Storyline: Scandinavia
Fri, June 6
Stockholm, the largest Scandinavian city and the first stop for our trip, is stunningly charming. Spread across 14 islands
connected by more than 50 bridges, it is a mixture old and modern architecture,
settled pallet of colours ranging from white to yellow, ochre, beige, brown and green, that stand against the grey-blue and often angry sky with winds blowing our hats off. Especially near the water, of which they have a lot!
History effortlessly blends with contemporary urban life. Green spaces, parks,
streets lined with pink flowering chestnuts, linden trees, tall pink spiraea in newer districts,
contrast the ochre-coloured buildings and cobble-stoned narrow streets in the old town Gamla Stan.
The city is dappled with beautiful, but modest churches, museums (boy do they have museums!), castles and contemporary simplicity. The capital of Sweden is spread on an extensive Baltic Sea archipelago, with a population of just under a million.
We observe this in early June when the sun sets for only a few hours, but I can imagine these soft colours contrasting the snow-covered streets, simple buildings standing up to the howling winds of the winter and its short dark days.
And for my generation Stockholm is the city of ABBA. For those who are old enough to have enjoyed the music of one of the most successful and popular group of all time, Stockholm is the birth city of the group. I grew up in Europe. I was a university student in my twenties when I first heard their music. They were not much older than me. Loved their music then, and love it now. Their stories were the stories of our lives too. There was innocence, love, joy, marriage (Agnetha and Bjorn, Anni-Frid and Benny— we watched their weddings on TV), betrayal, and separation. And eventually the group broke up ten years after it was formed. Their music reflected all their journey. From innocent and joyful, the lyrics became more mature and then darker. It was too close to my own life.
Yesterday while we were walking up the streets there were many young people in big trucks waving flags and chanting. Apparently, it was their high school graduation.
After dropping our bags in the hotel, we went to find a place to eat. The big numbers of their currency Krona (Crowns), are very confusing. I use the calculator to approximate to Canadian dollars. After checking some seafood restaurant prices, we concluded that these were not for our budget. We finally settled for a pub. The tables were very close to each other.
Since it was early we sat by the window and ordered an appetizer – steak tartare that came with fries and a main dish translated as char with trout roe and pressed potatoes. The latter unfortunately came deep fried.
We were in a pub after all. And a beer for Alex. I liked it so there were two after all. Water and bread come with the orders. For the prices it had, they better be free! I had to ask since in many European countries one pays for water and often bread. Not in Scandinavia. But despite my calculator and Alex’s reassuring that prices are OK, I got the sticker shock once I saw the amount in CAD on the credit card. Well, we won’t be eating out much.
The buffet breakfast in the hotel the next morning was beyond belief. We’ve been to many places around the world. But the variety and the freshness of the food in this buffet were beyond any other buffet we’ve been to. During the week, we took a long time sampling many of the offerings, but it was simply impossible to try them all. That was good news given the prices outside. We’d have to buy some wine and snacks for the evening, once we discovered where to buy it. There was a grocery store next door, but no alcohol. They only sell it in a special liquor store. A polite lady at the hotel’s reception wrote down the name of the store we had to look for. It was very close to the hotel, but it was closed. It might be open on Saturday, they didn’t know, but for sure it is closed on Sunday.
After our first long breakfast we were ready to explore the city a bit. It was quiet in our area. We learned that today, June 6th, was the National Day of Sweden. Once close to the centre we saw many people carrying small flags. Prior to 1983 this day was celebrated as the Swedish Flag Day. It is in honour of two events happening on the same day: Gustav Vasa being elected king (June 6, 1523) and the adoption of a new constitution (June 6, 1809).
This is only day two and we are jetlagged (especially Alex), so if we manage to reach and walk in the old city Gamla Stan, a relatively small island south of the train station, and then hike uphill to the hotel it will be an achievement. We actually managed more than this. At the end of the day, we had 13km and sore feet.
We walked to the train station, through some beautiful gardens, stopped by a few monuments, then crossed a bridge to the City Hall.
Many people walked around the City Hall proudly carrying small Swedish flags. They all looked involved in the celebrations and activities around. Families with little kids, old and young, buskers playing and some rock bands we missed.
We crossed Gamla Stan and walked to Slussen,
back to Gamla Stan to find the Mårten Trotzigs gränd,
the narrowest street in Stockholm, then by the Royal Palace,
onto the pedestrian bridge, by the Parliament House and back to the train station. Notice that we didn’t stop at any café or pub for bio-break.
