Stockholm

Days 1-3  

In the grand scheme of this trip, I have to admit that Stockholm was an afterthought. It just seemed a good place to start the journey. But once we started planning, we didn’t need a syndrome to like it! An Emirates passage that began in Bangalore at 4.20 AM got us to the city by noon, via Dubai. To my pleasant surprise, my sinuses, for the first time in forever, were behaving! Immigration was a breeze and we had decided to change the currency after we got to the hotel. This was because we had purchased a bunch of city transport, entry pass and such online before the trip.

The Arlanda Express was one of them, and it got us to Stockholm Central in about 20 minutes. Thanks to the wifi aboard the train, we also figured out the way to the Visitor Center near the station, from where we had to collect our 72 hour city pass and travel cards. Both are super useful if you’re planning to use public transport extensively, and visit tourist attractions. The walk also gave us our first taste of the city being decked up for Christmas, and the cold ahead! Stockholm was at 2°C when we landed on December 1st. A good time to mention the importance of layering, on which we had spent a little less than Rs.50,000 – thermals, jackets, snow pants, gloves, boots and such. But it was all well worth it.

T-Centralen had an entry right next to the Visitor Center and we took the train to Gamla Stan, our base for the next 3 days, one stop away. Santa was on hand to welcome us to the Old Town! Our hotel – the Collector’s Victory Hotel was a 5 min walk away, and we discovered even faster routes in the next couple of days! Check-in time in this part of the world is usually 3PM, and we were early. So we dropped the luggage and headed to Slingerbulten, a restaurant nearby that promised excellent meatballs, and delivered very well on it – served with lingonberries, mashed potato and a delicious cream sauce. We also tried a Rökt Renröra (smoked reindeer) with horseradish cream and bleak roe, served on rye bread, and washed it all down with an apple cider.

After a failed attempt to find the currency exchange shop, we headed back to the hotel. A quick word on its decor – a fantastically done ship and sailor theme with artifacts, trinkets and baubles all over the place, including the room in which we stayed. Our room was ready, but though we’d have loved to, we didn’t have time to linger since we had a Christmas walking tour in half an hour.

The Christmas Spirit walking tour by Ourway began at 3.30 near the statue of Evert Taube. It was conducted by a lively young girl and we walked around for a little over an hour. Among other things, we saw the Royal Place from outside and discovered how we had a little in common with the royalty – most every member of the family married the person he/she liked with very little care about what others thought! We also learnt that watching Donald Duck toons on TV on Christmas Eve is a Swedish tradition! We ended the tour with glogg (mulled wine) and a candy-making demo. We also got to taste quite a few!

After the tour, we walked through the Mårten Trotzig alley, which at one point has a width of 36 inches! Dinner was planned at Ardbeg Embassy but neither of us were really hungry, so we focused on the more important part – craft beer. We tried Ruby Wedding (red ale) and Berry Berry (fruit beer) and after visually drinking in everything else they had at the bar, left for dessert. The two local dessert parlors were closed, so we tried the bubble waffles at Ben & Jerry’s, with tons of chocolate, of course. Even at 8, Gamla Stan was quite deserted, so we lazily walked back to the hotel. We finally found the currency exchange but by then had learned that debit cards were actually quite fine (Citi wasn’t charging transaction fees as part of an offer).

Breakfast at the hotel was a fantastic affair. Abundance of choice and an excellent setting that included a wine cellar. Day 2 was “museum day” and we quickly made our way to T-Centralen and then walked to the Spårväg City tram stop to go towards Djurgården. We skipped the Nordic museum, though it makes for lovely pics from the outside, and proceeded to the Vasa Museum. This maritime museum displays an almost intact 17th century ship. It is a fantastic effort and visually amazing. They have done a great job of preservation and the recreation of the humans (based on skeletons) is uncanny. We actually spent more time than we had anticipated. 

The area outside the museum also offers an excellent view of the city. We walked along that and then on to the ABBA museum. This was a masterly use of the franchise and we were really tempted to buy some overpriced trinkets! But the overall experience was fun and worth the 500 SEK we paid for it. This was the only one that was outside the City Pass.

Meanwhile, D had learnt of a city tour bus ride – Stockholm Panorama, free courtesy the City Pass – and we wanted to catch the 1.30 option. That left us just about an hour for Skansen. Skansen is an open air museum (has a zoo too) that aims to show life in Sweden before industrialisation hit. You can take an entire day to explore this, it’s that big. It’s like an actual replica of a small town with homes, and workshops for different kinds of craftsmen – silversmiths, tanners, bakers, glass-blowers and so on. Don’t worry if you get a mild Westworld feel, a bit of shopping will take you out of it. And if you climb up far enough, there are excellent views. Since it was Christmas season, there was a seasonal market too. From the food stalls, we had a delicious elk roll (more like a cone) which in addition to the meat had mashed potatoes.

