Day 4: Stockholm segways and the Stockholm Card

Big day today! Had a leisurely morning and headed towards our 10AM Segway tour around 9ish. Barely found a bakery before our tour started...and we all know I need food to survive the day. But, we did it so all was good.

Segway tour w/ Daytrip Stockholm: We thought it'd be fun to try this. Neither of us had done a Segway before. We chose the 90 minute tour of the South side of Stockholm and the beaches. It was us and 2 groups from Stockholm. So, the tour was partly in English and partly in Swedish. It was less of a tour and more of a Segway rental with instruction. We didn't learn much about the city other than seeing the house where Nobel lived and some old jail that is now a hotel. I wouldn't recommend it, but the Segways were fun and seeing this little island that we likely wouldn't have seen otherwise was fun.

Then, it was off to Galma Stan for lunch and buying a Stockholm Card. The Tourist Information office was super friendly and we decided to do the 24 hour card to give us admission to lots of the things we wanted to see. We LOVED this card. Definitely recommended if you plan on doing at least 3 attractions and are using public transport. Lunch was at Hurry Curry. Quick and easy lunch.

First attraction that started our 24 hours: Science Museum that had a special exhibit called "Game On": a history of video games. Awesome! We played all sorts of games from the 80s-today. Game consoles, arcade machines, handheld devices. Good stuff! We also checked out the women inventors section of the museum which I really liked/appreciated.

Then, it was off to the Vasa Museum. This is amazing. There is this 1600s war ship that was salvaged after sinking that is in amazing condition that is displayed here. There are great exhibits surrounding it and a lovely guided tour in English. The ship itself is incredible and worth the admission in itself. Unbelievable!

Our final stop of the Stockholm card for the day was Skansen. Skansen is an open air museum depicting an old town version of Stockholm. Little buildings of 1700-1800 schoolhouses, palaces, bakeries, etc. We arrived around 4:15 so only had a little time to explore the buildings before they closed at 5. We'd recommend more time here. It's super cute. We got to try out stilt walking, saw some glass blowing, and had dinner overlooking Stockholm. Our card also gave us free entry to the aquarium/monkey exhibit. LOVED this. Monkeys! Everywhere. Baby monkeys. And a lemur exhibit where you could walk around with them. Again...very Euro.

We had to leave here around 5:45 to take the ferry back to the main island in time for our 7PM Swedish massages at Central Baden Spa. This was very nice after a crazy day. Massage time, sauna time, hot tub time and pool time. Relaxing stuff.


Then, it was off to bed for another day in Stockholm.

Day 3: Travel to Stockholm

This was mainly a day of travel on the train. We had breakfast at the hotel and then took an 11AM train to Stockholm. The train was full of screaming/crying/naked children...in first class. Ugh.

We arrived in Stockholm around 4:30PM. Figured out transport to our sweet hotel, Motel L. So far the hotels have been great. And tiny. But, also efficient and full of great design. Both have the key card to turn on the electricity deal and light switches both by the door and the bed. Genius. I hate having to get out of bed to turn the lights on/off. Also the furniture/decor are great. Motel L had a suite painting in the shower. And behind the bed.

After check-in, we went to dinner at Pelikan, a Swedish restaurant that had been there for hundreds of years. Jeff got reindeer. I got Swedish meatballs with lingonberries. Yummy stuff. I tried the reindeer, but wasn't sure I could eat a full plate of Santa's friends.

After dinner it was off to the Ice Bar for our 8:15PM reservation. The Ice Bar admission included one free drink. This place was dead. I think it used to be popular, but now we were in there with maybe 10 other people. We could stay as long as we wanted. I think it used to be you had a 45 minute window. Not the case now. It was cool in more ways than one. If you haven't been to one before, it's definitely worth it. Plus, all the ice from this one is imported from Northern Sweden, so that's neat.

Then, it was off to sleep for our big first day in Stockholm.

Day 2: Summer holiday season

So, our second day in Copenhagen was plagued by the Danish summer holiday season. We woke early to attempt to score the special Wednesday pastry at the Skt Peders bakery. I think we left the hotel around 7AM for this adventure. After some walking, we arrived at the bakery only to see a sign that said they were closed for the next week while they were on holiday. Ugh!! No special Wednesday pastry for us.

That led us to a standard bakery where we got a couple basic pastries. Then, we read about La Glace bakery and decided to try it out. Jeff got a pot of hot chocolate and some fancy pastry and I got a little orange cake. Mine was just okay. Jeff's was delicious. Jeff: 1 Alison: 0. Actually, this was Jeff: 2 Alison: 0 as Jeff's wine selection was better than mine the night before.

