Stockholm part 3

In Stockholm, most of the bathrooms had been converted to unisex bathrooms.  This was the sign outside the bathroom in one of the museums.  

Julia was determined to get a cake that she remembered from when she lived there.  I think she had this one in mind (Princess cake), but they did not have raspberry or strawberry filing.  She was very disappointed when I told her that they have this in Ikea.

So she ordered this cake, which wasn't exactly what she wanted.  We all had a slice and then gave the rest to the staff to finish.  The strawberries were in season and so delicious, but the cake was a little disappointing.  It was a lot of cream, but not enough cake.  There was another treat she wanted and any time she brought it up, people acted like she asked to eat their baby.  Apparently, it's only available at a certain time of year and can't be made any other time of year. 

For our last breakfast, we asked if we could have Swedish pancakes, which is not a typical breakfast for them. This is the breakfast table.  The pancakes and fresh strawberries were delicious!

We had different flights to Iceland, and I was not leaving until 5 pm, so my last day in Stockholm, I took a train to a different part of town.  We were told this was the hipster part of the city.  When we talked to the people at the hotel about that, one guy rolled his eyes and said it was the most expensive part of the city.  Which means it probably is, in fact, the hipster part of the city.   

This is a bakery that I wanted to try.  They have one in NYC now, too.  I heard some Americans going in after me and someone said, "I'll get one for us to share" and there were about four of them.  Meanwhile, we usually bought three or four things to share.

This is the "sugar bulle."  pretty creative name, right?

View from across the river 

Stockholm part 2

the view outside of my hotel window.

view at night

this church became a major landmark as we walked around the city to find our way back to the hotel

Day 1

Julia wanted to do a lot of souvenir shopping and this place had the best.  It reminded me of the name for the Relief Society in Norwegian, which is Hjelpe Foreningen 

Still love the manhole covers

Random views of the city

Narrow streets in the old part of the city

We stopped for lunch and then split an order of Swedish pancakes for dessert off of the children's menu

We visited The Vasa Museum, which is named after the Vasa ship.  The king at the time commissioned this giant ship, which everyone warned him wouldn't sail because the proportions were all off, but he didn't care.  It sailed for about 20 minutes and then sank.  It was preserved in the ocean for centuries and finally dug up in the 1950's.  

At the end of the tour I saw this little guy walk around this statue until he found the perfect spot to rest his head.  I couldn't resist a photo.  

Another day we rode bikes to a city park, that has this restaurant inside where they grow their own food.  They also had their own little gift shop where I bought a book on Swedish "fika" and left my wallet.  

We got all the way back into town to return our bicycles before I realized.  We tried to call the place, using the receipt from the book I bought, but it had closed about 5 minutes earlier.  So then we tried to flag down a cab during rush hour.  It was a huge ordeal, but I was able to get my wallet back.  The woman that worked there was just as relieved to get back to me as I was to get it back.  I asked if I could hug her, and she seemed apprehensive, but I did it anyway.  

Stockholm at night.  I love it here!