Our Town

We are an easy walk to the center of one of the many suburbs of Stockholm. Ours is a lively town with over 50 stores in the center, other towns we’ve driven through are much smaller, or more run-down. About 15 minutes away there is a larger town with a regular shopping mall including an H&M. We have two groceries, the COOP where we shop most and another slightly smaller grocery that has more reliable produce. There is also a fruit and vegetable seller that sets up in the middle of town.
We have a number of restaurants including a couple of pizza places, Chinese – Thai, and a nicer restaurant advertising sushi.

The groceries are open from 9 – 21:00, the other stores from 10 to 18:00. On Saturdays the stores close at 14:00. There is a hardware store, bookstore – toy store, library, the Pressbyråer, a news agent where you buy train tickets, a couple of banks, hairdresser, some small clothing stores, post office, liquor store, and ice cream store.

Throughout the center there are little play areas for kids, mostly pretty old and needing some paint, but fun just the same. Near the library there is a neat labyrinth made of stones and a large grassy area with a bandstand. There is also a large gas station that has a nice convenience store.

As I posted earlier, the drivers are ultra-polite. There is a law that while on streets with a speed of less than 50 kilometres drivers stop to let pedestrians cross in cross walks. Coming from DC this is the hardest thing for me to get use to. We walk each morning and I can’t believe that the traffic stops to let us cross. You don’t have to stop and look; the drivers actually STOP before you even get to the street. This makes it very nice walking with kids. There are bike and walking paths all over and we pass a rune stone on our way into town.

Across from the center there is a pretty church, not too old, maybe mid-19th century, but very quaint. It backs up to a lake with paths all around. We are in an old kommun (our municipal district) and we have a number of runestones, burial grounds and other sites around our town.

I hope that you don't give up on Birka. We were there earlier this week and they have an excellent dramatic tour, as well as a more regular tour and a museum. If you are interested in the time period (pre-Christian Sweden), you really should not miss it. I imagine you know that there are two trips daily from Stockholm -- one at 9:30 and one at 13:15, covered by the Stockholm a la Carte Card -- maybe by the Stockholm Card also (I'm not sure). They leave from the docks near the City Hall. The early one returns you to Stockholm around 17:00 and the later one around 20:00 or so.

Stockholm – Junibacken and Fjärdholmarna Island

After much deliberation we decided to get a 3-day transit pass (SEK 180) rather than a Stockholm Card (SEK 540). While we love museums, we just couldn’t imagine going to enough museums to justify the more expensive Stockholm Card. The transit card also provides entry to Grona Lund Tivoli, the Kaknäs Tower, and the Transport Museum, half price to Skansen, and the ferry from Tivoli to Slussen.

Our town is located on the Roslagsbanan commuter train line. It takes about 20 minutes to get into Stockholm where we change to the Tunnelbana, the subway. There are two trains each hour and they have a conductor to check your tickets and answer questions. Coming from the States, where public transportation is not too efficient I am always amazed at how well other countries transport systems work..

We visited Sweden two years ago and spent four days in Stockholm. The boys had visited Junibacken, a children’s museum based on Pippi Longstocking and other Swedish children’s literature. I think they have fuzzy memories of it and they really wanted to return so we made this our first stop in Stockholm. We just finished the first Pippi book and are working through the second, so it was especially fitting.

Junibacken, as with many of the Stockholm sites, is on Djurgården, just a short walk, tram, or bus from the center of Stockholm. We decided to walk today because the weather was so pretty. The focal point of the museum is a ride that carries you through many different storybook scenes. There is narration in different languages and the scenes are very well done. Both kids really like it a lot, and we did too. The ride ends at Pippi’s house where kids can play and explore. There is a second play area based on another book. We arrived just in time to see a skit about Pippi’s birthday; we had just read that chapter on the train this morning! Our kids love Junibacken, but today it was crowded and hectic, especially compared to our last visit in March.

I had hoped to visit the Vasa Museum today, but we didn’t finish Junibacken until 12:45 and with lunch I didn’t think we could easily make the English language film at 1:30, so we’ll save that for tomorrow. We had a quick lunch outside at the Amiralen Café and then caught the ferry to Nyboplan. We thought this was part of our free ferry service and in fact the man let us on for free and then told us at the end of the trip this was not the right ferry. The free ferry with our transit pass only runs from Tivoli to Slussen, oops.

