Day 1 and 2: St Louis to Gothenburg

Day 3: Shrimp and Salmon Cruise in Gothenburg

Day 4 and 5: Finishing Up in Gothenburg

Present day: It was the first week back teaching and first week of school at Wash U, so things have been hectic! And hot, highs in the high 90’s…I so miss the Nordic weather…

Trip: We left off on the train from Gothenburg to Stockholm, I believe. The ride went by quickly and we were in Stockholm around 4:30, which seemed like rush hour or at least the beginning of it. The train station was much busier than Gothenburg and the walk from the station to our Airbnb on Gamla Stan was also busy. We definitely felt like we were in a bigger city! It was about a 15-20 minute walk and wasn’t too bad, except of course rolling little suitcases over the cobblestones is loud and annoying.

Our host had given excellent directions for how to get into our airbnb. That’s Louie, unlocking the door for the first time, I think.

Some pictures from the listing, which was pretty accurate. It was a studio apartment on the first floor, on a little street right near the main square, Stortorget. We found it to be a great place to stay and would recommend it! Anyway, we got cleaned up a bit and found our way around the place, and then it was time to head out for our dinner reservation.

We had made a reservation at Punk Royale for dinner. I have been trying to figure out how to tell you about it, because it was one of the craziest and most unique dining experiences of my life. They say that they challenge the norms and rules of dining, and that they did. It is a set price (not cheap, but we wanted to pay for experiences on this trip) and includes food and drinks.

Punk Royale was on the island of Sodermalm, near Gamla Stan. The thing to know about Stockholm is that it is made of a bunch of islands, so there are little bridges every where to get from place to place, and there is a lot of water. Pedestrians are everywhere, and walking was often the best way to get places.

It was a nice walk to the restaurant: about 25 minutes I think, but we allowed extra time for picture stops and getting lost.

Once we arrived, they showed us to our table and requested we give them our phones for safekeeping during the dinner. The restaurant looked dingy and run down inside, and our table was squeezed between two other tables. We were seated between couples speaking Swedish to each other and felt a little bit nervous! But suddenly the meal started, dishes and drinks were served. They would bring things out and loudly announce the dish. Drinks were flowing and everybody started talking to people at other tables (and lucky for us the other couples spoke terrific English!). At one point they gave us a rubber glove to pick up our food with, another time they told us to hold out our hands and they squeezed a large glob of caviar onto it. There was loud music and a smoke machine which was usually liberally! One course they scooped into our mouths, and another we were led into the kitchen to eat and the drink was in a large plastic syringe to squeeze into our mouths (some sort of sweet liquor, lovely.). The food was excellent and interesting, and each dish they basically yelled at us in English, which sometimes we would ask our fellow diners to repeat. It was CRAZY and we had the best time.

At one point we felt it was important to tell the other people near us that although we were from the United States, we did not like Trump. This made them feel much more relaxed with us, haha. No, seriously, they all thought he was a lunatic and didn’t understand the appeal. It was also great fun to chat with these two couples from Sweden-both were from north of Stockholm and it was interesting to learn about their lives.

At the end of the meal they gave us our phones back (of course), and we took a few quick pictures.

That’s Louie, being shocked by the bill, haha. But it was a night to remember!

We walked basically downhill back to our airbnb, exhausted.

The next morning I had booked us on an introductory bike tour around Stockholm with Philip’s Bike Tours. We decided to get food on the walk around at a place near the meeting point called Komet Cafe Stockholm. They had terrific pastries and coffee, but Louie decided he wasn’t feeling up to the bike tour and I did it on my own.

That’s Philip in the beret. He was a personable and interesting guide, very nice and helpful. We rode all over Stockholm, mostly on bike lanes from island to island and stopped for pictures and commentary many times. There were several women on the tour on their own as well, in addition to a few smaller groups together. I think we were about 12 people.

City Hall, a really spectacular building. Truthfully, my photos from the tour weren’t the best. I was often hurrying to get the snap, and the sun was very bright, but I really enjoyed the tour. It was nice to be out cycling around, which felt very Swedish.

The group stopped at Skeppsbro Bakeri for fika, which was a lovely cafe on Gamla Stan, near the water. I got a Kardemummabullar which is the cinnamon roll with cardamom.

Anyway, the tour ended around 12:30/1 and I walked back to the airbnb to meet Louie and head out together. He was feeling a bit better so we needed lunch. I also needed to shower since I had been biking all morning, so after that we decided to go back to the Skeppsbro Bakeri since it was nearby and had great views and I wanted him to see it.

We also enjoyed watching the birds eat crumbs and at one point, steal an entire pastry from an unsuspecting customer.

We wandered around more after our lunch, just taking in the views of Stockholm. That one above is the Royal Palace on Gamla Stan.

We walked over to the island of Skeppsholmem and Kastelhommen as well, just wandering around enjoying the sites. I told Louie what I could recall from the bike tour as well as enjoying the slower pace.

We liked these little vehicles quite a lot.

Every statue is improved by putting a bird on it.

Our next “event” was attending an orchestra concert at the Konserthuset. We had tickets to see the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra perform. The concert was a Mozart Piano Concerto for Two Pianos, Strum by Jessie Montgomery, and Elgar’s Enigma Variations, and was conducted by Lina González-Granados.

We had comfortable seats towards the middle of the main floor and enjoyed not being on our feet for a bit! The hall was really nice and the concert was terrific.

I loved this electronic sign at the beginning: “Allow space for your own and others’ musical treat-let the music speak and your mobile stay resting.”

“Many thanks for your consideration.”

We bought a program, which was easy to do with credit card–there is really no cash needed in Sweden–we didn’t touch a single Swedish Kroner the entire visit. Which might be a little sad, actually, but it is extremely convenient.

Intermission was long as expected, probably 10 minutes longer than we are used to. There were some tables set up with food and drinks for those who prepurchased, but we didn’t both with it.

There was an organ player, way up in the loft. I actually didn’t recall that there was organ in the Enigma Variations, but evidently there was. He sat in his loft on the side of the organ just chilling out for most of the piece, and then right towards the end put himself into “playing position” and then suddenly things were a little louder, but no big solo moments for the organ player. The orchestra sounded terrific overall, lots of lovely string playing and terrific ensemble in the group.

We still needed dinner after that, but decided to head back to the Gamla Stan first and get dinner near our place.

We ended up at Restaurant Kryp In which was a Rick Steves recommendation and had some nice outdoor seating (though it was a bit chilly, there was a heater). They served traditional Swedish food, so I tried the meatballs for the first time. Meatballs, potatoes, lingonberries, and pickled cucumbers (some would just call those pickles.) We shared that plus a fish dish.

And that was end of that day as well. I will end my post there, and just say that we definitely went to sleep soon after–it was a long and busy day–my phone captured 20,730 steps and 8.62 miles, but I didn’t set it for the bike ride, so that would have been more of course. (I should have recorded it but I just simply forgot.)