Why won't they leave us alone? (Stockholm to Gothenburg, Sweden)

And so, dear reader, it was with fear and trepidation we departed Stockholm and dragged our bags towards Central Station. We had selected a smoother route, one that limited the cobblestones and small pavers. We made the station in good time and loitered near the platform from which our train would be departing. Seating was at a premium and if you got up to stretch your legs it was likely your spot would be taken before you had walked a few metres. Thankfully I like to roam around so, once Jayne was seated with our bags, I went in search of the mysterious platform 9. No luck. It remains a mystery.

Our train arrived on time, but it required cleaning for the next leg of the journey. We were, therefore, 20 minutes late leaving. While that was not a concern for us - we couldn't get into the hotel until 3pm anyway, there were plenty of people with connecting trains at Gothenburg that would be inconvenienced.

The high speed trains are fabulous and I still can't understand why Australia has not gone down this path. The thing of note on the journey was the guy across the aisle with his headphones on singing to himself. Funny. And annoying.

Gothenburg or Göteborg is another university town and is Sweden's second largest city. We are here for three days because I wanted to break up the journey from Stockholm to Copenhagen. Given the speed of the trains it probably wasn't necessary. In an ironic twist, we will need to change trains on the way to Copenhagen and the connecting train commenced its journey in Stockholm.

Interesting architecture everywhere.

We are staying in a hotel, the Radisson Blu Scandinavia. It is a popular chain over here and is also directly opposite central station. Despite Declan, our GPS, wanting to walk us down one side of the canal to turn and retrace our steps, I cleverly noted the hotel sign emblazoned in 3 metre high blue neon and headed directly there. I had decided to upgrade to a suite, given our baggage. Good decision.

Systembolaget

There is a lot to like about Sweden. Bottle shop or Systembolaget opening hours is not on the list. We dropped our bags, unpacked a few things, checked the map, grabbed the backpack and headed for the bottle shop. Should you ever travel this way, dear reader, and are in search of take home alcohol, the term to Google is 'liquor store'. Cheers America.

An insect hotel near the bottle shop.

Anyway the systembolaget was less than 10 minutes walk from the hotel through the Inner City past numerous shops, cafés and restaurants. The weather was predicted to be fine and we wandered our new locale, taking in the sights as we went. Sadly, there were KFC and McDonalds amongst the more interesting eateries.

As we passed the local market, noted for a later visit, it began to rain. Not heavily. Just enough to be annoying and ensure you would be uncomfortable. Not to worry, our destination was nearby and we could shelter there making our wine choices.

Good try. Fail. The bottle shop had closed at 3pm, as it was Saturday, and wouldn't reopen until Monday morning. I am uncertain if this is some puritanical religious bent tied to decades past or a clever ploy to get the locals out to eat and drink on weekends. If the latter, it worked for us.

Dinner 

A restaurant had already been selected prior to leaving the hotel so we navigated our way there. It was Italian of course. I have never seen so many Italian restaurants, with the possible exception of Italy. The rain had stopped, we arrived at the restaurant and were shown to our table by a delightful young woman who chatted to us about Gothenburg and things we could do. Especially as Sunday is a day when many places are closed.

The restaurant was one of those order at the table places that popped up everywhere during COVID in Australia. In Sweden they are going completely cashless and most places accept card only. Wouldn't that cause Bob Katter and Barnaby Joyce to have an apoplexy? Be worth it for that alone.

So we decided a long lunch drifting into dinner was required. We began with olives and wine and the order went through without a problem. We sat and chatted and watched people coming and going. Later I ordered our mains and the system would not accept my card. Curious. It worked an hour ago. Over to the counter to speak to the people. It wouldn't work manually either.

They didn't take Amex so we were limited in what we could do. Jayne came over and attempted to pay with her card. Also rejected. About 8 times just to reinforce the point. Back at the table I tried again using Apple Pay. Success! Who knows why or how. Dinner was on its way.

And when it finally arrived, disappointment. My pizza was OK. Uncut, but OK. What is with that? Jayne's carbonara was swimming in egg wash. Disgusting.

Day 2

When you're travelling overseas, dear reader, there are many ways to start a day badly. One is to open your email and discover your VISA card has been suspended due to suspicious activity. For perspective, we have been away for a month and although it's not my main card, it gets used where Amex is not accepted. It has, therefore, been used in England and Norway, but apparently Sweden is a totally sus country and it was is now locked.

The only solution? Phone Australia. Do not respond to the email. Phone. The sim card I purchased is data only and I've tried making calls over the net but it doesn't work. Thankfully Jayne's phone did and I called HSBC in Sydney, well it was a Sydney number. After the usual 10 minutes on hold, I got to discuss the issue with someone in the fraud team. 

