Day 5 – Stockholm Exploration

A slightly slower paced day as the weather was freezing cold and it was a day where being inside was more desirable than being outside. Despite this, Stockholm was still beautiful.

Sights of the Day

• We had a free city tour with our guide Francesca, she was excellent and gave us a run down of some key Swedish history. Turns out they were pretty powerful back in the day. We also learnt the origins of ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ which was very interesting.
• Next was on the Vasa Museum, this was the ‘must-see’ attraction in Stockholm and it lived up to its billing. Very impressive! With the added bonus that it was indoors as well. It is a ship from the 1600s which, after being built as one of the kings regal ships promptly sunk after 20 minutes of being on the water and has been beautifully preserved. Our guide was very excited and felt we were very lucky to be there on a day that the historians unscrewed a plank of wood on a side of the boat to check the quality, we weren’t quite as chuffed as her but enjoyed the excitement all the same.
• Checked out the ABBA museum seeing Kirsten is a fan but was a bit overpriced. Enjoying the ABBA music and display playing out the front= Priceless (and also free!)
• In the afternoon it started snowing quite a bit, still very novel and exciting for us. After a relaxing break in a warm bakery by the water we visited the little Christmas markets in the ‘Old Town’ of Stockholm. Importantly this kept up our average of over 1 Christmas market per day. This is something we are hoping to maintain until Christmas day.

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Eats of the Day

Not much to report today aside from some delicious Swedish meatballs and Lasagna for dinner. Kirsten also enjoyed her hot chocolate in the cafe. All other food was simple and homemade.

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Streak Broken

Our streak of hitting over 20,000 steps per day ended. Tragic, but we have vowed to go at least 10 days in a row this time.

Swedish Takeover

Our beloved tour guide Francesca told us that Sweden are planning to take over the world through IKEA, Skype and H & M. By controlling the way you relax, communicate and dress they feel they can becomes the world’s powerhouse nation again. They have also coined the tagline of ‘Capital of Scandanavia’ for themselves just to annoy Denmark. Best of luck to them!