Vacation in Sweden – part 2 of 3

July 23rd, 2011 by UFO in Traveling

The long postponed second part of the report from travelling to Nyköping, Stockholm and Uppsala is finally here :-).

We started the day with early breakfast and walk in the Stockholm's Gamla Stan (Old Town) with its narrow streets and picturesque buildings. Almost all museums open at 10 o'clock, so we had plenty of time to go enjoy the atmosphere. Our first stop was the Royal Palace and its museums.

We decided to start with visiting the Royal Apartments. It was still too soon so we had to sit down and wait for the opening. During the wait we had a chance to see the changing of the royal guard. We walked through the apartments and continued to the Museum Tre Kronor. The museum is situated inside the cellars of the Royal Palace and it is a part of remnants of the old Tre Kronor castle, which was destroyed by fire in 17th century. The last place of interest in the Royal Palace was the Treasury, where the coronation jewels are kept. The crowns were really nice, just it was a pity no photographs were allowed.

The weather was very sunny, but not too hod, just perfect to walk outside. Our next stop was the Drottningholm Palace with its large garden (see the pictures). It is a private residence of the Swedish royal family and also an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Drottningholm Palace

When we had enough of the palaces and garden, we took a bus back to Stockholm and visited Fotografiska, a new gallery focused on photography. Some pictures were really amazing, I have a lot to catch up, if I want to take pictures like that in the future :-).

The day was not over yet, so we headed to the Kaknästornet, a high concrete lookout tower on the outskirts of Stockholm, from where we could see the whole Stockholm. In order to use the Stockholm card (free museums) as much as possible, we went to the Skansen, which was open to the late evening. However, all historical buildings and attractions were closed there, so we decided to come there again another day.

When we came back to the hostel, we were really exhausted and almost immediately fell asleep. The plan for the next day was uncertain, because it started to rain a lot. Fortunately, in the morning the rain started to fade away. We started with one hour sightseeing boat trip and then went to see the City Hall.

The next hostel we had had booked was in the city of Uppsala. We took a train there (comparing the train quality to Czech railways, I felt like in a spaceship, not a train :-D). Since it was afternoon, we did not have enough time to do „proper“ sightseeing, so we just went to visit the Uppsala cathedral and walked in the city centre.

To be continued…

GALLERY ->

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