To recap: So you've got four days in Stockholm and you want to make the most of
it. Or you're hosting two sets of guests for four days each and you
don't want to do the same thing twice. Here is The EDOW Guide to Stockholm in 4 Days, 2 Ways.
Itinerary 1 can be found here.
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And now, onto the second itinerary!
View 4 Days in Stockholm in a larger map>
ITINERARY 2, DAY 1: THURSDAY
It's funny, I think Winnie and Francis missed each other by about 30 minutes. Francis and Raymond had an early afternoon arrival and were offered the same snacks chez moi.
Get a bike
Photo by Flickr user Let Ideas Compete, CC Licensed
Welcome to Stockholm! If I were you, I'd get a City Bikes card right away. Since you'll be here for four days, I would recommend getting the full season card, which is just 200 SEK (the 3-day card is 125 SEK). You can go to the Tourist Center in T-Centralen to get a City Bikes card, or go to an SL office at Slussen, Fridhemsplan, or a number of other stations.
The City Bikes system is easy -- you get a card, and you can borrow a bike from any of the many stations around the city. When you're done riding around, you can leave the bike at any station you can find -- doesn't have to be the station that you borrowed the bike from. The system is not as big as the Paris bikeshare program, but it's big enough for Stockholm.
The maximum time you can keep a bike out for is three hours. The website currently says you can borrow from 6am to 6pm, but actually, they've extended the hours and you can now borrow bikes till 10pm (which means that if you borrow a bike at 10am, you can keep it out until 1am.)
If you keep a bike out for longer than three hours, you get a strike against you. Two strikes and you won't be allowed to borrow a bike anymore. If you keep a bike out for more than five hours, you automatically get kicked out of the system.
All of the bikes have small wheels with a quick-release adjustable height seat, so they work for shorties and tall folk. We didn't have any trouble getting bikes or finding a free spot to drop them off. Make sure you check your bike before you ride off, though. While they're supposedly serviced all day long, Francis got one with faulty gears.
Du Gamla, Du Fria
This is a good time to walk around Gamla Stan, peeking in at Ye Olde Shoppes and buying reindeer skins if you must. Gamla Stan means Old Town, and that's pretty much what it is -- all cobblestoned streets, health-inducing hills and sherbet toned buildings. I don't know, Francis quite liked it, but it doesn't really do much for me.
When you're done, borrow a bike from the Gamla Stan station and ride north along the water, out past the Norstedts building, across the bridge, and up to Vasagatan. This is one of my favorite bike routes in Stockholm, especially at sunset.
Ride up Vasagatan and follow the bike lane all the way to Torsgatan. Take Torsgatan to S:t. Eriksgatan and drop your bikes off at the S:t Eriksplan station. Walk through Vasaparken and down Dalagatan to get to the restaurant for dinner.
Dinner: Melanders Fisk
Melanders Fisk is a good place to start up on the fish and potatoes. Pictures and my previous write-up about Melanders is here, but I think it's worth mentioning that the gravlax is special -- a coral origami fan of silky, cool fish adorned with a feathery frond of dill is served with a metal dish of hot, cream-enrobed new potatoes. Divine. Francis's method was to wrap one of those hot nuggets into a cool lox stole. The majskyckling, corn-fed chicken, with summer truffled risotto is rich and earthy. The fish stew I loved the first time wasn't as good the second time. Go figure.
Melanders Fisk
Dalagatan 9R
T-bana: St. Eriksplan
It's not a super busy place, so I wouldn't say you need a reservation, but you can make one just in case.
After dinner: Music
Photo by Flickr user Bixentro, CC licensed
Okay, so actually, I took Francis and Raymond to Debaser Slussen, but since we already went there on itinerary 1, let's try any number of bars on Söder instead. Pet Sounds Bar is popular with the indie rock crowd. The walls are covered in glossy black rectangular subway tiles, giving the place a dark but clean feel. Pompadoured and star tatted younguns lean their narrow, black jeans-clad hips against the barstools. The bartenders make really interesting cocktails, including one with apple juice, lemon, and Żubrówka, a grassy Polish vodka.
