Our road trip hit a dramatic climax on the morning of our departure for Stockholm. As I said before, we had a sensible last night in Copenhagen and an early night* so we were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to catch our train. We arrived at the train station with plenty time, worked out our platform and went for a coffee.

Fast forward half an hour and we are running full steam – suitcases flailing behind us and us screaming at each other to hurry up. We stood at the platform and you know that uneasy feeling that something is wrong? We went back up to the main concourse to find that the platform changed to one which sign posts told us was a 25 minute walk away. Our train was in 5 minutes.

Sheer PANIC.

We ran for what felt like an hour and around the final corner we were terrified to see the man on the train waving a beckoning gesture and blowing his whistle. Behind us was a poor wee guy shouting “WAAAAIIITTT!”…he missed the train. The train door shut behind us and the train left immediately.

I settled down with some blogging, a Danish pastry and a coffee and enjoyed our train to Stockholm. I think I was in Sweden by the time my pulse returned to a normal resting rate.

After our dramatic entrance to Sweden, I’m almost pleased that Stockholm wasn’t that vibrant a city. We started off with a visit to Skansen which is an open air museum. Number #1 on Trip Advisor, so I’m told.

Here we have the coolest part of Skansen: the 3D map.

And the 2nd coolest part of Skansen: this windmill.

Despite being really quite terrible, Skansen has a pretty nice view.

This photo makes me laugh so much – I thought we were showing how we felt about leaving and my friend thought we were showing how we felt about Skansen.

 

We ventured down the road and as we crossed the bridge we saw a fancy boat attached to a fancy jetty styled restaurant. We had an absolutely glorious meal in The Stranbryggan Sea Club Restaurant – see the full review here.

This was not  of my favourite parts of Stockholm – The Ericsson Globe, which happens to be the largest hemispherical building (I keep meaning to Google and find out where all the other hemispherical buildings are) in the world. The Ericsson Globe is actually an arena for sports and concerts – it seems like a really cool venue.

We took a tour on a little elevator to the top of the exterior of the building to see the view of Stockholm.

Off we go!

Nearly…

It’s bright up here.

I saw some stunning views in Stockholm as the city has some gorgeous buildings, but unfortunately this didn’t transpire into the skyline visible from the top of the globe!

I’m loving tusks on me. And the colours on the helmet match my top. #SwedishFashionista

 This was my favourite, I LOVE a palace so I do. What I like about this one is that this is the current living place of the Swedish royal family but we, the filthy commoners, can go inside! I wish they’d do that with Buckingham palace!

I just loved this staircase and vestibule area. It was huge and so bright and caught a fantastic breeze on what was a ridiculously warm day.

 I. Want. This. Chandelier.
The room with the crowns, tiaras, sceptres and robes was absolutely amazing. They look exactly how story books and films make you imagine them to be, except the fact they’re real and you can see evidence of the workmanship that went in to making them. I want a crown.

When in Sweden, do as the Swedish do. I absolutely love Swedish meatballs and as soon as we decided to visit Stockholm I was on a mission to find the ultimate traditional meatballs. We found a little place down the cobbled streets next to the Palace called Carpe Diem and we were served with absolutely perfect meatballs with potatoes and Lingonberry sauce. It was everything I hoped it would be, and I nearly shed a happy tear.

How good are Twisters?! Stockholm was roasting and these became a life saver!

We were walking through the city centre and I saw this:

I nearly had a heart attack. Devious Swedes.

I really need to start tackling my bucket list. I REALLY want to take a hot air balloon ride!

This is pretty cool! I love the cycling and coffee/beer on the street culture that the mild mainland European weather permits. This company are called Bike and Soul and they sell knitted bicycle decorations. It’s fun!

There were some seriously gorgeous city views at dusk.

You know me, I love me a sunset.

Our stay in Stockholm was short and chilled. I can’t say I was massively excited by the city, but I certainly enjoyed my time there! The next leg of our trip was to Helsinki in Finland – stay tuned!

*potentially a blatant lie.