Out and about in Stockholm

12 May 2022.

After a leisurely and rather sumptuous breakfast the four of us left the hotel for the day. It was a beautiful morning, sunny and crispy cool, a great day for strolling.  We walked across the bridge from our neighborhood to the island of Gamla Stan, the old town of Stockholm. There is a great deal of construction in our area as a result of the rebuilding of the Slussen locks that connect the Baltic Sea with the freshwater Lake Mälaren. (Our hotel actually fronts the lake and not a river as I originally thought.)

strolling across the locks

along the quay

pickleball court?

this appeared to be some dining cruise ship

Our immediate goal as we walked the waterfront was to find a Tourist Information office. However, the maps we had were rather unclear on this point and although the quayside was interesting in a nautical sort of way the only TI kiosks we came across were the hop-on/hop-off hawkers selling tickets to their boats and busses.

Directly across from us was the larger imposing royal palace and it was decided to go up into old town proper in search of a TI office that appeared on one of our maps. So we began by skirting the palace and walking uphill.

As we walked past one of the more unassuming entrances to the Royal Palace we caught a glimpse of this fellow doing his thing:

Still on the hunt for the TI office we soon found ourselves meandering down a warren of narrow alleys, past funky shops all the while dodging the uneven cobblestones.

there was actually a Swedish version of an old Parian staple, the pissoir

Just off one of the small squares a woman cleaning the street in front of her shop kindly asked us if we needed help. We asked for the location of the TI office since it was reported to be quite nearby. "Oh, yes," she said, "but it closed at the beginning of the pandemic and never reopened."

Well, since part of the reason we wanted the TI office was to inquire about public transport tickets. and since there was a metro station quite close by (the Gamla Stan stop on line 12), off we went.

waffles in the window

like the philosophy of "walk in dance out"

Along the way to the metro station we passed this statue to Ernest Taube. No idea who he is or was but oddly enough later in the trip we would see a rather large boat with his name on it. 

statue of Ernest Taube

small fresh produce stand near the entrance to the metro

There was an attendant working the service desk in the metro station. We assumed this would be a fairly straightforward process of getting four 72-hour transport passes (with senior discount). We were wrong. Apparently the system in place in this particular location was brand-new and the poor woman seemed quite flummoxed by it all. But we (and she) persevered and we soon headed out and down to the ferry with our brand new senior transport passes in hand.

Once at the ferry dock, which is not far from our hotel as it turns out, we boarded the no. 82 ferry for Djurgården. This is a rather large island in central Stockholm, a quick 10-minute ferry ride from the old town and home to the Vasa and ABBA museums, large parks, the Skansen open-air museum and Grona Lund amusement park (a scaled down version of Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen).

 

on another island we passed was one construction company's idea of a creative crane

the Grona Lund amusement park is right next to the ferry landing

the landing on Djurgården

Contrary to the expectations of many, the four us opted to skip the ABBA museum and direct our focus on the Vasa ship museum. I'll cut right to the chase here: this was one of the most fantastic museums Susie and I have ever visited; it ranks right up with Roskilde Cathedral on this trip, that's for sure.

The plot in a nutshell is this: On 10 August 1628 the brand-new Swedish warship Vasa was just one hour into its maiden voyage when it simply keeled over and sank. The wreck fell into obscurity until the 1950s when it was relocated and eventually salvaged, most of it intact. That process alone was a fantastic story. 

But walking into the museum hall -- some 7 levels designed to allow close-up observation of various elements of the ship -- the casual traveler is no long casual but fully engaged with this enormous chunk of history. For more information about this incredible exhibition visit the museum website and for background see Wikipedia.

I've included many photos of the ship so feel free to skip over. You won't hurt my feelings but I can't speak for those men and women who went down with that ship. . . 

strolling to the Vasa Museum

scale model of what the ship looked like when launched

reproductions of the how the sterncastle sculptures probably looked

the two remaining cannon - the others were salvaged in the 1650s

Leaving the museum we made our way to what we thought was a tram stop and learned it had been (temporarily) replaced by a bus. No matter we boarded anyway and took it for a short tour of this part of the island. After a short bus ride we returned to the ferry landing and this time took the no. 82 to Nybroplan, just a short distance away in another part of the city. We did this with no plan in mind but simply because the ferry was going somewhere other than from where we had come.

The ferry landing at Nybroplan put us into a wild mix of various modes of transport going every which way all skirting a lovely small park just across from the quay. A short block or two walk and we found a cafe to have coffee and a snack.

From the cafe we made our way back to the vicinity of the landing and strolled along the edge of the lovely park. Ostensibly named for a man named Berzelli -- his bust was nicely placed in the center -- we came across a memorial to Raoul Wallenberg.

An architect who graduated from the University of Michigan in 1935, Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat in Budapest during WWII and responsible for saving thousands of Hungarian Jews during the Second World War. In 1945 he fell into the hands of Soviet intelligence and disappeared. He was never seen or heard from again.

From Nybroplan we made our way on foot back to the hotel for a much-needed break before dinner.

For dinner we opted to let our senses determine where we might stop to eat. Since there were quite a few eateries near our hotel we just decided to stroll and see what struck our fancy.

After 20 or 30 minutes passing quite a few places, none of which interested us, Susie spied a restaurant at the far corner of a large square. Walking past a variety of outdoor eateries with music blaring and patio heaters ablaze we entered this incredibly warm, quiet and peaceful place. It is called Waipo, which apparently means grandmother in Chinese.

The food was nothing short of superb and the service equally so. Pauline and I each had the Gong-bao chicken while Susie and Richard each had caramelized pork flank with vegetables.

walking to dinner I couldn't resist this

we walked from left to right

pork with vegetables

Gong-bao chicken

For dessert Susie had the crème brulé with mango sorbet, Pauline a blueberry cheesecake and Richard fried banana with vanilla ice cream.

Feeling sated and ready for bed we walked across the square, got onto the metro and took it to the Slussen stop and a short walk into the hotel.

Tomorrow it's back to Djurgården Island and the Skansen open-air museum. We also hope to take an extended commuter ferry ride around part of the archipelago so stay tuned!