Day 1 – Arrived in Stockholm!
After a busy few months, it was time to take off on my travels again and explore another couple of Cities: this time the Scandinavian cities of Stockholm and Oslo. My first visit was to the Swedish capital of Stockholm that is also the largest city in Scandinavia and has a population of around 2,500,000. Stockholm is spread across 14 islands that are connected by 57 bridges, and the large expanse of water around Stockholm has resulted in it being known as the ‘Venice of the North’. The city has a great culture with a mixture of historical buildings, great restaurants, cafes, and bars, along with a taste of nature. Many of the locals also have properties away from the city where they spend much of the summer months enjoying quality time with their families.
It was an early start this day that nearly resulted in me missing the flight by getting to the gate a few minutes before the plane was due to take off – long story, so I won’t bore you with the details, but it was a very stressful start to the holiday and not something I would care to repeat!
So, I arrived in Stockholm around mid-morning and took the train straight from Arlanda Airport – it took around 30 minutes to get into the centre of Stockholm. This was quite a cheap single fare, and it is worth mentioning here that if you are travelling with other people you can get a group ticket instead of a single one which works out cheaper!
Stockholm has seven central districts: Sodermalm, Gamla Stan, Djurgarden, Ostermalm, Vasastan, Kungsholmen, and Norrmalm. I was staying in an Airbnb in Norrmalm that is centrally located and, providing you don’t have any mobility issues, easy to walk back and to from the city and surrounding areas. If you don’t want to walk there are plenty of Uber and Bolt taxis in operation around Stockholm. Anyway, as I couldn’t check into my accommodation until the middle of the afternoon, I decided to take a wander around the city and see what it was like and what was available to do during my stay.
It was only around a 30-minute walk to get over to the old town which is impressive and quite a contrast to the new town. I walked down by the river, where various boat rides were being offered, and saw the Royal Palace which has a lovely courtyard that you can wander round for free! You can also see the Stockholm Cathedral, and various museums in this area. Numerous open top buses operate around Stockholm, too, as they do in many cities, so if you fancy a relaxing scenic tour around the city where you can just get off whenever you wish and explore further then this may be a good option.
It became quite hot during the afternoon, and I discovered that the Old Town was much busier than the New Town, but neither were as busy as most Capital cities are in the height of the summer season – this is apparently due to the fact that many of the locals are staying in their holiday homes, as I previously mentioned, and therefore easing some of the congestion in the tourist areas.
After such an early start to the day, it had turned into quite a busy one and I decided to take a break in the shade and sample some local ice cream to cool me down. I was only staying a few days in Stockholm, so I realised that as there were quite a few things to see and do that I wouldn’t be able to do everything. So, after a lovely evening meal later on where I got the opportunity to sample some local Swedish meatballs, which were great and there was plenty of them, I tried to plan a couple of trips for my next two days here.
