Waking at sunrise, I was worried that we might get a second day of rain, but the skies seemed pretty clear. It could always change, but we were optimistic, and I knew that always paid off in the end.
After a quick breakfast, we headed for the Metro.
After seeing Montréal’s Metro, it is incredible for me to see how clean and gaffiti-free Denmark and Sweden’s wagons are. How do they do it?? Even the oldest trains are totally tag-free! Here, I am pretty sure you can find at least one name hastily written or carved after the very first ride of a new coach.
Anyway…
For day #2 in Stockholm, the plan was to visit The Nordic Museum, have a peek at The Abba Museum (not included in the Stockholm pass), move to Tivoli Gröna Lund Park, take the Hop on – Hop off boat to get to Nobel Museum before having a nice meal in a restaurant David had found and calling it a day!
We hopped on the first bus to leave downtown!
The Nordic Museum was founded by Artur Hazelius (who also founded the open air museum Skansen – keep that name in mind). The huuuuuuuuuge building housing the exhibitions was designed by Isak Gustaf Clason. Originally, it should have been four times the size of the actual site, which is a bit mind blowing.
When we first saw the museum, from outside, we thought it was a previous royal castle used to present exhibitions. But Hazelius’ dream was to exhibit all of Scandinavia’s history and culture in one site… I was almost glad he had to limit himself to Sweden for budget reasons. Otherwise, we probably would have spent our whole Stockholm time there! LOL
If you want to learn anything about Sweden’s culture, the Nordic Museum is the place to go. From Swedish furniture design to ways to set the table and welcome guests… From the history of fabric to the Sami culture… From the celebrated holidays and traditions, to Swedes’ clothing through the last decades… You name it, they have it! And the free audio guide is a great complement to take a rest from reading the signs along your endless walk through the different levels of the place.
At this point, got hungry. I knew we had sandwiches in David’s backpack, and I knew how delicious they looked, since I had made them… and here’s what hunger inspired me, photography-wise;
That large pot at the end was intended to be filled with beer. Now, something tells me that Swedes had nothing to envy to Danes, in the partying department at that time!
Gröna Lund was next.
The Swedish Tivoli park is at an enjoyable walking distance from the Nordic Museum, especially on a nice day. We just stopped for a moment in front of the Biologiska Museet (Biology… Ok, you guessed!) and Abba Museum to catch this, but it meant extra entry fees, we kept walking, and didn’t visit them.
Now, here’s a traveling tip you should never forget… Like we did. Always check the opening hours of the attractions you expect to visit. Never assume! The Internets were invented for that, and you can thank Google later!
Obviously, we had skipped this important step, probably too excited about the blue skies! And unfortunately realized that Gröna Lund was closed for the day, despite the lovely weather…
And here’s tip #2 (Isn’t this an informative blog?!?) of the day; When traveling, expect that unexpected things will happen (like amusement parks closed when you wanted to visit them) and be ready to improvise! Changing plans is part of being on vacation, and you often get nicely surprised, when you have no expectations!
So what did we do, you might wonder? We crossed the street and went to Skansen (remember, I had asked you to keep that name in mind!)
Skansen is officially an open air museum. What does that mean? Obviously a happy mix of a park, an amusement park, a zoo, an a walk in the past around houses from what looked (I admit, I didn’t read all the signs) like Viking housings.
I got hooked on a sign announcing Nordic animals. So we followed paths that led up the hill… and although each sign we passed by said we were a few hundred meters away from the said Nordic animals, we just kept walking and walking…
Not Nordic!
Not animals!
Then, we found animals, just not quite Nordic enough, to my liking!
I even made an unexpected red haired friend! Scandinavian Bob first attacked David, climbing up his leg, but when I got the bag of dried fruit and nuts out of our bag, he jumped on my lap… I became Skansen’s main attraction, and I really wonder on how many Facebook pages I ended up (yes, there was a lot of unauthorised picture taking! lol)
But what about the Nordic animals, right? Yes, we found them. Well… Some of them.
Disappointed? Not really. Especially when we noticed the view…
Of course, that’s when we discovered there was an easier way to get up the hill.
I am tempted to skip the next two activities of the day… First was the Hop On Hop Off boat.
The only problem being that there apparently were some issues between the boat company and the tourism bureau, so we weren’t allowed to board the Voulez-Vous.
So we had to go by bus.
The next stop was the Nobel Museum.
