T.com on Tour

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This was supposed to be my last weekend in Stockholm, so the usual suspects were planning to come over for a farewell tour... only it turned out to be farewell to Chris and Shankar rather than me! But no matter, Nat, Steve and John booked their flights anyway, even if John did manage to book his to arrive rather than depart at 10am. Muppet 😊 So he turned up at my office around 11.30 at which point I thought it time to go native once again and go for lunch (why do the Swedes eat so early?).

Nat arrived at Central Station around 4, although sadly without Steve who had had to work on Friday after all. But as a bonus, she brought me 2 bottles of Pimms to add to the vodka that John had brought over - don’t you just love friends like these 😊 A quick pitstop at my flat to drop the bags and we were off to the first party of the weekend - the M/S Gerda End of Summer/Drink the bar dry party over on the shores of Kungsholmen. And what a party it was... Nat and I got talking to Bhavik, one of the expat group organisers and found ourselves planning to follow in his footsteps and row the Atlantic! John apparently doesn’t think we’ll do this and so has bet Nat £1000 that we won’t manage it by 2012... I wonder what makes him think that?!

Despite our quick pizza dinner with Chris at 5, we had drunk our fill of Sol by 9.30 (and indeed drunk the bar dry of it!) so we moved on to Lokale, just up the road. Nat was flagging so I employed the fastest cab driver in the west to take her and me back to the flat, I tucked her up in bed, and was back in the bar within 20 minutes! John and I finally got home around 3am... having waited for a non-existent bus for ages first. Oops

Saturday morning was a leisurely affair, started off with a little something sparkling (Solpadeine) and some scrambled eggs. But that set us up nicely for a wander along the Söder Malarstrand in the howling gale and into Gamla Stan where we awaited Steve’s arrival with a large coffee and sunglasses. He finally called from Central Station and I tried to give him detailed instructions on how to get on the subway and get to the right station (one stop away)... I obviously failed as he went in the wrong direction for 2 stops first! Not to worry - I found him in the end and he came bearing gifts of yet more Pimms 😊

The sun was shining so we continued our wander through Gamla Stan and along Strandvägen, ending up at Strandbryggan for a bite to eat and a beer/coke/chocolate milkshake (or so John’s coffee was described). A walk through part of Djurgården, a minor soaking on the ferry across to Slussen and we had completed our tourist circuit. Back to my flat for a fortifying Pimms and shower and then it was off out for our second night on the town. I really am getting too old for this...

Saturday night was Stureplan night - fantastic pre-dinner cocktails at Hotellet (where we had some fun instructing the barman how to make espresso martinis and he had some fun concocting a special “End of Summer” cocktail for us), a very nice dinner at the Bistro Berns (one of the restaurants attached to the Berns Hotel, where I used to stay when working for EMI) and then Anna worked her local magic and got us free entry into the Berns club. Not the best music and some strange clientele (apart from us!), but an OK evening - would have been better if I hadn’t been so dog tired from Friday night! I’d also like to try dinner at Hotellet sometime...

So Sunday morning was another leisurely one, with more sparkling morning drinks (this time just vitamin C as Sweden doesn’t seem to sell soluble aspirin) and more scrambled egg (the bits that weren’t welded to the bottom of my saucepan... thank you John 😊 A subway into Gamla Stan, a leisurely lunch at a cafe on Stortorget and it was all over for my visitors! They headed back to Arlanda and I headed home for an afternoon napping on the sofa... Thanks for the visit guys - really enjoyed it and hope you feel you saw something of the city!!

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Photos

M/S Gerda End of Summer Party - the last Sol in the place
Nat and John

Wheres Steve?
Nat and John

There he is!
Steve, Nat and John

Hotellet cocktails
L-R: Steve, Nat, me, John

Cocktails at Hotellet
Anna and Simon

Bistro Berns
L-R round table: Rachel, Simon, me, Chris, Shankar, Navin, Ladans friend, Ladan, Nat, John and Steve

Dennis finds a new fan
Nat, Dennis and Shankar