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Stockholm
By Marianne Gray
Photos By Madi Gray
It is a city of grand buildings
with soaring windows (to catch
the light) on tree-lined
boulevards. Squeezed between
north and south islands is
Gamla Stan, the ancient old
town, with narrow cobblestone
streets and ochre and amber-
coloured buildings going back
to the 13th Century.
M
any people, when you
mention Stockholm,
think Abba or IKEA or
possibly the Nobel Prize,
Vikings or filmmaker Ingmar
Bergman.
A fascinating and elegant port
on the Baltic Sea, it is the
capital of Sweden. Greta Garbo
was born there and became a
catalogue model in PUB
department store, their
equivalent of Harrods. At
roughly the same time Lenin,
on his way from exile in
Switzerland to (then) Petrograd
to change Russia’s politics
forever, stopped in at PUB for
some new clothes. In 1990, a
large party of released Robben
island politicians arrived from
South Africa for their first
international meeting in
Stockholm.
It is that sort of interestingly
‘open’ place. A long way from
anywhere, it has dazzlingly long
sunny days in summer and
eternally grey low skylines,
winter darkness and snow up
to ‘here’.
Built where Lake Malaren flows
into the Baltic Sea, the
archipelago covers pockets and
strips of 14 green, often
forested, islands, some with
Very touristic in season, it still
has its spice-and-saffron
charm and the Royal Palace.
(Sweden is a constitutional
monarchy and the king is Carl
XVI Gustav.) Beware of the
Royal Guard marching up
those tiny streets. I was quietly
taking an interesting photo
when the Royal Guard stormed
up and whacked me firmly on
the bum with a sword as they
careened past in full gear.
Could have been worse, I
suppose. It’s a pity I didn’t
take THAT picture!
The locals seem a quiet lot,
tanned, tall, “fitting in” the
Swedish way, cycling in town,
jogging around the islands or
doing their thing in their pretty
painted little summer houses
on elegant allotment plots.
beaches, linked by 57 bridges.
Ferries and sightseeing boats
shuttle passengers along
canals between the islands and
when the lake freezes over
people skate or walk across it.
It’s an expensive place to
live and eating out is pricy but
all the restaurants and cafes
seem packed with locals so
they must be doing alright. The
oldest restaurant in Old Town is
Den Gyldene Freden dating
back to 1722
(www.gyldenefreden.se) and
the most panoramic is
Gondolen, suspended above
10
THE LONDON & UK DATEBOOK
the harbour (www.eriks.se).
Both have fabulous food but
take an empty credit card!
I reckon it’s a perfect place for
a long weekend break. The
flight from London is under
three hours. There’s a train and
bus into town and stacks of
taxis driven by men dressed like
courtiers from some forgotten
royal kingdom.
When first there, take a hop-on
hop-off red bus to get the feel
of the place and a boat trip
under the bridges to familiarise
yourself with the islands. There
are loads of great museums
and galleries and the Tivoli
Grona Lund funfair is
something else. If you go
for a ride on the very big
wheel, you may as well drop
into the neighbouring Abba
Museum and have a boogie
to their music on the
museum’s dance floor.