October 3-5, 2014 -- After a busy summer of traveling through central Europe, Sarah and I booked a weekend getaway to Stockholm. It was early October and fall colors were popping up everywhere around Amsterdam, so we were hopeful to have a laid-back weekend of turning leaves, farmers markets and Scandinavian culture.
For a capital city, Stockholm seemed light on noteworthy landmarks and site seeing. We've become pretty efficient travelers but even with a relaxed pace we managed to see much of the city in one day (albeit with a ton of walking because Stockholm is fairly spread out). We admittedly skipped the museums because none really caught our interest, and we were a little burned out after a full summer of museum tours. On a return trip we would likely add visits to the contrasting Warship and Nobel museums, along with a cruise of the Swedish archipelago in warmer weather.
We booked a room in the up-and-coming Södermalm neighborhood, which sits on an island just south of the city center and has labeled itself a hipster mecca. The streets are lined with coffee shops, vintage clothing stores and bars, but it seemed like an island of misfits rather than hipster mecca. The fashion was more nineties grunge than hipster, a coffee chain from Seattle poured the best espresso on the island, and the bars were mostly college hangouts (with patrons puking outside on the sidewalks).
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| Södermalm |
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| We discovered a hidden secret of Stockholm... CINNAMON ROLLS! The Swedish recipe includes cardamon which is a surprisingly perfect ingredient. We happened to be visiting on World Cinnamon Roll day, so we celebrated with half a dozen of these tasty treats. |
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| We took this photograph from inside the courtyard of the City Hall. Nearly 8 million bricks were used in the structure. |
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| Shades of red on City Hall. The ivy, brickwork and roof capturing the colors of fall. |
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| Swedish hard candies |
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| On Saturday we found farmers markets scattered across the city at the major squares. With an overabundance of fresh cranberries and golden Chanterelle mushrooms, we would have loved cooking a few of the local recipes. |
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| As you might imagine, Sweden's military was once a powerful presence in the days of the Vikings through to WWII. But with the only real threat of modern times being mysterious Russian submarines off its coastal waters, the military probably has a fair amount of free time on its hands. Here we watched the daily changing of the guard parade through the streets. |
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| Old school horse trough. |
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| A trip to Stockholm wouldn't be complete without a plate of Swedish Meatballs |
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| Tracing the roots of our favorite department store |
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| Our guidebook cited this as the world's oldest lighted advertisement |
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