Stockholm on Foot

February 17, 2016

📷

Falling asleep so early the night before, we awoke at 3:30 AM the next day. Since there’s not a whole lot to do in Stockholm around this time (and it’s also really cold), we ate our Nutella-To-Go packets and worked on getting our first blog post up before starting the day. This took a bit longer than expected, but after 3 hours of writing and fiddling with WordPress we finally posted our first entry (hooray).Once showered, we got out the door around 7:45 AM and walked along Ringvägen until we intersected with Hornsgatan, the main east-west thoroughfare on the island. Along the way we captured a few interesting buildings in the golden glow of the (relatively) early morning light.

📷Morning light We then turned south back through the Mariatorget, a park with a statue that appeared to be a Norse warrior fighting a grotesque dragon / Loch Ness monster hybrid. Since we couldn’t read Swedish, and my hands were too cold to look it up on my phone, we could only wonder what this statue actually represented. (or we could just look it up right now, but why spoil the mystery?)📷Tulips for sale 📷Loch Ness Dragon Having been up for almost 6 hours, we were getting pretty hungry, so we stopped by the local Coop supermarket and picked up some groceries on our way back. The grand total for the 1 kg of pasta, cheese, salami, eggs, tomato, butter, pesto, and fresh bread came out to under $24 (201 Krona). Not bad for a world class city!When we returned to the apartment, while prepping the food we realized we didn’t know how to turn on the stove. Attempting to turn the burner knobs got the gas flowing, but no flame appeared. Coupled with the fact that we couldn’t find a single match in the entire place made the whole situation even stranger. However, we eventually found one of those extended reach lighters which we were able to use to light the stove. Unfortunately, every time we attempted to let go of the knob that controls the burner, the flame would go out. With some experimenting, we discovered that if we lit the flame, held the knob down long enough (10-15 seconds), and then slowly released, we could get the flame to stay on. At last, we could cook ourselves breakfast!After consuming our over-easy eggs on bread with pesto, cheese, and tomato (a rather odd, but tasty combination I must admit), we embraced postprandial slumber for a short while. Around 10:30 AM we woke up feeling refreshed, bundled up and braved the cold once more.The first stop on our list was Gramla Stan, or old town. We walked a little over 2 kilometers north and arrived at the bridge spanning between Södermalm (the southern island) and Gamla Stan (previously known as Staden mellan broarna, The Town between the Bridges). Below the bridge we could see water gushing towards the Baltic Sea – a reminder that even though Stockholm is pretty far from the open ocean, it still has tides. As we walked along the waterfront we could see a surprsingly large number of museums on the islands across the water. We took some pictures of the boats, icy water, and distant landmarks before venturing into the dense wall of old buildings comprising the border of Gamla Stan.📷Heather by the water 📷City ship 📷Looking smirky Strolling along the narrow cobblestone streets, the colorful buildings nearly arced overhead. As we walked up a steeper section, we noticed another one of those Norse-warrior-fighting-a-Loch-Ness-Dragon statues. Must be a Stockohlm thing. Heading towards the center of Gamla Stan we eventually entered a plaza filled with dozens of children eating lunch on the steps of the Nobel Museum. One look at the sheer number of kids was enough for us to avoid the Nobel Museum for today. Winding our way through the center of Gamla Stan, we passed miniature doors, tiny archways, and far too many Italian restaurants. No wonder Stockholm is often called ‘The Venice of the North’. Although as Heather pointed out, at least Stockholm isn’t sinking into the water.📷Gamla Stan 📷Next to the Nobelmuseet 📷Walking through Gamla Stan 📷So tall Exiting old town via the northern bridge, we came upon the Kungliga Slottet, the Royal Palace. There was a small crowd of people surrounding a regiment of Högvakten, Royal Guards. While the Högvakten were just standing at attention, their colorful outfits were fun to look at as we passed through the Riksdagshuset, the Parliament House. Crossing one more northern bridge, we arrived in Norrmalm.📷Högvakten (Royal guards) 📷Riksdagshuset (Parliament House) If we had to identify the most distinctive part of Norrmalm (central Stockholm) it would be the adundance of places to shop. Between and the major clothing brands, sporting goods, and multitude of different coffee houses and cafes, there is no excuse to avoid partaking in the socialist-approved consumerism. As we passed by a large plaza, we recognized Stockholm Centralstation where we transferred to the metro the previous day. We were glad not to be in the people stream several stories below us.At the eastern edge of Norrmalm we came upon Kungsträdgården, a city park. Children of all ages were ice skating on a taurus-shaped pool at the center of the park while other kids were climbing the large piles of snow that had been cleared from the walkways a few days earlier. At the southern end of the park we gazed up at Molins Fontän as Church bells sounded at the nearby St. Jacobs Kyrka. An idyllic scene indeed.📷Kungsträdgården 📷Heather in Kungsträdgården 📷Molins Fontän 📷St. Jacob Kyrka We pushed eastward through Berzelii Park and continued along the waterfront marina. Beautiful, historic apartment buildings and banks looked out onto the water in the mid-winter afternoon light. After a long straightaway along the waterfront, we crossed over the bridge to the island of Djurgården.📷The waterfront 📷Nordicmuseet on Djurgarden 📷The Blue Gate 📷Heather in the snow Most of Djurgården is either museums or national/city parks. While the island itself is both beautiful and historic, we walked the 7 kilometers from Södermalm to see one very particular museum: the Vasamuseet.For those who are not familiar with the Vasamuseet (Vasa Museum), the entire museum is about one ship: the Vasa. While most museums have a couple of exhibits and a few scaled down replicas of a historical ship, this one had the original ship from 1628, 95% intact (including ornate wood carvings), looming 52.5 meters tall at the center of a very, very large room.📷Vasa 📷Vasa next to replica 📷Stern of the Vasa 📷More Vasa The Vasa first set sail in 1628, but due to its top-heavy design, capsized 1500 meters from its starting location. Most of the crew drowned while the ship was preserved in the silty sea floor for the next 333 years. In 1955 a Navy diver re-discovered the ship and thus began an enormous engineering effort to lift the 1,210 tonne Vasa from sea floor in one piece.For those interested in the incredible engineering feat it took to lift the ship from the sea floor as well as preserve the wood once it was exposed to the air, you can read about in Wikipedia’s entry on the Vasa (ship).📷Raising the Vasa 📷Replacing 5,000 bolts one at a time Hilariously, the only reason we have a ship this old and this well preserved today is due to the complete fail of the Vasa hundreds of years ago. Heather mused about how the creators of the Vasa would feel if they saw its folly on display in a museum today.📷Building the Vasa 📷Vasa yet again! After having our mind blown exploring the Vasamuseet, we decided to treat ourselves to lunch at Eriks Bakficka in Östermalm (the waterfront district). Since it was 2:30 PM, we had the fine-dining restaurant to ourselves. We felt very classy sipping the very tasty Swedish tap water out of our wine glasses. Heather ordered Tagliatelle med vitlöksstekt svamp och äggula: Tagliatelle with garlic fried mushrooms, fried bread, arugula, and an egg yolk sitting inside a perfect half of an eggshell. I ordered Meunièrerstekt spätta Grenoble: meunière-fried plaice with beets, capers, and pearled potatoes. We finished our meal with Varma hjortron med vaniljglass, warm cloudberries with vanilla ice cream. All the dishes were incredibly delicious and we contentedly made our way back to Stockholm centralstation, took the tunnelbana (metro) back to the apartment, and promptly passed out around 5 PM.📷Eriks Bakficka 📷Pasta! 📷Fish! 📷Cloudberries! 📷Obligatory selfie Addendum: map of where we walked:📷