My all-time favorite thing about Stockholm was reconnecting with family, but as a city, it was absolutely beautiful. I never knew how much the Swedes had used influences from other countries in their own architecture until this trip (apologies for the profuse amount of pictures ahead of time). It was very clear that they've always loved to travel and brought back some of their favorite styles and designs with them when building their main cities. This wide spread cultural influence really shows in the Stadshuset (the city hall), but it is also very prominent in the museums and the palace. Grandma and I were here for 6 days so we were able to see a lot of the city's landmarks but it also happened to be Midsommer! So we joined in the festivities at Skansen for a day of celebrating the first day of summer.
Our visit to Örebro was short but sweet as we only stayed there for one night on our way to Stockholm. Victoria and I both wanted to see the city's castle so we left Gothenburg a day early for the quick stop. We saw the Olaus Petri Church and the Örebro castle during our stay. It was a pretty quiet town and we were glad we hadn't planned to stay longer but we definitely enjoyed our visit!
Tjörn was one of the cutest fishing villages I've seen so far and I've been up and down all sorts of crazy coasts within the last month or so. There wasn't much to do besides the Nordic Watercolor Museum but it was an incredibly peaceful area with tons of friendly locals!
During our week stay in Göteburg, Victoria and I took a spur of the moment day trip to Varberg and Tjörn. We were not 100% sure we would be able to see both in 1 day but with our 24hr unlimited transport pass (only about $30!) it was incredible easy to make our way up and down the coast. Besides the old Roman bath house we walked around the old castle grounds and peaked into the museum.
11 years later and we finally made it to Europe together! Victoria and I spent the last couple of days in Göteborg, Sweden trying to blend in with the locals. We went to the Liseberg amusement park, took a canal tour, found our favorite breakfast spot (Café Kringlan), walked through the city gardens, and got the best city view from the Scandic Crown. Such a fun week with my best friend and I cannot wait for our next trip together!
Mom and my last city together was Geiranger where we did a lot of nearby hikes and tried one of the touristy speed boat/waterfall tours. It was such a great day filled with coffee, chocolate, and adventure :) So sad it was the last of this wonderful part of the trip, thanks for being my travel buddy!!
At the end of the drive we weren't really sure how we'd managed to fit all of this into one day, but we started the morning by driving up the precarious road to the Stegastein lookout over Eidfjord. We then went down to Flåm to experience the Flåmsbana Railway where we were incredibly creeped out by the Huldra's interpretive dance. We then spent the next 7 or so hours trying to find our way to Geiranger (harder than you'd think at this time of the year because a lot of the roads are still closed from snow.) Hard to imagine if you look at the last couple of pictures.
I wish I could say I'm used to this by now, but Norway just keeps getting prettier. The weather has been less than ideal as it's been alternating between cold, rain, and snow, but we have yet to have a bad day here. We finally got into some kayaks and explored the Eidfjord, walked under a waterfall, drove under mountains and saw our first rainbow. Talk about a beautiful land, Norway stop being so awesome!!
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Nicole EllisTravel blog A ship is always safe at shore, but that's not what ships are built for. Archives
February 2018
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