If you want to stay in one place the whole evening, you can actually eat dinner here instead. I have only eaten there once, but I remember the food being quite good, especially a gorgeous salad with crunchy pomegranate seeds, pomegranate molasses and chunky lego cubes of walnut-capped blue cheese.
Pet Sounds also has an intimate basement venue where DJs spin when indie rock heroes like Broken Social Scene and Lykke Li aren't playing.
The whole operation is super sophisticated in a quintessentially Stockholm way. I mean, imagine getting a composed salad with mixmaster cocktails in a high-design room at the Mercury Lounge. During the day, check out Pet Sounds's museum of obsolete portable aural devices across the street.
It's also good to check out who's playing at Hornstull Strand, a big venue down by the water. The young and beautiful cram themselves in wall to wall when international artists like Deerhoof and The Whitest Boy On Earth roll through.
Södra Teatern sometimes hosts interesting local acts. I saw everyone's favorite Swedish ladies a cappella choir with one of the best band names ever, The Sweptaways. As an added bonus, it's high on a hill overlooking the best view of the water in the city center.
If indie rock's not your thing, or if you're too old to stand all night with malnourished whippersnappers, look up Cirkus's schedule. It's a big theater with a restaurant attached sitting in the middle of Djurgården. There are plenty of seats for your weary gams, and David Byrne and Grace Jones played there this year. But Chippendales and Cats are also playing there, so take it for what it's worth.
And if you are a REAL party pooper like me, you can just park your ass at home and hunt for Ulla Billquist clips on YouTube all night.
Pet Sounds
Skånegatan 80
T-bana: Medborgarplatsen
Hornstull Strand
Hornstull Strand 4
T-bana: Hornstull
Södra Teatern
Mosebacketorg 1-3
T-bana: Slussen
Cirkus
Djurgårdsslätten 4+45
T-bana: Kungsträdgården, but you are better off cycling or taking the bus
Itinerary 1 can be found here.
---
And now, onto the second itinerary!
View 4 Days in Stockholm in a larger map>
ITINERARY 2, DAY 1: THURSDAY
It's funny, I think Winnie and Francis missed each other by about 30 minutes. Francis and Raymond had an early afternoon arrival and were offered the same snacks chez moi.
Get a bike
Photo by Flickr user Let Ideas Compete, CC Licensed
Welcome to Stockholm! If I were you, I'd get a City Bikes card right away. Since you'll be here for four days, I would recommend getting the full season card, which is just 200 SEK (the 3-day card is 125 SEK). You can go to the Tourist Center in T-Centralen to get a City Bikes card, or go to an SL office at Slussen, Fridhemsplan, or a number of other stations.
The City Bikes system is easy -- you get a card, and you can borrow a bike from any of the many stations around the city. When you're done riding around, you can leave the bike at any station you can find -- doesn't have to be the station that you borrowed the bike from. The system is not as big as the Paris bikeshare program, but it's big enough for Stockholm.
The maximum time you can keep a bike out for is three hours. The website currently says you can borrow from 6am to 6pm, but actually, they've extended the hours and you can now borrow bikes till 10pm (which means that if you borrow a bike at 10am, you can keep it out until 1am.)
If you keep a bike out for longer than three hours, you get a strike against you. Two strikes and you won't be allowed to borrow a bike anymore. If you keep a bike out for more than five hours, you automatically get kicked out of the system.
All of the bikes have small wheels with a quick-release adjustable height seat, so they work for shorties and tall folk. We didn't have any trouble getting bikes or finding a free spot to drop them off. Make sure you check your bike before you ride off, though. While they're supposedly serviced all day long, Francis got one with faulty gears.
