James Went To Stockholm

Stockholm was the final part of my road trip without using roads (except Bolts) via Tallinn and then Helsinki.

It’s another city that I didn’t do justice to in the two nights that I stayed there, though we had a little more time there in total than we had in Helsinki.

Yet unlike Helsinki, I feel like I may need to go back here – there was far too much to cover in just a day and a half.

Plus it was coming to the end of an expensive trip, and Sweden is hardly know for being affordable, so I was getting to the “do I really need to spend money on this” stage.

And it would be nice to see the sunshine in Sweden – I’ve spent all or part of 4 different days there in my life, and almost every single second it was cloudy, often drizzly.

Anyway…what did I see?

Djurgården

Djurgården is an island (Stockholm is made up of islands) where many of the museums are located; art galleries, the ABBA museum, the museum of wrecks (not sure if this refers to people like me in nightclubs circa 15 years ago) – plus a fairground which you can see for miles away.

Given that every museum is £20+ entry, we just chose to do one museum which was the Vasa Museum (there is a £65 day ticket for every museum, but you’d have to do 4 museums to get your money’s worth…who can cope with 4 museums in one day????).

I have little interest in old ships, but this thing was stunning.

The ship sunk minutes after sailing back in the 17th Century, and was discovered in the 1960’s, and hauled up, restored and put on display.

I think they said something like 98% of the ship is the original material. I was quite impressed. And that was museums done.

Other than that we did a lot of wandering around. On the first night we walked from Djurgården to Gamla Stan in the drizzle, passing Parliament House which is one of many stunningly grand buildings.

The next day we wandered around Södermalm, which is kind of a Bohemian area without being too strongly so, highly residential but quite a lot of park and of course, riverside walks.

Some of the more interesting and quirky bars/restaurants were here, plus there was an English pub doing a proper roast dinner – alas our flight was early on the Sunday. Told you I had to come back.

Plus the world’s least inviting beach ever.

I thought I’d taken a lot more photographs but apparently not.

Eating in Stockholm

Apart from eating meatballs in the hotel breakfast…because when in Sweden:

I had probably the best dish of the holiday at Restaurant Eld, but alas we were eating between lunch and dinner times so I wasn’t hungry enough for more than just a starter.

But it was Chanterelle toast with brioche, lumpfish roe and some Swedish cheese. Stunning.

Also during the time there I had some reasonable quesadillas at La Neta, a Mexican restaurant, along with a big fat hot dog at Brunos korvbar the next afternoon.

Neither of which I photographed. What was wrong with me?

What I did photograph was the disappointing final meal of the holiday:

Reindeer stew with lingonberries and mashed potato – so at least I managed to find some local cuisine, but the reindeer was really coarse, the mashed potato not much better, and the service off.

Don’t bother with Restaurang Kvarnen.

Stockholm Beers

There were two places that were memorable in terms of quality beer.

Gamla Stan did seem a bit like a busy English night out on the Friday evening and we took refuge in Källarbyn – a beautifully eclectic bar with some absolutely wonderful seating – again I thought I had photographs but apparently not.

Except of a broken unicorn in the disco toilet.

Oh and the IPA was excellent in there – really thick and creamy, but oh so tasty and actually quite affordable. I don’t remember but maybe I paid £6.00 or so, which was a pleasant shock.

On the other extreme of pricing was Omnipollos hatt in Södermalm, which was a proper craft beer bar with multiple types of IPA, etc and a little outdoor seating area which was fun people watching.

I’ll Be Back

As I mentioned in the introduction, I feel like I have to go back to Stockholm.

I do love my multi-city breaks but I think anywhere that has been a European Capital Of Culture probably requires more than two nights stay. Plus there’s a roast dinner there.

And I barely took any photographs – it’s much prettier than I’ve managed to express so far.

Stockholm is an expensive city – we did it fairly cheaply, and managed to get a hotel for around £60 a night, but it was in Kista which is like the Croydon of Sweden, and 30 minutes by metro to the city.

We flew from Helsinki which was quick and cheap – alas the bus to the hotel then took longer, including waiting times. If you can afford to stay nearer the centre, I highly advise it!

I actually thought it was slightly cheaper than Helsinki, beer was anywhere from €6 ish to €13 ish, I had one pricey meal which was around €50, and otherwise ate fairly cheaply. But I’d say overall it is more expensive than London.

I will be going back to finish off what I started. But next time please with some sunshine.