We decided to visit Fjärdholmarna Island since the day was so pretty. It is only a 20 minute boat ride and there were a couple of shops for us girls, while the boys played on the large pirate ship playground, looked at the exhibit of traditional boat building, and found some old naval guns on the rocks. Fjärdholmarna was owned by the navy for many years and is now part of the Stockholm City Park. We had a lovely drink outside at Fjäderholmarnas Krog and caught the ferry back.

The highlight of my day was having dinner at Serwito, a small Italian restaurant near where we stayed on our last trip. It was as good as I remembered and the staff so nice, especially to a family traipsing in after a day of touring. We had wonderful pasta, good wine and then caught our train home.

SandyBrit, according to Grandma Rachel Ray says to bring the water to a boil turn off and let the eggs sit (I don't know how long). Then you shake the boiled eggs in the pot to crack them. The first morning Grandma made them one of the eggs had cracked while boiling so when she shook them she made scambled eggs in the pot, it was really funny.

Our house is decorated in Swedish style, lots of light wood and clean lines. The floors AND ceilings are all wood and they have rag rugs on the floors. We've seen these in many Swedish houses we've been into. There are many plants and our large yard has a cherry tree and lots of flowers. The fridge has no freezer, although it is a full size fridge, the freezer is large and located in the back of the house. We had to find the icecube trays and make some icecubes when we arrived, guess they don't use as much ice as we are use to. We have a washer and dryer, separate room for ironing, and a lovely kitchen with windows and large country table.

I love having the computer access, and the washer/dryer is key traveling with kids, even if the European washers take forever. We have to water the plants and mow the lawn, but they are doing the same for us. They also have a very sweet cat that we feed. He is an outside cat and mostly keeps to himself.

We've been so busy with Stockholm that I haven't had the time to post each night. I'll catch up the report now that we are back home. The last week was certainly exciting -- stay tuned!

sprin2

Looking forward to the rest of your report.

Was this the first time that you have done a home exchange?

Did the Swedish family share their thoughts on their holiday in your home, Washington, DC.

Thanks very much for sharing.

Sandy

Thank you for sharing an interesting experience.

Stockholm Vasa Museum and NK

Since we had the 3-day transit pass we spent the next 2 days in Stockholm. On day 2 we visited the Vasa Museum while Grandma spent the day at NK, Stockholm’s premier department store. It is right downtown, found under the tall NK clock. It has a beautiful house wares department, some nice restaurants and cafes, floors of fashionable clothing, a nice bookstore with an English section, and large sewing department. Sewing is big in Sweden, there are many fabric and knitting stores, and our house has a room for sewing and ironing. NK doesn’t have a beauty shop and grandma had to go next door to get her hair done.

We caught the tram from Norrmalmstorg, these old trams take you to Djurgarden and are a popular way to get between central Stockholm and this popular area. There are also buses that make the route and we were followed by bus 44. The tram and buses were very crowded here and as we got more comfortable with the bus lines we discovered that it is easier to catch a bus from elsewhere

The Vasa Museum was much more crowded this trip than our previous trip in March 03. There were many tour groups and there was a short line to purchase tickets. We were able to see the very good film in English and spent a while gazing at the large boat. We returned primarily to view the new exhibit about the people who died during the sinking. They have reanalyzed the skeletons uncovered during the excavation and have a small section devoted to these individuals. It was interesting. The kids loved the museum, especially the section where you can walk through a simulation of the gun decks. We ate lunch at their restaurant and I highly recommend it, good Swedish food sitting outside overlooking the water. It was not as crowded as I had feared given the numbers of people in the museum. The icebreaker, St. Eric, and a light ship are docked by the museum and the tickets to the Vasa include entrance to these two boats. I don’t think the tour groups are given time to visit these as they were practically empty.

As we took the tram back to pick up Grandma it started to rain and we popped into the very large tourist information center across from NK on Hamngatan. They have a nice shop and are well staffed to answer questions and provide information.

We had drinks in the middle of Norrmalmstorg at a 2 story café called Zanzibar, which is highly regarded for espresso drinks. We scored great seats upstairs looking out at the square and the kids loved this. Alas, Zanzibar scores less highly for drinks, they ran out of tonic and their beer selection was limited. We wandered into a forgettable Japanese / Chinese restaurant on Kungsgatan (mostly because the littler boy had to use the bathroom) for dinner.

