Burning the Inheritance

Stockholm was a late addition to our itinerary. We added it because Pontus, a very nice young man whom we met on our sailing adventure from Panama to Colombia, graciously invited us to come visit him. We have found that it is often better to visit a city with someone who lives there, so we jumped at his invitation. We only had about 48 hours in Stockholm and, as it worked out, it ended up feeling very much like an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s “The Layover”.

We arrived in Stockholm on a Saturday evening and enjoyed a wonderful welcome dinner Pontus had prepared for us.

We had one full day (Sunday) to spend in Stockholm and packed in more than we could have imagined or hoped for. We were joined in our tour by Pontus’ brother David and his father Matt who, as it turned out, is a very proud resident of Stockholm and quite conversant with its history. We started early, strolling the streets of the old city. Matt was an incredible wealth of knowledge regarding the city and its history.

To get out of the cold for a while, he took us to the chapel in the Royal Palace where, as it turned out, a beautiful mass was underway complete with choir. (We quietly slipped out between the gospel and the homily.) We grabbed coffee and cinnamon rolls in the vaulted cellar of a nearby coffee shop dating to the 16th century next to the Nobel Prize Museum and the royal palace. As it turned out, there was a special event at the Royal Palace that day with an appearance by Crown Princess Victoria and her family which we were able to join.

Following this unexpected event, Matt took us to the Stockholm Medieval Museum located below a plaza adjoining the Swedish Parliament House. The museum came about because during excavation of the area to construct an underground parking structure, the original walls of the city and countless artifacts, including some ships, were discovered. We are pretty sure that this is Matt’s favorite place to go in the city as he is intimately familiar with all the details and proved to be a very knowledgeable guide to the various exhibits. Unbelievably interesting and educational!

At this point, we felt like we had already seen and learned more than was possible in one day but Matt then took us on a drive through an area that seemed to be the Beverly Hills of Stockholm and we then stopped at a place called Svenskt Tenn (Swedish Tin), a Swedish interior design company with its own lines of furniture, textiles and home goods. It’s kind of hard to describe (think of a funky high end cross between Ikea and Flying Tiger) but it was unlike any home goods store we had ever seen.

To cap the day, Pontus insisted we try a traditional Swedish sandwich called a “tunnbrodrulle”. Apparently the best ones come from a small stand called Nyetsgillen, a one-man operation in a small street stand with room for about four customers to wait at a time. There are various versions of these and the one Ritch had was named after Lasse Bjorn, Stockholm’s most celebrated hockey player (and a friend of Pontus’ grandfather). In addition to buttered flatbread, this version included: lettuce, mashed potatoes, bacon, cheese, sausages, shrimp salad, catsup, mustard, and toasted onion bits. It’s as messy as it sounds but tastes really good!

We headed out Monday morning with snow falling. At Pontus’ suggestion, we stopped at a café on our way to the airport and tried something something called a semla – a donut-like pastry stuffed with apples and creme. Apparently, by tradition these are only available at the end of winter and there is a day (about two weeks ago) where everyone in Sweden eats one. It was very good but I am pretty certain that Colleen would not have even considered buying one (based on appearance) had Pontus not suggested it.

We were happy to have been fortified with our semla as our flight out to Vienna was inexplicably delayed for several hours. No worries, we set up shop in the airport and worked on trip planning.

What a great “layover” thanks to Pontus and his family!