We spent the 22nd Dec 2014 in Stockholm because we only managed to get the night train to Kiruna from Stockholm. So we decided to spend the day sightseeing in Stockholm.
We stored our luggage in the lockers within the Stockholm train station. The lockers required a lot of coins, and we had a small adventure, involving multiple trips, trying to get the coins by buying coffee from a cafe in the train station. The lockers were clean, easy to use, and the big ones could take a really big sized luggage.
We walked to Gamla stan, or The Old Town, from the station. It was quite a far walk, but we did not mind. There were light snow on the ground, and some parts of the road were frozen over.
Gamla stan, while touristy, was a charming place. As we were early, the tourists had yet to arrive, and most of the shops were closed. We managed to explore the place without seeing anyone.
We came upon a nice small cafe that was opened, so we went in to have our breakfast and coffee. It was quite a nice, warm and cosy cafe.
After warming ourselves up, it was time to take a nice stroll through Stockholm to the Vasa Museum.
Stockholm is so beautiful! The buildings, while old, have so much character and charm. We agreed that Stockholm is our favourite city for this trip. It was a very cold day in Stockholm so we were glad when we reached our destination. Vasa Museum is a whole museum dedicated to the only almost fully intact 17th century ship that has been salvaged. We went without any expectations, but it turned out to be a very good museum, very well executed and very well managed. We enjoyed it thoroughly.
We then had lunch in the cafe located inside the museum. Truthfully, we were tired and sleepy, and the lunch provided us an excuse to sit down and rest. This was the first time we ate Swedish cuisine, and we loved it.
We then left the museum and made our way slowly back to the train station. We also did some window shopping along the way.
We retrieved our luggage from the locker before boarding the train to Kiruna at 1755 hours.