The Motherland! Kind of. Mom and I are a couple of generations removed but growing up with Swedish ancestry still made us want to visit. I'm even named after Mom's extremely Swedish Great Aunt Anna. After having the fermented fishy delicacy that is lutefisk at every Christmas dinner, we earned this trip.
Tourists definitely visit Sweden, but not in such overwhelming numbers like western and southern Europe. Despite this, Swedes are just as accustomed to English as the aforementioned regions, if not more so. Café workers spoke Swedish to each other and sometimes to me, but switched to English upon seeing my bewildered expression. And yes, there are A LOT of attractive people in Sweden. It’s actually annoying. I was constantly seeing guys who could be pro athletes or in boybands. But I knew that none of them would be coming home with me because Scandinavians are generally less willing to to strangers than Americans are. Also yes, the meatballs were perfect. They tasted just like my Grandma’s potato sausage!
Stockholm felt like a model society – almost too perfect. I wanted to ask, “Ok, what are y’all hiding? What’s getting brushed under the rugs here?” Hardly any trash or citizens struggling with homelessness. I knew going into this trip that Sweden is a welfare state, meaning there is a strong social safety net. Free healthcare and what not, but high taxes. Very much not socialist, but social democratic enough to make the U.S. center-left squirm a little. The Swedes’ ways of doing things have pros and cons, and reminded me that neither side of the pond has things figured out. The grass is always greener on the other side.
Governmental debates aside, Stockholm was as gorgeous as I envisioned it. Boats of all sizes line the major islands that make up this city and Strandvägen is the perfect place to see them. This street has quintessential European buildings, a wide pedestrian walkway along the water, and restaurants with piers so that you can sit right on the water. Mom and I hung out on one of these while the sun started to set. Core memory for sure.
Near Strandvägen is the Hallwyl Museum (Hallwylska Museet). This is the former home of Countess Wilhelmina, and could easily be a “Bridgerton” filming location. From wall tapestries to ornate furniture, the home brings you into the life of Sweden’s upper class in the early 1900s. It is a unique and perhaps under the radar piece of history in Stockholm well worth at least a quick stop.
Strandvägen gets you close to some of Stockholm’s biggest highlights. From the street, you can see the tall spire of the Nordic Museum (Nordiska Museet). The museum is smaller than it looks, which is surprising because it takes you through around 500 years of Nordic history. Its exhibits focus on the region’s ordinary inhabitants, displaying items of daily life century by century. Think home décor in the 1700s and teen parties in the 1950s, to name just a couple of examples. Through 1900s displays on how Swedes determined what the average person needs for a comfortable life (approached almost like science), you can see the emergence of Sweden’s modern systems.
Sweden’s maritime culture and history is one of its most well-known attributes, especially because of the Vikings. Even 1,000 years after their plundering across the Atlantic (and reaching North America before Christopher Columbus), Viking imagery is still on our screens large and small. A short walk south from the Nordic Museum is the Viking Museum. This museum won’t tell you how to train your dragon or how to wield Thor’s hammer as well as Chris Hemsworth does, but it does cover Viking shipbuilding, war equipment, mythology, and more.
Find more of Sweden’s maritime glory at the Vasa Museum (Vasamuseet) across from the Nordic. This entire building is dedicated to the Vasa warship, which sank in the 1620s and was not pulled from the ocean floor until around 300 years later. It is in remarkable condition, thanks to careful preservation and a temperature-controlled environment (it’s chilly in there). I’m not even going to try to describe how big it is, but given that there are four floors that each get you up close to a different part of the ship, you get the gist. Other exhibits show what researchers were able to determine about the people involved with Vasa based on human remains found near the ship.
Parks with greenery fill the spaces between each of these museums, creating an urban and leisure balance that many other cities in Europe also accomplish. Adding to the leisure are some lovely restaurants and coffee shops with outdoor seating. At coffee shops in particular, you can learn the art of “fika.” Fika is a practically mandatory coffee and snack break in the daily life of a Swede. Compare a waterfront fika in central Stockholm to a Starbucks drive-thru line and get sad with me.
Something that stood out to me about this museum-filled part of Stockholm is how seamlessly the tourist attractions fit in with everyday city life. Like I said earlier, Sweden sees less tourists than other parts of Europe, but it was still refreshing to feel somewhat unnoticed by locals simply going about their days. It was also refreshing not to feel like a burden, as locals in other cities like Florence and Barcelona are voicing their contempt for the hordes of tourists that continuously pack the streets -- so much so that locals sometimes can't even enjoy the very landmarks that make their cities so famous.
The oldest part of Stockholm is Gamla Stan, an island filled with narrow, winding streets lined with colorful medieval-ish buildings. It is easy to picture a horse-drawn carriage bouncing over the cobblestones or Belle from “Beauty and the Beast” emerging from one of the rustic doors. These are the reasons why Gamla Stan reminded me of the most historic parts of other European cities like Malá Strana in Prague or central Florence. What also reminded me of those historic districts was how touristy Gamla Stan felt. In this way, Gamla Stan is an exception to my previous tourists vs. locals musings. I saw souvenir stands, restaurant menus displayed in multiple languages, and people walking around in shorts and baseball caps (such clothing items easily reveal that you’re a tourist). However, places like Gamla Stan are the aspects of Europe that I’m obsessed with the most. I can’t help it! I’m a history geek who maybe dressed up as a princess too many times growing up.
Gamla Stan also features the Royal Palace (Kungliga slottet). You can see opulent living spaces dating back centuries and rooms where the royal family hosts special events, but there are also museums with royal regalia and medieval history. We chose to visit the palace’s Royal Armoury (Livrustkammaren) and it might be my favorite thing we did in Stockholm. It shows off centuries of royal clothing, armor (including Gustav Vasa’s helmet), and masquerade costumes which royals and other high society people wore to operas. Don’t forget the dungeon-like part of the museum housing royal carriages either. All of this is how I’d pull up to the function – and how Cinderella would too.
Stately buildings like the 17th century House of Nobility and Ryning's Palace are found throughout the walk from central Gamla Stan to the centuries-old Riddarholmen Church (Riddarholmskyrkan). Somehow this area felt a bit like Genovia from “The Princess Diaries.” Sections of Riddarholmen are from all the way back in the 13th century and you can see its spire from multiple parts of the city, The church’s surroundings put the passage of time into perspective because although more stately buildings are next to the church, a busy street passes under the bridge right in front of it. Keep going toward the water to get a great view of Stockholm City Hall (Stockholms stadshus) too.
There is a smaller island on the north side of Gamla Stan where you’ll find Sweden’s Parliament House (Riksdagshuset). It isn’t the coolest government building in the world, but the bridges connecting it to the rest of Stockholm make it fun to visit. Plus you can get a different vantage point of Gamla Stan’s colorful buildings. The water was rushing a bit more than in other parts of the city, creating a sort of regal ambiance. The island’s small size also allows you to really feel how unique it is to explore a city made up of islands.
We ended Part One of our Sweden Smörgåsbord by heading to the train station for our ride to Kalmar down south. The train station was surrounded by a mixture of old and modern buildings, and of course it was spotless. Oh, how I envy Europe’s public transportation. Stay tuned for Part Two!
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