The charming city of Stockholm, capital city of Sweden

Visit the city of Stockholm, the city on the islands.

 

On 21/08/07, with Ryanair flights from the airport of Alghero at 19:10 left for Stockholm, the flight takes about 3 hours and arrives all'ereoporto Skavsta (NYO) at 22:20 with 20 minutes early, ( more so) ereoporto is not so great and just landed we take care to pick up the luggage, after which, having made the tickets on the Internet, we avoid the tail of the vending machine and we're going to take place on the bus Flybussarna. In less than 2 hours we are in Stockholm.
The arrival of the bus is the Cityterminalen (Central Station), our hotel Wallin Hotel in Wallingatan n ° 15 (http://www.channels.nl/18145b-it.html) is not very far away, takes 10 minutes walk and we arrived at 'hotel, a 4 star hotel, is nice, modern atmosphere with a convenient internet point free for customers very helpful during the days following we will use for sure. The room is beautiful but unfortunately not very big and the third bed is not ready, given the late hour, there are no servants and have to prepare the bed by yourself ... .. Well we should not want to do stories. ... is the one and go to sleep.

Stockholm

On 22/08/07 We wake early and go down for breakfast where we look to our great surprise that many basic rules of hygiene we here in Italy are not observed in the slightest, in fact anyone can touch everything with their hands, including bread and cutlery, tables do not have the cloth and often are only cleared but not clean, the locals see that does not mind, he sits quietly laughing and joking ... .. and all is well. (We are astonished Italians very often for the indisputable efficiency in compliance with the schedules and the accuracy of certain rules, but each nation has its flaws, giudichiamoci not always too bad.)
After breakfast we go out to explore the city, is not so cold as we expected, is only a sweatshirt and long pants.
The first thing to do is make the change of our Euro Swedish Kronor (SEK) in one of the many branches of FOREX present in the City and throughout the city, after which by the distinctive way Drottingattan, (the street full of flags local stores and shopping centers) we arrive at Sergels Torg and head towards Gamla Stan, the old town and just throw ourselves into visiting the Royal Palace (Kungliga Slottet), and for ore12.00 see the changing of the guard, which we consider very nice but in the end too long and dramatic because that lasts more than an hour after the show ... a few drops of rain forced us to dive into first handy little place for lunch, the rain did not last long and so after lunch back to the hotel to rest a bit. After about an hour and we go back to the center to walk a bit 'in the City, we hang the stores close at 5, a little' pay in our view, given that we are even in summer!
We have dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, given that the premises close early in the evening there's so many people around then back at the hotel.

23/08/07
After breakfast we visit the City Hall (Stadshuset), very nice building, not far from the port from which we take the boat sets sail at 11.00 to Drottningholm, the royal summer residence, the boat trip is pleasant and the panorama of the lake Mälaren and the weather is lovely mild, we can see that the lake throngs of kids are swimming and diving from the boat docks.
We arrive on the island and visit the royal palace and its gardens, the Chinese pavilion, inside the building there is a small eating place that sells sandwiches (and recycle paper plates), here we take a lunch break and take 14 the boat back to town.
In the evening take another stroll downtown to souvenir shops and malls, we visit the most famous shopping center in Stockholm 's NK (pronounced: EN KO')

24/08/07
Wake up early and quick breakfast at 9.30 am the ferry to the island of Birka vaunted Bjork, do a little 'straight for the tickets until the box office opens at 9.00 but to our surprise we are told that tickets are made on board, and you can also pay by credit card .... Another line for boarding. After 105 minutes we arrive on the island, first settlement of the Vikings, but to our disappointment, we notice that the island there is nothing to see except a church and a stone cross from Roman times. ... nothing interesting seems to us means ... .. and certainly no Viking, you cut in the only place to eat lunch and rest for the flat type Khottbullar Swedish (meatballs with cranberry jam) is not so good but to taste .
The ferry leaves at 14.45 and at 17.15 is in port, let's go back to Gamla Stan to eat a waffle with ice cream made by hand by hand without ever watch those famous outdoor hygiene that Italians love them!
After that we go into the characteristic square Stotorget very pretty, where is also the place where service is the delivery of the Nobel prizes, taking some photos and look for a local dinner.

25/08/07
47 we travel by bus to Djurgarden, another island in Stockholm full of parks. We go to visit the Vasamuseet (the museum of the ship which sank shortly after launch) and Skansen, a large park where you played very well the Swedish life of the early 900, there is all an entire village built to perfection with lots of extras in costume who impersonate the inhabitants of the village itself, there is also the baker that produces and sells exquisite desserts ... how not to get groped ????? Acquires a bit ....
At the heart of the village there is a large square in which there is a festival, the festival of nations, in turn representatives of various nations in traditional costume dancing on stage, there are also many food outlets. ... We tasted the flesh of reindeer with mashed potatoes, very spicy but good!! Within this park there is also a zoo that we look with pleasure also because there is a multitude of animals typically Swedish.
Outside the Skansen very pleased, we do not want to shut myself up in a museum and never mind the visit to Nordiskamuseet whereas we seek, though unsuccessfully, to hire a bike with a ride in the island, so disappointed to go get something to drink in a nearby bar. We just have to take the bus 47 and back to the hotel to freshen up.
We go out for dinner and we stop the D 6 (Drottningattan No. 6) eat a pizza ... ... GOOD !!!!!!

26/08/07
It 'Sunday, and like every Sunday in the pizza Hotoget is the flea market, let's take a look, we do not find anything to buy but I enjoy browsing among the stalls selling everything, nothing different from the Our flea markets.
We meet here a lovely lady of Italian origin who has lived for nearly 40 years in Stockholm, says that the present life in Sweden is not as we imagine, even there, like us, in many struggle to make ends meet and that few can afford the car, says that we Italians after all we have little to complain about.
To complete the morning, walk through the district of Gamla Stan and we head towards the island of Södermalm and follow a route marked on our guide, the path is wrong and leads to a very beautiful landscape, but frankly we expected more.
We decide to return to the City and take the bus. Buses are always terribly time, the ticket costs 13 SEK per trip but they are 2 (?!?) Let's go to lunch at a place called "the oven" We take the fish but not much.
To occupy the remainder of the evening doing the usual walks in the central streets, in our opinion is that Stockholm offers as much entertainment for tourists in the evening, there's no one around the shops close early (around 17.00) and the premises and bars around 21:00, so after this time around there's so many people and we can do is go to the hotel.

27/08/07
Having found the museum closed the music we choose to visit the museum of arms, which I find very interesting, we say that is a museum that traces the major stages in the Swedish history, after which we visit the museum and head of the dance center the City to give one more look at the malls, have lunch at a place called "Stash" the mall Galerian with a hot sandwich, very good but a little heavy to digest, the afternoon completed the purchase of souvenirs, after dinner we go to the hotel to begin packing.
A little something to add on TV in Sweden that puzzles us is that no program is dubbed but all the various films, TV or other are transmitted in their original language with subtitles!

28/08/07
Wake up, breakfast and luggage ... .... quietly and walk to the station of Flybussarna that will take us to the airport, even though our flight leaves at 15.30 we decided to go early to catch the bus because those who can not wait to get on the subsequent risk of late.
We expect to embark on a very cold room of the airport and we look forward to being back in our warm Sardinia.

This holiday we have considered a bit disappointing, we expected much more from Stockholm. It was not the Venice of the North that we expected. With her schedule in which all the Nordic cease activity very early visitors has been very free time from six o'clock onwards, but it is also true that "Different countries different customs" and that if you do not see you can not judge.