Du Gamla, Du Fria
This is a good time to walk around Gamla Stan, peeking in at Ye Olde Shoppes and buying reindeer skins if you must. Gamla Stan means Old Town, and that's pretty much what it is -- all cobblestoned streets, health-inducing hills and sherbet toned buildings. I don't know, Francis quite liked it, but it doesn't really do much for me.
When you're done, borrow a bike from the Gamla Stan station and ride north along the water, out past the Norstedts building, across the bridge, and up to Vasagatan. This is one of my favorite bike routes in Stockholm, especially at sunset.
Ride up Vasagatan and follow the bike lane all the way to Torsgatan. Take Torsgatan to S:t. Eriksgatan and drop your bikes off at the S:t Eriksplan station. Walk through Vasaparken and down Dalagatan to get to the restaurant for dinner.
Dinner: Melanders Fisk
Melanders Fisk is a good place to start up on the fish and potatoes. Pictures and my previous write-up about Melanders is here, but I think it's worth mentioning that the gravlax is special -- a coral origami fan of silky, cool fish adorned with a feathery frond of dill is served with a metal dish of hot, cream-enrobed new potatoes. Divine. Francis's method was to wrap one of those hot nuggets into a cool lox stole. The majskyckling, corn-fed chicken, with summer truffled risotto is rich and earthy. The fish stew I loved the first time wasn't as good the second time. Go figure.
Melanders Fisk
Dalagatan 9R
T-bana: St. Eriksplan
It's not a super busy place, so I wouldn't say you need a reservation, but you can make one just in case.
After dinner: Music
Photo by Flickr user Bixentro, CC licensed
Okay, so actually, I took Francis and Raymond to Debaser Slussen, but since we already went there on itinerary 1, let's try any number of bars on Söder instead. Pet Sounds Bar is popular with the indie rock crowd. The walls are covered in glossy black rectangular subway tiles, giving the place a dark but clean feel. Pompadoured and star tatted younguns lean their narrow, black jeans-clad hips against the barstools. The bartenders make really interesting cocktails, including one with apple juice, lemon, and Żubrówka, a grassy Polish vodka.
If you want to stay in one place the whole evening, you can actually eat dinner here instead. I have only eaten there once, but I remember the food being quite good, especially a gorgeous salad with crunchy pomegranate seeds, pomegranate molasses and chunky lego cubes of walnut-capped blue cheese.
Pet Sounds also has an intimate basement venue where DJs spin when indie rock heroes like Broken Social Scene and Lykke Li aren't playing.
The whole operation is super sophisticated in a quintessentially Stockholm way. I mean, imagine getting a composed salad with mixmaster cocktails in a high-design room at the Mercury Lounge. During the day, check out Pet Sounds's museum of obsolete portable aural devices across the street.
It's also good to check out who's playing at Hornstull Strand, a big venue down by the water. The young and beautiful cram themselves in wall to wall when international artists like Deerhoof and The Whitest Boy On Earth roll through.
Södra Teatern sometimes hosts interesting local acts. I saw everyone's favorite Swedish ladies a cappella choir with one of the best band names ever, The Sweptaways. As an added bonus, it's high on a hill overlooking the best view of the water in the city center.
If indie rock's not your thing, or if you're too old to stand all night with malnourished whippersnappers, look up Cirkus's schedule. It's a big theater with a restaurant attached sitting in the middle of Djurgården. There are plenty of seats for your weary gams, and David Byrne and Grace Jones played there this year. But Chippendales and Cats are also playing there, so take it for what it's worth.
And if you are a REAL party pooper like me, you can just park your ass at home and hunt for Ulla Billquist clips on YouTube all night.
Pet Sounds
Skånegatan 80
T-bana: Medborgarplatsen
Hornstull Strand
Hornstull Strand 4
T-bana: Hornstull
Södra Teatern
Mosebacketorg 1-3
T-bana: Slussen
Cirkus
Djurgårdsslätten 4+45
T-bana: Kungsträdgården, but you are better off cycling or taking the bus
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