GIMME GIMME GIMME a man after midnight… Welcome back to Baltic 6! Today we are heading to the fifth destination: Stockholm. Consisting of 14 Islands and more than 50 bridges, it’s the country’s capital.
Sweden being a huge pop-music producing nation only meant one thing – ABBA. Stockholm was golden. We took the bus into the centre and hopped out onto a side street just over the canal from the palace. For some strange reason the surrounding trees had leaked sap all over the pavement and our feet stuck to the floor, so we essentially landed in Stockholm either looking like cool ninjas, or just silly tourists caught in a sticky situation…
Crisis over, we headed over the canal, up past the palace and towards the Gamla Stan Old Town. Like Finland, Stockholm was strangely quiet for 10am on a Monday morning and shops in the Old Town were all still closed. However it was still wonderful to wander the cobbled streets, winding between orange buildings made golden in the sunlight. It was fun to explore – we found “Galleri Eleanora” and another window with a sign “gone fishing, back 28th August.” Clearly the Swedes are very relaxed and very, very cool.
We then walked back along the river and over to one of the smaller islands, containing lots of museums including an architecture museum which unfortunately was closed. Then we took the ferry to another amusement island, Djugarden Island, containing a theme park and The Abba Museum. This museum was honestly the highlight of our Stockholm trip! It was like one huge Abba party – interactive karaoke, dancing, and piano rooms were mixed with information and hundreds of costume collections, records and more! One room was simply filled with disco lights and played Abba hits nonstop! I felt like I’d been transported back to the 70’s and as a big Abba fan, I LOVED it!
Following this we headed back on foot, stopped at a supermarket for a late lunch and then attempted to head back on the bus. However the transport system is not very tourist friendly at all – locals have travel cards and tourists must buy individual tickets from machines. Except machines are rare to be seen and dotted around the city in random locations. When we eventually found one, it was out of order so in the end we had to walk back to our cruise ship. Although it was nice to trek through the residential areas of Stockholm.
The following day, after slowly weaving in and out of little islands (at some points you could actually reach out and almost touch them) and enjoying panoramic views, we stopped off at Karlskrona. It’s simply a small Swedish town home to the navy museum. We had an afternoon wandering the small town, visiting churches and enjoying the harbour view from the window of Wayne’s Coffee. The landscape of this town was beautiful and it was such an experience to be able to sail from Stockholm to Karlskrona – we saw so many scenic islands and settlements!
Sweden was simply put – Sweden! Again, another country leaving a lasting impression!
Thanks for reading – come back next Wednesday for out final edition of Baltic 6!
Eleanor ♥
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