Theres something really pleasing about exploring new cities – especially when they are, like Stockholm, rather different to any cities you know already. Called the Venice of the North it is built around the meeting points of north and south landmasses in the centre of a considerable archipelago – some 24000 islands in total.
I popped into the city one evening last week, really as much to find out about trains as anything else – so I headed in on the overground ‘pendaltag’ or J-Train, getting off at T-Centralen for a walk around.
I found a weird cafe that from the outside looked rather run down and a bit grotty, but when you actually sat down inside it became clear it had been designed to look that way, very peculiar but also quite pleasant. Then back on the T-bana (‘tunnel train’) to Husby, the station nearest my hotel.
The on saturday I got a 24 hour ticket to give me a chance to explore properly. I started in Gamla Stan, the old town built on one of the main islands in the centre of the city. This is an area full of small streets and old buildings, though the sheer number of Americans drove me out of the area as soon as I’d had lunch.
Down to the waterfront where I discovered all sorts of oddnesses. Starting with a UN military band parading in front of their boat. Next was a ‘mods and rockers’ biker rally, which back home would have been an open invite for a riot but here passed off without any apparent bloodshed.
A little further along I discovered a wedding party boarding their boat, and beyond that was something europop which might or might not have been some members of Abba (it all sounds the same to me) celebrating the start of the Stockholm half marathon. Around the corner from there I found a wildlife photo exhibition.
I wandered some more around the city, encountering bits of road shut off for the marathon runners to pass.
Sunday I headed for Valhalla Avenue, which isn’t quite as exciting as it sounds, but I couldn’t not go, could I? It does contain both an olympic stadium (from 1912, I believe, so its rather smaller than any other such stadiums I’ve seen) and ‘Valhalla Grillen’, which seems to be where the Polis hang out while they’re waiting to be called to catch villains.
At the end of the avenue there are three standing stones, only I don’t think they’re stones but rather piece of concrete, marking the start of some parkland. Some parkland with Brazil Jacks Circus on it. Not now, its midday and I’m hungry and they’re not open, so maybe another time but they’ll probably have gone by then.
So back to the waterfront and I find a pair of ‘data obelisks’ “Data is supplied continuously to this obelisk by Stockholm Water Co”. Remarkably I can’t find anything about them on the net except for a mention on Page 28 of a .pdf file – perhaps I’ve just had a temporary lapse of google-fu.
Finally, time to head home, tired and ready for a rest.