Stockholm - camping on Vaxholm with Max and Anna

Friday, 16th of August:

Fiiiiiiinally! It's time for holidays, summer holidays :-) After having worked hard and a lot over the past months, this is exactly what one needs. And I was soooo much looking forward to this!
The holidays started with joining my brother Max and his girlfriend Anna for some days camping on the island of Vaxholm near Stockholm. They were on a road trip through Southern Sweden and had reached Stockholm on Friday 16th of July. That afternoon after work I had taken the train for some 6 hours from Oslo central station to Stockholm where my brother picked me up in the evening.
Together we drove to the island of Vaxholm where Anna had already set up everything for dinner in the tent.
After a little chatting in the tent with candle light and some crisps and chocolate, we went to bed. We had a full programme for the days in Stockholm.

Saturday, 17th of August:

We started discovering Stockholm on Skeppsholmen island with a visit of the Moderna Museum, the Museum of Modern Art.

As a special (huge!) exhibition showed the works of fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier.

After that visit we take a stroll through the streets of Stockholm. What a pity that the weather was so shitty!

 

In the early afternoon we decided to go on a little boat tour through a canal in the Stockholm archipelago. Pretty touristy thing to do, but it was included in the "Stockholm Card" that we had. And that way we were at least covered from the rain.

After the 1-hour boat tour we headed to the island of Djurgården which is home to historical buildings and monuments, museums, galleries, the amusement park Gröna Lund, the open air museum Skansen, yacht harbours, and extensive stretches of forest and meadows. It is one of the Stockholmers' favorite recreation areas and tourist destination alike.

In the late afternoon we decided to pay the famous open air museum Skansen a visit. It is the first open air museum and zoo in Sweden founded in 1891 to show the way of life in the different parts of Sweden before the industrial era.

 

Some 75 different species and breeds of Scandinavian animals are represented at Skansen – more than anywhere else. There are traditional breeds of cows, pigs, horses, sheep and goats, geese, hens and ducks. And there are wild animals such as brown bears, wolves, seals, lynx, wolverines and elks. Furthermore you can meet goats, cats, chicks and other small animals. We met quite a few of them :-)
A few pigs:

A little squirrel:

 Goats:

Reindeer:

Elk:

 

Brown bears:

Owls:

Lynx:

 ??? Honestly I can't remember what animal that was. Polecat? Beaver? No clue...

Ram:

The Skansen Aquarium, with the World of Monkeys, has about 200 exotic species. For an extra charge we could have looked at some fish, corals, crocodiles, turtles, lizards, snakes, naked mole-rats, pygmy marmosets, golden lion tamarins, baboons, lemurs, spiders, insects, bats and parrots.

On the same island as Skansen you also find the amusement park Gröna Lund where I'd really like to go one day.

 

By the time we reached our camping site, it was already dark. Max and I were pretty hungry and had some typical camping dinner: pasta with tomato sauce, prepared on a camping stove :-)

Sunday, 18th of August:

This day was much more beautiful - weather-wise! Perfect for our tour out to the Stockholm archipelago. We had chosen the island of Sandhamn, about 50km east of Stockholm, as destination of today's excursion.
Leaving to Sandhamn from the island of Vaxholm...

...a couple of hours to Sandhamn.

Sandhamn is full of many beautiful and typical Scandinavian red (or other coloured) wooden houses which in my opinion always create a very charming atmosphere. 

 

 We took some time to relax and enjoy the sun rays at the beach.

 Return to Stockholm in the late afternoon...

 ...including a quick visit of the famous Vasa Museum, displaying the only almost fully intact 17th century ship that has ever been salvaged, the 64-gun warship Vasa that sank on her maiden voyage in 1628.

In the evening we were invited at my friends' place. Gerlinde, Mike and their kids Amelie and Milou welcomed the three of us for a lovely dinner at their flat in Lidingö. It was so nice to see them again and we had a lovely evening :-) Thanks again to the four of you for having us over on that evening!!!

Monday, 19th of August:

Last day (at least for me) in Stockholm. Max and Anna stayed for one more night, while for it was time to move on southwards, to continue my holidays with Marco in the South of Italy.

But before leaving - I had the flight only in the afternoon - we started the day with a relaxed breakfast in the morning sun in front of our tent.

 A little tour of our camping site.

But well, now it was time to leave. I so much loved to go camping again (though I have to admit that I prefer Southern European destinations for their climate to go camping). It's such a big part of my childhood with great memories. I had always loved it. And of course it was great to see my brother and Anna again and to spend some time with them. Time outside the usual environment at home in Germany, but together on holidays. Like we used to do when we were kids :-)

So, let's start the second part of my summer holidays - down in Italy. Once the post of that part is ready, you'll find the link to it right here.