Return the car! Ha ha

After breakfast we checked out of the hotel and props to the property. The woman at reception gave me two passes, shhh, for public transport for the time we’re here and took care of the parking tickets! Apparently there is no free parking in Stockholm and no one told us where to park when we checked in…and they knew we had a car.  Now get out there!

Our morning view was pretty spectacular and then the dive over to drop off the car, pretty,  huh?

First stop was everyone’s recommendation, Skansen, the world’s oldest open-air museum and zoo. It has a zoological garden specializing in Nordic fauna, such as moose, reindeer, bear, wolf, lynx and wolverine. It features over 150 historic buildings from previous centuries, from all parts of Sweden. 

Here’s the thing, we liked it, but being winter, there wasn’t much happening. One of their big things is people walking around in traditional clothing giving talks and performing every day life, we found one.  It boasted stories and shows, etc. I think in the spring and summer, it would be a lot of fun. 

We did find several of the Nordic animals but the bears, wolves and reindeer were harder to find. Maybe we’ll just have to come back, hmm..

Next stop, canal or under bridges boat tour, yes? Great! Let’s go to the Grand Hotel, that’s where we pick up the tour.

Two tickets please, yes? No. Just missed the last boat, not to worry tomorrow morning it starts all over again! What ever will we do now?

Why…Let’s go to the Grand Hotel and have a spot of tea and figure out our next move. Sounds good to me! 

Not only did we have tea, we had high tea! I love high tea and it’s been ages since either of us have had high tea. Apparently, this is something you need to order in advance, some people reserved up to four months ago! [“But let me see what I can do” said our waiter”]. Guess what happened next?!

First…they had decaf coffee so you know PSM was in heaven! It is one of the hardest things to find outside of the US. I jumped in and had their special house blend, so good, I even bought a tin!

So…if you haven’t had high tea before, do you think you could ever get full from for teeny [barely even quarter] sandwiches, two scones and four teeny cookie like desserts? The answer is YES! 

We started with, well PSM going into a dreamlike state after his first sip of coffee, then when his feet came back down, we started with the sandwiches, my favorite thing on that level, whipped chevre with honey,  oh my gawd!!

With the scones we had lemon curd, plum jam, sweet cream cheese and not so sweet whipped cream. The whipped cream helped to cancel some of the sweetness of the other toppings, I didn’t need that too much, ha ha.

By the time we got to the desserts, we were just about done! There is no way we could do that every day! 

What a fun and new experience we had together!  Although, we are so stuffed, we may never eat again! We need to walk this off !!
Where to? Next stop…the Moderna Museet.

We were both excited about seeing this museum, we both enjoy modern art and almost all of what we saw was amazing! 

There were sculptures and paintings by Picasso, Munch, Leger, Gris, just to name a few. 

Duchamp, Rosenquist, Oldenburg, Lichtenstein, Matisse.

There were artists and pieces we recognized. There was modern, expressionism, surrealism and then there were pieces like this. Yup…

Another one of the free exhibits was on architecture, from arrival to moving, infrastructure, set up.  What makes a house a home?

I found the statistics video fascinating. 

Let’s head back to the hotel, check in, get settled in and see what comes next. 

We are in the room,  we’ve gone to the executive lounge, had some treats and now we’re just enjoying the view, the lights, the sounds outside and sitting, we are enjoying sitting! 

What adventures await us tomorrow? I can’t wait to find out! I’ll keep you posted!

I was tempted to sing “Hello Sweden my old friend” [I hope some of you got that!]

We got up, ready for the next adventure! Breakfast and a stroll around the town of Ystad, where we stayed last night and knew nothing about! The town was just waking up so we let it slumber a bit more, we had places to be!

In the car and on the road, we had one immediate destination, the town of Kaseberga, a cute little artist community that was recommended by the guy we met on the Metro.

Along the way we stopped at a beach and as everyone knows, a cold day on the beach in Sweden is better than any day in the office! 

We finally made it to Kaseberga and we believe in the summer it’s a very cute artist community. Alas, in the winter…not so much! Two restaurants would be open for the day. um…

Back in three car for the next six hours. Ok, in retrospect, diving to Sweden sound a lot more exciting and romantic than it was. If we had more time, we could and would have stopped a free more places and the bridge was not as exciting as we thought it would be, well to be fair, it was after dark and we couldn’t see much. 

But it was an experience! This is the second time we’ve driven between two countries in Europe, wonder what countries will be next?

We arrived in Stockholm, arranged our hotels and settled in for the night. A nice dinner, art exhibition and a great view , what could be better? We’re in Sweden!

Lots to see over the next three days! can’t wait!

That means, goodbye Copenhagen… hello…tell you at the end of  the post.

Today was our last day in Denmark and we’re going to make the most of it! Crown jewels, busts, portraits, statues and more, oh my!

On our walk to our first stop, the Crown jewels! Along the way we stopped to ooh and ahh and realized that PSM had been having a ball on this trip! Ha ha, see how I did that?

Rosenborg Castle (Danish: Rosenborg Slot) is a renaissance castle located in Copenhagen, Denmark. The castle was originally built as a country summerhouse in 1606.
I have a feeling that the armed guards at the castle were about 12, you’d probably agree if you had seen them!

Here’s the interesting thing I found out about these beautiful gardens… The gardens were something to behold at one time but since it was incredibly expensive to maintain, it fell into disrepair. In 1785 the orangey was elevated with a new story, remodeled as barracks for the Royal Guards and the garden turned into a drill ground. Cool, huh?

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We walked into the castle on the first level and began the tour. Oh my these royals liked to look at themselves! Busts, portraits, mirrors, oh my! And even…wait for it..a royal throne! Sorry, I couldn’t help myself!

The next two levels, medals, some jewelry, chandeliers, time keepers, dishes. 

Now…we go to the treasure for some weapons, wine and crown jewels. Sounds good to me! There was a lot to see, interesting and ornate, the gun collection was a gift from President Lincoln, cool, huh?

We worked up quite the appetite and decided on Cafe Pauldan. We think we were in the university district, a lot of people studying and it seemed they built the restaurant in a bookstore, so cool! I was in heaven…grilled goat cheese sandwich! O M G!!!

Now we are off to the NY  Carlsberg Glyptotek, it’s next to Tivoli Gardens, the second oldest amusement park in the world. Too bad it doesn’t open until next week, oh well. 

The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (Glypto-, from the Greek root glyphein, to carve and theke, a storing-place) is an art museum in Copenhagen, Denmark. The collection is built around the personal collection of Carl Jacobsen (1842–1914), the son of the founder of the Carlsberg Breweries.

It was amazing the number of marble statues, it’s the largest private collection in the world. Amazing the way each statue was lit, elicited so many emotions.

There were statues, busts, paintings, frescos  just breathtaking. 

One of my favorite exhibits was Edgar Degas. The museum’s collection includes ALL the bronze sculptures of Degas, including the series of dancers. There are pieces all over the world, but here was he entire collection, can you believe it!? Aren’t they just breathtaking?

We ended with Greek, Egyptian and Roman. I’m still awestruck!

We left the museum, went to the hotel to pick up our bags, off to the airport to pick up a car and said Farvel København and Hallå Sverige! Hello Sweden! 

The Øresund/Öresund/Oresund Bridge (Danish: Øresundsbroen Swedish: Öresundsbron, hybrid name: Øresundsbron) is a combined railway and motorway bridge across the Øresund strait between Sweden and Denmark. 
We stopped in a town called Ystad and at the oldest hotel in Sweden, cool, huh?

I think that’s pretty good adventure for one day! Who knows what tomorrow holds, I’ll keep you posted!