stopover in stockholm

Nick & I headed to the spectacular Stockholm on Friday. We were both very excited for our first trip to Sweden! Scandinavia in general is gorgeous. We both loved Copenhagen [and Nick absolutely loved Norway] so we were very excited to see Sweden. We were welcomed to our AirB&B [in Old Town Stockholm] with a bottle of champagne from our host. It was a generous welcome present and very thoughtful. Our host also gave us a portable phone charger AND a 10GB hotspot for our weekend. Let's talk about over and beyond for a host! Nick had located a local eatery with craft beers and awesome pub food. It was sooooo good!! It was called "Akkurat" for anyone that goes to Stockholm. PLEASE check it out...you will not be disappointed. The food was also soo good! The chicken fingers are phenomenal! :)

thanks Jarl!

potato wedges

chicken fingers!

On Saturday, Nick and I woke up and headed to a bakery for breakfast. Afterwards, went to the island that had all the museums on it. First on the list was to head to the ABBA Museum. Nick was so shocked that I used to own an ABBA CD and actually knew most of the words, haha. It was a crazy museum and the wax figures of all four band members actually looked so beyond real. There was even a stage where people could go up and sing ABBA songs. ABBA is still well & alive in Sweden. Nick and I then headed over to the Vasa Museum. Wow! It was so incredible to see the ship that is 98% preserved. This ship sank in 1628 and was not discovered until 1961. It took five years to bring it onshore. It is absolutely incredible how the ship looks so intact and perfect still to this day. After wrapping up our museums for the day, we had an amazing lunch on the water - everywhere we ate was just out of this world in Stockholm. After we ate we went over to a local cafe and had some pie & lattes! Yum yum yum! Then we decided to do the Old Town Walking Tour through Free Tour Stockholm. The tour was informative but the group was massive. If we had had more time we would have gone another day strictly due to the group size [like 40 people]. However, since we were in a time crunch we decided to bite the bullet and ensure we stayed to the front of the group the entire time so we could hear the guide. We learned a lot about Stockholm and Swedish history in general. We saw the smallest alley in Stockholm [which had the German name...Marten Trotzigs Grand] - it is only 90 centimeters. This was a knock on the Germans of course! We walked past the smallest statue in Stockholm which is a tiny boy called Järnpojke! You had to leave a coin or rub his head for good luck. During the cold months, the Swedish people put a small scarf and hat on the statue. It's so cute! We also hung out for awhile in the Stortorget square which is famous for being the oldest square in Stockholm as well as housing the Nobel Prize Museum. After the tour, we walked by the water to see the absolutely gorgeous sunset. Soo beautiful. I apologize in advance for the amount of pictures you will see below but it simply could not be captured in just a few photos. After we sat by the water for awhile, we headed back to grab some dinner at a local burger joint called Barrels. This place is great! Try it if you're in Stockholm Old Town area. Then, we went to our apartment and watched the GT game [if you can call it a game....we played horrendously]. 

outside of the insanely large Palace

gorgeous layout of one of Stockholm's museums

ABBA outfits in all their glory

 some random people singing with "ABBA"

just hanging with my pals ABBA

some blue breaking through behind a gorgeous museum!

Vasa! WOW!

small model of the ship with it's original coloring

preserved SO well

cloudy day in Stockholm, Sweden

smallest statue ever!

Nobel Prize museum

smallest alley!

absolutely gorgeous sunset

one last one for the books....goodnight Stockholm!

On Sunday [after what seemed like 1 hour of sleep due to various factors], we got up and headed to do some walking around Old Town. We got to see some of the sights we had not spent a lot of time at on Saturday. We went by the main churches of Stockholm, including the "Great Church" [yes that is the direct translation in English] where the royal family gets married and coronated! We also checked out the Parliament building which is gorgeous. Then we watched the changing of the guards at the palace. This was quite the spectacle and happens everyday at 12:15pm [1:15pm on Sundays]. I would highly recommend grabbing a front row seat if you're interested because it's hard to see if you're behind others. Afterwards, we grabbed a bite to eat then headed over to the other side of town to see the Swedish History Museum. We unfortunately arrived only an hour before closing time so we were pretty rushed but Nick got to see all the main parts that he wanted and we both learned a lot about Sweden [and the powerful Vikings!] We then just meandered through Stockholm for another hour or so before returning to the train station to head back to the airport and good ol Hamburg!

the oldest square in Stockholm

the German church

Prime Minister's house! [the white one]

loving the reflection on the water

Parliament

changing of the guards

i loved the swedish architecture

typical European umbrellas...

Next on the docket... SALZBURG [aka Sound of Music tour, aka so excited!] and Oktoberfest in Munich!!! So ready with my dirndl !!! Let's do this!