Day 1: Stockholm

We woke up to survey our new surroundings, having arrived late, in the dead of night, and slightly frazzled after a 3rd-degree grilling from Swedish Immigration:

• Easy stuff at first – where are you staying / how long for / what is the purpose of your visit?
• Slightly more advanced – show me your return ticket (a confirmation email wouldn’t do).
• Getting a bit deep now – how old is your cousin and her husband / who do they work for / for how long?
• Positively barmy – what are their Personal Identity Numbers / show me proof of funds – in SEK – to support yourself whilst staying here (merely having a credit card wouldn’t do)

Luckily, I eventually managed to scramble together all the evidence, but by the time we’d finished we were the last ones in Immigration.

Did you know? 
Sweden is effectively cashless (Rachel & Martin hadn't used any in the year since they'd been here).

So, producing wads of cash at Immigration wasn't an option anymore! 

Early morning lakeside-ish run

Rachel had given me detailed instructions, but there were too many lefts & rights, so I soon lost interest and just stood there nodding, pretending I was taking it all in.

Having ad-libbed it, I ran down until I reached the lake, which I knew must be there as lakes always tend to be on lower ground, don’t they?

Except, I somehow missed the lake and ended up on an icy forest path before eventually hooking round and finding the lakeside boardwalk, where I stopped to watch the swans peck at the fish beneath the frozen surface. 

On the way back, through the suburbs, I had to smile at all the little Minions (kindergarten children), playing and eating outside in sub-zero temperatures in their all-in-one ski suits – they’re just so much more practical & sensible out here.

Hasselby, Vasselby, Schmaselby (I made the last one up!)

We left for Stockholm a bit late, having spent time catching up with each other’s news over a leisurely breakfast…oh, and after a minor panic over me mislaying the passports and money belt (I’d forgotten I’d put them in the secret-secret compartment of my bag last night) – men eh?!

Did you know? 
Transport tickets are valid for 75 minutes on the Swedish transport system (look for the SL sign) from when you first tap in. 

It's SEK 42 (£3.25) for 75 minutes, plus an additional SEK 134 (about £10) if you want to take the Arlanda Express to the airport. 

It took about 30 mins by train from Vasselby to Stockholm Central – we then went one stop further to the old historic district Gamla Stan, then headed for the ferry to Djurgården Island, where most of the museums are located. We weren’t sure the ferries would be running as the ice seemed pretty thick in places, but nope, regular as clockwork, they ploughed back & forwards (just as per our biking trip to The Netherlands last year, we’d already given up comparing how most things ‘just worked’ overseas versus the UK’s inadequacies)

Vasa Museum 

“It’s like ‘The Black Pearl’ from Pirates of the Carribean and a wooden spaceship, all rolled into one”

You know when everybody recommends a museum and you think you’re inevitably going to end up disappointed?…well, The Vasa Museum wasn’t like that. Lit up by a ghostly half-light, the massive ship dominates everything, threatening to break out through the museum’s walls and drift off downstream…slightly ironic as it only managed to travel just over 1km and 20 mins on its one & only maiden voyage. 

Key facts

• The Vasa was built as a vanity project by Gustavo Adolphus to threaten his Catholic cousin in Poland.
• It sank on 10 Aug 1628 but only 30-50 people are estimated to have died on board from a crew of 200 or so. 
• It was recovered in 1961, using ancient naval diving suits
• The Vasa is 98% intact but very brittle, shrinking at the rate of 1mm per yr (so see it whilst you can!)
• The Vasa Museum cooperates closely with The Mary Rose Museum ( Portsmouth) as both use similar techniques and face similar restoration problems.

Coincidence or Fate?

• Coincidence #1: NOFO Bar – we had a look in by chance and, as the other bars closer to our dinner venue didn’t open until 5pm, we nipped in here to get out of the biting cold (plus it was listed as one of the best wine bars in Stockholm!) Chatting with Fanny, our server, it turned out that she was from Undersåker…her father kept huskies…and she regularly babysat for the owner of Riverdog Huskies (where we were heading for on the overnight train). Coincidence or what?!

• Coincidence #2: Meatballs for The People: having turned up 15 mins late, our table had already been given away (very Swedish!), and so we had to stand and wait outside in the same biting cold we’d spent the last hour sheltering from in NOMFO. Rachel was getting fidgetty – “I’ll give it 10 minutes and we’ll go” – whilst Martin (who wasn’t even there yet, having an MRI scan on his dodgy groin) was rather more forthright: “Really ffs, scrub that from the list then”. Good job we persisted as we got a lovely server at a different table – Phillip – who was a part-time actor and had just starred in an Amazon Prime series (12-20?)

Overnight train to Undersåker

Having walked back 30 mins or so to the Central Station with Rachel & Martin, we found out that our train had been delayed by 20 mins…then 40..then an hour – eek! We only had 45 mins at the other end (in Undersåker) to make our husky experience, so it was looking like this could turn out to be a very long and expensive wasted journey!