The last stop on our recent Windstar cruise was Stockholm, the Swedish capital that has been on my short list of cities to visit during our stint here in Europe. We arrived and had to disembark from the ship right in the middle of rush hour traffic (of course) but we made it to our bag drop so we could ditch our luggage and kick off our adventures in Stockholm. Our first stop was actually not within Stockholm itself but the Drottningholm Palace outside of the city about 45-60 minutes by public transport. We took the metro/bus but you can also take a round trip ferry departing from Stockholm proper from in front of City Hall. We ended up taking the ferry back and I would say if the two, the ferry was much more pleasant. Drottningholm Palace is still the home of the royal family so when you visit you won’t have access to the whole compound but you will see enough. I will say, I enjoyed the palace but if you read my St. Petersburg blogs, Drottningholm ain’t no Catherine’s Palace or Peterhof. Interesting one of the Kings of Sweden (Gustav the third) cousin was Catherine the Great. Look at that. There is actually a Chinese stove in the palace that was gifted from her. Anyway you can definitely tell Sweden was never the empire that Russia was but the palace was still very nice and hopefully the pictures are enjoyable to you!
Library with over 7,500 books! Looked a little like Beauty and the Beast.
Staircase lined with the 7 muses
Chinese themed stove that was a gift from Catherine the Great
and now the gardens!
After wandering the gardens we took a ferry back to Stockholm proper. As I mentioned before, definitely the better way to play the commute to the palace.
From the boat we headed to lunch of traditional, stereotypical Swedish fare including Swedish meatballs and some sort of hash (sorry no photos, ate it up before I remembered). Well fueled we went to the Vasa museum. The Vasa museum houses the remains of a giant war vessel that housed 64 cannons, took a year and half to build and sank shortly after it set sail. Apparently the 120 tons of stone at the bottom of the ship were not enough to weigh it down and it was too too heavy. So when the wind hit, down she went. She sank into about 6 meters of mud which preserved the wood of the ship so when they brought it up it was essentially intact. Admittedly, I read about this museum and had initially left it off my list of activities. It was highly related though and my dad mentioned we should go so we did. After going, I admit I was wrong to leave it off my list (and I don’t often admit to being wrong). The ship was pretty incredible.
After museuming it was time for to fuel our souls again. Researching restaurants in Stockholm I saw a lot of $$$$ classifications which was intimidating. Thankfully I did find a more reasonably priced, highly rated option called Bistro Bestick. Highly recommend. We had an awesome meal and had a very friendly waiter from New York. This time I remembered to snap a picture of the cod dish I had.
Day 2 was another full day starting at City Hall – home of the Noble Prize reception. This all happens in the blue room (which is in fact no longer blue) and is made of around 8 million bricks. The reception has about 1300 attendees which allows each guest to have around 50 cm of personal space. Cozy. Don’t worry, the royal family and the winners get a whopping 55 cm. Lucky them!
From the blue hall we went the the city council chambers. There are 101 members of the council (prevents a tied vote) of which 50 are men and 51 are women currently. Only 13 are full time city council members so most have other jobs and they meet every third Monday of the month. These meetings are open to the public. The ceiling of the city council chambers was inspired by a Viking long house.
You can get married in city hall if you so desire. Stockholm residents can be married for free and for everyone else it’s a bargain of only 500 Kronos but you have to wait about 6 months for your 1 minute ceremony.
We passed a few more halls and rooms on the way to the most impressive gold room.
The gold room is made with real gold. There is only 10 kg total though. There are two layers of glass with golf leaf in between. One wall of the gold room is contemporary Stockholm (except old castle that burned in 1697). At the top sit St Erik but he is missing one very important body part. His head! After the motif was designed they added marble benches which were not planned for and so now St Erik is headless.
Opposite the picture of Stockholm is a mosaic of a lady sitting in middle of lake. To her left is the western world and to her right is eastern world.
The kitchen is above golden hall. They used to host the Nobel dinner here, but now they dance here. Like what you see? You can rent the gold roll for about €7k but not for private use, it would have to be for a corporate event for example.
After city hall we went to another palace – our last one of the trip. On the way we ran into the changing of the guard. I thought we were quite lucky but it turns out this process took nearly an hour and there was a lot of the same process being repeated over and over. I took a video so you can see for yourself.
Once the guard had finally cleared we made our way inside. At this point, we had seen so many palaces we actually made our way through rather quickly. If your in Stockholm, I wouldn’t say the royal palace would be a must see. The rooms start to all look the same and the Crown Jewels (which you cant photograph) were inferior to the likes of the English and and Danes.
After the castle we made our way to a late lunch at a nice little Italian place were we snacked on a bunch of small plates. To satisfy our sweet tooth we went to a local bakery (we thought it would be quaint but it turned out to be tourist central) for some princesa cake. As an avid great British bake off fan I was familiar with the cake from one of the challenges but for those of you who are less enthusiastic about British competition series television, princesa cake is layers of marzipan on top of a cake made with lots of whipped cream like filling and jam. Delish!
Post cake we went back to the Airbnb to rest a bit and pack before our last meal. For the final dinner I chose a place a little tourist my – Aifur Krog- a Viking theme restaurant because why not? I was a little worried if my parents would think it was cheesy but everyone enjoyed being announced when we first entered, cheering as others arrived, and listening to festive music. My parents even got to try out some costumes. And that’s what I will leave you with – photos of Ann and David getting in the Viking spirit. Stockholm was a great last stop to an amazing cruise. Until the next adventure!
Have Passport Will Travel 
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