Stockholm - March 2016

At the end of March, I made a very brief visit to Stockholm, Sweden on my way home to the UK.  I flew Norwegian Air for the first time - they recently started direct flights from Oakland to Stockholm and Oslo and they are significantly cheaper than the other airlines flying direct to Europe.

The flight was great - a new aircraft, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.  It was the first time I had flown one and I must say I liked it very much.  It is quiet, has great lighting that adjusts according to the stage of the flight, and it allows for higher pressurization and more moist air which seem to make the whole flight more pleasant.

Hotel Radisson - Nybrokaijen

Landing in Arlanda I took the express train into the city center - very clean, very efficient, very fast (as most things are in Sweden - except the fast bit, Volvo’s aren’t particularly fast).  I had found a good deal at the Radisson Blu on the waterfront (on Nybrokaijen) and it was just a short walk from the Central Station.  The nice thing about these older hotels in European cities is that they have single rooms which while pretty small are sometimes pretty cheap and are just perfect for solo traveling.  

This was my 4th time to visit Stockholm (previously hitchhiking through Europe in 1970, on the way back from work in Gotland in 1974, the Stockholm Marathon in 2006) and I don’t think I had ever visited the old part of town Gamla Stan so my first priority was to check that out.  It was a nice walk over to Gamla Stan along the waterside and past the impressive Royal Palace and the statue of Gustav III.  

The Royal Palace

The cobbled streets and buildings in the old town date from the 17th and 18th centuries and, as can be expected, the whole area has been gentrified and antique dealers, art galleries and expensive clothes shops abound.  The guide book mentions the tiniest of statues, the Iron Boy, in a small courtyard a short distance away from the Royal Palace - it is about 6 in high and adorned with a knitted hat to keep its head warm in the winter time - different at least.

The Smallest Statue

There’s an impressive statue of St George slaying the dragon in Kopmantorget.  

St George

Then at the other end of the street is Stortorget the oldest square in Stockholm.  Very picturesque and photogenic.  

Stortorget

The square contains the old Stock Exchange which is now the home of the Nobel Museum.  Low and behold, the museum is free on Tuesday’s after 5:00 pm and it was just 5:00 pm on the Tuesday when I landed outside the museum.  At first sight it perhaps wasn’t the most exciting of museums but I took the tour and the tour guide was most entertaining and informative.  Interesting facts I learned:

• Nobel did not spend much time in Sweden.  He was just born there.
• The Peace Prize is the sole prize presented in Oslo because Nobel wanted to promote cooperation between the Scandinavian countries.
• There is no Nobel Prize in Economics - that is the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics, a different thing, created in the 1960’s long after Nobel died.
• Hitler and Stalin (twice) were both nominated for Nobel Peace Prizes.

Street in Gamla Stan

After the Nobel Museum, I continued to wander around Gamla Stan taking in the views of Kungsholmen with its fine City Hall and the more bohemian and artsy Sodermalm.  I retired to the hotel for a fine meal of Swedish Meatballs (even better than IKEA’s) and a well earned rest.

Next morning, after the always very fine Scandinavian Hotel breakfast buffet, I took off to walk around the more modern part of town.  Not nearly as interesting as the old town but typically neat and clean and tidy.  In one of the parks there was the last remaining bank of leftover snow. It was still cool, but spring was on the way.  After not being terribly inspired by the modern architecture, I ventured into the Metro system to check out what is reported to be the longest art exhibit in the world - a series of artist-decorated stations.  The Metro itself is fine - clean, efficient, frequent trains, etc, but the so-called artwork was not very impressive.  I don’t know what I was expecting - something on the lines of the Moscow Subway perhaps, but this was pretty basic painting of the walls with the odd bit of fairly crude artwork.  Not all stations are decorated and the ones that did and that I saw were pretty underwhelming.  

Subway Art

Subway Art

Subway Art

After the subway ride, I walked over to the Modern Art Museum on Skeppsholmen (another island joined by a bridge to the main city).  A nice collection with all the usual suspects - Picasso, Dali, Munch, Duchamp.  Well worth the visit and the restaurant was quite fine and affordable, something you can’t say about too many places in Stockholm.

The Nordic Museum

Following lunch I set off for the Nordic Museum which is on the island of Djurgarden.  It was a lovely walk over there alongside the water and past some magnificent old homes - on Strandvagen.  The Nordic Museum is a most impressive building, more impressive on the outside than the museum’s contents in some ways.  Not to take away anything from the museum’s contents which are indeed a fine collection of items depicting Swedish life over the last 500 years.

A little further out of town from the Nordic Museum is the ABBA Museum and the Scandinavian Music Hall of Fame.  I didn’t go in, but I did find it remarkable that there should even be an ABBA Museum yet alone a Scandinavian Music Hall of Fame (who else is there?).  It didn’t look a very large museum, as you might expect.

By now it was late afternoon, so I headed back towards the old town and walked around this wonderful area one more time.  The guards were changing at the Royal Palace so there was a little bit of ceremony to observe.  

Kayakers in the City Center

There is a stretch of water next to the Royal Palace where the water flows quite fast and there are some rapids there.  Kayakers were playing around in this section of water - it looked great fun, though perhaps mightily cold if you capsized.  I finished the evening with another fine dish of Swedish Meatballs.

The City Hall

The next day, I had a mid-day flight from Stockholm to Heathrow so there was only time for a brief walk around town before leaving.  I walked over to the City Hall on Kungsholmen.  It was was overrun by Chinese or Korean tourists - all male and all taking photos galore.  The City hall is where the Nobel Prize Awards Banquet is held.  Then it was back to the hotel and off to the Central Station and the express ride out to Arlanda airport.

Here are some more photographs.