Stockholm & Gotland, Sweden

The first leg of our two week trip to Sweden began in Stockholm. The overnight flight from Mumbai bore well for my toddler who slept through it. The Husband, who usually takes very well to dosing off on flights faced a mild discomfort in that department. I was there to provide the other extreme, by not managing even a single wink through the whole eight and a half hour flight to Munich (our layover destination). Surprisingly, I was quite upbeat at the end of it. Maybe it was the kaffe. Or, maybe it was... Sweden, baby!

Much as we delighted in the glitzy city travels, it was in the midst of nature that we found our center again. We reached Gotland after spending a few days in Stockholm. Gotland is an island in the Baltic sea, and is off mainland Sweden. Arriving in Gotland was an adventure in itself. We had booked a ferry to Gotland, which was from a town called Nynashamn. This basically meant a short cab ride of ten minutes to the bus station to catch the bus that was operated by the ferry company. This bus ride took about an hour and took us to the ferry terminal. The ferry got us to Gotland where we went to the counter for car rental, got our car and drove an hour to reach our Airbnb cottage. It was a wooden cottage painted blue on the outside and white on the inside, with books on the region, fir cones, beach pebbles spread across the house as a reminder of the land we were in. I was sold on the blue.

The ferry was like catching a plane experience, only better - with checking in the luggage, to have a playing room for kids... and how can I forget the amazing food options. I wanted to eat hot food, and ordered a dish that was freshly made (as against packed meals available on flights). My toddler was bare foot for most of the ferry ride, as were the other kids... as they kept running back and forth between the play room and their seats. There was also a TV room that kept playing cartoons, so basically children had a lot to choose from. This is where The Husband and I gazed dreamily at the sea, and when we had our fills, managed to watch a movie together. One's got to snatch all alone-time us parents get.

Gotland is a dreamer's paradise. One look at its beaches and walking trails, and we knew we could never get enough of the place. Oh I get it now... this is what they must mean by love at first sight. We wrapped each day telling one another, how that very day was the very best of the whole trip. Travelling here in September-October means off season for this part of the world. Gotland was practically shut at this time and we were the lone tourists at most places. The only people on the beaches or the walking trails... We were surprised when we saw a car trailing us on the same route for more than a minute. Windmills on the route, sheep in black and white, tractors on the farmlands, apples on the trees - these were the reasons we stopped our car on the gorgeous drives here.

One of our drives took us to a narrow stretch of drive-able land with sea on both the sides of the road. This was the place where my toddler first made her game of throwing pebbles in the water while singing, which continued for the rest of the trip.

Any trip in a European city starts with the city center for us. Gamla Stan or the Stockholm city center reminds me of Rynek, the Polish city square with bright hues on its walls. Luckily for us, our trip in early October meant that we did not miss out on the sun. Sunny days with mildly chilly breeze made our walks in Gamla Stan dreamy. We walked all the way from the Royal Palace and Nobel Museum to the water front, where we sat on the steps and saw the boats go by. I love experiencing the sights of city centers, as revealed during the day, and then again after sundown. The lamps and day light can make a familiar scene seem relatively unknown.

We spent a week in between at Gotland (more about that later), before we returned to Stockholm. On our second leg in the city, we stayed closer the city center. We spent a week at Miss Clara's, and here it was mostly the toddler and I who dived into the city with our exploring shoes, as The Husband went to work, and joined us during the evenings.

Let me state here that I get dreamy eyed when I even think of museums. You can have one on rocks or space, I am always up for visiting them. With more than fifty museums, Stockholm is a place especially curated for museum lovers. We started with ABBA museum. For one, it was good to know that the name is an acronym and the first alphabets of the names made their band's name. We tried our luck at singing their songs in the singing room and couldn't stop giggling at our attempts behind the curtain. They have a stage for solo stage performance too, but we aligned our bravado to match our singing skills... or well, the lack of them.

Next stop Junibacken. Now this is a children's museum dedicated to Swedish literature for the younger folks, and was meant to humour the little one. As it turns out, my inner child is still very active and had a tough time being tamed. It has the sets and things from children's stories and even if you do not know much about Swedish kid's literature, it will still be fun for your little one... and (coughs) you. My little girl was walking around in a tiny house making pretend-cakes, getting on all fours inside a tunnel and sliding down on the way out, flying a space shuttle, riding Pippi's horse, playing with blocks while sitting in a huge saucer amongst huge blocks, and what not! At the end, we decided to arm ourselves with some of Astrid's books, because who wouldn't want to immerse themselves in that happy world? We wrapped up the museum tours with a trip to the Vasa. A huge war ship from the 1600s that sunk a few feet away from the coast on its maiden voyage right before the eyes of the citizens who had gathered to wave goodbyes, and was found and taken out of the sea after centuries of the drowning to be restored to its current state - what could possibly be not to like?! No matter how much you have read about the museum, the first step inside will have your jaws dropped to the floor at the sight of the beautiful ship.

I can never emphasise enough on this - I am a churches and museum kind of person... and my husband indulged me as always by ensuring I got my fill of both on the trip. Larbro church, Visby church and Gotland museum are something you should not miss if you delight in beautiful architecture, or wish to indulge your curiosity about the olden times. Most of the places here keep in mind the younger folks... such as Gotland museum had a Vikings room especially designed keeping children in mind - a place to pretend play with cooking, a ship they could climb, under the sea experience. Visby church had a small table for kids with crayons to keep them engaged.

Creperies were a surprise find of the trip - surprise because I had almost made up my mind to not like them but the number of times we visited them for our meals were countless. Some of the meals we ordered had a lot of use of honey and almonds - combination that quickly became a hit with all three of us.

A day in between was spent in the Faro islands, which is north of Gotland. You sit in your car, that goes into the public ferry, for a ten minute ride to Faro - a slice of heaven.

If I were to summarise the Swedish experience for you, I'd say - blue of the Baltic, white pebbles on the shores, richness of culture, dreamy eyes, and coffee.