There’s so much to do in Stockholm that, though we live an hour north by train, we decided to spend 2 nights there to revisit some fav spots. It was a delight to not get on an airplane for a change! Without the cost of airplane tickets, our budget allowed for a splurge at the Radisson Strand Hotel located on the water, highly recommend it for service, location & excellent breakfast. Spring has been a long time coming this year, with snow flurries through end of April, so the May sunshine brought out some crowds, but it was very manageable, especially because we were out early each morning.
Day 1 - We dropped off our bags around 11AM & were kindly given an early check-in, heading straight to the History Museum by tram with a few minutes' walk. HIGHLY recommend it if you're into early history! This museum is really astonishing - the gold collection, a great walk through history upstairs as you walk along over the dates, interspersed with carefully curated examples for each era. The main level is quite a user-friendly, somewhat interactive collection starting with the Vendel period. We possibly absorbed 20% of what the museum has to offer over a 3-hour visit, with an afternoon tea break back at cafe. Nice cafe with indoor courtyard & cafe seating, decent food & of course, great coffee. After getting back to our hotel, we walked over to the Middle Eastern Museum's Bagdad Cafe for dinner. It's an old style cafe with views overlooking the Opera House & the bridge over to the palace. The food is great & there are lots of vegetarian options and it's rarely crowded. Walked about 5 miles the first day.
The next morning we headed out early, walking past the palace into Gamla Stan to visit the Storkyrkan, a 13th C church, home of the amazing St George slaying the dragon wooden statue from 1489, 100 SEK entry fee. https://www.svenskakyrkan.se/stockholmsdomkyrkoforsamling/visningar_guided_tours. It's a stunning church with a beautiful organ, 2 pulpits, some fine paintings and the St George statue, which is a masterpiece! We were there before the church opened, so of course stopped for coffee & pastries at Grillska Huset, where we were treated with a woman with several small dogs sprawled under the table, & at one point a friend stopped by with her little dog to chat. By the time we came out of cafe around 9:30, the square was already crowded. We were glad we'd walked over first thing in the morning. Wandered around the palace on our way back to hotel, where we took a break & then walked out past the National Museum along the water onto Skeppsholmen island, green & great views. Had dinner at Cafe Eugenia, pizzeria, reasonably priced & OK. We walked about 6 miles.
The final morning we were up early & took the tram along Strandvägen (indicated on tram as 'Waldemarsudde') The tram is an event in itself, passing beautiful 1800-1900 mansions, before turning onto Djurgården and ending at the amazing museum & former home of Prince Eugen, Waldemarsudde. (BTW, the tram also passes the Vasa Museum, ABBA museum & Skansen. Frankly you could easily spend the day just at these museums.) We took a walk along the cliffs out past Waldemarsudde, admired the early blooming tulips, The Thinker statue, there are trails & bike paths going all the way around the island. We've been to this museum numerous times, and were out so early we decided to head back to hotel & pack up. We walked about 7 miles.
FYI, Our preference is for museums focused on history up to 20th C & as we have no interest in grand palaces, our fav places to visit are the Vasa museum (get your tickets ahead), Skansen Open Air Museum, History Museum, (Historiska Museet), https://historiska.se/ & Hallwylska Museum, a well preserved manor house built between 1893-1898. Be sure to pay for the audio guide! In case you're into ballet or opera, the Opera House has what looks like an excellent English language tour each Saturday https://www.operan.se/en/your-visit/guided-tours.