June 29-30
Liam and Sofia finally made it into Oslo around 3pm… and Katie and Oscar too! We were anxiously awaiting their arrival. We grabbed a few pizzas and some coffee for the adults so we’d be able to get right on the road. Then it was off to our fiesta bus! Michael and I found out that there are no good rental car options for six people. Lots of options for 5, but 6 people require an 8 passenger van.
Here is us with the van.
With all the great people in front of it, you may miss the incredible Hertz advertisement on the side. It’s bright yellow and huge. We were not blending in by any chance for the next 10 days.
Fiesta bus! Fiesta bus! Fiesta bus! Fiesta bus!
The day before, Katie and crew had driven to Toronto from Ann Arbor to then fly to Copenhagen. They had a lay over long enough to get out into the city and wander around a bit before their final flight to Oslo. It was quite a trek – especially for two little ones. So we did the only natural thing: we piled everyone in the fiesta bus and drove six hours to Stockholm. Hey – sometimes it’s hard work traveling with Michael and Sasa.
The drive was tough – but we had time to catch up and we saw 6 moose!! Katie and I were out of our minds excited about it. Here is a blurry picture for your viewing pleasure:
We also stopped into McDonald’s for a bathroom break and snack. It’s important that the kids get to really experience the culture of Sweden.
We arrived at the Airbnb around 9pm and were fairly fast to sleep… or at least as fast to sleep as two excited kids can be when in a new place and overly excited by Michael running around with them.
The next morning, we headed into the city which was just a 20 or so minute train ride away.
I didn’t really know this before, but Stockholm, which is the capital of Sweden, is an archipelago in the Baltic Sea made up of 14 islands and more than 50 bridges connecting those islands. The public transportation in the city is really quite spectacular. In one day, we took a train to the old town, a commuter ferry to another island and a bus back to the airbn. Here’s a google map of the city so you can get an idea.
We were staying southwest of Gamla Stan, which is old town and the first stop of the day.
We spent half of the day on Gamla Stan, starting with the all important coffee stop and waterside photo shoot.
After being properly fueled, we wandered over to the Royal Palace in time to see the changing of the guard. Well – we couldn’t see the guards too well, but we could see and hear the royal band!
Then we casually popped into the nearby church for a quick visit. Google maps called it Storkyrkan and we also saw it was called the Church of St. Nicholas. But upon entering, we found out it was also the famous Stockholm Cathedral that we had been looking for.
It has flip flopped since 1527, when it was built, from being a Roman Catholic Church to Lutheran and back to Catholic, which it still is today. Several royal weddings, funerals and coronations happened in this cathedral. A few cool things that we saw:
The royal pews with Princess Sofia ready for her coronation:
St. George and the Dragon:
The legend of St. George is quite interesting. Apparently there was a terrible dragon that demanded human offerings from a town somewhere in Libya. The Cathedral pamphlet and the internet are a bit confusing on this legend. Regardless, on the day that the King’s daughter was to be sacrificed, St. George happened upon the town. St. George convinced the town to convert to Christianity and in exchange he slew the dragon. Slew? Slayed? He killed it.
The princess rescued by St. George apparently represents the kingdom of Sweden with the dragon representing an invading army.
Fun fact: the lance with which St. George is said to have killed the dragon was named Ascalon. This name was used by Winston Churchill for his personal plane during WWII.
Fun fact #2: George is included in some Muslim texts as a popular prophetic figure, with some sources stating he was among a group of believers who were in direct contact with the last apostles of Jesus. Apparently he was martyred three times by the King of Mosul for his beliefs but was resurrected every time.
There is a historical debate about his life and his deeds… besides slaying the dragon, of course, which is a known fact. Scholars believe he definitely existed and was probably martyred. The quote I like from Wikipedia, attributed to Pope Gelasius I (never heard of that one before), is that George was among those saints “whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose actions are known only to God”. I can get behind that more than I can get behind George, dragon slayer saint. Now, enough about George.
This incredible candle globe and the darling Sofia:
Having thoroughly examined the church, we were back off to the Royal Palace.
