By this point I was trying my best to get Ken to smile in as many pictures as possible :). You could say I like a challenge. I can't remember what I said but it worked :).
Janet and Ken stayed at the guest apartment in our apartment building their first few days but it was booked Thursday and Friday night so they stayed at the Scandic Alvik. Scandic is a hotel chain that is pretty nice and the hotel is close to our apartment which is great.
Friday, June 6th was National Day in Sweden which meant Jake had the day off as well as everyone else. We headed downtown to walk around Skeppsholmen and Kastellholmen which are two little islands off of the downtown area.
We headed to Gamla Stan to grab some lunch at a cafe and we saw a marching band during lunch and by the palace.
We walked through a large park on Kungsholmen that was full of people and tents with people selling things. We stopped and had some fika while watching people celebrate National Day.
For dinner we headed to Kungsträdgården to try Taste of Stockholm which is a food festival they have showcasing local restaurants. It reminded me of Riverfest except with better dressed people :).
The next day we took a train to Uppsala which was a little stressful because there was a train strike going on but we made it which was the most important thing. Uppsala is about an hour and 20 minutes north of Stockholm. We've wanted to visit Uppsala for a while because we heard it was a fun university city to visit but we hadn't made it there yet but Jake's parents were also interested in going there so it worked out to go there together.
The Uppsala Cathedral was a short walk from our hotel and it was beautiful. We couldn't stop taking pictures of it whenever we walked by it.
We walked around Uppsala on Saturday just exploring the city. We found a restaurant for lunch right on the water and the food was really good.
After lunch we walked to the Uppsala Castle and walked around the castle and gardens. We saw several brides and wedding parties taking pictures on the grounds.
After walking around the castle grounds we headed to The Linnaeus Garden.
After visiting the garden we walked around looking for a place for dinner. A few of the restaurants were closed since it was National Day the day before and they consider it a holiday weekend but we found an Italian restaurant with a great patio that we enjoyed.
On Sunday we went to church at the Cathedral which was interesting since it was in Swedish :). The Cathedral was beautiful on the inside. There was an area to the side of the main aisle where the kids played during church. It was interesting to me because even though it was sectioned off for kids it was still very much in the middle of everything. Kids were jumping on cushions and playing with toys. There were parents there watching kids but it seemed for the most part kids were able to do whatever they wanted. I thought it was pretty distracting but I also didn't understand any of the service so that probably didn't help. It was neat to experience and I was glad we were able to go.
We had lunch and then headed to Gamla Uppsala.
We went back to the same restaurant we had for lunch on Saturday for dinner on Sunday. It had the best view on the river and the food was really good. They also had a hamburger that looked really good that I wanted to try. Janet took my picture of me eating the hamburger since I was using my fork and knife. In Sweden you are supposed to eat everything
with a fork and a knife except for bread that goes along with dinner. Pizza, hamburgers, french fries and any other typical finger food is handled with a knife and a fork. It has taken some getting used to but we are starting to get the hang of it.
On Monday we drove to the Dalarna area to see Carl Larsson's house in Sundborn. Our first stop was to see a bright red horse.
Then we headed to Carl Larsson's house. Jake's mom has several of his paintings in her house and it was neat to see what inspired them. We weren't able to take pictures inside the house but the land that the house was on was beautiful! The tour was in Swedish but our tour guide told us a few things in English and there was a booklet we could read about each room on the tour.
After staying in Uppsala Saturday and Sunday night Jake and I headed back to Stockholm on Monday while Jake's parents stayed one more night in Uppsala before heading to Småland to visit some churches and farmsteads of Janet's great grandparents. They were there for about four days before coming back to Stockholm.
If you missed our first few days in Stockholm with Jake's parents click here to read about that.
The Uppsala Cathedral was a short walk from our hotel and it was beautiful. We couldn't stop taking pictures of it whenever we walked by it.
After lunch we walked to the Uppsala Castle and walked around the castle and gardens. We saw several brides and wedding parties taking pictures on the grounds.
After walking around the castle grounds we headed to The Linnaeus Garden.
After visiting the garden we walked around looking for a place for dinner. A few of the restaurants were closed since it was National Day the day before and they consider it a holiday weekend but we found an Italian restaurant with a great patio that we enjoyed.
On Sunday we went to church at the Cathedral which was interesting since it was in Swedish :). The Cathedral was beautiful on the inside. There was an area to the side of the main aisle where the kids played during church. It was interesting to me because even though it was sectioned off for kids it was still very much in the middle of everything. Kids were jumping on cushions and playing with toys. There were parents there watching kids but it seemed for the most part kids were able to do whatever they wanted. I thought it was pretty distracting but I also didn't understand any of the service so that probably didn't help. It was neat to experience and I was glad we were able to go.
We had lunch and then headed to Gamla Uppsala.
Uppsala Cathedral at night
We tried to get a good group picture but the outtakes were really funny so I included those too :).
Then we headed to Carl Larsson's house. Jake's mom has several of his paintings in her house and it was neat to see what inspired them. We weren't able to take pictures inside the house but the land that the house was on was beautiful! The tour was in Swedish but our tour guide told us a few things in English and there was a booklet we could read about each room on the tour.
After staying in Uppsala Saturday and Sunday night Jake and I headed back to Stockholm on Monday while Jake's parents stayed one more night in Uppsala before heading to Småland to visit some churches and farmsteads of Janet's great grandparents. They were there for about four days before coming back to Stockholm.
If you missed our first few days in Stockholm with Jake's parents click here to read about that.
No comments:
Post a Comment