Travel Day 2 – July 25, 2013
We woke up early to have breakfast with Jake and Abby before we departed for the airport. We went to a Cappuccino Bar and got yummy smoothies, chocolate croissants, and hot beverages. Before we knew it we were saying our last goodbyes and heading to our flights on a taxi. Since my flight was in a different terminal than Kelsey and Alex, we parted ways after check in and then started my European adventure part two. My SAS flight got delayed an hour… typical… that would happen that the first time flying by myself and having to meet my family in another country. Even though I was a little panicked, it all worked out okay and my family was waiting for me when I got off the plane. We got our luggage and our Stockholm cards (card with transportation and entrance to many tourist attractions included) and hit the metro to get to the hotel. We dropped our luggage off at the Best Western Kom Hotel (off of the Rådmansgatan tram stop) and hit the Stockholm streets. The Combs family doesn’t waste any time when there are sights to see and memories to make. We had dinner and toured the Fotographia first. The shrimp sandwich, grilled chicken, and Greek salad were all incredibly delicious and way overpriced… not unlike all of the food for the rest of our trip we have come to find out. The Fotographia was an incredible photography exhibit that had everything from nude photos to pictures of the streets of Bombay. There were slow motion videos of different things dropping in the water and videos of burning of records while it was playing on a record player. The artists that were featured are Helmut Newton, Motohiko Odani, and Håkan Elofsson. On our way home, we walked through the streets of Old Town and stopped in Café Kåkbrinken for a Swedish waffle with ice cream on top. At the ice cream shop I had the pleasure of meeting an alumnae Alpha Chi Omega; it’s true… we are sisters all over the world. Dad and I ended our night with a couple of beers at the Limerick Irish Pub that was a block from our hotel. It felt like being home in Ireland again.
July 26, 2013
We woke up for our first full day in Scandinavia and had the most amazing and delicious hotel breakfast you could imagine. There was a huge buffet with everything you could ever want for breakfast and a personal touch screen coffee machine. Breakfast was the best meal of our day, every single day! We started our Stockholm adventures with a free walking city tour. A group of young guys started this free tour group to bring in extra money (they work only on tips) and it has gotten rave reviews on the travel sites. We learned all of the crazy stories about the Royal family, the ‘Vomit’ Bar, the high taxes, Stockholm syndrome, the Oaks War, how Stockholm is the city built on garbage, the Nobel Prize, and how the Swedes love Obama. Our tour guide Jon was a hilarious, gay man who enjoyed talking and had a cute picture book to go along with his stories. We walked through the King’s Gardens and finished the tour at the palace just in time for the changing of the guards. We decided to have lunch in the Nobel Museum area at a place called Café Sten Sture. They had a really good deal of bread, drinks, and a entre for 80 kr. We explored the neighboring Deutschen St. Gertruds Kirche before heading to the famous Vasa Museum.
My favorite part of Stockholm was this incredible museum built around the boat, Vasa. We took a guided tour and watched a movie about this boat that sunk on its maiden voyage in the Stockholm harbor in 1628. It was under the water for 333 years and was finally found, lifted, reconstructed and sailed to the place that it is today. With 98% of the boat being original, it was amazing to think how much work it would’ve taken to build a boat that massive and detailed. Besides marveling at the boat, there are great interactive activities and exhibits about life in the 17th century. It was fascinating to learn about and my family was shocked that I would enjoy this museum so much. Ever since the Vasa Museum, I have been trying to get the whole family to go to more Viking museums… Team VIKING! We went to the Nordiska Museet and had a quick walk through of the museum due to time constraints. The museum was about Swedish historical culture with exhibits about everything from table settings to doll houses to traditional clothing to folk art. It was not some place I would enjoy spending a ton of time in, but it was easy to listen to the summaries of each room on the free audio guides and then move on. We went on a beautiful Royal Boat Tour through the canals of Stockholm. It was beautiful to see the whole city from the water. The whole day, Alexa and I had a hankering for Mexican food, so we finally tracked down the Taco Bar in Old Town and ate there for dinner. The whole family was exhausted after our full day, so we stopped into the grocery store Coop by our apartment to grabs some cookies for dessert and then headed back to the hotel for the night.
July 27, 2013
We hit the ground running after our delicious hotel breakfast and went to Riddarholmen Church aka the Swedish royal burial ground. The inside of the church was unlike anything I have ever seen. Most of the walls were covered with different coat of arms and there were random burials all over the floors. The Royal Palace and all of it’s wonders were next. We strolled through all of the chambers, the chapel, the museum, and the treasury. Everything was so beautiful and ornate inside the palace compared to the boring architecture of the outside. The crowns and jewels in the treasury were the best part, but could easity be overlooked because they were stored in the basement.
For lunch we stopped into the fast food restaurant Max and were on our way to Skansen for the afternoon. We went to the town quarter first and saw the historical representations of houses throughout Swedish history. Mom and I went into the 1800’s house and talked to the kind actress who was knitting gloves. It wasn’t long before we found the bakery and bought a few sweet treats to take on our walk over to the other side of the park where the animals were. I had a blast seeing all of the animals and fish at the aquarium, and I even touched a snake! Some of our favorite animals were the rattlesnake, the Cuban baby alligators, the baboons, and the muskrats. It was a wide variety of smaller animals, but it was still a blast for a big kid like me. Mom and Alexa went to the hotel for a nap while Dad and I went to the Nobel Museum. It was inspiring to be in the place where so many great people have stood to receive the award. The museum was very interactive and interesting with two informational movies, touch screen stations with information on all the recipients of the decade, pictures and stories of peace movements around the world, and a movable track on the ceiling with pictures of all the recipients and a quote. It was very inspirational and interesting, but we had to leave for our fancy dinner on the pier. We went to Pontonen Sommar, a dock boat restaurant literally in the water. It was a beautiful night and the food was fabulous. My mouth was “exploding with flavor” while eating the chicken entrée. After dinner, we decided it was a perfect night to have drinks on our patio. I got Bulmer’s (my favorite Irish drink) for my family to try, and we spent the night laughing and reminiscing about our wonderful European adventure so far. It was a perfect last night in Stockholm.
July 28, 2013
We woke up mourning the fact that we had to leave the wonderful breakfasts at the Kom Hotel. We went to central station and stored our luggage and headed off to see City Hall. We had a guided tour of City Hall and learned all about the Nobel reception that is held there. We enjoyed the unlike art on all of the walls, especially in the gold room. But before we knew it, we were on the Armada Express going to the airport to fly to Copenhagen.
