Our trip to Scandinavia last month ended with Andrew joining Candice and me for four days in Stockholm.  While Claire (who had to head back to school) visited the city a couple of years ago, it was the  first time for the three of us.

We were not disappointed.

Candice had booked us in a small boutique hotel in the heart of the old city, just steps from the Royal Palace and the Cathedral.  That proved to be a perfect launching point for our explorations.

We knew we wanted to follow-up on our visit to the design museum in Copenhagen with a visit to the Swedish design museum. After walking over to an adjacent island (see Andrew and Candice on the bridge, with the Cathedral and Royal Palace in the background), we spent the better part of a day at the design museum and adjacent modern art museum, Moderna Museet.  

We were all enthralled with Blockholm — The Fantastic City, a project where everyone was invited to rebuild Stockholm using the Minecraft computer game. The Moderna Museet collection was strong, and we loved the outdoor sculpture, including the orange tree in The Fantastic Paradise and Calder’s The Four Elements.

Stockholm is a city defined by water, and there were great views everywhere we turned.

The old city, with its small, winding streets and unexpected views was a photographer’s delight, where landmarks such as the beautiful German Church were seemingly around every other corner.

The Cathedral (known as the Church of St. Nicolas), just up the hill from our hotel, was a presence every time we stepped out our door and every quarter-hour when the bells chimed to remind us of the passing of time.  The beautiful interior featured a magnificent statue of St. George slaying the dragon.

We did museums throughout our time in Stockholm, including the Royal Palace and the Nobel Prize museum. On our last day in Stockholm we crossed to another part of the city to visit the Vasa Museum.  The Vasa – a wooden war ship – sank on her maiden voyage in 1628 and was raised in 1961.  Inside the museum is the conserved and restored ship, along with incredible exhibits about the men and women of Vasa and the 1600s in Sweden.  I haven’t been this amazed in a historical museum in quite some time.  And if the ship itself wasn’t enough, the last room contains an incredible permanent exhibit labeled Meantime, which provides a look at what was happening all around the world at the time the ship sank.  There is a reason this is the museum with the highest visitation in Stockholm.

After ten days in Scandinavia, it was tough to come home, but we’ll always remember being able to check off a bucket list trip with Andrew and Claire. Priceless!

More to come…

DJB