We had a good time but also missed the bus by a couple of minutes! So we slowly walked back to Gamla Stan and decided to finish the shopping we had planned for the next evening. The Christmas market was crowded. We bought candies but could not find the cinnamon bun that the place is famous for. Seemed saffron buns were the thing now. We finally got freshly baked ones in a Belgian cafe nearby.

After evaluating a few options, we finally decided to go to the Mårten Trotzig restaurant (yes, same guy). The creamy Porcini mushroom soup with roasted bacon was absolutely yummy and so was the low tempered deer with veal broth and blue cheese creme. We also tried the local drink – aquavit – distilled from grain and potatoes, and found it much better than the different, extreme versions of spirit we have tasted in other travels. After dinner, we walked around a bit to parts of the neighborhood we hadn’t been to, and then back to the hotel it was.

We were excited for Day 3 because it featured our self-organised treasure hunt for subway art. This post was super helpful and was the basis of our plan. The green line was what we started with and the first station we visited was Thorildsplan. It featured Mario and Pacman and was an absolute delight. Fridhemsplan was next and more sober – robot installations and a maritime theme on another level.

Next up was the blue line, and the first station we landed at was Solna Centrum – D’s favorite because of its rich Christmas colours and tons of detailing. T-Centralen was more subdued but Kungsträdgården brought back the spirit with candy stripes and some interesting polygon play.

We then took a break for the 10.30 version of the bus tour we had missed the previous day. The starting point was a short walk away from the Kungsträdgården station and the one and a half hour tour did a splendid job of giving a primer on the city. Different parts, how they developed over time, what they are now famous for, important landmarks, were all part of it. Södermalm, which is currently Stockholm’s hipster central, began as a rural area and then became a slum before its current version. We also saw the area which created the term Stockholm syndrome! All this and more, all you need to do is plug in your earphones. Just a warning – don’t expect great photo ops, simply because you’re in a moving bus! There are no stops. But we thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Before we continued our subway tour, we walked around, with the specific aim of visiting H&M’s flagship store in their place of origin. I liked how H&M’s sign for men/women sounded like my reaction to this little detour! 😀 But I did get myself a nice beanie and smart gloves. The latter is very useful and allows you to use your mobile unlike the standard gloves.

The red line was next and the first stop – Stadion, whose art was created in 1973 to commemorate the Stockholm Olympics of 1912. Lots of rainbow themed art and installs across the station. Tekniska högskolan was next, and I felt it had a slightly dark, alien feel. But those psychedelic escalators threw me off track! Our last stop was Universitetet, which was absolute geek. From maps to line drawings and letter mazes, I really liked this one. The red and green doors and running men combination was a nice exception.

Lunch was planned at the stop after Gamla Stan – Slussen, because we wanted to see the view from the Katarina Elevator. This was supposed to be right opposite the station but obviously that depended on the right exit. Though we got down at the wrong one, we now had a hang of the stations enough to get to the right one. But that didn’t prevent us from getting lost, thanks to all the construction happening around. The restaurant that we had planned lunch at – Erik’s Gondolen -was in the same building, so we had to pass it to reach the top of the building. The lift was another adventure. When it was moving, it had no door. You could literally touch the space between floors. I tried, despite the instructions, just so I would know all this was for real, and the lift promptly stopped. But there must have been others before me, because this was standard procedure enough for further instructions to have been left! As it turned out, the view was good if you were willing to consider the cranes as a part of the vista in some directions.

Lunch was some excellent Pannbiff (beef patties) and Köttmacka (Grilled Swedish flank steak sandwich) which, on a relative scale was not very expensive for the snootiness the place exhibited (at 2 PM, only a small part of the bar was open for guests because the rest of the restaurant was being prepped for dinner!)

We got back to Gamla Stan with just enough time to get ourselves a take away for dinner from the friendly neighbourhood Cafe Kronan because we had a ship to catch. The journey to the port was more straightforward than I expected – after the last subway stop (Gardet), Google Maps’ directions looked a bit iffy. But they had very good signboards, so even though it was a 10-15 minute walk, it was fairly peaceful. A long part of the walk was on an elevated walkway, and as we began the trek, we could hear music. Towards the end of the walk, we came across a street musician. Other than an old couple who were a bit ahead of us, there was no one. And yet, here was this man, singing heartily. A strange moment, and an unusual way to say hejdå to Stockholm.

Up next  – Tallinn, Estonia