It's a school. Not Hogwarts.

She asked me if I authorised a purchase for $181AUD and provided the trading name. Really? Trading names are not generally the name of the establishment where you spent the money. I told her I bought dinner at an Italian restaurant in Sweden and named the two amounts spent in SEK. "Oh," she said, "You're in Sweden." This woman's progeny will never work on rockets.

Anyway, card restored it was time to search for breakfast. A potential challenge on a Sunday so we headed for Haga, a tourist area.

Haga

It was still early by Swedish standards and even the tourist area was quiet. There were a few cafés open and all were well patronised, as if to prove to the authorities that Sunday trading would be a beneficial move.

Reflective.

Finally we found a table in the third café and joined the queue to order. We tend not to eat much when we travel, a light breakfast and one meal usually suffices. The usual double espressos, a croissant and Jayne had something sweet, I can't remember the name. 

We didn't stay to explore Haga because we were returning the next day. Today we were going to the Museum of Natural History. Why? Because museums are open on Sundays, unlike the rest of Sweden and closed on Mondays.

It looked harmless enough from below.

Museum of Natural History

Admittedly it is a while since I've been to a museum of this sort. It is also billed as a museum of taxidermy. Their big claim to fame? A stuffed blue whale. I kid you not. Now I'm no taxidermist, so I'm not really in a position to criticise, but ... well, you'll see from the pictures.

The walk to museum passed the Skansen Kronan, a 17th century fortress. It is on top a hill of course with a great view. It can wait till the walk home.

The Skansen Kronan.

Walking through the doors of the museum was akin to wandering into a day care centre. It was all light and movement and screaming children and ambivalent parents. It appears museums are very popular on Sunday.

The magpies are really colourful.

The lockers were all taken which meant carrying our bags and coats. We climbed the spiral staircase to the top floor to work our way back down. In short, it is the museum of taxidermy. There were a few skeletons and some hands-on explanatory displays for kids. Otherwise it was stuffed animals.

Even the bear is looking away.

Stuffed birds, mammals, fish, assorted sea creatures, you get the idea. The museum, the oldest in Gothenburg, opened in 1905 and some of the exhibits looked like they were original. Particularly the birds, losing feathers, faded colour and a generally moth-eaten appearance.

The two floors of exhibits generated that wonderful echo sound that little children so enjoy to make. Some so much, they had what looked and sounded like a 'scream off' with other children. Yes, this was fun, dear reader.

An anorexic giraffe looking in a mirror.

And then the whale, the prize exhibit. I photographed it from above as well as from ground level. The lines on the side of the whale turned out be where it was cut open. To reseal it they used screws. It's head had three very large hinges. I assume this is for educational purposes so you can look inside. I thought it was just weird and unattractive and ultimately it didn't look real. Which also brings us to the title of this post, Why won't they leave us alone that timeless 1986 classic from Dot and the Whale. Do yourself a favour.

Hinges and screws.

After passing through the mammal exhibit, replete with a giraffe, elephant, moose, buffalo, bear and Australian marsupials. We exited to take a wander in the adjacent perimeter of the botanic garden.  The gardens would no doubt look far more impressive in the summer and the scale of the space seems akin to our national parks as there is 360 kms of cycling track within its precinct.

Skansen Kronan

Our return journey took us back to the fortress, built in 1687-9, that lies in the heart of the city. It is perched on a hilltop, accessible by a zig-zag pathway. It is steep to access on one side and there is a more meandering path on the other. The view from the top was overrated. It looked across the city towards the storm clouds in the distance. 

Nice day for a walk.

There were many locals out walking their pets and not all of them were dogs. We were amazed to see people walking their cats, not on a leash. It was tempting to stay and watch what was about to unfold because two dogs were waiting around the next bend in the path.

Cat walking. No leash.

We turned for Norstad, the large shopping mall near the hotel in search of the yellow all weather coat I didn't buy in Tromsø. Once again to no avail. We found a Pandora store although Jayne didn't like the specifically Swedish offering so there was no purchase.

Mini golf. No nerds out today.

Back at the hotel our room hadn't been serviced so we adjourned to the bar with the computer to sort out our last leg of unbooked travel, Prague to Vienna. After considerable research looking at the two different train companies and whether it was better to book through Prague or Vienna, I finally made a decision. I booked through the Czechia site because it allowed you to select seats where the Austrian site did not and the private train company couldn't guarantee us seats together. Stressful, but done.

Retiring for the evening we discovered our room had been ignored and had not been serviced. Oh, well, we'll discuss that on the way tomorrow.

Until next time.

