Big day in Stockholm

Big day in Stockholm

Accommodation: Radisson Blu Waterfront Hotel

I had a great night’s sleep last night!  The bed in the hotel was one of the firmer beds I’ve ever slept on, and after having such a sore back for the last few days (I sneezed and pulled a muscle on Tuesday, that’s how I know I’m really getting old), it felt a lot better this morning.  I put on a heating pad anyway just to be safe, and then headed out for the day.

I found a cool little breakfast place on Trip Advisor called Cafe Schweizer.  It was a hipstery place, but they had a good little breakfast menu. I got the “Medium breakfast” which was a boiled egg, a sandwich (I got ham and cheese), a hot chocolate, and a fresh orange juice.  This meal cost 109kr (£9). The sandwich came with a little blue tube that I thought was mayonnaise or mustard. Either of those would have been nice on my sandwich. I opened it up, lathered it on, and took a bite of what ended up being Kalles Kaviar.  The main ingredient is salted cod roe. I was not impressed. Who wants their ham sandwich to taste like salted fish eggs?? Not this guy. I scraped off as much as I could before it seeped into the bread and then at my breakfast. The rest of it was great, but be warned about the Kalles Original.  It is not mayo or mustard.

After breakfast I joined a free walking tour and unfortunately ended up with an English tour guide named Joe.  It’s not his fault I guess, but I wish I had gotten a Swedish guide. We walked all around the city for about two hours.  Saw a lot of old buildings. Took in a lot of information. And got some recommendations on what to do after the tour. One thing that surprised me is that the tour guides don’t take tips by credit card.  I read in numerous places before coming to Stockholm that it is moving toward becoming the world’s first cash-free city, so you don’t even need to exchange money for your trip. I took that advice and had no cash on me, so I asked if he had Square or any other way to take card payments on his phone, he said no.  His loss.

I finished the tour, walked up the road to Hard Rock Cafe and had a small lunch there.  It was good as usual, and it was cool to see how much Abba stuff they have in there. I also liked seeing the Queen stuff now that I know a bit more about them after seeing the movie last year.  I decided to go for a little walk before having something sweet, so I went to a cafe called Pascal, which was recommended by a girl at the hotel. It must be one of the most popular cafes in the city because this place was jammed.  I grabbed an almond pastry (35kr = £3) to go and went up the hill behind the cafe to the observatory and at up there in the sun. This would end up being the only time I saw the sun all day, so the timing was pretty perfect.

I decided to take advantage of the public transport in the city and hopped on the metro from Odenplan down to Slussen.  I had heard about the best view of the city is from this place called Monteliusvagen, and they were right. It’s just a little walkway that goes along the river but from a high enough vantage point that you can see a lot of the city.  I also spotted a fairly deserted area down below on another island that looked like a good drone launch site, so I headed for that.

I was lucky enough to fly the drone and get some good shots of the city before the weather changed.  It got dark really quickly and it started to rain/snow, so I figured this would be a good time to head back to the hotel for a little rest before dinner.

I got a couple of recommendations for dinner places from people at the hotel and headed for the old town in Gamla Stan.  The first restaurant I checked was too fancy for what I like, and they recommended a place that was a bit more casual called Den Gyldene Freden.  This was exactly what I wanted. I got a nice Swedish beer and meatballs again for dinner, and these were even better than last night’s. These were much smaller meatballs than last night’s, but much tastier.  This meal cost exactly the same as last night’s dinner at Vau De Ville (330kr = £27).

I walked back to the hotel in the horrible weather and I am exhausted from all the walking today.  According to Google I walked 20,033 steps which was 8.2 miles. It feels like it. My feet are feeling it now.  Time for bed. Tomorrow I’m off to Gothenburg!

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