It's the largest of all the Capital cities of the Scandinavian countries and similar to the area we drove through just weekends before in that it is surrounded by water. The city is made up of a number of islands sitting snugly together. The buildings are old and colorful like many we've seen and shown here in Copenhagen. The architecture is romantic and the streets in the older parts of town are very narrow, made of cobble stone. Having never yet been to Italy, Stockholm is much of what I anticipate Italy to be like...minus the ruins.
It seems only appropriate that we begin our tour of photos with one that presents a Swedish symbol that is quite well known throughout the world. Even Kansas has it's own "Little Sweden" in Lindsborg! The Dala Horse might have originally served as representative for a specific region of Sweden, but largely, to many, these horses are generally Swedish. This large horse is at the Stockholm City Court House.
As I mentioned, this city is very romantic. Almost immediately after we stepped off the bus downtown we were thinking...wow, this is a beautiful city.
We were ready to see all the sights of the city with our list, maps and Stockholm Card in hand. We had to hurry to make sure we got this first one in. It's only open for the lunch hour on the weekdays! This is the House of Nobility. Sweden does not continue the practice of ennobling families into the formerly structured aristocracy, but here the Great Hall is covered in Coat of Arms, one for each Family of Nobility in Sweden. There are currently still 600 of these families alive.
Here we have the Royal Palace. Very large and stately, it houses a number of museums and is used still today by the Royal Family not as a residence, but as office and meeting place. The Royal Apartments were closed the day we went to the Palace, but we were still able to visit other areas of the Palace. The Tre Kroner Museum, which is in the basement of the castle, tells the story of the fire in 1697 which destroyed much of the original castle. Gustav III's Museum of Antiquities holds a lot of really old statues. The Royal Armoury is also here and it holds many of the old royal carriages, attire worn by members of the Royal family, and weapons...of course!
Just across the street from the Palace is the Royal Coin Cabinet. It's a pretty cool museum. Here and only here can one attempt to lift the world's heaviest coin! Don't be fooled by the photo! It kinda looks like it's still on the table there, but I'm DEFINITELY holding it up by my own strength!! That's right. :)
From the coin cabinet we went to the Nobel Museum! We shared a photo of the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway last week. At that location they award the Peace Prize. There are 6 official Nobel prizes including the categories of: physiology/medical science, chemistry, physics, literature, economics, and peace. The 5 other categories are all awarded in Stockholm. This museum is really cool and shares the history about past Laureates and their work.
This is a super neat thing in the Nobel Museum. You stand in front of the camera and watch your image appear in the cells on the screen across from you as they move and divide to reflect the camera's image.
Saturday~
We had a little bit of cloudiness here, but the weather was amazing all weekend. This building, looking a little darker than it actually is, is the City Hall. It looks kind of small and simple and perhaps not that special. On the contrary, this building is a feature of the town! Tourists can make their way to the top of the tower there to get a great view of the city, and/or take a guided tour of the rest of the building which includes the banquet hall which is used each round for the Nobel Prize Laureates.
We did both! We went to the top of the tower....
And we went on the tour of the building. This is the "Blue Hall" (even though it's not blue) where they hold the Nobel Banquet!
As always we had to check out the spectacular churches around the city! They are just beautiful. We feel like we learn and grow with each church we visit.
We continue to find that the city tourism deals offer stellar sight seeing activities. The Stockholm Card was well worth the cost as we visited so many museums and participated in many activities. Here we are on a boat tour of the coast area of Stockholm, free with the Stockholm Card! We're listening to info about all the things we were seeing. We saw from a distance many other sights that we weren't going to make it to. There is so much to see and do!
This is Tivoli! It's a Scandinavian amusement park. There is one just 1.5 miles or so from our apartment here in Copenhagen!! It has just opened recently for this summer and we plan to see it up close once at least before we depart for home.
The tv tower in Stockholm houses a restaurant, and is a natural tourist attraction as visitors can ride the lift all the way to the top to look out on the city and fill their cameras to the brim!
We're up in the tv tower and you can see the City Hall there, and the tower we were up in just earlier that day!
I had been looking forward to this for a few months!!! The Icebar in Stockholm! There's a hotel made entirely of ice in Northern Sweden. Also in that structure is an Absolut Vodka Icebar. This Icebar in Stockholm is the 2nd Icebar to be made. Interestingly enough, there are other Absolut Icebars around Europe including Copenhagen, Denmark!! We chose to go to this one as it was the "original" location, second only to the one in Northern Sweden.
They give you these super glamorous capes and gloves to wear!! Not only do they help keep you warm, they keep you from melting the whole place down!!
It's -5 C in there!! The capes do quite well at keeping your warmth in, something we're both quite grateful for! Here we are inside the bar and in front of the counter!
There is a couch made of ice!! Surprisingly comfy, I might add.
The tables and glasses are even made of ice!!
It was so very neat. I think the only things there not made of ice were the ceiling and floor, thankfully! No ice skating! This was a highlight of the trip because I had been looking forward to it for quite a while and Joseph made it happen! To be in a room of ice...is pretty cool...pardon the pun!!
Sunday~
We went back to the City Hall for the tour and took this photo with the Old Town ~ Gamla Stan in the background.
We couldn't resist! This is just outside a residential community on our way to see the Butterfly House.
The Butterfly House has more than just butterflies! Birds, turtles, fish, little dragons, and more!
This is in part of the Butterfly House.
There again we have the City Hall tower in the background there! It was a very beautiful day!
This is the Katarina Lift, another tourist spot where you can see the city from above with great ease! When we arrived we learned that it was down for repairs!! We kept up our trend of stair climbing, though, and hiked it up there and got the view anyway!
And for everyone out there who is a fan of gummy and gummy-like candies, here is a cheers to Swedish Fish in Sweden!! :)
Stockholm is awesome!! We definitely recommend it as a prime destination location for Eastern Europe. So much to do, so much to see, and perfect places to just take it easy and enjoy the sun!
This weekend we're going to be visiting some special places in Denmark! We'll be back with more very soon!!
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