Stockholm; Sunday, 05 June, 2022

The previous day had been the Stockholm Marathon, and it was the weekend of the National Day holiday so the hotel was very busy so we were lucky to get a table for breakfast as shortly after we arrived a queue started to form for people waiting for tables.

After breakfast we headed out of the hotel and over to the metro station to catch the metro on into town. Our first stop of the morning was the sightseeing ferry quays down near the Royal Place where we joined the 2.5 hour long Under the Bridges of Stockholm tour.

The tour took us round the central area and then through the canal that links the Baltic Sea that sits to the East of the city to Lake Mälaren that sits to the west. The tour, as the name suggests, passes under a number of bridges, including the impressive railway bridges that bring trains into Central Stockholm, as well as through a lock which helps control the flow of water given the lake sits higher than the Baltic Sea. One of the most impressive parts of the tour is as the boat heads past the iconic city hall of Stockholm, turning so that everyone on the boat gets a good view of the impressive building.

Back at the quays and we headed over to the nearby park café to grab a light lunch before heading up to the tram stop and catching the tram out to the Vasa Museum.

The museum houses the wreck of the Vasa, the flagship of the Swedish Navy that sank on her maiden voyage and lay in the waters of Stockholm for 300 years before it was raised from it’s grave and, over nearly 40 years, preserved.

We spent quite a bit of time exploring the museum before it was time to leave. We originally intended on just hopping on the tram back into the city centre, but with the bank holiday and the glorious weather it looked like everyone else was also in this part of Stockholm for the day – with the Skansen park and zoo and the Gröna Lund amusement park slightly further up the tramline making everything very busy, so – as it was only a couple of stops – we caught a tram in the opposite direction round the loop at the end of the line, and back to the city centre having seats the whole way.

Back in the city centre we caught the metro over to Gamla Stan and then wandered up to the centre of the old town to have a bit of a walk around, before retiring to a bar on the main square – Stortorget – to have a drink, before going to dinner in a very nice restaurant next door.

Dinner completed we headed back down the hill from Stortorget to the metro station and caught the train back to the hotel and an early night.

Weather

Sunny Sunny
AM PM
Hot (20-30C, 68-86F)
22ºC/72ºF