Since the changing of the guard was completely over, we were able to enter.
The Royal Palace is still the home of the Swedish monarchy and is where official head of state stuff is done. However, apparently the royal family lives somewhere else. The palace has 660 windows, over 1400 rooms, and is one of the largest palaces in the world per the internet.
Awesome photo bomb:
The palace really was pretty big, so we had enough patience and energy to visit just the museum and the royal apartments.
And of course… the gift shops.
Sofia’s shield for the Order of the Seraphim:
This is the highest order, awarded to foreign royalty and heads of state. For the royal family, they are knighted with this order at birth or when they marry into the royal family. When a person is awarded the order, a shield with their coat of arms is created. This insignia is then worn on their clothing. Princess Sofia became a member at her wedding to Prince Carl Philip in 2015. For any additional information about the Swedish royal family, feel free to reach out to Katie. She had an immense knowledge base of Swedish royal facts and gossip.
This is the fancy throne in the Hall of State, where the King still has official meetings or something.
After the Royal Palace, we stopped in the square to grab lunch. Actual Swedish meatballs!! They were delicious, in case you were wondering. No pictures – but it happened.
Post lunch, Katie and Oscar went to the Nobel Prize Museum while Michael, the kids and I took a ferry over to a different island to check out the Vasa Museum.
On August 10, 1628, this ship set sail on her maiden voyage and immediately sank in the Stockholm harbor. Haha. Not a very good boat. Apparently the ship was too tall and too skinny. Plus there wasn’t enough weight in the bottom of the boat to keep it upright. So when a tiny breeze hit the ship, it started to rock back and forth and then began taking on water through the canon holes. Thirty sailors died.
After 333 years under the sea, the wreck was salvaged in 1961. The vessel was brought back to the top of the sea and was then reconstructed. Today, 98% of the vessel is original, including many of the beautiful sculptures and even some of the original paint.
This frog sailor statue:
It was cool seeing the huge ship, and the kids (plus Michael) loved bringing up the anchor and steering the ship in the interactive section of the museum.
https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/img_3031.trim_.movAfter getting our fill of the warship, we met up with Katie and Oscar and headed to Skansen. Skansen is the oldest open-air museum in the world. It showcases Sweden through buildings, farmsteads, gardens and a zoo which focuses on Nordic animals.
See what I did here with the shadows?
Wolf cubs:
https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/img_1569.movMoose up close!
Yes – Katie and I are still totally pumped about the moose!
Did you know? The moose is Sweden’s largest land animal. More than 95% of all the meat Swedish wolves eat is moose. A pack of wolves kills an average of one moose every three days. 350-400 wolves in Sweden kill about eight thousand moose per year.
The moose was almost completely eradicated in the early 1800s, but the population has slowly recovered since and has increased dramatically since the mid-1900s. This is mostly because of hunting regulations and a reduction of the wolf population. Sweden has around 350,000 moose each summer, of which about 80,000 are shot in the fall – and those other 8,000 killed by wolves.
Also people in Europe use the names elk and moose interchangeably for what we know as a moose. While in the US, an elk is a completely different animal (albeit in the same family).
Reindeer in need of a good molting:
At this point we were ready for some dinner and another World Cup match was about to begin. So we did what every good futbol fan would do – we booked it over to the ABBA museum to get dinner and watch the game.
That’s right – we hung out at the ABBA museum and it was amazing.
Uruguay beat Portugal 2-1.
Super long day:
That was basically it for Stockholm. We crammed a lot into just about 36 hours. The next morning, Katie and I grabbed some runs. I got us a teeny bit turned around which ended with us climbing through a construction site.
And then we were back on the road. No rest for the weary! We had six hours back to Oslo where we were going to spend a little time. But this time, we found a better rest stop than McDonalds. We pulled into a random gas station that had a restaurant next door. It was authentic Swedish cuisine! We ordered meals and then we got free drinks and salads to accompany it. Most importantly, I got my second round of Swedish meatballs. When in Rome!
Now off to Norway for our next set of adventures with Liam and Sofia!