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Stockholm in Winter – Monteliusvägen and Söder Mälarstrand for best views

18 January 2017

Monteliusvägen is one of the best places to enjoy panoramic views of Stockholm. The 416m walking path is between Kattgränd on the west and Skolgränd on the east. To get to this place, we took the subway to the Slussen T-bana station and walked the rest of the way to Skolgränd.

First glimpse of the awesome view.

I kicked myself for forgetting to bring my Canon G5X and had to use my Samsung smartphone camera.

On any day, the pretty city of Stockholm waterfront and lakes would have been a photographer’s delight. Throw in some fresh snow and ice on the lakes, the views became much more interesting. This was the reward for visiting in winter

The walkway was wide enough to accommodate larger groups but we were the only tourists on this trail. We met some local resident walking their dogs. The dogs in Sweden are generally well trained and friendly.

Along the way, there are terraces, park benches and picnic tables, making it easy to stop and enjoy the view. We had to be very careful with the ice on the wooden walkway.

Almost reaching Kattgränd, the western end of the trail.

This is what happens when you don’t use a Touch-sensitive gloves. Freezing hands.

After walking the Monteliusvägen, we made our way down to the edge of the lake along Söder Mälarstrand. Here we could get a closer look at the frozen lake and different viewpoints.

These are boats, operating as hostels along this stretch of the lake.

Panoramic view of the lake along Söder Mälarstrand.

We then walked across the bridge towards Gamla Stan and Riddarholmen. The viewpoints on this bridge were quite awesome as well.

Looking towards Slussen from the Centralbron bridge.

View of Söder Mälarstrand (where we came from) from the Centralbron bridge.

View of Riddarholmen.

After the cold morning walk, we stopped by the Expresson House cafe in Gamla Stan for hot drinks and snacks!

Stockholm in Winter - Visit to ABBA The Museum at Djurgården island

19 January 2017

I belonged to the generation that grew up listening to ABBA music. Hence a visit to the museum dedicated to the Swedish foursome would be interesting. Since the Vasa Museum was also located near the ABBA The Museum, we planned a day out to both.

ABBA: The Museum is a permanent exhibition in the “Swedish Music Hall OF Fame” on the island of Djurgården, a brisk walk, or a short bus or tram ride from the city centre.

We travelled to the ABBA Museum using a combination of subway and bus. By the time we arrived at the entrance, it was slightly past 11 AM. We saw a cut-out of the famous four but one of the celebrities was missing a face.

Tickets are 250 SEK per adult and we need to buy them online using credit cards and collect them from a machine at the entrance. No ticket sale by cash at the museum. The printed entrance ticket includes a personal ID that generates a page on the museum website. This ticket is also used for the interactive displays inside the museum where we could sing and dance with holograms of ABBA, don a digital costume projected on us in a special booth.

ABBA The Musuem Inside a karaoke booth where we could choose ABBA songs to sing along with. The machine will judge your singing and assign you a score!

Besides the interactive displays, the museum showcases the band’s stage clothes, artefacts, concert footage, interviews etc. There was even The Arrival helicopter from the classic LP Cover at the museum.
ABBA The Museum Stage outfits worn by ABBA for their performance at the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest.

I enjoyed the video of ABBA singing ‘Waterloo’ at the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton in 1974 where they won and launched their stardom.

Life-size figures of Agnetha Fältskog. Björn Ulvaeus. Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, collectively known as ABBA.
Who was your favourite?

ABBA sold more than 379 million records!

Overall, the visit to the ABBA Museum plus a quick look through the ‘Swedish Music Hall of Fame’ took about 2 hours. While I enjoyed the cool interactive displays, I felt there was something lacking. More about what happened after the group split up and how as individuals, they had continued their lives would be good.

Stockholm in Winter - Visit to Vasa Museum at Djurgården island

19 January 2017

It made sense to combine a visit to the Vasa Museum with a visit to the Abba Museum since both museums are within walking distance to each other on the Djurgården island.

Vasa is a story of an epic fail that happened in 1628 and an epic success 333 years later. Vasa is actually a name of a Swedish warship, supposedly the most powerful warship in the Baltic, that sank on her maiden voyage before the eyes of a large audience, scant minutes after setting sail for the first time.

There would be no Vasa Museum if that was the end of the story.

In the early 1950s, Anders Franzén, a fuel engineer in the Swedish navy and amateur archaeologist with a great interest in Swedish naval history, started searching for the Vasa. The ship was found a few years later, upright and half buried in mud, near where Grona Lund is. It was a miracle that the ship had not rotted away or eaten by sea worms. The mud had a preserving effect, and the wood-destroying sea worm does not thrive in water with low salt content.

The next challenge after the discovery was how to salvage the ship. Six tunnels were dug through the mud, under the ship, for the salvage team to pull massive steel cables across. These cables were taken to two floating pontoons and the ship was then lifted, inch by inch. On 24 April 1961, the epic success happened and the ship saw the light of day again, 333 years later.

