Thursday, February 20, 2014

Herring Two Ways…



This year for my birthday we jetted off to Stockholm, a city I have had on my (long) list of places to visit for a while. Now that Marc and Heather live there it seemed to be a perfect time to go.

Sweden has been basking in the warmer weather that has been bringing the rains to the UK and so we did not see much of the expected snow.

It is a compact city with a good public transport system that means the many islands that make up Stockholm don’t stop you from getting around with ease.

We visited the Vasa Museum to see the huge royal flagship that sank on its maiden voyage and spent a third of a century at the bottom of the sea before being raised and preserved in its custom built museum.

Gamla Stan – the old town has lovely cobbled streets full of tourist shops, squares with grand buildings such as the Nobel museum and royal palace.

Fotografiska – is a photograph gallery created out of an old customs building. It houses several galleries with different artists on display such as -
Jill Greenberg – Works 2001 – 2011
Corinne Mercadier – Wicked Gravity

At the top is a lovely café that sells fabulous kanelbullar (I recommend the cardamom toped one) and offers a sweeping panoramic view back across the water towards the city and the old town.

The Swedish History Museum has a great collection displayed in an interesting manner. We spent time in the

We stumbled upon the Hedvig Eleonora Church as we tried to (unsuccessfully) meet up with Heather after work on day. It is a lovely bright and surprisingly bling church.

The Ostermalms Saluhall was our planned destination. Here we strolled through the market stalls displaying a stunning array of foodstuffs and mouth-watering delicacies. Eventually it was too much and we had to stop and have lunch. Cakes were bought and carefully transported back to share with Heather at home.

To celebrate their wedding anniversary Marc and Heather took us out to eat at Nalen, a modern Swedish restaurant where the service was impeccable and the food divine (I had to indulge in a bit of ‘food porn’ photography). It was a lovely evening.

During our stay we did try a few local delicacies including herring, elk, kottbullar (meatballs), kanelbullar (baked rolls, cinnamon, cardamom), all quite delicious though as is everything in Stockholm, quite expensive too.

We had a brilliant time with Marc & Heather and we are hoping to revisit for one summer in the near future.

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