When the Easter bunny comes to Europe instead of eggs he gives paid holidays: Good Friday and Easter Monday.  Melissa and I took advantage of the four day weekend to visit Stockholm, Sweden and the Lindholms: Olof, Catrine, Bjorn, Jacob, and Clara.  Back in 2007 Bjorn was an exchange student with the Johnsons.  Over the years everyone has kept in touch, so when we decided to move to Europe we knew it would only be a matter of time before we made the trek up.

From Geneva it’s a 2 hour and 10 minute flight to Stockholm.  This was our first time flying out of Geneva, so it was also our first time to see the view out the window after takeoff.  Mountains, mountains, mountains as far as the eye could see. I kept thinking if someone were to paint a picture of this they would be scolded saying that doesn’t look real because there is nowhere in the world with that many perfect mountains.  Unfortunately neither of us had window seats and I was too chicken to take a picture across the aisle. Pictures next time…

We landed in Stockholm at 3 p.m. Friday and were greeted at the airport by Olof and Bjorn. They had graciously come with their car to drive us the 40 km from the airport to the Lindholm home in the suburb of Bromma.  Quite soon after meeting Olof he told me that Olson sounds like a good Swedish name. But I had to break it to him that my Olson ancestors came from Norway, to which he told me the more common Norwegian spelling is Olsen.  So who knows where those Olsons were hundreds of years ago?  Maybe I’ll have to do some research.

Once in Bromma, we spent a little time unpacking and catching up (lucky for us all the Lindholms are conversational in English). We then loaded back into the car for a driving tour of Stockholm with Olof as our guide.  My first impressions were that, the roads seem wider than in other parts of Europe, the buildings were more colorful and newer looking, and there was lots of water everywhere.  After the tour we returned for a traditional Swedish Friday night dinner of tacos, and then we drank wine and ate chocolate before heading off to bed.

Saturday began with Swedish breakfast.  There was bread, cheese, meat, cereal, orange juice, and lots of strong Swedish coffee.  A different custom in Sweden is to use yogurt instead of milk with your cereal.  I tried this each day, it was pretty good, but it was definitely more filling than with milk.

After breakfast Olof, Bjorn, Melissa and I went into Stockholm to see the Vasa museum.  The museum is pretty much just one huge room housing a recovered shipwreck from 1628 called the Vasa.  It was a military ship that could have housed 450 people and 64 cannon, but it sank in Stockholm harbor on its maiden voyage.  In 1961 the ship was raised and a long process of restoration and preservation was begun.  It is remarkably well preserved for how long it sat.  There are very intricate carvings all along it, and the museum does a nice job talking about life of sailors back in the 1600’s.

After seeing everything at the museum, we left for Bromma and made one quick stop to pick up Jacob Lindholm at his apartment in Stockholm on our way.  Melissa and I recently spent a lot of time looking at apartments, so it was fun to see his one bedroom that was slightly larger than our first studio in Switzerland.  We talked about housing prices and everyone was surprised at how high the Swiss rental rates are.

Once back at the Lindholm home, we packed everyone into two cars then drove off to a restaurant called Rastaholms Värdshus for lunch.  The restaurant is located on a big lake in the countryside 20 km from Bromma.  The scenery on the ride reminded me of northern Minnesota with all the pine trees, lakes, and big bedrock stones.

Lunch was a Smörgåsbord.  The only choice we had to make was between chicken and fish for a main course.  Then we grabbed a plate to graze through a large buffet.  There were breads, cheeses, salads, fancy hor d’oeuvres, and 20 different kinds of pickled herring.  I remembered trying herring when I was younger and hating it, but here I was surprised to find I liked it.  When we returned to our table the waitress had brought out schnapps shots and beers that we didn’t even order, they just went along with the meal.  After two plates of buffet I still had the main course to eat, which came with a glass of wine.  I was very full and satisfied when I finished my fish.  Then I heard there is also a dessert buffet with cakes, cookies, tarts, and coffee. Somehow I found room to gorge myself on one more plate.

On the way back to Bromma we stopped at Drottningholm Castle, where the royal family lives, to see the sights, and to walk off some of our lunch calories.  I didn’t think I’d be able to eat anything the rest of the day, but for dinner the Lindholms made a pork tenderloin that looked so good that again I just had to find more room.  Jake left for the subway station after dinner and then some of us took a nice walk through the neighborhood before bed.

On Sunday we woke up to another big breakfast, then headed off to see old town Stockholm.  The day was cold and there was a light drizzle as we explored, but it didn’t stop the streets from becoming filled with other tourists.  The old town is on its own little island and looks similar to other old European cities.  The biggest differences are that the buildings are more colorful, and there are some very tight cobblestone alleyways to walk.  We looked inside a couple old churches, saw the building where the Swedish parliament meets, and saw the royal palace.  At 1 p.m. there was a small parade of military guards and a band that marched around for the changing of the royal guards. We also stopped at a souvenir store and I bought a key chain.  I was able to pay with Euros and receive Swedish kronor back as change.  I thought it was cool to have a few coins as souvenirs, and I’m sure the store owner likes being able to charge a high exchange rate.

Back at the Lindholm’s we had a late lunch of lasagna then squeezed into one car to see the Fjärilshuset, which translates to butterfly house.  It’s a series of connected green houses with tropical plants, butterflies, and strangely enough, a shark tank.  After being outside in the cold and rain all morning, it was nice to walk around where it was very hot and humid.  My favorite part was when a little, unsuspecting kid was frightened by a 3D movie display of a shark breaking through a tank.

Right next to the Fjärilshuset is the Haga Palace and park, home of Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria.  Us peasants were allowed to walk in the park, but could only see her house over a tall fence with lots of cameras. The sun had come out again, so the stroll through the lush gardens and the view of the water were refreshing.

For our last supper of the trip we were spoiled with steak and roast vegetables and of lots of red wine.  We stayed up late talking politics, and learned that Bjorn doesn’t like Russia. One of the biggest reasons we moved here was to experience life through the vantage point of a European, so we took a lot from that late night discussion; perhaps the biggest observation we arrived at is that even though there are small differences amongst us, we’re all still human with similar wants and needs (even Russians!).

It goes to figure that our last day in Sweden would have the nicest weather.  We enjoyed it for a little while on a walk along a lake with Bjorn.  Then a little after 1 p.m. we said our goodbyes and got a ride back to the airport.  Even though there is so much of Europe to see, we look forward to returning to Stockholm someday soon.

P.S.  Stockholm has such an interesting geography and we visited such far flung places I’m trying an experiment by adding a map below to show where we went.

[Show slideshow]