Bucky's 70th in Stockholm!

October 08, 2023

We wanted to do something special for Bucky's 70th birthday because turning 70 is pretty special. We decided to walk down memory lane and go to Stockholm. We hadn't been back there together since we lived there in 2001-2002.

We rented an Airbnb apartment ideally located on Djurgarden, an island in Stockholm that is home to Skansen, Grona Lund and the Abba Museum among other fun places!! We arrived in Stockholm on Wednesday evening, got settled in, walked around a bit and eventually decided to forage for dinner. We came upon a fabulous place called Slipen and had a wonderful meal!! We even made reservations to return on our last night because it was so memorable!!

Our first stop on Bucky's birthday the next day was Skansen. Skansen is an outdoor museum that Bucky LOVES!! It is set up like Sweden in the olden days and you can go into the different buildings and see how things were done in the past. For example, they have glass blowing, silver making, a bakery, farms, etc. It is really a special place and it did not disappoint. We took LOTS of pictures and reminisced about our time living there. It was lovely.

We had lunch that day at Rosendals, which is a working garden with an amazing cafe where you eat outside. We ate there often when we lived in Stockholm and it was fun to see all of the young families with their small children. Reminded us of ourselves more than twenty years before.

That afternoon, we visited The Vasa Museum. This was also a frequent spot for the Wall family back in the day. The boat was just as big and the story about its sinking just as amazing. While we were on a role of walking down memory lane, our last stop for the day was Junibacken. This is basically a place based on Astrid Lingren's stories where kids can play and use their imagination. There is a story train that we all loved to do so that is why we went this time. Unfortunately, it was broken, but they assured us it would be fixed later in the weekend. (In fact, we went back on Saturday and it was fixed so we did the story train. It made me cry!)

For Bucky's birthday dinner, we took the "metro boat" to Gamla Stan and ate at Tradition. It was great food, great atmosphere and a great way to end a perfect day.

On Friday, I had to work so I stayed at the Airbnb, but Bucky went out to wander and then he met an old friend from Microsoft for lunch at NK. He returned to the Airbnb mid afternoon and once I was done for the day, we walked to Nobis Hotel to meet my Punahou classmate, Sean Naughton, for a drink or two. It was fun catching up with him!! Afterwards, Bucky and I wandered around, stopped for a quick dinner and headed back to Djurgarden.

For the next day, Bucky had reserved a rental car for the day so we could go out to Radmanso and TRY and find the stuga we used to rent in the summer. Bucky was nervous about the logistics of the rental car, but we found the location pretty easily. It was an electric care and everything was in Swedish (and we had never driven an electric car before) so we were a bit panicky. We finally got it started, but it was not fully charged and we were worried about losing power. So, after a long conversation with a VERY PATIENT customer support person, we were moved to another electric FULLY CHARGED car.

We got out of the parking lot and headed towards Norrtalje. We knew the area we wanted to go to, but we knew it must have been built up over the past twenty plus years. We found something that looked familiar and drove up and down some streets but no cigar. We decided to get some lunch at a cafe we saw upon arriving in Radmanso, the Rådmansö Bageributik. It was AMAZING! While there, we looked at maps and I saw a road that seemed familiar so after a fabulous sandwich, we headed back out.

We went towards the road I had recognized and we knew we were in the right area. Eventually, we went down a road that was "private" and we came upon the house where our landlord, Anders and his family, lived. We parked at their house and went to see if anyone was home. No one was so we walk through the little woods to the little stuga and it was just like we remembered. We were overwhelmed!! It was magical.

We were so happy to find it. We took lots of pictures and reminisced about our time there. We found a scrap piece of paper and a pen and wrote a note to Anders letting he and his family know we had visited. We left our contact information and just got an email from them today!!! Now we are back in touch!

Coming home to Berlin from Stockholm was tough. Stockholm is just beautiful, charming, clean, perfect really. It is very walkable and cars and bikes yield for pedestrians. The food was fantastic and the weather couldn't have been better. It was really an ideal visit and a special way to celebrate Bucky's big 70th birthday. We can't wait to go back!