In part one of this series, I talked about my visit to the Danish capital of Copenhagen last May. In this second part, we travelled on to the Swedish capital of Stockholm and were treated to an unusually warm early May weekend, which led to an amazing few days in the beautiful city.

Now, to call the publishing of the second part of this photo series late is something of an understatement. I wrote the first part back in August of last year, and the trip itself was almost a year ago now. Yes, it’s somewhat ridiculous. I had been swamped with client work, and I was also dealing with a few other issues, so I do apologise. Anyway, without further ado, here’s the rest of the trip report.

Getting to Stockholm

While it’s nearly a year later as I write this, I can still remember the feel of the sun on my face as we waited on the platform at Copenhagen central station. It was nearly six o’clock in the evening, and the sun was still beating down. Despite the previous few days in Copenhagen having been a bit on the cold side, it was starting to change, and surrounded by concrete you could really feel the heat in the evening sun.

Our transport for the evening stood by the platform, waiting for the staff to let us board. The sleek silver lines of the high-speed Swedish SJ X2000 train arched back around the curved platform, glistening in the evening light. As a full-on train aficionado, I couldn’t wait to do this journey. The train from Denmark to the Swedish capital crosses the famous Øresund Bridge before winding its way up through the Swedish countryside. It’s a long but beautiful journey. The train itself is a sleekly designed, albeit somewhat ageing tilting train. Designed to handle the winding route up through the Scandinavian mainland, the tilting mechanism ensures it can take the many curves on the route at speed.

Eventually, we boarded and got underway. The trip across the sea over the bridge was one of those things that was interesting, but is probably better viewed from a distance. The train passes on the lower deck, and so you don’t get to see as much as you would if you were driving on the top level. Still, it was an intriguing experience.

After that, we passed Malmö and then up through the Swedish countryside. This was when I realised the downside to the design of the train. The tilting mechanism started to make me feel a little nauseous. Apparently this is an older design of tilting train, and mild nausea is a common enough side effect (newer tilting trains apparently anticipate the curves which lessen the nausea). It’s funny because I don’t normally feel sick when travelling on trains, but it ruined my enjoyment of the journey a little. It was only really bad when we were travelling at high speed on the more windy sections of track.

The sun was setting too, so soon you couldn’t see much anyway. Even so, the Swedish countryside looked beautiful, and I hope to go back some time to explore the more rural areas of the country. Some of the towns we passed through looked really beautiful. I had hoped to take some video or photos of the journey, but I spent much of my time using all my mental energy not being ill.

I can’t remember what time we arrived at, but it was fairly late. Luckily, our hotel was right outside the magnificent train station, so we didn’t have far to go. The following day we could explore.

The view from the end of a corridor in our hotel

City Hall

The next morning we set out to explore. I should point out that the trip wasn’t intended to be a photo trip, and so I wasn’t in full-on photo taking mode. I was also still dealing with an at-the-time undiagnosed knee problem that meant it was quite painful to walk long (or even not-so-long) distances.

Our first port of call was the Stockholm city hall. It wasn’t that we set out to see it, but just sort of stumbled on it. It is a magnificent building with really interesting architecture and details. We didn’t get inside, but even from inside the courtyard, you could get a sense of it. I tried capturing some of the detail, but I’m not sure if I did it justice.

That time we totally, accidentally ran into Greta Thunberg

After we spent a bit of time exploring the grounds of City Hall, we went on a wander by the water, and eventually, we crossed over into what appeared to be the parliament. It was at this point that my wife and I looked at each other and pointed out that this looked familiar, despite having never been here. Then we realised it was from the news reports of a certain climate activist who did her Friday protests here. Then we realised that it was Friday, and sure enough, as we rounded the corner, there she was, with her fellow protesters. Talk about a coincidence. They were finishing up for the day, and we didn’t stay, leaving the gaggle of onlookers to their onlooking.

An unusual summer day in spring

After this amusing turn of events, we headed to get some lunch. We sat at an outdoor restaurant in a park, and it was turning out to be a glorious day. The temperature was around 20 degrees and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Apparently, this was unusual for early May according to some locals we talked to. I didn’t take many photos at this point because I was in quite a bit of pain with my knee and the heat was getting to me. (Yes, I know 20 degrees isn’t that warm, but I’m from Ireland, and it had been in the 10s the previous week!)

The harbour and the Vasa Museum

The following day, the plan was to go see the Vasa museum. We had hoped to get the tram, but there was a strike on, so we had to walk. On the one hand, this was problematic because of my wonky knee, but on the other hand we got to see more of the city this way. This day, a Saturday, was turning out to be even hotter than the Friday. I think it reached 26 degrees at one point - but more on that in a minute.

Our route took us by the harbour, and countless people were out enjoying the sunshine. I’m not sure if the photos do it justice, but Stockholm is not at all what I was expecting. It felt like we could have been in Venice or somewhere on the Mediterranean. With all the people out eating and drinking by the water, and all the boats going two and fro, it was an incredible sight. It was both peaceful and yet buzzing with energy. I couldn’t believe we were this far north. At this point, back at home in Ireland, it was probably about 12 degrees and raining.

The Vasa museum is remarkable and if you haven’t heard of it before, it contains the fully restored remains of a medieval warship that sank in the Swedish harbour. It’s the most complete ship of its era. When you walk into the museum, nothing can prepare you for the scale of the ship. It’s like your brain can’t comprehend it. It was like something out of a movie - in fact, it reminded me of the ship in the Goonies. I didn’t really take any photos inside (except for a few iPhone photos) because I generally don’t take photos in museums. You can often find most of what you would want to take a photo of on the museum website anyway, and I prefer to take it in while I’m there rather than spend the experience behind a camera. If you’re ever in Stockholm, put it at the top of your list. You won’t be disappointed.

On the way back, I was having a hard time. It was really hot by the harbour, and I was in serious pain. At one point, I said to my wife: “just leave me here and go on without me”. I was delighted to get back to some shade. By chance, that night the Eurovision Song Contest was on, and Sweden won, so it was funny to be there for that. On our way to the airport the following morning, our train conductor was still celebrating the country’s win from the night before.

Our trip to Sweden was too short, and I can’t wait to spend longer there, but as this was already after a week of travel, I was also happy to get home. Hopefully, for the next one, I won’t take a year to process and publish the photos!

For those interested in the technical details, these images were all taken with a Fujifilm X-E4 and 16-80mm lens. Processing was done in Lightroom Classic.

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Journeys in Scandinavia Part II - Stockholm