-- 48 HOURS IN THE CITY AND ONE MINI ADVENTURE --
Hello Stockholm!
Next up is a couple of days in the Capital of our home country. We are going to explore the hipster areas of Södermalm, Wander Djurgården and get away the city out in the Archipelago.
Happy Travels!
Psst. Print the map and the mini guide to follow the exploration while reading.
DAY 1.
We are waking up in our cell at Långholmen. Yes, Långholmen Hotel is actually an old prison that closed down in 1975. If you do not want to enjoy breakfast out, the buffé they are serving at the hotel is yummy. Långholmen has a great location for our Stockholm adventures and in summer it fits even better since we can go for a swim here at the cliffs in the middle of the city. We wander around the Island looking at at the beautiful wooden boats that lies between the island and Södermalm and take a morning swim before heading to SoFo (South of Folkungagatan at Södermalm) for breakfast.
We are having breakfast at Greasy Spoon. We love their Bennies and their Brûléed Grapefruit. The personell here is the nicest ever!
We love wandering and getting to know new neighborhoods when traveling. Today we are checking Södermalm out. This is the area where we spend most of our time in Stockholm. Södermalm is a common hang out for hipsters and is popular for the trend awareness here and for good food and drinks. We start of with SoFo and the area around Nytorget. If you walk Åsögatan east from Renstiernas gata just before kvastmakeretrappan (broom makers stairs) you will find some of the oldest buildings in the city. Here are some tiny really old residential wooden houses situated.
Walk Kocksgatan, Åsögatan, Bondegatan, Skånegatan and the cross-streets in the area between Renstiernas gata and Götgatan. Don't miss Grandpa for mixed Scandinavian fashion and things for every occasion - great shop for gifts, 6/5/4 for surf fashion both on and off the board, sneakernstuff for limited edition sneakers, acne - one of our favorite Swedish brands, Stutterheim for tailored raincoats, K17 for tasteful men clothing, Mini Rodini for well designed organic toddler and kid clothes in awesome prints, Saltå kvarn for baked goods and to buy the best designed flour, seeds and other food products. Chokladfabriken for yummy chocolates, ice cream in the summer and Pärlans Konfektyr for the best home made toffee. When the legs feel heavy, sit down at the lawn of Nytorget. Do not forget to bring a swedish Kanelbulle from either Saltå Kvarn or the bakery at il Cafe. You can bring coffee or buy it at the tiny coffee shop on the lawn called Pingvin.
When hungry for lunch, head to Meatballs for the People for some Swedish organic meatballs. This is Swedens first and only meatballeria. You can eat lunch and dinner here or just buy one of their about 10 different kind of meatballs made for cook at home as meatballs made from rooster, moose, ox, boar, pork, vegetarian, salmon, rain deer and turkey. Every day for lunch they serve different meatball of the day. Everything is super yummy, but we still prefer eat our meatballs with mashed potatoes, brown creamy sauce and lingonberries. If the weather is great you can instead wander down to Slussen and order Strömming to go at Nystekt Strömming (a food cart) and enjoy it down by the water in Gamla Stan for example.
View over Stockholm and the awesome photo museum Fotografiska from Södermalm
After lunch its time to wander Götgatsbacken, the part of Götgatan from Medborgarplatsen to St Paulsgatan. Here you find GRANIT - a great, good priced homeware store mainly with things in black, grey and white in typical Scandinavian design. A lot of the things in our apartments are from here. You also have to visit the Brunogallerian with stores as Aplace with mixed Scandinavian fashion brands, Whyred and Hope. When taking right at St Paulsgatan, stop for a fika (our favorite Swedish world meaning to meet someone for a tea or coffee accompanied with something sweet) at KAFFE (coffee in Swedish). Try their seven kind of cookies or their toast with chanterelles or Camembert cheese and Cloudberry jam.
Walk up Mariaberget for the incredible views of the city. Bring an ice cream from 18 Smaker that makes amazing ice cream with a wide variety of flavors (serving 18 at the time), for example with the taste of cinnamon roll, lingonberry, rice ice cream and earl grey & mint. When beer o´clock, pop in to Omnipollos Hatt. This is the bar of Omnipollo, one of the local craft breweries serving their beer and pizzas from Pizza Hatt known for their sourdough pizza. The place is really good looking too.
At Södermalm, we also love wandering Krukamakargatan and Hornsgatan with stores as Nitty Gritty, Judit & Herrjudit (two top class vintage stores, one for women and one for men), Filippa K second hand and Brandstationen. Lets walk all the way to Hornstull, mentioned as Swedens Brooklyn. Hornstull is an awesome bar and restaurant area and on Sundays between May and September the area host the very popular Hornstull Marknad with a mix of food trucks, vintage, art, farmers markets and more.
Time for cocktails! Indulge these at Tjoget at their Bodega or Linje and when you are getting hungry continue to Barbro under the bridge. Barbro is serving fantastic asian food, we really like their sushi. You can choose to enjoy the food in the restaurant or if you are lucky they are also showing a film downstairs and you can enjoy your food and really good cocktails while watching the movie sitting in a comfy coach.
Lets end the night at Underbron/Trädgården, our favorite Stockholm nightclub situated under Skansbron and has an outdoor area where really good DJs is playing and you can play ping pong or boule and sitt in the social stairs. During winter time there is still a really good club in the indoor areas.
DAY 2.
Start the day at Taverna Brillo right at Stureplan. We love buying breakfast over the counter in their bakery and charcuterie area. Visit Brillo to enjoy a proper breakfast or lunch, an ice cream at the ice cream counter, have a pizza in the pizzeria, have a festive meal, a night out or buy food and delicacies to enjoy at home.