Ok, so for dinner, David had found a fine little restaurant so we could try the mythical Swedish meatballs! (No, really, it doesn’t happen often, but I was really disappointed with the museum… Not even worth ranting about)
Nice, cozy little place, and when we got there, there was only a table for two left! Talk about timing!
And that was it, for day 2 in Stockholm…
The Turtle's Journey... 
Je viens de faire une bonne partie du voyage avec vous deux dans ce merveilleux pays. Quelle agréable
expérience. Je n’ai pas répondu à journée 2 – 3 parce que j’étais trop pressée de lire la suite. Alors ce petit message s’applique à toutes les journées du voyage. Merci encore à vous deux pour cette belle visite virtuelle et au plaisir de lire la suite. Je vous aime xxxx maman (en passant, Bob et super beau j’espère que Freja pense la même chose. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
C’est un plaisir de vous faire voyager avec nous 🙂 Pas de soucis pour les commentaires, il n’y a pas de presse, l’important c’est que vous puissiez partager nos souvenirs 🙂
Oui, Bob était très cute, et il s’est bourré la face dans les peanut 🙂 xxxx
LikeLike
I feel like I need to take major notes on everywhere so one day I can repeat this enviable trip in real life! But for now, I love the vicarious trip. SO awesome. I’m so thankful you shared all this! I am blown away by how much you packed into a couple days too. Oh my gosh! I have never seen a friendly squirrel like that! You’re like a real life snow white right there! The wildlife and architecture there is SO cool. Oh my guuudness, that meal looks fabulous! Taking notes……
LikeLiked by 1 person
If you go to Stockholm, I’ll give you the adress of that restaurant, it is totally THE place to go to try the mythical meatballs (but this time, I admit, you’d have to cheat :P) You’ll redeem your no-meat virtues with the beetroot/goat cheese salad (I soooo regret not taking a picture before we dove in :P)
Snow White LOL Give me a dress, and I’d make an excellent princess, less the ladylike manners 😛 I do have a way with animals… wherever there was something furry or feathery, I got to give a good pet!
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a beautiful post and what a cutie. How neat you actually got to pet him and it was also neat to put a face with your beautiful words. I hope you take more pictures of yourself, because you are beautiful and sometimes it is nice to see the person behind the beauty.
I love your work and promised myself that I must read every single one of your posts when I get a little more time. There is something soothing, something comforting and something understanding when I come here tomyour blog and I thank you for sharing so much kindness with all of us. Xo
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Rhapsody, you’re always soooo very sweet!! 🙂 Yes, he was the cutest thing, and I really have to get back to this blog and add more posts, because I have a couple more adventures I’d really like to share… (I made friends with a seagull in Oslo, on the Opera’s roof… That was fun 😉 )
I am not quite comfortable with posting pictures of me, yet. I like to let my words do the talking, and leave the readers to imagine me as they want 😛 No promise, but there might be more, eventually!
It is always a pleasure to see you visit, and you’ll always be welcome in my little blog-universe 🙂 Have a wonderful day, Gorgeous! *hugs*
LikeLiked by 1 person
And I truly enjoy coming to your blog. It’s a sanctuary for me and we just get each other. It’s refreshing in a me me me society. I know I’m missing a lot of your beautiful writing right now, but know that you and your voice are dear to my heart. ❤️🦋
LikeLike
So lovely to see Skansen in the summer, or at least anytime other than winter! I finally got to see the moose there as they had hidden from view when I was up in the north! I didn’t see the little train up the hill though…. where was that?
LikeLiked by 1 person
If my memory is good, you can hop in somewhere near the gardens at the bottom of the hill… It was beautiful, and I hadn’t plan to go there, which made the visit even more special 🙂
I love traveling off season… even if it means that some of the attractions are closed. There are a lot less tourists, and I get a much better feeling of the places I visit. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Winter is my favourite season to travel to Scandinavia, and for me, coming from the other end of the earth, more affordable. But you are absolutely right, some attractions are closed, and summertime in Scandinavia is an incredibly beautiful with those long summer nights!! Three of my trips have been in summer, and two in winter.
LikeLike
That looks like a wonderful trip! And I love your little red squirrel friend 🙂 We see the red ones so seldom in Britain now.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was quite lovely 🙂 I never get bored in Vikingland!
Same thing for the red haired critters here… We see a lot or grey or black ones, but the red ones are very rare…. I really enjoyed the encounter with this little guy 🙂
LikeLike
They are the loveliest of squirrels 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree…. and I got to pet one 🙂 Yay me!
LikeLike
Yay indeed 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person