This is my first post and coincidentally our first 2026 trip as well. During the trip, I got an inexplicable “itch” to want to start documenting my travels and sharing my boring photos and travel tips with someone, lucky you! When I returned from our short weekend trip, I decided to “just start”. I bought the domain, setup my wordpress blog, and started. And this is the result. I am usually not very good at sticking with things, so hopefully I keep it going at least throughout 2026.
Why Stockholm?
So why Stockholm? Well, it was my birthday present from C.
She said she chose Stockholm as it relatively close from Copenhagen and it serves well as a short getaway-weekend trip. We took the afternoon off from work to fly Friday afternoon and flew back Sunday evening.
We had a very exciting flight looking at a pre-recorded Biathlon race. C. is crazy about Biathlon. It is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. I have to admit that I was looking at the race myself as Italy was very close to winning. C. is so fanatic about the sport that we will go to see the sport at the Winter Olympics in February! Next travel coming up, stay tuned!
Arriving to Stockholm
Once arrived we decided to take the more convenient Arlanda Express Train, however there are bus alternatives available if you are are looking for a cheaper option.
Once we arrived at the station, Hotel C, the hotel that C. had booked through Booking.com. was literally right outside the station! We’ve never had a hotel so close where we stepped out of the station and had the hotel in front of us! IT WAS AWESOME. The hotel is very well placed. Close to the city center and easy to travel to/from the airport.
A funny anecdote happened at the hotel. We had just checked-in and were very happy to get a room on the 7th floor, we were expecting such a nice view from the top floor, so we excitingly took the elevator to the room, only to find out the room had no windows! After the initial shock, we acknowledged, we were happy to save money and would be staying out most of the day anyway. The hotel also included breakfast which was an added bonus.
Going for a walk-around
After leaving our stuff at the hotel we went out in the blizzard cold as our restaurant reservation time was approaching. Stockholm looked pretty in the evening with the Christmas light decorations. Our restaurant was located in the old part of town called Gamla Stan.
After the restaurant dinner where the waiter generously gave us more wine than we had ordered, we stumbled out and went for an evening stroll leaving the old town and walked on “Riksbron” or the “National Bridge”, passing in front of the Swedish Parliament Building and walking down the long avenue of Drottninggatan. The walk woke us up and made us ready to tackle the day the next morning.
Right picture: World renowned swedish Pippi Longstocking is turning 80 years old! Pippi encompasses many core scandinavian values and is often a symbol of empowerment and inspiration for young children, especially girls.
Saturday
We decided to wake up relatively early Saturday morning in order to get most out of the day. We headed downstairs to have breakfast and headed out. The weather was cloudy and cold, but still manageable. Many museums in Stockholm seemed to be concentrated in the island of Djurgården. We had a lot of choices, but our immediate thought was to go visit the ABBA museum as we are big fans.
It was a good opportunity to walk through the city of Stockholm, especially in the center we were surprised by the modern architecture. We read a bit of history on the city and found out it has undergone a controversial radical urban transformation in the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s, leading to large-scale demolitions replaced by new modern buildings serving the purpose of finance and large-scale retail businesses. However, I was very pleasantly surprised by the enormous “kulturhuset” or “House of Culture” right in the middle of the square, signifying its importance. Reading up on it, this was a direct influence of the 1960s values flowing into the architecture and design to show a glimpse of culture and arts in the otherwise very commercial city district.
We walked close by the water reaching the bridge to reach the island of Djurgården where we would reach the museum.
ABBA Museum
ABBA Museum! Entering the museum there was a funny sentence which we followed to the letter “walk in, dance out”
For us, this was for sure the peak of our travel! We love ABBA, and this museum was quite interactive with karaoke, silent disco and costumes. The museum has a lot of interactive games, at one point I also joined the “virtual band” on stage too for a performance while visiting the museum. If you love ABBA, this is a must-visit on your list if you go to Stockholm. This is not the biggest museum, but you feel happier after leaving it. At least, we did after singing “Waterloo” with C. street joy jumping back to the central part of the city.
After the museum we went back to the city center to have lunch. So back again walking down the embankment. We were not in the mood to eat a lot so we eventually found a place in the Åhlens department store at Sally Voltaire & Systrar and had a carrot soup.
After lunch we decided to go back to the museum epicenter and visit the Nordic museum! SO BACK AGAIN. Honestly, I have no idea why we did not plan this better, but let me tell you my feet hurt by the end of it.