Runaway (Stockholm, Sweden, part 2)

Our host had put together an online guidebook covering the sights to see as well as the basics like cafés, bars and restaurants. Today we tried Fabrique for breakfast. It is a chain but had good reviews from others online, one a Frenchman, so we thought why not? It didn't live up to the standards of yesterday's café, but for a chain it was very good. Although not good enough to see us return tomorrow.

Lots of narrow laneways.

There is probably enough to see in the old town for the time we are here. Again, because we are out of peak season, dear reader, many attractions have limited hours or have reduced offers of tours. Stockholm in summer looks like a real possibility in 2025. Having decided to stay local on Gamla Stan, following breakfast, we strolled to the palace.

The place where the nobility hang out.

The Arrival

Signposting has, at varying stages proved to be somewhat of a challenge. Finding the entry to the palace was another one. Jayne had decided the entrance was where a guard had been strategically placed. Close, but no. We were directed up a set of stairs. There were a small sign at the bottom of the stairs or at the top where they finished. There was only one option to move forward and as we rounded the corner of the building, we were met by a rope prohibiting further progress and a soldier with a rifle to reinforce the point.

Nothing seems to explain this place.

It was too early for the changing of the guard. Yet the soldiers had all marched out of their barracks and were standing in formation. We watched and waited. Around the corner came two horse drawn carriages. Excitement. Is it the king? From the second carriage, an imperious white glove waved to Jayne and only to Jayne. Well, that's her story.

Jayne's friend waving to her. Look closely.

A set of doors opened in the wall of the palace and the carriages disappeared. The soldiers then completed their routine and marched back to the barracks. Well, marched is not quite correct. It started as a march and finished as a high stepping jog. Most amusing. More on that later.

Run away. Run away.

The Palace or Kungliga Slottet

The excitement over, the ropes were dropped and we joined the queue for entry into the palace. It being out of season, there were no guided tours during the week. The number of rooms available for access was also limited but there was enough to keep us occupied for about four hours.

I said, "it's over there".

There were three areas open to the public: a series of rooms in the palace itself, the treasury which was in a downstairs section and an area called Three Crowns Museum, also below ground level.

The palace apartments are divided into the the guest accommodation and the royal family rooms and offices. There are some state rooms with regalia and award displays, as well as the ubiquitous gift shop, in between the two sections, connected by ornate marble staircases. 

You could just lie on the floor.

We started off at our own pace with the audio guide but very quickly were assailed by a rather large school excursion of teenagers who were being afforded a tour by a very verbose guide. She took forever to extoll the features and anecdotes of several of the spaces, while we waited to for them move on so we could read and listen to the information provided in English. To try to go ahead was pointless because the tour was not stopping in every room and we would be leap frogged again. 

It's silver but you'd need a blanket.

Eventually we overtook them in the state room and headed straight into the long hall that has been modelled on the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles. We could definitely see the inspiration at work in the Karl XI Gallery, but like the Schönbrunn Palace in Austria which is also supposed to have been built to rival Louis XIV's masterpiece, this was no competition for the real thing (although the mirrors were of a better standard).

Another Versailles copy.

After a patient wait, the bored teenagers disappeared although their teachers remained behind to chat to the verbose guide while their charges wandered off unsupervised. Hope they didn't graffiti some priceless royal artefacts. Eventually the hall was vacant and we could admire the space and take photographs unhindered before heading down to the palace forecourt for the scheduled changing of the guards at 12:15pm.

A chandelier from beneath. Almost got it.

A small crowd had gathered in the roped off areas and we selected our vantage point near another young soldier who was tasked with crowd control to keep the pathways clear.  After a P.A. welcome, the trumpeter and drummer appeared and right on time, the regiment came forth with much marching in formation to eventually make the required change of guard.  Having watched the previous military ritual that accompanied the arrival of the coaches (disappointingly bearing an ambassador not the king, we had been told), we were ready for what we considered the slightly undignified exit that is part of the ceremony.

Today's title is courtesy to the undignified running away of the Swedish guard. Runaway by The Corrs.

Three Crowns

Once this was all captured on camera, we headed back inside the palace to go down into the Three Crowns Museum. Interestingly the Three Crown Museum did not contain three crowns. Or even one in fact. It provided a potted history of the castle, its birth, death in 1697 after a major fire and resurrection into its present form. The three crowns refer to the Swedish coat of arms which bears three crowns.

Much of the original palace was built of wood with peat rooves. A bonfire waiting to happen. To combat this, the use of peat was banned at one point and stone was supposed to be used in construction of the buildings. But kings, being ultimate, all powerful rulers, could change their minds. And one did, authorising the last pre-fire extensions to be completed in wood. Hindsight is wonderful but not helpful.

The other fire prevention strategy was hope. No, just kidding, it was the appointment of a fire watcher. Just like the education system in Australia, it is a position created to allow the blame to be shifted away from those who are really responsible. And shift it did. Following the fire, the chief fire watcher and a number of his assistants were sentenced to running the gauntlet.

