Chad: We took a trip to Stockholm for our 2nd to last weekend here in Sweden. It’s about a 5 hour drive from Gothenburg on mostly very good roads. We left on Friday afternoon around 5 pm. Rhonda drove the whole way and I was very thankful. I don’t like to drive here at all.

Rhonda: Chad has not driven at all since we arrived on March 10th! Oh well, I don’t mind. Chad: Yeah, right!

Chad: Rhonda’s co-worker, Freppe, loaned us a GPS. It has been a lifesaver. Without it, traveling would have been extremely difficult if not impossible. I think driving through the downtown streets of Stockholm is challenging for even the local drivers.

This weekend turned out to be a busy one for the city. A large number of international dignitaries were leaving Stockholm on Friday from the Iraq conference which messed up traffic a bit. Along with that, it was graduation evening for over 20 high schools. Lots of teenagers out driving around. Finally, they were getting ready for the Stockholm marathon on Saturday. We were told about 18000 people were entering it. So navigating Stockholm at about 10 pm at night still proved to be challenging and, like I said, the GPS saved us more than once.

We scouted for a parking lot before leaving Gothenburg and saved several possible locations since downtown was full and every hotel was booked. Our hotel said they could park our car for about $75 per day, so upon arrival we went to the first parking garage instead of using the hotel parking. Rhonda’s eagle eyes found it buried in the side of a building going underground. We almost missed it. Only about $55 per day to park. What a great deal!

We stayed at the Radison SAS Strand Hotel. No, it wasn’t the “Grand Hotel” where the Nobel laureates stay, but it was almost right behind it. While we were checking in, they were turning people away since every room in the downtown Stockholm area was booked for the marathon and graduation. We were very lucky we were able to stay at such a central location.

After we checked in, we made our way around Gamla Stan, “Old Town”, to take photos. The sun was finally going down about 11 pm so we could finally see buildings light up for the evening. We took some photos of Old Town, the Grand Hotel, and finally went to an outdoor bar where we had a glass of wine. By the time we made it back to the room, it was 1 am and time to get some fast sleep.

The next morning we had our $25 dollar breakfast downstairs. European style with a few things that looked like scrambled eggs. If you are in Europe, in most hotels it is better to eat the European style breakfast and skip anything that is “American” like. (Eggs, bacon, sausages, etc.) It just is not right. However, eating the cereal, fruit, yogurt, and their excellent coffee is perfect.

This morning we took the Grand Tour. It was a 1.5 hour bus ride around the city with a 2 hour boat ride around the islands.

We saw the following areas: Nybrokajen, Stromkajen, The Royal Palace, Stadshusbron, Gustav Adolfs Square, Kulturhuset, and Mynttorget.

Rhonda: One of the highlights on the bus tour was that we got to see the Swedish Guards riding the Royal horses through the streets of Stockholm. They were heading to the Palace where the changing of the guards ceremony was going to be held.

On the boat tour, the best part was going through 2 of the many lock gates. Stockholm is situated between the Baltic Sea and Lake Mälaren and is made up of 14 islands.

Lake Mälaren is actually 3 meters above the Baltic Sea, so water lock gates are located between the sea and the lake due to the water turbulence. In the locks, the water is raised or lowered depending on which direction you are going in the boat. During the short time in the locks, the water level is adjusted and boats are anchored to the sides. It was a neat experience.

Chad: After the tour we took a short break at the room before going out again to the Old Town to do a little shopping. After shopping we found a café to sit at for an afternoon break. While walking the old town, we found an old sign shop were we purchased a little sign that was labeled “kitchen” in Swedish for way to much money. It was a interesting store and we talked with the keeper for about 20 minutes before we were hooked.

Rhonda: Before our shopping experience in the Old Town and our mid afternoon snack, we were able to watch the marathon for a short time. I couldn’t believe how many people were in the race. I think this was the first time for both of us to see a marathon.

Chad: Once the afternoon was done we made our way back to the hotel again and found a great place for dinner. We went to Restaurant Milano. Rhonda had spaghetti with scampi and that was definitely the best. If you are ever in Stockholm, you should give that a try.

We ate too much that evening, so we decided to walk to the far side of the harbor and try to take some sun set photographs. Our first stop we found 8 air balloons going over the city and took a few pictures of them. Once I got my stuff set up, a bunch of other tourists joined me in trying to take their photos.

We then walked to the other side of the Old Town and ended up walking up a huge flight of stairs to an area with a great view of the city. It ended up being a lot more interesting than taking the road that everyone else used.

After that we again walked along the edge of the old town again and turned in for the night.

Sunday was our last day and we decided to go to the House of Photography Museum and the Royal Stables. The museum was in a temporary style and extremely small. We were given a short video and ended up looking at about 15 large photos. We also found extra photos for sale starting at about $1300 dollars each. Way to expensive for us, but some of them were very good.

After that, we waited for about 90 minutes until the stables opened up. They only accept the first 30 people in line each day for a single tour. We were lucky and only about 10 people were in line. We were shown all the Kings horses. The King owns 14 of them and the rest of the staff owns the other 16 horses. The staff takes care and trains all the horses. We got to meet a few of them and were shown their stables.  After that, we saw all of the different carriages. They are made of gold and silver and some are very old. It’s amazing. Some of the carriages are over 100 years old and still in use today. Everything is taken care of extremely well.

Rhonda: The Royal Stables was a great place to visit. I truly enjoyed it. We got to see the gold and silver harnesses that the horses wear and the old carriages! We also got to meet a couple of the horses. We learned that all of the horses are Bay horses with the exception of one and they all are 100% Swedish blood. Each of them are giving a new appropriate name when they are brought to the Royal Stables. The horse we met was “Balder”! He really liked his neck scratched.

We had a great time in Stockholm! Check out all of Chad’s photos below!

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