Stockholm is a dream.

Stockholm, Sweden is now one of my favorite cities in the world.  I would move there In a heartbeat!  What exactly is so special about this place?  The atmosphere is just incredible.  People are SO friendly and happy.  The weather was perfect when we went in August (although most of the year it is super cold).  I’d love to return another time during the fall to see what a difference the weather makes in the overall feel.

The city is buzzing. The architecture is wonderful.  So many trendy people; so many sophisticated people; it’s a very business-oriented culture.  A white collar dominance over downtown.  The water surrounding the city adds a special touch and there are so many beautiful bike/walking paths.  It is extremely modern and progressive and everyone just seems intelligent.  Every person we met was kind and spoke fluent English.  There is some incredible shopping to be done there too if that interests you.  The city is very clean and easy to get around.  There are many modes of transportation but we opted for walking and then used the bus once.

Stockholm is extremely expensive!!! Oh my goodness.  Everything.

My family went to the Ice Bar for $30 pp and they had a blast.  The up front cost includes your gear to keep you warm and your first drink.

Brandon and I instead decided to spend the rest of the day wandering the city (since time was so limited at this port) and visited the Vasa Museum.  The Vasa is an old Swedish warship that sunk in the early 1600s but was salvaged in 1961.  They built a museum around the ship and it is an amazing sight.  The museum itself is not one I would revisit, but it was worth going once.  When in Rome…

With student id’s (or really by just looking young and saying you left your id at the hotel), the museum costs $15 per person.

 

 

 

Sempre was exceptional.  The best coffee in Sweden and actually some of the cheapest.  Every pastry, drink, and chocolate was delicious!  I especially loved the vanilla filled croissant and the thin square dark chocolates (probably the best chocolate I’ve ever had).  The shop is a stand up coffee bar like in Italy – and the staff is Italian as well.  It’s not a place to relax for too long since there aren’t any chairs but the staff is wonderful and it’s in a good location for a shopping stop.

If you’re looking for it on TripAdvisor or other sites, the old name is still online but the new name “Sempre” has apparently been there for over a year.  It used to be called “Sosta” – don’t be fooled like we were at first!

Only tiny down side… the large bags of coffee beans that you can take home with you are oddly horrible.  Please don’t waste your money! Just enjoy the coffee and sweets while you’re there.

The Hermitage was another amazing find thanks to TripAdvisor.  It is a vegetarian restaurant with hearty, homey food in the perfect location.  There is a good atmosphere to sit and eat but we just didn’t have time.  So, I asked for a to-go box and they had a few different sizes.  Small is plenty for a meal and costs 40 Swedish Krona.  That is by far the cheapest meal I saw around Stockholm (about $6.50).  There is a medium size for about 60 Krona and large for 80.  It also comes with a big piece of delicious nutty whole wheat bread.  The rave reviews were well deserved.

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What to see and how to see it (Transportation in Munich)

Airport

We arrived in Munich around 4pm and picked up Euro cash at an ATM (no fees with our card, woo!) We went to the baggage claim where we were directed by many signs to the S train.  There is a lovely TI attendant right as you exit the airport (behind the many drivers and relatives picking up their guests when they get out of the baggage claim).  She gave us a so-so map of the city and a very helpful map of the public transportation lines.  You’ll see the same map up around all the stations so it’s one to get familiar with asap.  Here it is:

She then directed us to continue walking straight behind the TI desk.  We stopped at the ticket desk to verify that we were in the right direction.  Turns out the airport transportation is over twice the price of a ticket for traveling within all the other stops of the city.  The airport is on the yellow line which is much farther north out of the city.  The rest of the lines pretty much count with the zones 1-2 pass.  At the airport you are supposed to buy the special airport passes which are 10,40 per person.  Honestly, though, our tickets were not checked even ONCE the entire time we were in Munich.  We saved a few bucks here and there getting cheaper passes than we really should have.  Oops?!

Side note, Lufthansa is a wonderful airline.  They have a free espresso machine with yummy lattes, etc. for free outside the gate.  Then they have very polite and helpful crew members.  They hand you these German chocolate wafer cookie sandwich things as you board.  I don’t really like those so I didn’t have one.  But, I appreciated the gesture 😉  The flight was problem-free, we arrived on time, and they served free drinks, including spirits and sodas.  Did I mention free coffee, cookies, and spirits?!  Take notes, United.  Technically they are part of the United family, but they really should make other lines this way.

After purchasing a one day pass from the ticket booth (you can get one at the machines just as easily by pressing MVV, day pass, partner pass or something like that).  (2,40 for a single ticket for one person and 10,20 for a day pass for 2-5 people).  I believe the day passes last from the time you purchase until the next morning at 6am.  If you are with 2-5 people, get the 10,40 euro partner day pass.  On the machines, click MVV and pick partner pass and pay with Euro cash or credit card.  We then headed straight out the doors to this huge enclosed area with shops and such.  I don’t know if it’s always there but a huge flowrider surfing competition was going on right in the middle of this place; twas bizarre in the best of ways.  There are signs to go down the stairs or escalator straight ahead to the “S” train.  S trains are above ground and U trains (U bahn) are underground.  The H line is for buses.  We could have stayed on the S and U line for everything we did but the S line was down for part of the time we were there (which we knew thanks to my tedious research) so we had to use the bus system some.  I enjoy the S and H lines best since you can see the city while moving from site to site anyway.

As mentioned, the S train was out for most of August at different spots for regular maintenance.  I’m not sure if this occurs once a year or if this was a one time thing.  Look up current forums on Munich transportation on TripAdvisor before assuming everything is in working condition.  It is pretty easy to figure out an alternate route if necessary.  One of the times we went back to the same S stop we went on the night before and it was shut down suddenly .  It really is that sporadic.  So, we had to find another way to get there.  The public transport map on the wall (the same layout as the map at the TI’s desk) will show you if there is a U train coming your way.  Or, there may be a great attendant to help you out in English (or sort of English).  Either way, it’s relatively easy to figure it out.

All of their public trans. is super clean in comparison with the US.  Just like everything else in Munich.  The train stations in some spots were shockingly modern and tidy.

The train station is similar to our airports but a little more crowded and chaotic.  There is a help desk withe some English speaking staff.  You can ask general questions at the help desk but need to grab a ticket to wait in a line (it was a 20 min wait for us) to get your ticket validated and passports checked. They print out a slip of paper with the next train to the city your venturing to along with the gate number.  Despite the unexpected additional wait, I was impressed by the helpfulness and accuracy of staff.  This differs greatly from our experience of the Italian stations.  The only bummer was that while sitting at our “gate” the train to Prague was switched suddenly to 3 gates over.  I’m soo glad Brandon saw this quick change on the small screen at the gate that just said “Praha 15:02” and suddenly changed to “a bunch of German words Praha 23.”  We walked over to 23 and sure enough the train to Prague was there instead.  Last minute change made for a close call since it was only announced in German.  There are tons of food options at the central Hbf station.  Sushi, brats, sandwiches, smoothies, fruit, convenience store items, pastries and coffee drinks galore, pizza, and so on.  Priced like the rest of the city.  Actually the water bottles in the station’s convenience store were even cheaper than those in other parts of the city.

On the big boards with departure times, If your itinerary isn’t on there within the soonest and latest times listed, it is possible it is a bus and not a train.  Again, the info desk will help you out.  As far as rail passes go, it is quite a maze to work through.  I could write up this whole explanation on what passes do and don’t work for which places but it will change soon enough and it varies so dramatically on your itinerary, even by adding one city.