Do I like Stockholm? I do, I do, I do, I do, I do
My trip to Copenhagen and Stockholm - Day Four
After the long drive on day three, I thought I might want a lie in but I was up at 0730 and tried the free continental buffet.
It wasn’t wonderful, hard boiled eggs and meatballs were the only hot food, even the selection of meat, cheese and bread was limited, but it’s budget accommodation in an industrial area near the E4 and E20.
I decided to walk into downtown Stockholm. It was a bit hairy at first as google maps was confusing, wanting me to walk in places there was no pavement but once I got out of the industrial park and crossed the motorway on a foot bridge, there was a very chilled path following close to the train line. Very flat, large areas for cyclists and separate area for walking.
There were quite a few bolt powered bikes and scooters. I’ve never cycled, but I was tempted to learn. I might look into adult cycling lessons when I’m home.
I crossed a beautiful bridge as I got close to the city centre, headed to Slussen to catch a commuter ferry to Skansen. It was part of the integrated transport system and I could just use my contactless card to pay. The services were very frequent. It only took about 10 minutes to cross and I could see rides in an amusement park over the water.
I looked it up, it was called Grona Lund, operated by the same Tivoli group as in Copenhagen. In Copenhagen I really enjoyed the wooden rollercoaster there so it was tempting as this park also had a wooden coaster.
I did look it up but decided to carry on to Skansen open air museum first. Back in the UK, there is a place called the Beamish museum, where you can walk through a town made to replicate different eras such as a 1950s high street and Victorian carnival. I love history so I really enjoyed that.
I imagined that this place would be similar. I was imagining people in traditional dress demonstrating traditional schools. There were a few people dotted around in dress, but not many. I did enjoy seeing the traditional Swedish wooden buildings though. There was a children’s zoo with some brown bears. Nothing to write home about but still a nice day out.
I took a funicular railway from the entry up to the museum. It was unnecessary as there was also a free modern escalator that I found by accident later. There was an old trio that didn’t seem happy we were there, not sure why.
There was some kind of brass band playing in an open concert part.
There were lots of food options. I decided to try a wrap shaped as a cone containing crushed potatoes and elk meat, that was in very small pieces. Unsurprisingly, it was very gamey. I wouldn’t go out of my way to try it again, but it was something different to the usual burgers, hotdogs and ice cream.
That area had lots of attractions, the Abba museum, the Viking museum, the vasa ship museum and Grona Lund were all close together.
I spent half the day in the open air museum, then headed for the theme park. I knew I wouldn’t be doing a lot of rides. They had at least 3 variations on vertical drop rides, several coasters but I knew I’d only try a tame one so it wasn’t worth paying for a wristband so I paid for park entry and bought enough tokens for a couple of rides.
I joined the queue for the wooden coaster, twister. It wasn’t an old coaster, the track was wooden but the frame was steel. There were young kids queuing. Watching it though made me nervous, it was faster than the other one I tried. It was a tight fit. It was very fast I was very nervous, holding on for dear life but it was fun, I did it twice, then had some churros. I’m glad I did it that way around and not eaten first.
People were walking around with massive chocolate bars and pringles from some of the games.
I got the ferry back and explored the city centre. Sweden also has a monarch. I watched the guards around the palace. I was starting to get tired. I found a little Italian restaurant to get some food then got a bolt back to the hotel around 11pm. The travelling was starting to catch up on me.
I would be back again for the vasa museum the next day and to find some Stockholm souvenirs but need a bit of a rest after the hectic nature of the trip so far.
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