Stockholm {The Second Day}

After the perfect start to our trip in Stockholm visiting with My Swedish Family, we filled our weekend with biking, walking, picnicking, soaking up some sun, enjoying the amazing food scene, and swooning over the Swedish lifestyle.

Just a little Red, White & Blue

This photo below says a lot. The water is so clean in Stockholm, in the middle of the city, that people actually safely fish and swim. And you can believe it just by looking down into the water.  It's clear and there isn't any garbage floating in it.  Pretty amazing for the middle of a city.

Just a normal summer's evening, fishing in the Riddarfjärden

First of many bike rides along the water

Friday night, we found a restaurant on Sodermalm island, which was the neighborhood we were staying in.  It was time to try some more classic Swedish dishes: meatballs with potatoes and lingonberries (they have a similar taste to cranberries) and gravlax (salmon cured in salt, lemon and dill) with potatoes.  A lot of the food we had in Sweden was prepared with dill, which was delicious.  It inspired Brian to start using more fresh dill to his cooking.

meatballs, classic

How good does this look?

We started Saturday at the Östermalms Saluhall, an amazing food hall in the city center.  Always a priority on our trips as you get such great insight into the food culture.  There were endless cured meats, crayfish, cheeses, treats and even reindeer.  Shockingly, we walked out without buying or trying a thing.  We can thank our hotels amazing breakfast buffet for that.

Another great food hall

Crayfish season was just starting

Very tempting 

We planned to swing back by the food hall the next day to pick up stuff for a picnic, but, as we often find in Europe, it was closed on Sundays.  In our defense, we did check the website and it said that the market was open on Sundays, but that just didn't end up being the case.

We spent the early afternoon riding our bikes around Djurgarden Island, which has countless harbors and large areas of forest and meadows.  We had read a few raving articles about this cafe, Rosendals Tradgard, in the middle of the island, so we biked over for a coffee.  Not only was there the cutest little cafe, but also a garden, a greenhouse, and a florist. The grounds were beautiful and expansive, filled with nooks, divided by manicured hedges, dotted with tables and chairs, and a huge orchard with picnic tables.

Walking up to the cafe

We were still full from breakfast - dare I tell you about the amazing hotel breakfast of organic yogurts, breads, cheeses, herring, eggs, pancakes, rice....the list goes on and on.  They even had flax seed - need I say more?  They had it all.  And it was good.  Really good.  Anyway, we weren't ready for lunch, but I wanted to stay longer, so we got a coffee.

Yes, Brain, another photo - pleeease

Sipping our coffee in the orchard

Another photo I snuck in - couldn't you spend all day here?

After our coffee, back on the bikes, and back around the other half of the island.

Everywhere was just stunning

The inside of the island

And the outside of the island

We took a break from the bikes and walked up to a viewpoint on Sodermalm island that we were at the night before, but wanted to see it during the day.

me

I loved the muted colored buildings that define Stockholm

Brian

And we happen to be in town for the Pride Parade.  It was definitely a family affair, as there were lot's of kids out to watch as well.  It was a clear sign that it was going to be a tamer Pride parade than the one in San Francisco.

The little boy was holding a sign that said something
about loving his mama

Parade viewing with a tall boy.

Brian claims this was his first parade and he never went to parades as a kid - Robin, can you verify this?  What kid doesn't go to parades?!?

Can we live on this street?

After the parade, we walked back down to collect the bikes again and happen to stumble upon a walking path along the edge of the hilltop. I have to admit, it wasn't hard to stumble upon amazing paths like these, they are all over the place in Stockholm, it was incredible.

View from the path

Back on the bikes, we went on a ride around the other half of Sodermalm island.  Again, we were blown away by the views, the boats, the parks, the bike paths, and all the people out enjoying themselves.

I loved this shot with the trees framing the city

This pretty much sums up our trip - biking

After we made it back to our hotel and had a short rest, we walked over to Nytorget Urban Deli for pre dinner drinks and an app. We ordered a meat and cheese plate for 1!

It was a super cool fine grocery/bar/restaurant

Enjoying a glass of Rose

The plate for 1 was huge, but we earned this after all the biking, right?

Then, back to the bikes to get down to the city center for dinner.  I couldn't help but stop along the way for a few more photos - it was a beautiful  night.

So pretty

Just another amazing view

Finally, we made it to restaurant B.A.R for dinner.  We joked that it was our second dinner because our app was much bigger than expected.  But we splurged and got a seafood plateau to share and a bottle of wine.

I know the way to my man's heart - seafood plateau

The restaurant was cool, and I really felt like we could have been right in the middle of San Francisco.  It reminded me of home, it was great.  Stockholm has an amazing food scene, everything that we ate during our trip was delicious, not one bad dish.  Our plateau consisted of 3 of the best oysters I've ever had, 1/2 small crab, 1 langoustine, some shrimp and mussels, and 1/2 little lobster.  Quite the grand plate of food.

With the langoustine

I can't believe we did all this in just 1 day!  Stay tuned for day 2 - more biking and views with some picnicking and boating added in.