Exploring Stockholm in 48 hours (part II)

Stockholm

The first port of call on a cloudy Sunday morning in Stockholm was Vasa museum on Djurgården island. My husband and I strolled all around Gamla Stan (the Old Town) the previous day so we decided to use the underground today. You can read all about our visit to Vasa museum famous for its historical warship in a separate post.

Vasa ship in Vasa museum

Djurgården island is a peaceful retreat in Stockholm where you can find several museums, an amusement park and plenty of green space for a lovely picnic in the summer. Unfortunately, despite being April it wasn’t warm  for such activities and it even started to rain heavily. Luckily, just about when my husband finally finished with all the exhibits in Vasa museum the rain stopped and we walked back towards the underground station.

interesting buildings near the Swedish history museum
interesting buildings near the Swedish history museum

The next item on my to-do Stockholm list for Sunday was the Swedish History Museum on the way to Karlaplan station. It’s got free admission and it was a great place to spend a few hours on a rainy day (yes, it started to rain again). What were the highlights of this museum for me? Firstly, the Gold room on the lower floor which contains 52 kilos of gold and over 200 kilos of silver in the form of jewelry, religious objects, crowns and other things from different periods. Impressive, right? Secondly, I really liked the Viking exhibition on the ground floor. I am a big fan of Vikings series. At the very entrance of the Viking room I read how Vikings were perceived differently through different historical periods (and political situations). The concern today is that current portrayals of Vikings as only cruel warriors (TV, video games etc.) might leave a confusing legacy to the future generations.

The museum displays Viking weapons, clothes, tools, model ships and an interesting model of a Viking village. It is a very fascinating and informative exhibition. Thirdly, I enjoyed the exhibition A thousand years of Swedish history. It’s got a lot of interactive elements. I especially enjoyed sniffing through a small cupboard to guess which spices were brought to Sweden. I didn’t guess them all:) I also did an interesting quiz to see if I was a witch ( after all I do have a cat!). Also, this was the first museum that I’ve visited where I saw a trail through various exhibitions with the comments of LGBTQ community offering their perspective on various historical events. The museum also has exhibitions on Prehistory and Medieval life and art. I preferred this museum to the Vasa museum, to be honest.

Swedish history museum
Gold room

Swedish history museum

It still rained and we were hungry after so much culture so we popped in McDonald’s near the Karlaplan underground station. It was definitely a far cheaper lunch than the dinner last night. Suddenly, it started to snow! Since I live by the sea I don’t often enjoy snow and I was pleased as punch at the sight of snowflakes. After a hearty lunch we took the underground to Slussen station, on an island across Gamla Stan. I wanted to do two panoramic walks: Monteliusvägen and Fjällgatan. I agree, it wasn’t the best weather to admire the views of gorgeous Stockholm but I don’t get easily deterred by such minor things as rain and cold so we proceeded with my plan (yes, I am the main travel planner, my husband just goes along with my plans and occasionally comes up with brilliant idea).

The first thing we saw was a kind of viewpoint on the building across the metro station so we decided to climb the steps and check out the view of the Old Town. If only it were sunny because the view was great! There was a kind of bungee jumping platform on this building previously or at least it looked like that to me. So, off to the Fjällgatan we went. Of course, where would be all the fun if we didn’t kind of get lost and took a longer route to my destination in freezing cold? However, we did see a beautiful church as a result. Do you have a habit of wandering around a graveyard and reading tomb stones? We walked across the church’s graveyard and saw an intriguing looking grave stone. Our curiosity made us google the name on the grave and we found out that the grave belonged to a prominent Swedish actress. We also saw a couple of traditional Swedish houses, a school, a tea room to which I longingly cast my glance and then we finally saw the street I was looking for! My husband wasn’t too thrilled to be dragged around in the cold just so I could admire the views of Stockholm in dreary weather.

