Wednesday 18th July 2018
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAKE, 6 YEARS OLD TODAY!
After sampling some authentic Thai cuisine last night at the onsite restaurant, Mä-Thai, we had changed our minds about moving on and were both in favour of a trip into Stockholm today.
A short 700 metre walk from the campsite is Bredäng Metro station which is perfect for the 10 km journey into the city on the Röda linjen/Red Line. Our destination was T-Centralen, Stockholm City, passing through Gamla Stan, which we would visit later in the day.
First port of call was to book ourselves a boat trip around the beautiful archipelago. On a blisteringly hot day, a sea breeze seemed just the ticket!
We had intended on purchasing a combined lunch and cruise but they had sold out for our 2 pm sailing so we would seek out lunch elsewhere. We purchased our tickets from one of the many booths along the quaysides; 295 SEK each for a 2 ½ boat ride was well worth it.
Back to one of the main pedestrianised shopping streets, Drottninggatan, we picked our venue for lunch.
On our way towards the departure place of our boat we passed along the water’s edge in Nybroplan, taking in views of Gamla Stan, the Opera House and the Kungsträdgården.
Then along Strandvägen, with its array of beautiful old Swedish buildings, most of which are now hotels.
Nybroviken is an area in Stockholm where many of the hop on hop off boats and other day cruises depart or land.
After some time queuing for the start of our trip, we were more than pleased when we finally boarded and found an excellent spot on the wooden benches surrounding the upper deck with superb views over the hand rail.
As we set off we were rather pleased we had not managed to book a table for lunch, as these passengers were seated in an indoor restaurant, albeit with windows on either side, but they had nowhere to sit on the outside decks once their meal had finished.
Not only did we experience the sights of the Stockholm archipelago, the added information from our guide, who spoke both Swedish and English, helped us to learn more about this wonderful area. We were only disappointed when our cruise was over and we had to head back into the heat of the city.
On disembarking we wandered in the shade of the tall trees lining the Strandvägen towards the bridge Djurgårdsbron, to admire the Nordiska museet or Nordic Museum and the maritime Vasa Museum, on the island of Djurgården.
In need of refreshment we made our way back over the bridge to a small park, Berzelii, near to the Nybrokajen Ferry terminal and enjoyed a beverage and Kim’s first experience of salty liquorice ice-cream, a common Nordic flavour. Kim loves liquorice but the jury is still out on this one 😉
Final destination for the day was Gamla Stan, or Old Town, which is a small island between 2 bridges.
Apart from the extremely busy tourist shopping streets and eateries, there were plenty of medieval alleyways, cobbled streets and superb architecture to enjoy, although there was a huge amount of redevelopment work in the area of Kornhamnstorg Square. Some of the streets are very steep and one is particularly narrow, less than a metre wide, although we failed in our attempt to locate it.
The oldest square in Stockholm with its iconic cinnamon and yellow buildings.
The Kungliga Slottet, the Royal Palace
After leaving Gamla Stan we headed towards Stockholm City Hall where we did hope to take a boat/ferry back to Mälarhöjdsbadet, a beach close to our campsite but we had missed the boat 😉 as they say.
Undaunted we made our way to Stockholm Central station to take the metro home but not before we paid exorbitant prices for burger, fries and a beer in a Boston Styled restaurant just outside the station. It had to be done.
Despite not being enamoured with our camping experience in Stockholm, we thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the city and would have been sad to have missed it.