Stockholm, ABBA is still alive

The kids had a winter break from school in early February. We spent most of the week in Berlin because I had work to do and Gina was still taking German classes. Nevertheless, we wanted to use some of this time to explore. Rather than heading south to Austria for skiing, our winter urlaub (vacation) was a long weekend up north...in Stockholm. Owen had studied Sweden as part of a class project on different Christmas rituals back in December so we thought it would be a treat to visit the country. Also, he has taken to ice skating and we were hoping to be able to skate the lakes the surround the archipelago that makes up that part of Sweden. We found an inexpensive flight from Berlin to an airport outside Stockholm and with only a 1.25 hour flight and 1.5 hour bus ride we were in Stockholm.



It was a truly magical experience to be in the land of winter, with everything covered in a light blanket of snow, people speaking a very foreign sounding language (considering we were used to hearing German), and everyone looking very slim. We stayed at a youth hostel, part of which was on this beautiful boat. The boat had been renovated in the past year so everything was very clean, new and comfortable. Hardly the hostel experience I was used to, and a very exciting experience for the kids. With soft sheets and bedding (from IKEA of course) we slept well.


Of course, we did some ice skating. The first skating was on a small rink in downtown Stockholm. It was the middle of the day and the was not too crowded except for two classes of children on a school outing. At one point, we felt like we had arrived in Stockholm - we were skating in the midst of this beautiful city, snow was lightly falling, and Fernando was playing on the loudspeaker. I kid you not! They play ABBA hits in Stockholm - sort like an anthem I suppose. If you return after June 2009, you can visit the ABBA museum.

We spent two days exploring the city and two great museums. The first was to see the Vasa - a 16th century fighting ship that had sunk in the Stockholm harbor 20 minutes on its maiden voyage. It sat in the water for 300 hundred years and was recovered in the 1960's, and spent the next 25 years slowly drying. The other museum was an outdoor park/museum of Swedish culture, life, art, animals. We learned about the Sami - indigenous people of Scandanvia, huddled in their huts and ate reindeer meat.



At the end of the second day we found another place to skate. A speedskating rink next to the stadium where the 1912 summer olympics were held. The ice had just been prepared and there was hardly anyone on it. Skates in hand, we simply walked on and skated the oval for a while...no ABBA playing here, though.