Short stay in Stockholm - Arrival and Day 1

We flew to Stockholm with British Airways from Heathrow T5. We managed to get ourselves onto the flybussarna into City Terminal, then negotiated a travelcard for our stay with a very helpful woman who directed us to the Tunnelbana. This gives us travel on the bus, the Tbana and most ferries for our stay. Now we took the Tbana to Mariatorget where our hotel is situated. Hotel Rival is owned by Benny Andersson of ABBA fame. The hotel was founded as a cinema in 1932 and had fallen into disrepair. Benny Andersson has renovated the building, preserving the cinema for conferences etc. and has made about 90 rooms over 7 floors. We are in a normal room on the fourth floor with a courtyard view. We were welcomed into our room by a beautiful teddy bear which sits on one of the designer chairs. We decided to grab a quick beer in the bar, discovering the unique carpets on each landing as we walked down the spiral staircase. The bar is everything - restaurant, breakfast venue as well as bar. It has a very modern but retro feel and looks out onto a (at the moment) very snowy square. Most diners were finishing, and the drinkers were few as it was getting on for ten thirty. Soon we made our way upstairs for tea from the tea/coffee machine on our landing. Then we were ready to test the comfy-looking beds. This proved correct and we were soon asleep.

The alarm went at eight and we crowded into the dinky shower room for shave and showers. Last night we had closed the blind against the window into the bedroom for the sake of decency! Once again we set off down the spiral stairs to the breakfast room. It was pretty busy, but we found a table and had cereal, fruit, creamy yogurt and bakery things - plenty to satisfy us without venturing into the cooked menu.Eventually ready to go, we headed out towards the ferry terminal. The snow from Sunday is still lying, as the temperatures are barely above freezing. We picked our way along partially cleared pavements that have been gritted, and soon arrived at the docks. The travelcard also covers the ferry, so we could walk through to join the people already waiting. The ferry arrived shortly - they go about every fifteen minutes, and we were soon chugging along to the island called Djurgården. We stopped first at Skeppsholmen. When we got off at our stop, we walked along to the unusual building that is the Vasamuseet.

This is just stunning. As you walk in the Vasa is there in front of you, towering up into the high roof of the building. We spent a few minutes just looking at it, finding ourselves by the post where the English tour starts; but we had read there was an English film to see about the whole history of the Vasa, so we made our way to the information desk. The English surtitled film would start shortly, so we entered the auditorium to see that first. Then we joined the English tour all of which gave us a good insight into the Vasa, which only managed to stay afloat for less then 30 minutes! Apparently they miscalculated the amount of ballast required for a ship with so much superstructure. It would have been a stunning addition to the King’s fleet – but it was not to be. We then decided it was coffee time, before we spent ages taking photographs and reading more about this beautiful but ill fated ship. It was about three o'clock before we were making our way to the exit.

We walked back to the ferry and took it across to Skeppsholmen. From here we made a walk along the quay where the historic boats are moored eventually arriving at the bridge across to the main land. We took the next bridge across to Gamla Stan and spent a couple of hours wandering the old city streets, looking at some of the delightful atelier boutiques along the way. We did stop for tea at a tiny cafe that also served the traditional Swedish lenten cakes called Semla. They are like large sousjes filled with clotted cream and almond spijs. Apparently Swedish people eat these before Lent to boost them before the days of fasting! We shared one between us, with a cup of hot chocolate each. We walked on, across another bridge to Sodermalm and the hotel where we took a well earned rest before slipping down to the hotel restaurant for a spectacular dinner.
Toast Skagen - shrimps in mayonnaise with bleak roe on toast
Stekt hjortrosbiff med kroppkaka fylld med säsaongens svamp och lingonsky - roast beef of venison with potato dumpling filled with seasonal mushrooms and a lingonberry sauce
Crème brulée med cognacshjortron - cb with cloudberries in cognac
Mörk chokladmousse med björnbärsglass - dark chocolate mousse with blackberry icecream
We drank a tasty bottle of Zinfandel with this, then climbed back upstairs to bed.