There was still much remained to be done. Holes and leaks were plugged and water pumped put till she is afloat on her own keel and could be tugged to a wharf. Then the restoration work began. I remember I visited the Vasa Museum at the temporary exhibit, 30 years ago. It was good to be back.

There were free guided tours at the Museum and the schedules were posted near the entrance. We started the tour on the ground floor and followed the guide as she took us round the ship. The guide in the tour did a good job to explain details about Vasa. After the tour, we had time to go round to see the details of the ship and learn more about the Vasa, how and why the ship sunk, how it was found, recovered, restored, preserved and how the crew had lived and died. There was also some display of remains of the crew that was recovered.

Starting point of the tour – the bow of the Vasa.

This ship took 1000 oaks trees to build. This was a big ship compared to the normal Viking boats that requires 12 trees. The ship was designed by a Dutch guy called Henrik as the King wanted a super powerful boat with 2 rows of guns mounted on a double deck.

Vasa Museum in Stockholm

In total, there was 64 number of 24-pounder guns. Due to the excessive number of guns, the ship was actually top-heavy and it was also found that there was not enough ballast at the bottom.

To add to the issues, the workmen and builders of the ship comprises Swedes, Finns and Dutch. There were communication issues. One example was that the Dutch and Finns were using different scales. The Dutch foot was shorter by 1 cm compared to the Swedish foot. There were also no drawing plans. All these led to bad construction. To make matters worse, the designer (Henrik) passed away one year before completion. Actually, that saved him from having his head chopped by the King after the ship sank!

All the design issues led to the pre-matured sinking. Before she could even get out of Stockholm harbour, a strong gust of wind tipped the ship so far over on its port side that water poured in through the open gun ports on the lower gun deck. Within minutes, the ship was on the sea bed at a depth of 32 metres. All but 30 of the crew and guests (family members of crew) survived when Vasa sank.

Vasa Museum in Stockholm The figurehead is a lion holding the heraldic arms of the Vasa dynasty, a corn sheaf (“vase”), after which the ship was named.

The sculptures along the sides of the beakhead represent the Roman emperors, in chronological order. Some were still missing.

Gun ports with hatch opened. The design is such that the brightly painted lion mask would be upright when the hatch is opened.

Even the gun ports of the ship was also decorated. They would usually remained closed until the ship is about to go into battle. When closed, the lion head inside the ship would be upside down!
It was believed that when Vasa sank, all the gun ports were opened due to celebratory cannon fire.

Beautiful rigging and mast.

The “toilet” for the crew is located at the head of the ship. It can be seen in the photo above. Guess where it is.

The back of the Vasa.

The preserved ship was mostly dark due to the preservatives used. A project image shows what the actual colour scheme may be like.

A model of what the actual ship could look like in full colours.

Overall, I enjoyed my visit to the Vasa Museum. I spent almost 2 hours at this museum and may have spent even more time if not for the 5 PM closing time.

Stockholm in Winter – Back to Gamla Stan, lunch at Österlånggatan 17 and shopping at IKEA

20 January 2017

The weather in Stockholm turned warm on this day. By Stockholm winter’s norm, this meant it was a few degrees above zero. Snow on the sidewalks was mostly melted but there was still some ice on the sides. We made a second visit to Gamla Stan on this “warm” winter’s day.

Street in Gamla Stan.

There were more people on the streets and Gamla Stan was livelier. We browse through a few of the souvenir shops and bought a small tray.

It was also a good day to snap some interesting photos of Gamla Stan.

A good place to stop for lunch is at Österlånggatan 17. This restaurant is located near the statue of St George and the Dragon.

The restaurant was crowded when we arrived but we were offered seats at the counter. The bread that was served while waiting for the mains to be cooked was super good. If I could just eat the bread as the main course, I would.

Having said that, the mains were excellent too. I ordered the day’s special and it was great!

Grilled fish salad.

Mash potato and bone marrow.

Slow cooked pork.

We got to enjoy this picture while we ate.

After a good meal, we continued northwards, crossed the Stalbron and into the city center.

Stalbron leading into the city center.

View from Stadbron.

Our plan for the afternoon was to go to IKEA. The bus stop for the free shuttle bus to IKEA is located at Vasagatan 10 in the city center.

Timetable for the IKEA Bus operating between Vagatan 10 and IKEA Store at Kungens Kurva.

IKEA is a very popular store in Stockholm. There was a long queue formed for the hourly bus to IKEA from Vasatan 10 but we managed to board the bus. We took the 2 PM bus and arrived at IKEA in about 20 minutes.

This IKEA store is huge! Just count the number of floors in this building in the photo above.

This is a good place to shop of household goods. One of my nieces was crazy enough to buy this huge stuffed shark to bring home!