Another great spot in the area to have coffee at is at the bicycle bar Bianchi Café & Cycles. You can buy a bike, fix your bike or just enjoy a really good coffee or glas of prosecco here.
Make your way to Strandvägen and wander it out to Djurgården. You can also rent a Stockholm City Bike which are situated all over Stockholm, you can use them for 3 hours at a time. A 3 days pass is only 165 SEK. Along Strandvägen which follows the water of one of Stockholms fancier areas you can enjoy the views of Stockholm city and the old ships anchored along the street that also contains the home of people. Svenskt Tenn is a must visit at Strandvägen. It is a Swedish interior design company started in 1924 by Estrid Ericson and Josef Frank. Here you can find a lot of great things to bring home as tea from their Tea Room where you also can enjoy afternoon tea, fabrics, cushions and other things with their famous patterns and everything else you need for designing your home.
Its easy to spend some time at Djurgården, there is a lot to see. One of our favorite getaways from the city is Rosendals Trädgård. Have lunch here and wander the gardens and greenhouses. There is also a nice little shop.
When back to the city, bike out to Skeppsholmen and have a drink at the bar on Chapman. Chapman is a late 1800s ship now hosting a hostel and a bar. To sit here indulging a coffee or a cold beer while looking out over Stockholm old town and the castle and see boats go but is one of our favorite pleasures Friday afternoons after work.
Lets have dinner at Operakällarens bakficka, ’The Hip Pocket’, which is the less fancy part of the very well known Operakällaren. At The Hip Pocket you sit at the super cosy bar, seeing when the food is cooked and you can enjoy a good variety of Swedish comfort food or ’husmanskost’ as you say it in Sweden. Every day a dish of the day is served. Our go-to is as always the Swedish meatballs but you can also enjoy other old classic Swedish dishes as herring, shrimp sandwich and salmon.
After dinner, lets have a drink! Either at Tweed in Old Town or at Katarina Ölkafé at Södermalm. Tweed is situated inside the restaurant Djuret. It’s a cozy drink oasis like a much padded inner pocket. In this tweed-clad comfort parlor, you can sink into the well stuffed Chesterfield armchairs and indulge in a moment (or an entire evening) of alcohol romance.
DAY 3, time for a mini adventure.
There are tons of mini adventures around Stockholm. One thing that you cant miss when in Stockholm is to explore the archipelago. The archipelago is the largest in Sweden with its 24,000 island and islets. For a one day adventure one of our favorits is Grinda.
If you're not in the mood for Grinda our other alternative is a visit to the rad museum Artipelag. The name Artipelag is a combination of Art, Activities and Archipelago. This is also a perfect adventure for autumn or winter.
Let us start the day with breakfast at Pom & Flora. The people working here is the nicest in town and the coffee, the baked goods, the home made jams and their preserved veggies to put on the sandwiches are all absolutely perfectly made. The tiny place is also decorated to perfection. We love spending lazy weekend mornings sitting outside in the sun watching trendy people.
photo credit: nevernotgoing.com
STOCKHOLM ARCHIPELAGO - GRINDA
The adventure starts at Stockholm Strömkajen where we board the boat. If you are lucky you get a ride with Norrskär which is one of the oldest steamboats made in 1910. The ferry ride takes about 90 minutes and the view during the ride is spectacular. You can usually buy coffee, drinks and Swedish sweets onboard.
Start with a walk to Klubbudden, a peninsula with a great view. The walk there is beautiful through the woods. On the way back to Wärdshuset you will pass some quaint farming areas. At Wärldshuset you can have something really nice to eat either up at the inn or down at the waterfront. And if you want more activity you can rent kayaks, play volleyball, take a swim or use the floating sauna. If you want to keep the calm feeling you get out here, stay the night. Either at Wärdshuset or at Grinda Vandrarhem, there is also place to camp.
ARTY ARTIPELAG
Artipelag is situated in spectacular surroundings at a cliff in the typical pine forest of the Stockholm Archipelago. The museum is designed by architect Johan Nyrén. You can take the ferry from Stockholm city here and enjoy the views on the way. You can also drive or take the bus, or actually anchor with your own boat at the very own dock of the museum.
The large art halls are stunning and the big glass walls make it integrated with the pine forest and water surrounding the museum in a beautiful and tasteful way. There is usually at least one of the halls used for art exhibitions and then the other hall can be used for everything you can think of as dance shows, concerts or as a skate park. The surroundings are made for indulging. You can walk up on the roof of the museum building, walk different trails in the beautiful coast nature, have a pic-nic and swim the waters. There is also two very good restaurants in the building where you can enjoy a fika, their dessert buffet, a good lunch or one of their summer dinners.
When back in the city lets have dinner at Nyfiken Gul. This is a quirky place down at Skanstull at Södermalm where you order your meet (or veggies) raw and BBQ it your self. This is a favorite spot for warm summer evenings.
After dinner lets make it over the bridge of danvikstull for playing boule and have a couple of drinks. This will be our end of a great Stockholm weekend!
photo cred: eric wigardt
Our best tips of what to bring home from Stockholm:
Beautiful things to your home with a long history of Stockholm design
Svenskt Tenn
Swedish/Tunisian home decor
House of Rym
Swedish Fashion
Whyred, Acne, Hope, Carin Wester, Filippa K, Nudie, Minimarket, House of Dagmar
You cant come home without a single garment from some of the Swedish design houses
Rain Jacket
Stutterheim
The perfect mix of old fisherman ware and tailored jackets
Knäckebröd (crisp bread)
Try Pyramidbröd and Leksands Fäbodknäcke
You cant visit Sweden without trying the every day bread for all Swedes
Chocolate
Chokladfabriken
Also try their ice cream!
Swedish candy
Pärlans Kola or just Candy in bulk from the closest supermarket
