A Day in Stockholm

(Note: this post was updated 2019)

After a great night’s sleep and a hot shower, we headed out to our first adventure in the tunnelbana, Stockholm’s metro. Good lord, the tickets were next to impossible to understand. But after some laughing and lots of “I’m worried” to the folks behind us, we were off to the National Museum to see the old masters and start our day in Stockholm.

Tip: Don’t be afraid to ask for help from the locals.

But, sadly, we got there to find out its under renovation–our first dance with life without a cell phone and handy internet. So, with lemons we make lemonade, right?

Tip: If something is closed, there’s often a great option right next door. Or, ask a local for a suggestion.

The Royal Palace

We headed to The Royal Palace, where we weren’t allowed to take pictures. But, we did chance upon the changing of the guard. With all the pomp and circumstance inside the Palace, the changing of the guard followed suite. A marching band, full regalia, armed guards and the whole works.

The Nobel Museum

Stockholm is a beautiful and clean city. Swans and daffodils grace every view, and the people are quite helpful.

From the Palace, we made our way to the Nobel museum, a place I’ve heard about my entire life due to its well-known annual Nobel Prizes. Not knowing a thing about them, all of us enjoyed the museum immensely as we learned not only the history of the prizes, but we could read and learn about the many people who won the prizes and their contraptions. In addition, the Stockholm Fashion Design College had interpreted all of the awards through fashion and had their dresses on display as well. Of all the places we visited in Sweden, the Nobel Museum was my favorite.

Within the museum were two additional displays. One display featured the place settings from several annual Nobel Prize gatherings. I found much interest in seeing how artists interpreted the six types of prizes and the Nobel Museum’s official colors into place settings. In addition, along the ceiling there are folios of all the Nobel Laureates. You can watch them go by almost like stars in the sky. Even though I loved the museum, I was thrilled to see the architectural models of the Nobel’s future expansion, which is much needed. And by the way, if you’re looking for the Peace Prize, it’s not here. It’s in Oslo!

The Original Ikea

The ending of our day had us downing the famous Ikea meatballs, which priced out at about $1.25 per person. By this time, and after all of this walking, Steve had managed to get a dose of gout in his big toe. So after hobbling around Stockholm all day like a hero, he succumbed to letting Kelly drive him in a wheel chair when we finally got to IKEA….the world’s biggest and oldest. The original building is a circle, kind of like the Guggenheim, but then it has this big rectangle building attached.

All over Stockholm, you can see bus signs to take you to Ikea. The bus is free, run by Ikea, and passes by every 30 minutes. The locals who live in town take the Ikea bus out to the suburbs to shop. When the bus drops off, the locals pull their goods out of the bottom of the bus by the tons.

We had a lovely day in Stockholm, and next stop: Oslo.