Then, we strolled up to Rosenborg Castle. Definitely a good move to get there right when it opened at 10AM. Lines seemed shorter than when we left. We used the Rick Steves' self-guided tour of the castle from our tour book we bought and that was amazing. We learned all kinds of random things like the removeable tiles in the floor for music come through, the mirror room where King Christian IV looked up the hoop skirts of ladies, and random facts about jewelry in the Crown Jewels room. A great way to see the castle.

Rick Steves told us about this treasure. Apparently the wife of one of the Kings cheated on him. So, he gave her this ring of a hand shaking a penis. What?! Never would have noticed that.

After that, we did some Euro game shopping so we'd have things to do on trains and boats and late nights at the hotel. We both bought a card game (Tessen for Jeff and Fungi for me). Then, it was lunch time. We had fancy hot dogs from Dop. Yummy!

We stopped in a couple of very nice churches and made our way to our 2PM bike tour w/ Bike Copehnagen with Mike. This guy was a real character. I was nervous about this tour. 4 hours on a bike. If you recall some of my older posts on biking (Alaska and Indonesia), you'll know I'm not a bike expert. Despite the craziness of biking the busy streets of Copenhagen, I survived. Without crashing. Or getting hit by people or bikes or buses or cars. We got to see a lot of the city and it had been raining all morning so it wasn't as hot as days past. We saw the equivalent of the White House/Congress building in Denmark, rode on the bike only path for a bit (these people love the biking) and took a tour through Christinaia (the hippie community of Copenhagen where people sell drugs and other crazy stuff!). The tour ended w/ a chance to jump into the Port of Copenhagen. Apparently, it's the cleanest port water of any 1 million+ city in the world. Jeff did this. I did not. If it had been about 5 degrees warmer, I would have. But it was chilly.

After the bike tour I attempted to take Jeff to get smorrebrod at Aamanns, but guess what?! It was closed for the holiday season as well! Fortunately, there was another smorrebrod place on the corner, so we ate there. Outside. Had some wine and all was good. Our little open face sandwiches were delicious. Jeff had 3: herring with curry, roast beef, and smoked salmon w/ scrambled eggs. All amazing. I had 2: pickled herring and marinated goat's cheese. Good stuff!!

We went back to the hotel, played some card games, and watched a weird movie on TV. It was in English w/ Danish subtitles. The Life Before Her Eyes. The end was ridiculous. And, I'm annoyed I stayed awake late to watch it.

Today, I did a quick 5 miler around the city. Took some quick pics. And, now we're on a train to Stockholm. More adventures to come!

Day 1: Copenhagen: "It's only been a day?!"

Tuesday I arrived in Copenhagen around 9:30AM and headed to the Wakeup Copenhagen. I checked in and headed out to explore the city a bit before Jeff arrived at 1:30PM. I had some lunch at a little cafe right down the street from the hotel. A tuna sandwich of sorts and a ginger lemonade. It was delicious. Then, I headed to the Designmusem of Denmark. I got to see all kinds of cool chairs and other furniture. Love Danish design.

At that point, I decided to go back and take a quick nap before Jeff arrived since I had to wake up at 3AM to catch my train to the airport in London. So, nap done. Went to the lobby to wait for Jeff around 2PM. Jeff arrived around 3:20 after going to the wrong Wakeup Copenhagen. Whoops! He made it though. No big deal. :)

Then we were off. We walked to the water taxi stop and rode the taxi over to The Little Mermaid Statue. Got our touristy pics. Got some ice cream. Headed down some nice shopping streets and found a nice wine bar for dinner. Sat outside and enjoyed the scenery.

Then it was time to go to Tivoli...an amusement park right in the city center. We watched some sort of ballet for 10 minutes. Then, strolled around. Rode a couple of rides including the 100 year old roller coaster and a giraffe on a carousel. Boom! Then, we hung out on the lawn until the 10:45 Illuminations show. Poor Jeff really looked tired after his trans-Atlantic flight. But, he was a trooper and we stayed awake and made it through the show. Lots of lasers and water. And a tiny bit of fire. Not sure it was staying up that late for, but it was interesting. Jeff does not regret it. :) Then, a midnight bedtime before more adventures on Wednesday. At some point that day, Jeff said: "It's only been a day?!". That's how we roll. :)

Scandinavia Plan

Hello travel blog followers!

Tomorrow it's off to Copenhagen where I will meet Jeff Nash for a 12 day adventure through the four main countries of Scandinavia. Here's the plan. Feel free to leave any advice for things we must do in these places!!

July 29-July 31: Copenhagen

Midday train to Stockholm

July 31-August 2: Stockholm

Overnight ferry to Helsinki

August 3-August 5: Helsinki

Morning flight to Bergen (Norway)

August 5: Bergen

Morning Fjord tour/Bus tour to Flam

August 6: Flam

Afternoon trains to Oslo

August 7-9: Oslo

That's the plan! Many adventures await. :)