We'd spent a couple of nights in Stockholm back in 2001 as part of a Scandinavian holiday which covered Denmark, Sweden and Finland. We'd taken the train across the bridge from Copenhagen to Malmö, hired a car, and explored the west coast of Sweden before cutting across to Stockholm to drop off the car and catch our flight to Helsinki. Unfortunately, we left with a bad impression, mainly because we couldn't find anywhere to get a drink the night before moving on (which was a Sunday). It took another sixteen years before we decided to give Stockholm another chance. We're glad we did.
After checking in to our hotel and getting our bearings we decided to start things off by visiting Gamla Stan (the old town). We spent the evening there, deciding that the square where we began was where we'd had a getting-a-drink problem sixteen years before. This is Stortorget, which turns out to be the oldest square in the city. Unwittingly, we were sitting quaffing our beers directly opposite the narrow, brightly coloured buildings which are probably the biggest tourist attraction in Stockholm. We nursed our beer until it became dark, found ourselves a nearby restaurant where we had a pleasant-enough meal and ended up at a road-side bar directly across from (wait for it!) an Irish bar which poured diddle-ee-eye music out each time to door opened. It was all very touristy, and we decided not to return to Gamla Stan during the rest of our stay.
We stayed in Södermalm, convenient to Mariatorget Metro stop. That's on Swedenborgsgatan, which was fully pedestrianised at the time we were there. It's a terrific street, well provided with bars and restaurants and with a pleasant park at the far end. We walked this street every day going to and from the Metro and got it know it well.
Stockholm is all about the water, of course. It's partly built on islands and it has a multi-island archipelago on its doorstep. So we just had to take a boat trip to soak up the watery atmosphere and also to help us get our bearings. We opted for the Under the Bridges tour which took two and a quarter hours and brought us around the inner city, the Old Town, the islands Södermalm, Lilla and Stora Essingen, the new area Hammarby Sjöstad and the green areas of Djurgården (don't think I remembered all that: I got the details from the web page I've linked to). It was a good trip.
[ As with all the photos in these galleries, clicking on them brings up a larger version ]
We used the Metro mostly to get around. It's efficient and cheap (especially for older people like this journal-maker). We also made good use of the maps apps on our phones for planning our wanders. Inevitably, a lot of what we did and where we went was near the water, but not everywhere …
I think we spotted this street seller down near the harbour as we waited for the boat to take us Under the Bridges.
We, on the other hand, were more into liquid sustenance. Your journal-maker managed to leave his manbag behind at this rather up-market cocktail place. Fortunately, the staff found and looked after it.
This may have been up around the place we found when we went on a bit of a more far-flung adventure and got a lift up to a spot with fine views over the city.
On our way back to the hotel one evening we came across a just-like-home real genuine pub! If we'd found it earlier it might have become our local.
WGHO organised a couple of things before we travelled. One was lunch on the Monday; the other was dinner for Carl's birthday in the Veranda restaurant in the Grand Hotel on the waterfront. We're concentrating here on the lunch.
The WGHO wasn't as great as he might have been with this aspect of the trip. Stockholm is notoriously expensive, so when WGHO spotted what seemed like an amazingly good lunch deal he jumped at it. Unfortunately, what WGHO thought was a 3-course meal turned out to be one course only (choose one from a list of three). Still, it was a nice experience. We got to use the tram, the weather was lovely, the place itself was okay, though it's probably much more impressive for an evening meal when upstairs would be open. A bonus was the fact that the tram brought us to Skansen, yet another island. This is where the ABBA Museum is and lots of other museums as well (most notably the one with the boat). We just ate, but we did go back to Skansen and spent another pleasant afternoon almost as part of a wedding party.
Maybe I need to keep an eye out for Carl references everywhere we go. I spotted this Metro stop from the top of the tourist bus and was lucky enough to get a half decent shot of it. The only other Carl-spot I recall off the top of my head is also a metro stop (more accurately U-bahn). It's in Vienna and I captured it both times we were in that city (here in 2003, and here again in 2011).
I didn't get anywhere near as many 'atmospheric' shots during this trip as I'd usually do (though, in fairness, I'm only including a small selection here from the almost 200 I came back with). This shot, as far as I can tell, was taken during our 'adventurous' trek up the lift and over the other side (sort of thing).
A FINAL OUTING
We left it until our last day to take another boat trip. We mulled over which one to opt for, bearing in mind that we only had an afternoon to fit it into, and eventually decided to dip our toes into the archipelago. The boat took us to Fjäderholmen, the closest of the archipelago islands to the city.
It's a lovely spot. Small, quiet, relaxed — a perfect place to unwind away from the city's bustle. It isn't just 'small': it's tiny. So we easily did the complete circuit in time to catch the boat back. Once again, the weather was wonderfully kind.
Wild horses couldn't drag me away from a summer on the Stockholm archipelago — Bjorn Ulvaeus