Celebrating National Sweden Day in Sweden

I had a short 2 day trip in Sweden that just so happened to coincide with National Sweden Day!

Day 1 – Gamla Stan

Navigating the trains

We arrived in Sweden in the early morning of June 6th excited to make the most of our 2 days in Stockholm! The airport is a little ways away from Stockholm city centre and you can either take a 60 minute bus ride for $10 or 18 minute ride for the equivalent of $32. (It goes 120mph!) Because we were crunched for time, we took the train.

Once we got off the train and were looking for our Airbnb, everywhere was so crowded! We had to take another local train to get to our Airbnb and they do not make figuring out local transportation easy for visitors! There are different types of tickets you can buy such as a 2-hour ticket, and you can use them unlimited times for the duration of their validity. However, you can buy 24, 72 hour, or 30-day tickets but they make this very difficult for a tourist to figure out. You cannot buy these day or multi-day tickets at the electronic ticket kiosks and we only discovered by asking around enough you have to go to the ticket gate keeper to physically buy a pass from them.

After you have any ticket you can ride all their trains and busses, which are very clean and fast! In addition, the Stockholm trains are all underground, and the walkways are carved through huge rocks that have been painted. It is really pretty!

Stockholm Palace

We checked into our accommodations and went off to explore downtown Stockholm!

All the tour book and blogs about Stockholm tell you to do two things when here: Visit Gamla Stan (old Stockholm) and kayak. We started off heading to the small island where Gamla Stan is located and it was teaming with people!

Gamla stan was beautiful and looked exactly as I imagine it looked centuries ago. Once once we reached the Stockholm Palace did we find out why there were so many people out: it was National Sweden Day!

Luckily enough for us, this also meant free entrance into the Stockholm Palace!

Everything in the palace was incredibly ornate! Unfortunately, it was so packed it was unbearably hot inside the palace and we all shuffled along slowly through all the rooms.

Chokladkoppen

After the palace, we were very hot and bothered so decided to look for a much talked about cafe in Old Stockholm: Chokladkoppen.

We sat here and got some coffee, hot chocolate, and a famous Swedish cinnamon roll. Everything was very expensive but that is something we are coming to terms with is that everything in Northern Europe is very expensive. This was a great spot to unwind in the shade while still enjoying the picturesque Gamla Stan!

Day 2 – Kayaking, Big Ships, and more Palaces

Kayaking

Like I mentioned earlier, one of the main attractions recommended to do in Stockholm during the summer is go kayaking through the city. You can find a number of kayak rental shops in the city, and so it was quite simple to locate the closest one and rent our kayaks.

This was an unforgettable experience and no wonder everyone recommends kayaking Stockholm because it is a fantastic way to see the city!

We only rented the kayaks for an hour, and at first I thought this wouldn’t be enough time to be out on the water. But I have not built up my kayaking muscles and was dead tired by the end of the hour!

Drottingholm Palace

After the morning work out, we took a long lunch break. The next stop in the afternoon was to visit the more rural Drottingholm Palace, an UNESCO World Heritage site and private residence to the Swedish royal family.

We had to travel by bus because the trains don’t come this far, but it was worth the trip! It is idyllically located next to a gorgeous lake that has boat tours of the lake if you are interested. We decided not to go inside because it was quite expensive to get the official tour. Instead, we wandered around the lake taking in the views and eating some ice cream.

The Vasa Museum

Our final stop was in the museum area containing both the Vasa museum and the ABBA Museum! I grew up listening to ABBA so I was so excited to visit this museum, however they charge an astronomical price for tickets (I believe it was $27) and most of the reviews said it is mainly for kids.

On that bombshell, we decided to spend more time at the Vasa museum. My dad talked nonstop about this place before I came to Sweden and so of course I had to check it out. The Vasa is an impressive Swedish Warship that was constructed in the early 17th century, however on its maiden voyage in 1628 immediately sunk into the bay. No one is completely sure why it sank so quickly, but archaeologists theorize that the ship is so large and narrow that it likely could not have floated. And then if you add in all the cannons the warship contained, it seems inevitable the ship would have sank.

The ship remained untouched and forgotten about until 1950 when efforts were made to remove it from the bay and bring it back to its former glory! In addition to seeing the fully preserved ship, many artifacts and human remains trapped in the ship shed light into 17th century Sweden.

It is very impressive and a must-see in Stockholm!