This consisted of running between two rows of soldiers who were armed with sticks or weapons to beat you as you ran, walked, staggered past. The chief fire watcher was sentenced to 7 runs which is actually 14 because you need to return to the point of commencement. It doesn't record how many soldiers are involved but the diorama suggested at least 50 on each side. Anders Andersen, the fire watcher, did not survive. To be fair though he had deserted his post and gone to get some dinner. I hope he enjoyed it.

The Treasury

The treasury was around the otherside of the palace; a walk that took us back onto the streets of Gamla Stan. It is here that the crowns are kept. As well as other items of royal importance, historical significance and value, (orbs, sceptres, swords etc). This by general standards is a very small display and we negotiated it in less than 15 minutes.

It was then time to return to our apartment for a rest, followed by walking the tourist loop of Gamla Stan to ensure that in our random meanderings, we had not missed any sights of note. We hadn't.

Bistrot Marie

Then it was time to go to dinner at one of our host's recommended restaurants, Bistrot Marie. Jayne was excited. She'd read the reviews and apparently their version of Swedish meatballs was to die for. Maybe that is what the chief fire watcher ate that fateful night.

Another Great Tit.

Nothing is far away in the old town and the restaurant was about a 5 minute walk. We were comfortably seated when Jayne discovered there were no Swedish meatballs on the menu. Horror! The waitress assured us that the Wallenbergare was similar. We ordered that and a freshly baked baguette.

The discussion around wine was something else. Issues with delivery meant the wine menu was inaccurate. We discussed having a white and our lovely hostess insisted we try the wine before making a decision. We tried two whites for two rejections and settled on an Italian Barbaresco which complemented the giant veal meatball beautifully.

If you have to say it, it's not true.

Day 4

On our wanderings yesterday we discovered another place for breakfast, Panem and that is where we headed this morning. As we arrived four women (insert country of prejudice) walked in front of us. There was one person working behind the counter. They discussed what to have. They ordered. They changed their order. They looked at other options. Changed their order and changed it back it again. Asked to pay all together and then when the bill was presented asked if they could pay separately. Then decided they wanted the bill split evenly into four, which the computerised/itemised register would not allow. Totally unconcerned about the queue growing behind them.

Pippi is everywhere

It was, however, worth the wait. Great pastries and excellent coffee. Warmed and sustained, we headed for Slussen on the other side of the island and the ferry to Djurgården to visit the Vasa Museum. A 15 minute trip that cost me 14 cents.

Vasa Museum

The area around the Vasa Museum houses a number of other museums. One has its focus on ship wrecks, another on Vikings, a third the Swedish drinking culture, and, of course the ABBA museum. A pity we didn't have time to check out the last one. Next time.

Our ferry.

The Vasa is a warship from 1628 that was commissioned by King Gustav II Adolf. Its claim to fame, aside from being inside a museum and not on the water, is that it sank on it's maiden voyage. I'm not even sure we can use the term voyage. How far does one need to travel for the it to be a voyage? The Vasa sailed 100 metres and then descended to Davey Jones' locker.

Towards the bow.

After several attempts at salvage, it was finally refloated in the 1960s and now lives happily in the museum. The museum itself is a bit of a one trick pony but they milk it for all its worth. There are documentary style movies, static displays, an audio guide and explanations attached to the various artefacts. 

A Lego version of the Vasa.

The star of the show is the Vasa itself. It is an amazing piece of work, even if it didn't sail that well. Without going into great detail, the King approved a ship of gigantic proportions with two gun decks that physics decreed would capsize in the slightest swell because it was not broad or deep enough. I'm not a boat builder but it was pretty obvious. How the master boat builder earned his title is beyond me. It was well built. It was just never going to sail.

In the resulting inquest into the disaster, in which 30-50 people drowned, it was verified that the ship had been built to specifications approved by the King. Surprisingly, unlike the Palace fire, no one was found to be at fault...

Nicely decorated the aft of the ship.

Another four hours burnt in a museum. We love them and given the uncertainty around the weather it is a great way to spend the day. And there are so many more to explore next time.

Not on the agenda for our return to Stockholm is the amusement park Grüna Lund. I almost wet my pants looking at the roller coasters over the fence. And they weren't even operating.

Just why?

We decided pre-dinner drinks would be in order and retired to the Corner Bar. It is on a corner and is tiny. The drinks from behind the bar also service the sushi restaurant in the arcade. They had a couple of Australian wines on the menu, we opted for a French rosé and some people watching.

Tomorrow we travel from Stockholm to Gothenburg with Sj trains. What could possibly go wrong?

Until next time.