Well, we knew a place in the train station where they’d let us in for free. If you’ve read the previous post, it was the waiting room for the Arlanda Express airport train. It was adjacent to the central train station and we’d use it a few more times.
Sat June 7
After our sumptuous breakfast we headed again towards the water, aiming for Djurgården, an island full of museums, greenery and amusement parks. The Vasa Museum is high on our list. We took a street that would lead us to the liquor store, checked it out – there were some good Australian and French wines that had comparable prices to those back home – then continued on.
Passed by a street that seemed to have a tunnel. We’ll check this another day. A little bit more and we realized that jet lag is catching up to us. Besides we had walked about 13km yesterday. Even if we reached the island, we wouldn’t have the energy to visit a museum or two.
Will do this on Sunday. Back to the liquor store. One didn’t even need to look for it on the map. Just follow the people coming out with a bottle in hand. Armed with 3 (small, 375 ml) bottles we also visited the grocery store next to the hotel. A container of peaches for me, some cookies for Alex and munchies to go with the wine for dinner. Still, we had walked about 10km.
Sun June 8
I had a big itinerary for today. Have I mentioned the days here a long and it doesn’t get quite dark at night at 59.33° north. So, we had time. My idea was to first walk to the Vasa Museum, then to Skansen, an open-air museum with antique houses, then walk by ABBA museum (don’t have to visit it)
and take a ferry to a smaller island Skeppsholmen, visit a castle there, walk on a bridge to the mainland passing by the National Museum. Stockholm is a city of museums. There were more than 100 listed in a brochure we picked up at the hotel. And we passed by some that were not in that brochure.
Things of course didn’t go to that plan. Walking down the street where we had seen the tunnel on a perpendicular street, we decided to walk through it.
At the other end we found ourselves in somewhat richer area with all the expensive stores similar to Toronto’s Bloor Street.
Reaching the water, we walked on a lovely boardwalk all the way to Djurgårdsbron bridge,
where we stumbled into a couple from Ottawa. After chatting and exchanging some ideas we finally were in front of Vasa Museum (Vasamuseet).
This is one of the most if not the most visited museum in Scandinavia. It displays the almost intact 17th century 64-gun warship that sank on her maiden voyage. Not even a mile from its launch it capsized. It lasted about 20 minutes.
Finished in 1628 it was the biggest warship at the time. Embellished with hundreds of wooden sculptures, it is surprisingly well preserved and unique. The craftsmanship, the carpentry, the size of this ship is beyond belief.
Vasa means sheaf of grain in old Swedish and it was the coat of arms of the Vasa dynasty. King Gustavus Adolphus commissioned the ship. He was a member of the Vasa dynasty. After 333 years in the dark, the ship was raised in 1961 and was then treated with special chemicals so that it wouldn’t decay. The museum was opened 1990.
After walking for a long time in the museum we headed towards Skansen. We however approached it from the wrong side.
While returning we saw a restaurant featuring Hasselback potatoes. And that was that.
We sat at a table by the window facing beautiful gardens, ordered a portion to share and a glass of wine each and enjoyed the remains of the afternoon.
We then took a different route home, exploring the city. Walked by the statue of Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish businessman and diplomat, who saved thousands of Jews in German-occupied Hungary. He later was disappeared by the Russians.
Many cities have streets with hanging umbrellas. Stockholm has sails. Makes sense. Close to the hotel we stop to try the beer of a local brewery. After a beer each, sharing a small basket of fries we called it a day.
Next day was to relax and do some laundry, at least the clothes we arrived with after a long flight. There was a service near the hotel which did the job. We then walked towards the centre, found some shopping areas. We needed some cheap glasses for our wine aboard the trains. Ended up with a package of 4 acrylic ones that served us well and I’ll keep for future travels. I even bought a Swedish shirt. Still surprisingly walked over 11km, just 2 km short of the previous day.
An interesting observation – buildings here are not tall and we saw that many downspouts had electric heating wires inside to avoid ice dams in winter.
We leave on July 10 and all we can say is we love Stockholm. We’d go there again in a heartbeat. And I’ve bought some lottery tickets in the forlorn hope of funding a revisit – A.) It is a stunningly beautiful city so well integrated with nature.
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