very bright, but it was definitely the northern lights! Paul was able to take a couple of pictures using a 30 second exposure.

Ghost Peter will always be watching us

Northern Lights

It only lasted a short while, then we got some drinks at a bar before going back to the hotel. Just as we were going to bed, David happened to look out the window, and saw a brilliant display of light in the sky. The northern lights were suddenly very bright and colorful, with shifting patterns of green and purple dancing across the sky. We went up to the hotel's terrace and enjoyed watching them with the other hotel guests. We could see them clearly even over the city lights, but it was very difficult to take pictures. It's definitely a neat spectacle to behold, and a highlight of our trip to Scandinavia. Bucket list check!

More intense northern lights from our hotel

Watching from the hotel terrace

Narvik and the northern lights

The next day we started with an early breakfast and then hiked part way up a nearby mountain to a vista recommended by the tourist center.  The walk was pretty long and icy but we got some great views of the entire city and fjord. We hiked back down the hill and caught our train back to Kiruna. From Kiruna, Peter drove us back to Umeå where we were scheduled to take a flight to Stockholm for a few days to end our Scandinavian adventure!

Mountains around Narvik

Hiking up the icy roads to the viewpoint

Narvik from the viewpoint

Great views of the city, fjord, and mountains

Us at the viewpoint

Look!  We're Norwegian miners!