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Published: September 20th 2008
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The Royal Palace
Side view of the Royal Palace It was a very full flight from London Heathrow to Stockholm on British Airways. I was excited to have the opportunity to visit another country for the first time and learn another culture. The girl at Passport Control was very nice and asked me my purpose for coming to Stockholm. “Spending the weekend away from London” was my answer. Yes, I could have spent the weekend in London but Sweden was a more economical choice. She looked at my thick passport and asked if I have ever been to Sweden before. I assured her this was my very first trip and she stamped my passport and finished by saying “enjoy your stay in Stockholm”.
There was only one ATM machine outside of Customs and there was a long line. I stood in line while Po checked for other ATM machines. None found! In the meantime, I chatted with the guy standing in front of me and found out that the airport is about 45 minutes away by car from Stockholm. We checked the cost for taking the train and the bus to Stockholm. But we figured out that it was still cheaper and more convenient for the three of us
to take a taxi. Unfortunately, we got stuck in Friday afternoon rush hour traffic on our way to the hotel.
This gave me the chance to learn about Stockholm from the taxi driver. He said that 95% of Swedes speak English. Stockholm itself is made up of fourteen islands (over 20,000 islands in Sweden) linked by bridges, with a population of about 2 million (population of Sweden is 9 million). I also learned how to say “thank you” from the driver (sounded like “tak so mi ket”). He also offered to be our driver during our stay in Stockholm which I politely declined. It was expensive enough to take a taxi from the airport to the hotel. I could only imagine the cost of hiring a taxi for the day. After almost an hour, we finally arrived at our hotel in downtown Stockholm.
We checked in real quick and within 15 minutes, we were out the door and heading across the bridge to Gamla Stan - Stockholm's historic old town. We saw a bunch of tourists heading the same direction. And I thought we were past the busy tourist season already.
It was easy to find Gamla
Stortorget
Oldest square in Stockholm Stan - just look for cobblestone streets where cars are not allowed to get in. Or simply follow the crowd. Before long, we were staring at the Royal Palace which was built in the 1700’s. This is the official residence of the king and the location for most royal ceremonies. We were told though that the Swedish royal family has not lived in the Royal Palace since 1981.
We continued exploring Gamla Stan and arrived at Stortorget which is the oldest square in Stockholm - and certainly very pretty. The square was lined with bars and cafés on one side, the Nobel museum on another side and a beautiful well in the middle. This seems to be a main gathering place with flowers and benches in the middle of the square. Very old and very European! Gamla Stan itself - similar to other old towns - are lined with restaurants, souvenir shops, galleries and bars. The buildings are old but very well maintained. The main streets were rather full with tourists, street artists and musicians from all over the world .. but they were noticeably clean.
We came out on the eastern side of Gamla Stan where the
Sunset in Stockhom
Grand Hotel and National Museum in the background statue of Konung Gustaf was at. The sun was setting and we had a great view of Grand Hotel and National Museum on the other side of the water. To our right, we could see a number of cruise ships ready to sail. We continued walking south on Skeppsbrokajen as the sky turned orange and the temperature started to drop.
By then, we were all getting hungry and even though it was not even 7:00pm yet, we decided to look for a restaurant. We went back into the main cobblestoned street called Vasterlanggatan and started checking out the menu placed outside the restaurants. I suggested going back to Stortorget and sadly discovered that most of the places serve bar food only. There was one restaurant but it was too pricey.
As we walked away from Stortorget, we came across a small street and found a single restaurant. We checked the menu and we all liked it. It was a very small cozy restaurant called Kryp In. I highly recommend this to any visitors to Gamla Stan. A small kitchen was located at the entrance and there were 2 small rooms to the right that could probably seat a
Konung Gustaf
Royal Palace in the background total of 25-30 guests. There were 2 waitresses who never stopped working and yet managed to help everyone (the restaurant was pretty full). There was only one chef in the open kitchen - the kitchen was not big enough for a second person anyhow. He was able to keep up with all the orders and I witnessed him preparing everyone’s dinners and starters. I ordered perch fillet as my main course and it was absolutely fantastic. Highly recommended! Word of caution though - meals in Stockholm are expensive.
When we finished dinner, all the stores were closed already and the main street at Gamla Stan was pretty empty. It was getting chilly also. It was past 9:00pm and we just walked back to the hotel. We had a small introductory taste of Gamla Stan - we will explore more tomorrow.
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