Stockholm, Spring Break 2009

Our last full day in Stockholm fell on my birthday. We visited more sights, and were able to see the Royal Guard in action in front of the palace:

Sophie begged us for a hotdog for lunch, so she struggled through it with her gloves on. Although her face doesn't look like it, she did love it!

We walked by the Jewish synagogue, and were able to see an interesting Holocaust memorial dedicated to Raoul Wallenberg* near the harbor. It consisted of a sphere with his name on it linked to the synagogue (about a block away) by railway tracks. Very moving:

*The Wallenberg family is one of the wealthiest families in Sweden and according to Wikipedia, controls about 1/3 of the Swedish GNP. Raoul Wallenberg, one of the more famous of the family members, was a diplomat during WWII and was responsible for saving up to tens of thousands of Jews in Hungary by giving anyone who applied Swedish passports. There is a goosebump-raising account of his courageous actions on Wikipedia for quick reading if you're interested, but I'm sure there are some great books out there too...

We decided to head to the other side of the city to go the Nordic Museum. We had been promising Sophie a ride on a boat the entire trip, so we took a ferry ride across the harbor. Even though it was freezing outside, Sophie insisted on checking it out:

But then she realized how cold it actually was and contented herself with watching the ride from the inside.

We saw this thermometer from the boat, which at one point read +0 degrees C...

...and then -0 degrees C! We're not really sure what the difference is, but either way, it was cold!

The Nordic Museum was in a beautiful building, and upon entering, we came upon this giant statue of Gustav Vasa, a 16th century king of Sweden.

It was an interesting museum, but the real beauty, I think was in the building itself:

Just some fun pictures of Sophie throughout the trip:

Trying to lift the world's largest coin:

As I mentioned above, the last day was my birthday, so Ian and Sophie gave me some beautiful tulips and got me a Swedish cinnamon roll to start my day off.

Later in the day, we stopped by the indoor market to pick up a special dinner.

I passed on the stingray...

But I did end up with a mixture of yummy Lebanese and Swedish food! (I know, a strange mixture, but it was my birthday, so I could eat what I wanted!)

And we got these tiny tarts to share as my birthday cake...mmmm!

It started dumping snow right after we got back to the apartment. Needless to say, we spent the rest of the evening at "home!"

Queen Sophie:

We would love to go back to Stockholm (in warmer weather, of course!), and highly recommend the city to anyone traveling in Europe!