Hitting the Swede spots
Bob Wallace gets on the ground in the ‘open city’ with his guide to Stockholm’s best museums and attractions
To the outsider, a ratings game is not what comes naturally to mind when the subject is the tourist’s Stockholm. But with something like 90 museets, or museums, available around this city of 14 islands, it is easy to get drawn into a scorecard match as you try to work out which attraction has the most personal or general appeal.
The museums are not everything about Stockholm, but they certainly provide a diverse and fulfilling range of attractions.
Stockholm also enjoys the benefits of a worldclass transport infrastructure — not just confined to the high-frequency hop-on-hop-off tourist buses and boats — that means it is easy to access these venues and many others.
Stockholm likes to be known as the “open” city and our friendly hotel there, the Clarion Amaranten, nicely located in the Kungsholmen area, certainly lived up to that with a page of recommendations from the manager under the heading “Welcome to the capital of Scandinavia.”
Technically there is no Scandinavian capital, of course, but it does seem natural for Stockholm to claim that title, positioned as it is at the heart of the region and boasting the largest population (2.4 million in the metropolitan area) in the largest country in Scandinavia.
Abba The Museum, on the island of Djurgarden, was way up there in our list of top museum picks, although not quite the top of the pops. In fact, my spouse may still be debating this rating with me.
All I know is that it took several hours after entering the Dancing Queen doors before my whinges about being desperately in need of a cinnamon or cardamom bun (famously ubiquitous in Sweden) were finally relieved after a visit somewhat longer than the museum’s estimation of 1.5 to 2 hours. In fact, three hours had passed.
Abba’s museum absolutely deserves to feature on any list — as the line on the entry ticket says: “Walk in, dance out.” The easiest way to walk in is to book through the website (NZ$34.35).
This is one Stockholm attraction that is a totally cashless experience.
But as the prolific Swedish songsters know from their own hit list, The Winner Takes It All. And the winner in this case is the Vasa Museum.
The warship Vasa sank on its maiden voyage in Stockholm on August 10, 1628.
After 333 years on the seabed, it was salvaged and today you can see what is the world’s bestpreserved 17th century ship, a centrepiece accessed in a multi-level museum.
The richly adorned stern, for instance, can be viewed from floors five, six or seven.
Looking at its dimensions, it is no surprise that when the Vasa struck a strong wind and took on board water it capsized and sank within 20 minutes.
A very large ship for its time, it was built to underline Sweden’s rise to power after winning wars against Denmark, Poland and Russia and ruling over most of the Baltic region under King Gustav II Adolph.
Alas, the gun deck was too heavy and the ship was too tall, with what seems to be relatively little beam — the whole design made the Vasa incredibly unstable.
An excellent 17-minute film provides a great insight into the salvage and restoration and there are guided tours as well as story boards in Swedish and English.
Next in our ratings is the Viking Museum, Vikingaliv, also located on Djurgarden, near the Vasa — not to be confused with the Viking ships museum in neighbouring Denmark. Housed in an old boat hall, it has been operating only since 2017, but has become popular in a relatively short time.
Enthusiastic and knowledgeable guides bust myths and keenly go about their task of changing outdated knowledge of the Vikings, offering an entertaining experience in the process.
We chalked up Fotografiska on the hipsters’ hangout, Sodermalm — also dubbed Sofo — as number four.
It deserves to be on any Stockholm attractions list — the only thing that slightly lowers the appeal of this well-curated exhibition is that it could be a feature of any international location. While it was founded in Sweden, Fotografiska now operates satellite galleries in New York, Tallinn and soon Berlin — next, Dubai?
Somehow, with so many other sights and museums at hand we never did see more of Sodermalm, which is a pity as I had my mind set on exploring the area in which the late Stig Larsson set his trilogy of Girl With the Dragon Tattoo novels, extended by David Lagercrantz with another three cracking sequels.
Stockholm City Museum sells guides for the walk.
You start the two-hour tour on the island at Bellmansgatan 1, the home of the main character, Mikael Blomqvist, and you walk your way through key locations in the books — bars, cafes, and of course, Lisbeth Salander’s apartment.
Another excellent walking route is around the Royal Palace and the old town on Gamlastan. Watch out for the changing of the guard at the palace and when you stroll through the surrounding lanes and Stortorget, the oldest public square on the island, you may come across an English artist by the name of Tim, selling his watercolours and oil paintings of the colourful historic buildings, like hot cakes.
Beside the city’s waterways there is a constant flexing of muscles as runners and cyclists get rid of their obviously abundant energy along wellformed paths.
Tourists aside, there are not many overweight specimens around Stockholm; rather there are handsome, clean-cut and well-toned locals, pedalling from youth into their senior years. Not to mention young mothers and fathers pushing their progeny at a trot as they enjoy the time-off benefits of their social system and all that taxation.
How long this state of well-being will last after the country’s lurch to the right under its recent general election has still to be determined.
Visit Stockholm likes to use the term authenticity to describe the city’s attraction — to that can be added a sense of civility. Hopefully, it will retain all of these values and remain the “open” city.