We spent 1 day in Stockholm, Sweden during our first family cruise which was a tour of the Baltic region. Honeybun had just turned 3 years and Sugarplum was just shy of 1 year. We only got to spend 1 day in the city and it is definitely a place I want to go back to and explore some more.
Because Stockholm is an archipelago (a bunch of islands grouped together) and we were on a large cruise ship, we had to take a bus transfer an hour into the city. Once in the city, we were dropped off by the Opera House and had the day to explore on our own. We walked past the royal palace on the island of Gamla Stan and decided to take a ferry (one of the great public transport options Stockholm provides) to Djurgården which is the island where many of the great tourist stops are.
Our first stop was the Vasa Ship Museum. The Vasa was a ship that sank of the coast of Stockholm during its maiden voyage in 1628 and was recovered from the water in the 1960s and preserved. The ship is now housed in a large museum with exhibits on the history of the ship, world history at the time of the ship’s sailing and the recovery and preservation process. While the ship is extremely fragile and only for looking at, the museum includes many life-size reconstructions of areas of the ships which can be climbed on and explored. Honeybun loved every second of exploring the reconstructions though she didn’t care as much for the other exhibits that were less interactive.
After the Vasa ship, we headed towards the Skansen museum and Zoo just down the road. Skansen is the world’s first open air museum which houses tons of old Swedish buildings and is set up to make it feel like stepping back through Swedish history. This was our 2nd open air museum (the first being in Oslo) and it did not disappoint. The animals which comprise the Zoo portion are scattered throughout and amongst the buildings so all of us were entertained. We could have spent all day there without getting bored but unfortunately ran out of time with needing to get back to the bus and ship.
We rushed back to Gamla Stan, worried about the ferry time tables and missing the bus so had a bit of extra time to wander around the cute old town with lots of little shops and eateries.
