Sweden

Like what Mattias said when we arrived on the the largest of the Nordic countries, that’s exactly what our trip was: cold but extremely sunny!

“Welcome to a Cold… but Sunny Sweden!”

Stockholm – island of Djurgården

I was asking myself, what the name Sweden means… Oh, well, it was derived from the Svear.The country’s ancient name was Svithiod and Stockholm has been the permanent capital since 1523.

Sunny Stockholm

We arrived on Stockholm Skavsta Airport at the end of March 2018. This airport is located near Nyköping, ~100 km southwest of Stockholm. We reserved a beautiful townhouse on Airb close to Lake Mälaren and 7 min walk to the metropolitan train, which takes you straight to town.

Mattias’s house

The host, Mattias was very friendly and helpful. He gave us all the info you can think of the location and the surroundings and he even waited for us at the airport.

Gamla Stan

We started our three-days-long intense “cold and sunny” experience by walking down the Old Town – also known as Gamla Stan, one of the best preserved medieval city centers in Europe. Gamla Stan is an island loaded with fascinating museums and historical sights.

The Nobel Museum, the Royal Palace and Stockholm Cathedral can be found here and should be on the top on any sightseeing itinerary.

Vasa Museum should be part of your “must see things” as well. Why? Because it displays the only almost fully intact 17th century ship that has ever been salvaged, the 64-gun warship Vasa.

In the evening we had purchased a Stockholm Pass for all four of us, and immediately after picking it up, we got over to the dock to take the boat for a relaxing ride. It was a sunny wonderful day over the lake

This trip on the lake was something similar to Vitamin D that improved blood flow and lowers blood pressure by literally relaxing our blood vessels.

On the second day of our trip, we managed to visit the the largest hemispherical building on Earth – the Ericsson Globe. We found out it took two and a half years to build this globe. Shaped like a large white ball, it represents the Sun in the Sweden Solar System, the world’s largest scale model of the Solar System.

The Scandinavian design, however, will always be a major part of the conversation. If you’re ready for minimalism at it’s best, get ready for the Nordic experience! All things – furniture, decor, and interiors they live-and-breathe stylish… Everything is simple, but on the same time complicated and glamorous.

Oh! One more thing to mention in regards with the style and art in Stockholm: don’t miss the underground art! Ulrik Samuelson created an “underground garden” which is considered one of the most beautiful station in the world – Kungsträdgården.

Painted blue vines climbing up a white cave in the T-Centralen station is on my favorite list as well.

Trip to Sigtuna

We rent a car with Sixt and planned to visit Sigtuna and Uppsala. Sigtuna is one of the most picturesque town in Sweden, founded in the 10th century on what was then the shore of Lake Mälaren.

Lake Mälaren – February 2018

Colorful houses, good selection of stores and an interesting museum are part of this tiny but wonderful town.

Sigtuna museum

The small streets with the low built wooden houses lead up to several handicrafts shops and the old tiny town hall, Sigtuna Rådhus. Tourist attractions are also created to capitalise on legends such as vikings life and myths. Walking down the street, I remembered one of the King Eckbert’s quote from the Vikings movie:

The more complicated a person is, the more interesting he is. But, at the same time, the more dangerous he is … “

Sigtuna

Trip to Uppsala

Uppsala is a beautiful, cosy and romantic city. Even if we stayed just for a few hours, we discovered the most beautiful cathedral: Scandinavia’s largest church where several important persons have been buried, among them King Gustav Vasa and King Johan III of the 16th century and their queens.

Uppsala Cathedral

The interior ceiling and walls of the cathedral are decorated in the Neo – Gothic syle. The cathedral was designed by French architects, it exhibits a number of differences from the cathedrals of northern France. Above all, it is essentially constructed of brick rather than stone.

The nave

My overall first impressions of the citizens of Stockholm was that they are very quiet, reserved people, calm and honest, as you can see from the images below: