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Europe 2023 {Day Eight ~ Stockholm, Sweden}

 Monday, December 18th was my second day in Stockholm and I started with breakfast at my hotel.  I then headed out and walked a different route so that I could see different sights.  

House of Nobility
Supreme Court
I arrived at my first destination, the Royal Palace



The palace has festive lights in the windows like all the houses in Scandinavia.
I had a 10:00 ticket to the jubilee exhibit Vasa to Bernadotte.  I was happy to catch the last couple of weeks of this exhibit which celebrated a double jubilee year for Sweden.

In 1523, Gustav Vasa was elected King in Strängnäs laying the foundation for modern Sweden.  On September 15, 1973, King Carl XVI Gustaf succeeded his grandfather and became King (his father was killed in 1947 in a KLM airplane crash in Copenhagen which elevated the 10 month old Carl to Crown Prince of Sweden).

Now, King Carl XVI Gustaf is the longest reining monarch in Europe (after the Danish handover on January 14, 2024)

The royal cradle used after baptisms.
The silver baptismal font was first used in 1746
I was excited to see the Cameo Parure as it isn't something that is normally on display.




The King and two Queens in waiting...Crown Princess Victoria, and her daughter, Princess Estelle.
After the jubilee exhibit, I went to see the Royal Palace.  I headed up the stairs anxious to see the Royal Apartments...
...but The KING thought he would use them instead!
I was able to see other things there.  There was an orders of chivalry exhibit which I enjoyed seeing.  I didn't take a ton of pics, but this is the Order of Seraphim, the most outstanding distinction which is only given to members of the royal family or other heads of state.  This is the Queen's...

A photo of The Queen wearing it...


Hall of State 
The silver throne was a gift to Queen Kristina for her coronation in 1650
I was also able to tour the Bernadotte Apartments and Guest Apartments.

The festive lighting as seen from inside.
The Chapel
I next went to another museum within the Palace grounds, the Royal Treasury.  
The Queens coronation robe.

These are Sweden's crown jewels and haven't been worn since 1873.  Now, the Swedish royals have AMAZING jewels, but they belong to the family, not Sweden, and they are sadly not on display.

I went to another museum at the Palace called Museum of Three Crowns, and they lured me in with false advertising. I thought I was going to see three crowns, but they showed me zero crowns!  It shows bits of the palace before a big fire devastated it in the 1600s.  There are artifacts, models, etc., but there are NO CROWNS.

I walked over from Gamla Stan to the Modern City of Stockholm.

The Royal Palace
I walked through the Kungsträdgården (King's Garden) and took zero pics.  I stopped in the Galleria Mall and enjoyed their pretty decor.

I walked over to the Hötorgshallen, a food hall, to see if anything struck me for lunch.  I didn't decide to eat there, but enjoyed looking around the flower market outside of the hall.

I decided to walk to another restaurant for lunch and passed St. Jacob's Church.
Bakfickan was a restaurant I wanted to visit while in Stockholm.  It's basically the bar for the well known Restaurant Operakällaren located next door.  As far as I could tell it was the same menu, same prices, same kitchen, same plates even, just a less fancy setting.
I had to have meatballs while in Sweden and by this point I was obsessed with lingonberries, so this was win win.
The Opera
I crossed back over to Gamla Stan
I hit up some shops
I passed a bar that had a schnauzer painted on the outside that looked like Poppy.

Fabrique was another place I had on my list, so I stopped for a cinnamon bun.

While shopping around, I stopped in an art gallery and bought this small painting.
I decided to go visit another food hall for dinner.  I took the subway over to Östermalm to visit the Östermalms Food Hall.  Across from the food hall there were booths selling trees, wreaths, and these cute little reindeer made of greenery.
The food hall
It was a gorgeous food hall.  I wandered around forever just looking at everything for sale and all of the restaurant menus.
Unfortunately, I wasn't very hungry and so nothing was drawing me in.  I finally settled on a restaurant and ordered but then after a few minutes they came over and said they didn't have what I ordered that night.  I decided to leave and find something else, but again, nothing sounded amazing, so I settled on a slice of cheese pizza.
But I had already set my eye on dessert from this place.

I also got some gingerbread to bring home to my Mom.
A pretty view on my way back to the subway station.
I took my dessert (Swedish Princess Cake) to go and enjoyed it from my bed while watching Netflix...
...with the window open, because I'm always too hot in European hotel rooms.

I had a very early start the next day as I was headed to another country, so I packed myself up and got some sleep.

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