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.
