Would I Go Back To Stockholm?
Most certainly! Yes! Although, I wouldn’t stay in the Stureplan Hotel again!
I’d probably try to get in Hotel Rival. It looks like I can get a room at a reasonable price for a couple of weeks ahead.
The hotel also knows its gluten-free, as it appeared did most of Stockholm.
Perhaps next time I go, it’ll be a stop-over on the way to see the bears!
Everybody needs to go to Stockholm once, just to see the Vasa.
From Stockholm To Copenhagen By Train
I left Stockholm for Copenhagen late in the morning.
The journey should have taken just over five hours but the train was half-an-hour late into the Danish capital. A hotel manager I spoke to, said that the trains are always late. But I couldn’t find any published statistics, like you see on British stations.
The Stockholm to Copenhagen line is not very spectacular, except for the amazing crossing between Malmo and Copenhagen on the double-deck Øresund Bridge.
The Øresund Line, which is the high-speed rail line between Malmo and Copenhagen, illustrates some of the problems of running trains between different countries. This section called Border Technicalities in the Wikipedia article on the line, illustrates the problem. The electrification, signalling and train running systems are all different.
At least England and Scotland have the same systems and we’re vaguely the same as the French, Belgians and Germans, with respect to high-speed rail.
But then Ireland, including the North, use a different gauge.
The Swedish high speed train, called the SJ 2000, that I used on the journey has the luxury of running on 19th Century lines between Stockholm and Malmo, that were built relatively straight. But it is not particularly fast, going at speeds comparable with our Inter City 125s from London to the West Country. Our trains are thirty years older and diesel powered, but comparisons like this illustrate how good was the design of the Inter City 125s.
Fotografiska
Fotografiska is Stockholm’s photographic museum. I like photography so I walked there from the station at Slussen. I must admit, I was drawn there by the adverts for a Helmut Newton exhibition all over the city.
Unfortunately, the city built a motorway, between the museum and the cliff face behind, so there are no buses. One of the staff told me, that the city is redeveloping the area and hasn’t made up its mind about the transport in the area.
The various exhibits were fascinating, but the Helmut Newton exhibition also included some portraits of the famous, including a striking one of Margaret Thatcher, which is shown here. I also like this quote from Helmut Newton.
Nothing has been retouched, nothing electronically altered. I photographed what I saw.
It is a good rule for a photographer, that they shouldn’t break.
There was also a restaurant with views across the city on the top floor. If I’d had more time, I’d have had lunch!
An Inclined Lift
In one of the stations I passed through on the Stockholm Metro, there was an inclined lift.
An Inclined Lift
Both Crossrail and the London Underground are installing some in the near future.
Hiss incidentally means lift and is easily remembered, if like me, you need the occasional pick-me-up.
A Walk At Hässelby Strand
After I’d seen the Vasa, I thought it would be nice for another walk. So I looked on the Stockholm Metro map and found a station called Hässelby Strand. If Strand means the same as it does in German, then it could be a beach. I’ve just checked and it is.
So I went and explored.
It was a very pleasant place by the water. Sadly, there didn’t seem to be a cafe for a drink.
A Walk And A Taste Of Stockholm
After checking out the tickets, I went for a walk with lunch thrown in using my Walk and Eat Guide.
The pictures tell the story of the walk.
I actually had lunch in Cafe Rival, which is in the hotel of the same name. Again there was gluten-free bread. I think, if I go to Stockholm again, I’ll try the Hotel Rival first.
Buying My Ticket To Copenhagen
The Swedish ticket machines appeared to be very comprehensive, but trying to buy the ticket to Copenhagen was very difficult, so in the end I queued up and bought it from a person, who was very helpful and spoke English better than myself.
Swedish Ticket Machines
My first problem, was that like the touch screens in IKEA at Edmonton, my fingers had the wrong dampness to make them work. But by changing to another machine, I was able to work the system.
Then I found the problem, that turned me towards buying a ticket from a person. Although, I was using the machine in English, the place names were still in Swedish. How many of those who speak English as a first language, know how to spell Copenhagen in Swedish.
I’ve always felt that every town or city, should only have one name and those that live there should choose it. That way, we would probably all know the town names that didn’t confuse.
What’s Wrong With A Large Map?
London, in common with many other cities, puts their city rail network on a large clear map.
Stockholm’s Interactive Metro Map
Stockholm Metro tries to be different and uses an interactive video map, which admittedly has other functions, but I found very difficult, as the station names were small. The information on the platforms is rudimentary, with no local maps or even a linear map of the line, which most metro systems seem to have.
Information On The Platform
But the two things, I found most annoying about the Stockholm Metro, was that all stations are labelled with large T’s and my tourist ticket had to be shown to the ticket office every time I entered the system.
I know the T stands for something like Tunnel-bahn, but most countries seem to use either M, U or as in London’s case, have a symbol recognisable all over the world.
My daily ticket, that I bought from the Tourist Office is being replaced, but it would have been so much better to have an electronic ticket, that most countries seem to have.
A Good Hotel, But!
I stayed in the Stureplan Hotel in Stockholm.
Hotel Stureplan, Stockholm
It was a good hotel, for what I paid, and I couldn’t complain about the position, staff or the food, where I even got gluten-free bread for breakfast.
But it had various faults that annoyed me.
The first and one of the most serious was the intermittent wi-fi. I couldn’t get it in my bedroom unless I connected first in the lobby that was on the way to the lift. Security on wei-fi doesn’t bother me, but this can’t be the most secure, if you have to use your device in the open.
I think the hotel had had a makeover from a designer. Look at this picture of the shampoo and shower gel.
Shampoo And Shower Gel
The only way to tell is to read the small writing on the back, which for me, means glasses. But as I don’t shower in my glasses, I couldn’t tell which was which, when I needed them. Anbd trhen there was the shower controls.
Unfathomable Shower Controls
it worked well, but which side was the water control and which was the temperature. The only way I worked it out, was by experiment, after giving it a good once over with my glasses. I still haven’t found a hotel shower as good as the digital Aqualiser Quartz, I had in Suffolk.
I think partly, my problem may well be my left hand, which doesn’t work that well and also because I need my glasses to decipher things like this. Surely, all controls should be obvious to someone who is virtually blind!
I wasn’t struck with the shower door, as water leaked underneath and made the floor slippery.
A Useless Shower Door
My balance is good for someone, who had a bad stroke, but I know quite a few people, who would have found the floor dangerous.
But it was the little touches that I didn’t like. The hotel seemed to have quite a few steps like this.
A Tricky Step
If my house can be designed with totally flat floors, surely a good hotel can. Luckily, I didn’t trip up badly.
I also didn’t like the tissues.
A Silly Box Of Tissues
With my rhinitis, it was just one good blow and they were in the bin. Not very green!
Welcome To Stockholm
I took the train into Stockholm from the airport at Arlanda and then walked to the hotel. I know cycling is good for you, but why do cyclists park their bikes everywhere, so that walking is virtually impossible?
Welcome To Stockholm
In fairness to Stockholm, a lot of building work was going on at the station and the walking path will probably be better in the future. There was the odd map along the route, but not as many as we now have in London. But some might say that London is overmapped. I wouldn’t!
The Anonymous Widower 