Sodermalm in Stockholm

After a quick walk through Kungstradgarden, we took a cruise around the islands that make up the city of Stockholm.  The sunny day was perfect for seeing the thatched rooftops of buildings in Stockholm’s oldest outdoor museum, the Vasa Museum, and the rollercoaster at Tivoli Grona Lund, the amusement park in Deer Garden (another one of Stockholm’s islands).  We made our way around Sodra Hammarbyhamon and Sodermalm which we would return to later in the day to explore on foot.  During the summer, large cruise lines like Princess Cruises use the docks in Stockholm as a departure point.  The waters were full of cruise ships, private boats from abroad, tour boats like ours, floating hostels, and yachts.

After lunch we explored Eastern Sodermalm.  From the top of the stairs at Katarinahissen we enjoyed the view of Gamla Stan straight ahead in the distance and Deer Garden to the right.  From there we walked along Gotgatan, the main shopping street in Sodermalm.  H&M is to Scandinavia what Starbucks is to the States; H&M is as much of a part of the urban landscape in Stockholm as the city’s terra cotta-colored buildings.  Passed Mosebacketorg, we took a quick break at Grega Garbo’s Torg, a park named after one of Stockholm’s most famous citizens.  In Western Sodermalm we walked to Mariaberget, a cliff from which we could see the Riddarholmskyrkan in the distance.

Sodermalm is very different from Gamla Stan.  Whereas Gamla Stan is for the young and hip who want to enjoy the city’s nightlife, there was a 3-to-1 ratio of kids to adults in Sodermalm.  Sodermalm is a residential area that caters to young families, and the various parks and childlike yelps that echoed in the air attest to Sodermalm’s demographics.

For dinner we returned to Gamla Stan where we ate at Mandus, a Swedish restaurant neighboring the “new” Royal Palace.  There I dined on spicy kottbullar (meatballs) with a side of overly-sweet pomegranate seeds the color of my mother’s favorite fuchsia sari. Along with the meatballs, I had the reinfile (reindeer) with a side of pepper-garnished fried carrots and string beans.  Images of Bambi and his mother did not deter me from trying Stockholm’s specialty.  The verdict? Reindeer tastes just like beef.  For desert we ordered the marangswiss, an impressively tall tower of vanilla ice cream doused in chocolate sauce.  Diced strawberries and banana were stacked in piles around the base of the vanilla tower, and round balls of marange that could pass for styrofoam (in appearance only- they were delicious) held the desert together.  

Stockholm, Sweden – Gamla Stan

The smoked salmon dabbed with honey mustard and the Vigeland Park make sleepy Oslo a city worth visiting. The fact that pedestrians have right of way, and the efficient and professional customer service were refreshing (in London, waiters act like they’re doing their customers a favor by seating AND serving them). After what felt like a sleepwalk through Oslo following our jam-packed week in New York City and Boston, Stockholm served as a wake-up call.

Stockholm is a surprisingly romantic city. I am sure I read somewhere in the half-a-dozen websites I surfed while planning our tour of Scandinavia that Stockholm is “the Paris of the North” (the description sounds far too cliche, and I’d like to think of myself as a better writer than that!). Stockholm is a city made up of many small islands; water can be observed in all directions. Pedestrians and cars alike travel along the city’s bridges and highways. Gamla Stan, Stockholm’s Old Town, is crammed with adorable cafes, restaurants, bars, crystal stores, art galleries, and ice cream parlors. Either a live musician is playing his or her violin (accordian, flute, etc.- name it, someone is playing it), or international music streams out of the stores that sit along Gamla Stan’s winding streets that are too narrow for even a small automobile to pass through. Gamla Stan, from what I had read about it, deserves its own A to Z, but M and I found that after living in NYC where one is confronted with the illogical layout of the West and East Villages, Gamla Stan was a cinch to navigate. No two adjacent buildings are painted the same hue; even closely-situated kyrkans (churches) look unique from one another.

Heading west, we made our way from Gamla Stan to Riddarholmen, another small island which is home to the Riddarholmskyrkan, a 13th-century church. Before making our way back to Normmalm we walked through Sodermalm, another island that makes up Stockholm, where we passed through another of Stockholm’s majestical buildings, Riksdashuset, the Swedish Parliament.

On our first night in Stockholm we had dinner at Gasgrand 4, a cozy Swedish restaurant in Gamla Stan. M, always struck by how Europe is “twenty years behind in terms of pop music,” noted that the staff was playing Toto’s Africa, Phil C. and Whitney H. in the background. For an appetizer we had the shrimp dunked in wasabi sauce (I was armed with my Benadryl in case if the combination provoked an allergy attack which, thankfully, it didn’t) and homemade mayo. Satisfied after our trip to Oslo that Scandinavia offers exceptional salmon, I opted for the Swedish meatballs for my entree. Accompanied by a salty gravy and fried potatoes, I realized, as with falling in love, Stockholm had unexpectedly swept me off my feet.