We woke to grey , drizzly skies today so I was pleased that I had planned today as a Museum day. The breakfast buffet was excellent, all the usual things and a few Swedish extras. Neil added a pile of meatballs to his plate before he realised they were soy meatballs! However, as it turned out they were very tasty.
We set out in the rain to walk to Segels Torg for the T-Centralen tram stop. The Stockholm public transport system isn’t as streamlined as some, we had to purchase tickets for the tram on their SL transport app, but if we catch the metro we can just tap.on and off with credit cards. The ride to Djurgaden island took 13 mins and we hopped off right in front of the ABBA Museum.
I loved it! I started singing along as we walked in the door and pretty much kept it up til we left! There were displays of their family backgrounds, their early pre-ABBA music careers, replicas of their recording studios, costumes and dozens of gold albums and album covers. There were several.interavtive exhibits where you could sing or dance along. I had a go in the recording booth, doing an “audition” by singing along to Waterloo. But I passed on getting up on the stage and dancing along as the 5th member, not brave enough!
From the ABBA museum it was a short walk along the waterfront to our next stop. The Djurgaden island is known as Museum Island because there are so many in a smallish area. As well as the ABBA museum there is a Viking Museum, a Museum of Wrecks, the huge Nordic Museum, and an outdoor folk museum called Scansen . Neil seemed I terested in the Museum of Swedish Drinking!
However none of these was on my list, we were headed for the Vasa Museum. Simon had told us about this one, he’d visited it when he was living in Finland and said it was fantastic.
The Vasa was a spectacular ship, built for King Gustav Adolf, that sank in Stockholm Harbour on its maiden voyage in 1628. It spent 333 years buried in the muddy depths and because of a lucky mix of environmental reasons it survived incredibly well preserved. It was raised from the depths in the 1960s and has undergone a long process of preservation, having a fabulous museum built around it.
When you walk in to the enormous main hall it rises above you, absolutely huge!! I’m afraid photos just don’t give you the sense of its size. There are 7 floors of the museum, all opening out onto the ship , that give you the chance to examine it’s detailed features and amazing carving from the bottom of its hull to the very top of the stern. We spent ages walking around. I really think it’s one of the best museums I’ve ever visited.
We stopped for lunch at the Vasa museum cafe before heading back out in the rain to catch the tram back to the hotel. We walked past the huge Nordic Museum which displays 500 years of Nordic history.
Neil’s knees were pretty sore by now so we relaxed in the room for a bit. The sun came out for a while in the afternoon and we saw blue sky for the first time since we artived , here’s the view from our hotel room.
I went for a quick walk down to the waterfront and took a couple of pics to prove that it’s not always grey in Stockholm!
The gold top of the tower of city hall was glinting.
For dinner we walked around the corner the The Bishops Arms pub, which was very busy! At first I didn’t think we’d find a table but they had a section at the back with free tables. I had a delicious chicken fillet served with mushroom risotto and Neil finally managed to find a local hazy IPA beer to enjoy.
Tomorrow we will explore the old town area of Stockholm.