Nordic Museum
I am not sure how to phrase this, but honestly we were not impressed. The museum consists of 4 floors. There was an exhibition on the top floor on the current exhibition ‘Life in the Nordics through 500 years’. And the rest of the floors were also on artifacts behind glass windows from different periods starting from 1500.
It got quite boring very fast to see so many of the same objects of a given period crammed into a room. Rooms full of clothes, furniture. One floor was entirely on pictures taken by swedish citizens. And another floor was ONLY on TABLE SETTINGS. You read that right, a whole floor dedicated to plates, cutlery, different table clothes. Not entirely our “cup of tea” (BA DUM TSS 🥁).
It is fair to say, we were just expecting something different. I for one was expecting more on Nordic history with Vikings or Norse mythology. It did not help most of the museum was crowded, and some informational screens had swedish text only. Looking back the Swedish History Museum seemed to be more in line with our expectations (Vikins and Norse mythology).
Swedish Fika
After the disappointing museum trip, we wanted to cheer up and have some fika. It would not be a proper Swedish trip otherwise. Fika is a swedish tradition where you go up in a cafe or restaurant to enjoy a warm cup of coffee or treats.
We rushed to a cafe “Fabrique” in Nybrogatan (which we had passed by earlier that looked hyggelig and with Fikas making our mouths drool) and arrived at 17:30, just before closing time and had the most delicious “kardemomme snor” Cardamom buns. Surprise, we ate them in way less than 30 minutes because they were so good. These Fikas were just the snack we needed after lots of steps!
Dinner
The dinner might have been my favourite part of the trip. The restaurant called “Den Gyldene Freden” is one of the world’s oldest continuously existing restaurants in the same place opened in 1722. We were placed in a quiet tavern corner downstairs, and the ambience and food was so delicious and spectacular. We started off with a “Skagen Toast”, a buttered shrimp toast which was amazing. For our main course, we went with the traditional swedish dish called “köttbullar”, swedish meatballs served with a side of mashed potatoes, pickled cucumbers, cream sauce and lingonberries. If I ever go back to Stockholm I will go back to this restaurant again, as I enjoyed it so much. I am getting hungry just thinking about it.
Sunday morning
On Sunday morning we had planned to go to the ice skating rink in Kungsträdgården. It was a fun experience skating on ice after so much time. It is fair to say, I was terrible at it. BUT I luckily did not fall 🙂
After the ice skating, we had to decide what to do. Options included to go to another museum and Stockholm has plenty of options! Amongst the top choices we were considering of going either to go to the famous Vasa museum, Nationalmuseum, or even go with the odd one out and go with Moderna Museet. In the end, we thought we had not seen the city so much so we decided to walk around.
During our walk I also found an Eataly! Eataly is a chain of large format/footprint Italian food halls comprising a variety of restaurants, food and beverage counters, bakery, retail items. I couldn’t resist to not walk in and see what was inside. I absolutely love pizza and was ready to buy a slice.
We concluded our trip by going to a beautiful panoramic view of the House of Parliament and Royal Palace.
This was it. We went back to the hotel and since it was so close to the station it was so nice to pick up our trolley and go straight to the bus station. On the way back to the airport we decided to go with the cheaper route (Flixbus). It was actually a pretty decent travel and worth it.
Final thoughts on Stockholm
Now if you are here to understand whether Stockholm is worth to visit or not, I can only say it depends on certain criteria. If your partner gives it to you as a present? Yes. If you are going for a weekend trip from a relatively close city like Copenhagen? Yes. If you are coming from further away, Stockholm would not be my first destination of choice for a weekend trip. It didn’t help temperatures are low in January overall. Said that, Stockholm was pleasantly surprising. We had no difficulty finding a museum or activity to do. The city is big, very walkable (during the trip we never took public transport), pleasant to look at and safe. It also offers a lot of good food and many museums options to choose from.
My personal experience? I enjoyed my weekend trip very much. Probably though I would have enjoyed any other weekend trip destination maybe? I liked going to the ABBA museum, walking around, enjoying fika, ice-skating, and trying the local food.
The weekend trip opened my eyes on how much you can do it just one weekend. You can see how much we walked on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. On Saturday we walked 20,1 km! I really hope to do more weekend trips in the future, as time slows down and you don’t end up on Sunday evening being surprised at where the weekend went. Until next time!
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