For the last weekend of Summer bank holiday, Tony and I made a trip up Stockholm Sweden. We'd both wanted to visit it, and having the long weekend made for the perfect time to go. I wouldn't dare visit in the Winter as it is REALLY, REALLY cold up there.
We decided to try out RyanAir as it is a really cheap carrier that flies there. It has a bit of a reputation, but we wanted to see for ourselves. It flies out of Stansted Airport, which is about a 45 minute train ride from London. We were taking the first flight out at 6:30, so we were up at 3:00am to get to the bus, to get to the train, to get to the airport and on our plane. It was a quite a flurry of activity getting there.
Our train was cancelled in lieu of bus service, so we made it to Stansted just in time to rush to the gate. Tony's first impression of RyanAir was really bad as they immediately dinged him for having a bag that was too big according to their dimensions, so he had to pay extra for it. We'd measured it at home to be sure it was within their specs, but they remeasured it, and charged him 35 pounds.
The seating inside the RyanAir planes is really tight, but being that our flight was only about 2 hours, it was managable. Everything on RyanAir is a la carte including the restroom. I didn't need to go, but if I had, they would have charged me a pound to use it. I got a kick out of all the announcements for purchasing drinks, bus transfers, etc, but Tony found them to be quite annoying. One way that RyanAir is able to charge less is that they often fly to airports that are on the fringe of the cities they are serving, so we didn't fly into the airport that is only 15 minutes from Stockholm, we flew into an airport that was over 1.5 hours away. We did pass by the world's largest IKEA store. Unfortunately we didn't stop there. All the transfers made for a very long journey for a air trip that was really only 2 hours. This is something to consider when using RyanAir. They may have the lowest fare, but by the time you add on the train/bus transfers, and the time that they take, RyanAir may or may not be your best option.
There was a major convention for doctors taking place in town that weekend, so we couldn't get a hotel room. As an alternative, we ended up renting an apartment. It was owned by a woman that occasionally rents it out for extra income. It was quite cozy, and gave us an insight to how regular people live in Stockholm. One interesting aspect of the building was that the elevator only had exterior doors. When riding inside it, you can see the floors go by. It was a little strange at first.
As the predictions were for rain the following couple days, we decided to do the walking around the city and boat tour that afternoon. Stockholm is a beautiful city. It is a bit of a mix of Paris and Venice as there is a ton of Art Neuveau buildings all built right up to the lake and river waterways that flow throughout the city.
I took Tony to a Hot Dog stand for lunch as he is a huge Hot Dog fan. It was a nice afternoon to sit by the water and enjoy eating a Hot Dog. Thankfully most of the Swedes speak English despite the fact that most of the signage is in Swedish and looks like names of furniture products from IKEA.
We explored the extensive Subway system, which is very cool and appears to have been carved out of solid rock. It is quite unusual.
For dinner that night we splurged and went to the Grand Hotel for their authentic Swedish Smorgasbord. It was a beautiful spread with all kinds of pickled and smoked fish. We tried Gravlox and had the first of our many servings of Swedish Meatballs. It was a lovely evening and warm by Stockholm standards. As we made our way back to the apartment, I hoped the weather would hold out for us.
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