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This weekend, we went to Stockholm to visit our friend Mike and see Leftfield's first ever Swedish concert. Unfortunately we missed our flight which meant that we arrived much later than we expected and missed the gig altogether.
Arriving late at the airport meant that there was no way that we were going to be able to get to the venue in time to see Leftfield and we would probably not be let in arriving late anyway. We did land about 30 minutes early and getting to security was pretty slick even thogh they asked loads of questions and asked to see proof that we were actually leaving the country at some point, fuck Brexit!
Mike was waiting for us at arrivals and drove us back to his very Swedish flat. We didn't hang about and jumped onto a bus to go to Sundbyberg Central. Mike took to his local Indian restaurant, Bazaar, that did Indian Tapas style dishes. The food was amazing and we would not have got to go here if we had arrived in time to go to the gig.
After the food we had the option of waiting for a bus ~15 minutes or a 10 minute walk up the Hill. We decided to walk and it was not really a hill but more of a gentle incline.
When we awoke it turned out that is was not a cloud, overcast, miserable Sunday after all but a really bright and Sunny Sunday.
We started off walking around the estate where Mike lives, which was specifically designed for families with children. There were schools, parks and play areas. There was also a water way that had a lido for swimming in the summer months. Once at Sundbyberg Centrum we took the underground to Gamla Stan, Stockholm Old Town.
We went up to the old town square and got some breakfast. Mike & I had Semlas, cinnamon for me and classic for Mike. Susan had a cinnamon swirl, which turned out to be the size of her head, and a toasted tuna sandwich.
The square we were sat in was home to the Nobel Prize Museum, Wooden Horse Museum and lots of sparrows who were used to be fed or pick up crumbs. This meant that there were sparrows all over the place and one of them flew straight at Susan while she was eating her tuna sandwich.
The square was also beginning to fill up with tourists and content creators (influencers) who were waiting for the museum to open at 11:00.
Once we'd finished our breakfast we walked down to the water front and walked up to the Katarina lift (the Swedish for lift is hiss) to get a great view over the city and the old town.
At the top of the lift there is a bridge that goes out to the top of the city and we walked down some steps and back along the water front. It was very warm and sunny and the city looked absolutely stunning.
We walked all the way around the waterfront to get the commuter ferry, from outside the Grand Hotel, to Vaxholm. Vaxholm is one of the hundreds of islands in the Stockholm archipelago. The journey was about 1 hour 20 minutes and we passed and stopped at many of the islands in the archipelago.
When we arrived at Vaxholm, Mike was very disappointed that all of his favourite places had been knocked down and the area was being redeveloped. We walked around the edge of the town and found a place to eat. I had Swedish Meatballs while Susan and Mike had fish stew. The food and service was excellent.
When we'd finished we did some research, with citymapper, to find out how to get back to central Stockholm, the options were to wait for the next commuter ferry back or to take a bus to Danderyd sjukhus (hospital) metro station. We choose the bus/metro option as it was about an hour quicker and we'd get to see some more of the archipelago's scenery, but this time from the land rather thn the water. Fortunately the 670 bus was a double decker so we had an amazing view from the top deck.
Once back in Stockholm center we went to see some of the fancy shopping centres and posh shopping area. and then walked through the Kings Garden. Mike took us to see a number of the underground stations. Each of the underground stations in Stockholm are decorated differently, the most famous of these was designed to look like Roman remains.
Once back at Mike's we chilled out for a few hours. I played Mike both of the More Acid tracks, that I had appeared upon. Mike then showed us Snoppen & Snippan an education video for young children in about lady parts and then Willie and Twinkle the English version.
About 19:00 we got a taxi into the Old Town to go to a restaurant. We had found a restaurant Lilla Gästabud, we did try and book before we left but the phone number on their website did not work, when we arrived it was full and there was also a queue outside to get in. We decided to walk to their sister restaurant Gästabud to see if they had space. We also made the decision that if we saw somewhere on the way we would go there. We did indeed find somewhere, Café Cronan, it was not the best idea as the food and drinks were not the best.
Once finished we headed to a cocktail bar I had discovered online before we went to Sweden. It was in the square with the Nobel Prize Museum and called Pharmarium. The cocktail menu was all based upon Nordic Tales. We had 3 cocktails each, I had Dragonslayer, Eternal Lady and Margarita made with Mezcal. The Margarita was a little disappointing but the other 2 were excellent.
Once we'd finished we got a cab back to Mike's and watched the Gladiators 2nd semifinal, before retiring to bed. A great night all round.
Before heading to the airport to go home we first went in search of pistachio semla and to find a Swedish rubber duck for our collection.
Mike took us to Lekia, in Bomma Block shopping center, a toy shop to find a rubber duck. They did indeed have lots of rubber ducks but no Swedish specific duck. So we headed back to Sundbyberg Central to get some semla for breakfast.
Semla is a seasonal pastry for lent, Mike had been telling for the past few days that the best semlas were pistachio semlas that you could get from Bröd & Salt. On the way to Bröd & Salt we walked past a bakery which Mike said: "Technically they make the best semlas".
Once at Bröd & Salt we were told that they no longer made semlas and we would need to wait until next year. So off we went to the bakery that makes the technically best semla. They also no longer did semlas. We asked and they said that we could probably still find them at a bakery called Princess.
We could indeed get semlas at Princess. Susan & I had vanilla semlas and Mike, again, had classic semla, as they had no pistachio semlas.
Mike then drove us back to the airport and it was not long before we found a souvenir shop that sold Swedish rubber ducks. There were two options, one was just a yellow duck that had the word Stockholm in blue text. The second was a red wooden horse themed duck. We bought the wooden horse one before getting something to eat.
This time we did not miss our flight.