Hello, my handle relates to my car but I forgot the 'B', it should be MGB Mki BRG.
Hello, my handle relates to my car but I forgot the 'B', it should be MGB Mki BRG.
Member since:11.11.2003
Reviews:7
I went to Stockholm in the last weekend of January 2005, here are my thoughts.
We arrived at the main Arlanda airport which is modern, clean and eerily quiet and sailed through passport control. Within 15 minutes of landing we'd picked up our bags and were waiting for the Arlanda express into the city.
At £15, this train is pricey but it's about the same as the Heathrow express. You can take a bus at half the price and twice the time or take a taxi and spend the best part of £50.
The trains run every 15 minutes or so, are very clean and comfy (there are video screens showing the latest news) and within 20 minutes you are in the centre of town (unlike the Heathrow Express which leaves you stranded a taxi/tube ride away from anywhere).
We stayed at the Nordic Light hotel - a designer type affair (think Schraeger) located in the office block outside the Arlanda terminal. The nice thing about it is that each room has a unique lighting feature (instead of a tacky print) which from the outside means that all the
hotel rooms are lit up in different colours and patterns. The other good thing is that it is directly opposite the Maritime themed Nordic Sea hotel which is the location of the Ice Bar.
The hotel is in Normalm which is 'down town'. The central feature of which is a 2 KM long pedestrian street with lots of shops called Drottningatan. The nice thing is that there are very few chains. No Gap! Mostly local names. There is a huge underground shopping mall right beneath the Cultural Centre (where you'll also find the tourist office) which you can't miss because of a huge abstract sculpture which must be 25 mts high that looks like it's made of ice when its lit up.
You can access Stockholms best department store NK from the underground mall or you can enter direct from ground level by looking for the illuminated revolving NK logo that can be seen from almost any point in the city. It's like Selfridges and is worth a look, if only for the food hall.
But the best shopping to be had in town is in the homeware shops which just have an amazing range of well-designed stuff. Most of it is too big or expensive to consider taking home (beds, giant lampshades) but it's great for inspiration if you're furnishing a house, for window shopping and of course for the odd little well-designed trinket (I saw a windscreen ice scraper which had a handle that was encased in a fur pouch so you could de-ice the car and keep your hand warm - yes, I know, a glove would also work but design can be fun as well as practical).
At the end of Drottningatan, you'll cross onto a small island called Helgeandsholmen and then into Gamla Stan - which means 'Old Town'. Untouched by the war, it's one of the best looking medaeval old towns left in Europe. Sure, there's the odd shop selling viking helmets but mostly, it's pretty tasteful stuff. The main street is called Vasterlanggatan but make sure you explore all the little lanes around it.
In the middle of Gamla Stan you'll find the main square Stortorget which has the Nobel Museum, a number of cafes and lots of picturesque colorful gabled buildings. In the corner of one of them, if you look closely, theres a canonball lodged in the wall. Reputedly its one fired at the Danish King in the 'Stortorget bloodbath' in the 1600s, it was actually put there as a joke a few years later and has been there ever since. Also in Gamla is the Royal palace complete with a guard changing ceremony every day.
And of course, there's the cafes. If 50% of shops in Stockholm are designer homeware places, then the other 50% are cafes. And in Gamla Stan, that's got to be more like 80%. The best one we found was the Konditorai that is reputedly the oldest in the city and is found in the little square at the bottom of Vasterlanggattan. We had a Lax (Salmon) Bagel and tea from a big Samovar in the middle of the room. Chandeliers and paintings of long dead Swedish Kings & Queens adorn the room.
We had an expensive meal in Gamla at a place called the Gylden Freden (Osterlanggatan 51) . Its a restaurant dating back to 1722 with the no smoking part deep in the cellars. The food is a cross between French and traditional Swedish. I had a lovely reindeer ragout with the best mash potato I've ever had and a great side order of tasty veg.
On the other side of Gamla is Sodemalm, more of an artsy part of town, it's got a good buzz and some is slightly cheaper than other parts of town. You can walk there quite easily from Normalm and Gamla or you can take a tube to Slussen or Medborgplatsen which are at either end of Gottgatan, the main street. Alternatively, you can take a tube to Zinkensdam and walk the half mile down to Gottgatan and stop of in some of the interesting shops on the way.
Make sure you go to Morsebacke square, just to the North of Gottgattan. You have a great view of the city from the square itself or you can walk out onto this walkway that gives even better views (the walkway is actually the roof of the Gondolen Panoramic restaurant); look for signs to the Katerinahiss.
Also on the square is a great jazz cafe in the old theatre there. You can have a cup of capucino or a beer of a brunch and chill out.
Other facts:
The main tube station is Centralen. Tubes are identified by a big T sign. It costs about £2.50 for a single.
The weather in Jan was cold but if you wrap up warm - thermal base layer, micro fleece, warm anorak, hate, gloves, scard & strong shoes/boots - it's fine; in fact, there's plenty of blue sky and sun and the paements are well gritted so you won't be sliding all over the place.
The place is hyper efficient - if you press the buttons at the pedestrian crossings, the lights change immediately for you! There is no litter, everything is well-designed and works (although there are never enough toilets in the restaurants)
Don't even bother asking if people speak English - they'll be offended - everyone is fluent.
Yes it's expensive but not prohibitively so - about what you'd pay around Leicester Square and Covent Garden. Cocktails around £8/9, coffee £2.50, beer £3/4 a glass of house wine £6, sandwich £5, lasagna £6/7. Starters £10-15, Main courses anything from £15-30 pounds.
The Ice bar is in the Nordic Sea hotel, outside the Arlanda express terminal. Very touristy but, until one comes to your home town, a must. Before 9 you can book, after you just turn up. You get half an hour inside (the bar holds around 25 people) and you then get asked to leave. You get a parker and mits and a cocktail served in a glass made of ice. Funily enough, in January it's warmer in the bar (-5) than it is outside (-7). The tropical feeling helped by the Bob Marley Cd they play on a loop.
Vasamuseert - Already mentioned in other reviews here, the Vasa Museum displays a 1600s warship that sank on its maiden voyage and was raised in the 1960s. Its a fantastic place and deserves at least 2 hours of anyones time.
One other thing, I heard a rumour that you can take a normal train to Arlanda at a quarter the cost of the shuttle and it only adds 5 minutes to the journey. Apparantly, you buy a ticket for the station AFTER Arlanda but get off early so avoiding the hefty airport surcharge. It's not strictly allowed but no-one checks.
All in all - highly recommended.
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Advantages: great views, excellent breakfast, clean friendly top class hotel, great location Disadvantages: Can be a little busy, if that's really that bad!
Feb 2nd, 2005
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