Welcome back Sweden

The ferry berthed at 6.30am and after being awake 2 hours earlier to watch the ship come into the Stockholm archipelago we knew that today was going to be long. We ignored Google and walked along the water front with lots of other passengers. Took a shortcut through a metro station and we were greeted by our hotel. Sometimes gut instinct wins over Google! ( let’s not talk about the other times when Google proved me wrong!)

Dropped our luggage at hotel and then set off for breakfast. Bakery and coffee very early with the locals chatting and dog walking. Weather is calm and very mild. A walk into the old town around 9am. Gamla Stan doesn’t open before 10am so we strolled the cobbled roads in relative peace.

Our first stop was the Riddarholmen church which is the final resting place for the Swedish kings and families. There were burial caskets everywhere. The church dates back to the 1300’s so a few of the royals have passed since then.

The Royal Palace was open so we walked through the Royal Apartments. A lot of the rooms are still used today for formal functions. These rooms were impressive.
We managed to be outside for the changing of the guard. A lot of practice must happen for this.

Walked through to the main shopping area for lunch. That was a long morning! Temperature was 24 most of the day. Picked up a metro day pass so back to hotel to check in and have a couple of hours break before dinner.

Then a long round-about walk after dinner at a roof top restaurant as the evening was amazing. So much action in the streets especially as Sweden has a World Cup game this evening so yellow and blue everywhere. We discovered there are at least 5 roof top bars/restaurants on the roof of the building our windowless hotel room is in.Read more