Fjällgatan area is actually on the edge of a cliff above the Fotografiska (the famous photography museum). The views didn’t disappoint and I took a couple of photos of cute old houses. By this point we were desperate for a cup of hot tea (and a cake) so we didn’t do the other panoramic walk (Monteliusvägen) but we returned to the underground station and took the train over to the Old Town (Gamla Stan).

views of the City Hall
views of the City Hall

it was snowing!the red building is the photography museum and the panoramic walk is on the cliff above

Stockholm

Stockholm
views from Fjällgatan

Stockholm
views of Stockholm, the sun came out

I remembered seeing an old-fashioned tea room/patisserie the previous day so I wanted to have a cake there. It was actually Sundbergs Konditori; the oldest bakery-café in Stockholm, dating from the 18 century. I had red tea and a chocolate cake while my husband had lemon meringue cake. They were both delicious and cost more than our lunch at McDonald’s before. Sundbergs has that Austrian cake shop feel to it with its chandelier and fine porcelain cups and royal paintings. If you want coffee you take it yourself from the big copper samovar (but isn’t samovar usually for tea?). We spent a lovely half an hour there and then returned to our hotel. However, my husband wanted to see the Hard Rock cafe which was supposedly near our hotel so we had to do that before we could rest in our tiny hotel room.

We had the address of the Hard Rock café so you can imagine our bewildered looks when we came to that address and saw a mattresses shop there instead. I though maybe the café relocated further down and suggested to walk on for a while when I saw the same street name but different numbers across the road. Very confusing! We found Hard Rock café not far from the Stockholm public library. My husband was happy!

Then we finally returned to our warm hotel room. We decided to go out for drinks later because this was our final night in beautiful Stockholm. Around 9 pm we found ourselves again wandering around Gamla Stan. The empty cobbled streets and old houses looked almost magical in dim light. I was totally mesmerized by Stockholm’s Old Town. There is more to Stockholm than the historical Gamla Stan but I was happy that I chose old squares over modern architecture for our 48h stay in Stockholm. We ended our night walk in a dodgy bar with cheap beer.

Stockholm

Monday morning came and we had to say goodbye to wonderful Stockholm. I didn’t have high expectations of Stockholm and it completely won me over. Maybe one day I return to this sophisticated Scandinavian capital. It was a great weekend trip!

Ps. read my other Stockholm posts if you want 🙂

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43 thoughts on “Exploring Stockholm in 48 hours (part II)”

  1. […] These pretty houses are in the Old Town (Gamla Stan) of Stockholm. It was a cold April day when we explored cobbled alleys of beautiful Gamla Stan. I’m just sorry that I couldn’t convince my husband to do a boat tour of Stockholm’s canals but perhaps it really was a bit too cold for that (it even snowed for a while the next day!). We walked a lot, visited a couple of museums (including the magnificent Vasa museum) and had expensive meals not because we went to some fine dining restaurants but because Stockholm is pretty expensive. Nevertheless, I fell in love with Stockholm. It needs to be visited again:) To read more about my last year’s weekend trip to Stockholm check here and here. […]

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  2. Loved Stockholm! And surprisingly so different from Copenhagen. We stayed on a boat converted into a hostel on the water near the Photography Museum. And we were there in summer, so it felt the opposite – like the sun NEVER set! Such a lovely town! Thanks for sharing with #FarawayFiles, Erin

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  3. I love the sound of that Gold Room, Tanja! You make Stockholm sound so enticing. I’d like to visit the Vikings exhibits too – I always enjoy seeing them in the British Museum although haven’t seen the TV series. Thanks for sharing with us on #FarawayFiles

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  4. Stockholm looks amazing! Love how you said that you’re the main travel planner and your husband just tags along with the occasional brilliant idea – it’s the same with my boyfriend and I! #FarawayFiles

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  9. Really looking forward to our Stockholm trip. You have given me some ideas Tanja. The Viking exhibition sounds brilliant and I just love wandering around a city’s old town. I hope we get better weather though. Well done you for continuing the sightseeing in the rain! #citytripping

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  10. Ahhhh Stockholm is one of my favorite places in the world! The Vasa Museum was one of my highlights while I was there. Too bad the weather wasn’t so nice… I’ve been there during the fall and winter, and the latter was sooooo cold and it snowed a lot!

    Happy to have you on #MondayEscapes

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  11. That museum sounds incredible – I am fascinated by the Vikings so would love the exhibits (and all that gold!) Despite the weather, it looks an amazing place to wander around too. Thanks for joining up with #citytripping

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  13. Wow, here I was spending a whole month in Stockholm and I didn’t even know that a Swedish History Museum existed! Neither did I know of Sundberg’s Konditori! You truly picked the least tourity places to visit on your trip – love it!!

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