After an 8 hour flight from Chicago to Frankfort for a quick layover, we finally landed in Stockholm. I slept for zero minutes of all of this travel and Knew today would be tough and I’d be running on being awake for 24 hours straight. In my “real life”, I would be dragging, but on vacation, I can keep on moving and show little tiredness.
Anyway, We got our luggage really quickly and got a cab to the hotel. Luckily our room was ready so early so we were able to get settled before heading to the trusty concierge for a map and some suggestions based on what we wanted to see. First off was walk to the Old Town and the Gamla Stan area. We walked around and saw all the shops and restaurants and then made our way to the Royal Palace. We waited around for the changing of the guards, which ended up being totally different than the ones I’ve seen in the past and was super crowded, and very long. To the point where we were ready to leave about 20 minutes in and had almost no way out. After multiples tries leaving the area and getting yelled at, we finally made our way out and were off to find Järnponke, the tiny little statue who is supposed to bring you luck when you rub his head. While waiting for the changing of the guard, some couple who had internet on their phone, looked up directions for us on how to find this little statue and we snapped of a pic of those directions which helped us a lot since 1) we couldn’t even pronounce the name of that correctly to really ask for help 2) it was in a tiny park or a side street that we definitely wouldn’t have thought to even go down. On the way there we even randomly bumped into someone I work with. I had no idea this guy was going to be in Stockholm, so to even see him and notice him was too funny. (This happened last year in Split, Croatia too with a friend of a friend. Small world.)
After getting our luck from Järnponke, we wanted to find what we thought were colorful homes along the water, but ended up being three different colored buildings we had passed multiple times on Stortorget. When we “found them” we realized we had walked passed them several times that day not even to recognize that they were a photo destination. We snapped our pictures and decided to head out of Gamla Stan to the City Hall where we were told we could climb to the top of and get a fabulous panoramic aerial view. I for one am never one to turn this down, even for a fee, so this was happening.
Once at the City Hall, we purchased our tickets for the climb, which was to be an hour or so from when we got there. We walked the grounds and relaxed for a bit around there before heading off the beaten path a bit for a snack. Turns out, there’s a not a lot happening around there, and the little that is there, wasn’t open on a Sunday. We finally found a local Swedish Supermarket and were able to get a little snack. After that, we made our way back to City Hall and were ready for our climb up. The stairs weren’t too bad, probably because it wasn’t too hot out, but the view was definitely worth it. You could see all of the Old Town area and surrounding areas as well as Lake Mälaren and Baltic Sea, and where they separated.
After taking in the view, we once again took our pictures then headed back down all the stairs. It was finally time for a real meal so we headed back to Gamla Stan and to Stortorget and found a restaurant that we saw had a Swedish meatballs. While here, they were a must to try at least once. Neither one of us were sure if we’d like them so we got one order, which came with mashed potatoes, cucumbers, and lingenberries and got a side a French fries as well. When the food came, it was shockingly good. The meatballs and potatoes were delicious but I hated the lingenberries. We got to sit outside and people watch along all the crowds in gorgeous weather and it was super nice to just sit there and take it in.
Fed and ready to keep it moving, we were off again. This time to the King’s Garden also known as Kungsträdgården. On our walk there, we saw what we thought was finally the first attractive dude we’d seen so far. He kind of looked like a taller version Chris Pratt to me from a far, but it was hard to get a good look cause he was running. As we kept moving, we noticed some people and kids were asking to take their picture with him. We figured maybe it was a famous soccer player or someone, but when we asked someone around us, they informed us it was Logan Paul, who I only knew by name as a very famous You-Tuber. I honestly have no clue what he does or anything, but I do know of him; that’s all.
King’s Garden was much smaller than anticipated and easy to walk. And right next to it were two main shopping drags that we checked out as well, Biblioteksgatan and Birger Jarlsgatan. (Btw if you heard me try and pronounce these or any of these street names you’d be embarrassed for me. My pronunciation is a sad state of affairs. Once done seeing and walking all of this, it was time to head back to the hotel. Doing so, we also walked and checked out the one other shopping drag we wanted to go to, Drottningg. When we finally made our way back to the hotel, we each took a little nap because we wanted to head back out one more time to see the sunset. The sun sets here around 9:45 and rises around 2:30 am, so we definitely weren’t planning to do any sunrise runs.
Since the weather is predicted to be 100% chance of rain tomorrow, we wanted to do everything that we could outside today and save the museums for tomorrow. We did pretty much everything we wanted to, and more, but hopefully the weather won’t be a total washout tomorrow so we can walk around freely outside as well. And hopefully I will get a good nights sleep tonight and make up for what I didn’t get getting here. I am so very tired, but so very grateful to be on a trip like this again.
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