Visby, Sweden

Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Baltic cruises would stop in St. Petersburg. To replace this stop, they added Visby to the itinerary. When planning ahead, there were no excursion options available through the cruise for Visby so we planned to walk around the town and see the sights for ourselves. Once onboard, excursion options opened up but we decided to stick to our own plan. 

Visby is right on the water, of course. Most of the town is hidden behind the old town walls, but when you get on the other side of the wall you can have this beautiful view. We walked along the water for a bit.

Visby also has a great botanical garden that is free to visit. Coming in June provided us the chance to see tons of different flowers in bloom!

The other gem that Visby had to offer was church ruins. I don't know why, but I love church ruins. 

And being in Sweden meant we just had to make a fika stop before getting back on the ship! We enjoyed cake and coffee from a little café with outdoor seating. I had carrot cake, but Charles made the best choice with this slice of chocolate cake. 

Stockholm Museums

While visiting Stockholm, we checked out two vastly different museums. Both were equally cool to visit, so I highly recommend if you're in town!

The first was the Stockholm Toy Museum. Charles and I have visited a couple other toy museums (Basel, Switzerland, Kansas City, and Nuremberg, Germany). It makes for a fun trip down memory lane. The Stockholm Toy Museum was unique because of the building--it was a cave! 

I loved the way they displayed the toy cars in a car!

One of my favorite things is doll house displays. However, what the heck is a skeleton doing in the closet of this one???

The other museum was not really on my radar until I was chatting with my Dad. I called him on Father's Day for a quick chat and he mentioned the Vasa Museum and recommended that we go. When Dad gives a recommendation, you listen! 

The Vasa Museum features the world's only preserved 17th century ship. On our Old Town walking tour, we learned that the museum is managed by a guy from South Carolina. Small world! He had learned about the Vasa when he was growing up and was so fascinated by it that he became an expert in it. 

The whole museum is built around this ship that they recovered from the ocean. It sank immediately upon its maiden voyage and lay submerged in the water for hundreds of years.

What is fika?

Have you heard of fika? I was first introduced to the concept when watching the Stockholm episode of Travel Man (highly recommend the show if you enjoy dry, British humor). After learning about it, I knew it was something I had to experience when visiting Sweden. We found a fika tour through Tours of Stockholm. 

According to the Tours of Stockholm fika tour description, fika is the word to describe meeting up for coffee and pastry. However, it has come to mean any mini break.

Our fika tour guide was a transplant from Brazil (Italian heritage) who came to Sweden and fell in love with the country. It was really interesting to have an "outsider's" perspective about living in Sweden and it gave us the opportunity to learn so much about her experience moving to the country. She had such a great vibe and was so easy to spend time with. 

Our first stop on the fika tour was to a little candy shop inside Hotorgshallen, one of Stockholm's food markets. Neither Charles or I are fans of licorice, but it's very popular in Scandinavia. We tried a few different types--traditional sweet and progressively more salty types. We ended with some candy covered licorice which was actually tasty.

Another stop was to a café for some coffee and pastries. Charles enjoyed a cinnamon bun and I had a saffron bun. 

Another café visit where I had a cinnamon bun and Charles ordered a cardamom bun. This café was located in the Old Town near the colored buildings and famous fountain that we saw during our Old Town walking tour the previous day, but I don't remember the name.

At the chocolate shop stop, I had some yummy ice cream and Charles tried the hot chocolate. 

The last experience, not part of the fika tour, was a visit to the ice bar. This was also featured on the Travel Man episode for Stockholm and Charles was very keen to experience it. It was COLD inside! They don you with a warm cape and gloves, but it was still a bit too chilly for me to really enjoy it for very long. Entrance to the ice bar includes one drink of your choice and they are served in ice cups. Very cool (excuse my pun) experience! If you visit during the summer, go ahead and wear pants and a long sleeve. The cape only keeps you so warm.

Stockholm, Sweden

Our next travel adventure brought us to Stockholm, Sweden! The main draw was our Baltic cruise that departed from Sweden, but we took the opportunity to spend a couple of extra days in the city before embarking. 

We splurged a bit on the hotel by staying at the swanky Hotel At Six. Service was excellent, the room was comfortable, the breakfast buffet was plentiful and the location was perfect to see all the Stockholm highlights. 

During our first evening in Stockholm, we took a guided walking tour of the Old Town with Tours of Stockholm. We saw the iconic row of buildings in the picture, learned some history about Sweden's royal family, learned more about the Nobel prizes and enjoyed the company of our fellow tour participants (two families of which ended up being on our cruise).

Unfortunately we ran out of time to check out the inside of this pink church. Our guide told us about some of the original artwork that is housed inside. Just one reason to return to Stockholm in the future!

Before our walking tour, we stopped at a restaurant near our hotel for a quick bite to fuel up. Boo Burgers satisfied a craving for good ol' fashioned burgers and fries. The burger has a delicious crispy edge on the patty. It kind of reminded me of Steak & Shake.

Another top priority for me was to enjoy some Swedish meatballs while in Stockholm. During our fika tour, our guide recommended enjoying the meatballs at the Ostermalms Saluhall. The M Seger vendor had a little restaurant section and the meatballs were everything I had hoped they would be!