Stockholm -- Grona Lund Tivoli
This is one of the prettiest settings for an amusement park that I have seen. It is perched on Djurgarden’s shore, with a beautiful view of Stockholm. After seeing it from the ferry boats for two days the boys begged to go. Our 3-day transit passes provided free admission but once inside each ride costs additional money. We got armbands for the boys (235 SEK) allowing them unlimited rides and a packet of tickets so dad and I could ride some. We arrived when it opened at 11 and stayed until it got pretty crowded around 4. We could have stayed longer and the boys really had a great time.
After our fun day we took the ferry to Slussen between Gamla Stan (Old Town) and the island of Sodermalm. This is the ferry included with our transit pass and it runs continuously during the day. It docks right by Grona Lund and is a quick ride cross town. I had hoped to have a drink at Gondolen but it was not open yet so we settled into a nearby café on Sodermalmstorg with a great view of the boats and traffic.
After our refreshment we headed to Gotgatan, one of Sodermalm’s shopping streets, for some window shopping. There is a good international magazine shop at the top of the hill on Gotagatan so we were able to stock up on some gossip magazines and Grandma’s beloved Herald Tribune.
We wandered down the hill and had a very nice dinner in the square across from the Medborgarplatsen metro stop called Louis. The square is lined with places to eat and drink and they all looked good. At the outdoor spots they have blankets on chairs or in a bin inside to put around your shoulders. They are very pretty and each establishment has different colors or patterns. There are also a lot of outdoor heaters and they are welcome, even in August.

Gustavsberg and our car breaks down

After three days taking the train to Stockholm, Mr. Sprin wanted to go on another driving day trip and we were all ready for a break from the city. We decided to drive to Gustavsberg and the porcelain museum. Gustavsberg was a ceramics factory town during the 19th and 20th centuries and much of the architecture is preserved. There is a fine museum about the wares produced and the workers who lived there and it is also a popular spot in the archipelago. There are some shops and a section of outlets. A boat comes from Stockholm but it also accessible by car. The weather was glorious for our trip.

While the ladies shopped the men explored the town and stopped at the library where there is a nice children’s section with a boat to read in and at the municipal playground. There are many small cafes in town and they got a snack at one of them.

We ate lunch on the Gustavsberg VII the boat from Stockholm. She serves lunch while her passengers explore the town. We sat on deck and were served an elegant lunch of salmon, herring, a popular dish of roast beef and potatoes, and meatballs for the boys.

The shopping was good. The Kosta Boda / Orrefors glass outlets do not ship purchases, which was disappointing. We had visited the glass country on our last trip and the shops there ship routinely, but the outlets away from that area do not. We decided to head home and find a new beach to try, perhaps near Waxholm and then go there for dinner.

After consulting our maps we settled on an area near Viggbyholm, right off the E18. The swimming area is by a new condo development of an old military base. As we were looking for a place to park Mr. Sprin suddenly had trouble getting the car in gear. The clutch was broken and it wouldn’t come up from the floor.

The car was covered by an automobile repair service, similar to AAA in the States. Luckily the number was on a sticker on the window because we didn’t have the mechanics name or our emergency contact provided by the Swedish people with us. We also didn’t have a cell phone, but luckily a couple was walking by and they agreed to call for us. While Mr. Sprin waited for the tow truck I took the kids and Grandma to the beach for a quick cold dip.

The couple who had called for us spoke excellent English, as do most Swedes. He was a pilot and had trained for years in the US and they liked to practice their English. They told us the development was a spy base and during the Cold War. The Americans and Swedes listened to the Soviets and conducted missions from here. This history is now being made public and it is surprising to many that neutral Sweden was involved in this. It was a really interesting time and this couple was so nice.

The tow truck arrived and called us a taxi and we schlepped our junk home. Thankfully we weren’t far from our house. When we got home we immediately emailed the Swedish people and then had a drink and got pizza from our local place.

Swedish Response

We felt bad about the car, even though we didn't think clutch failure on an old car was our fault. Our exchange agreement stated we would pay for anything we caused but routine maintenance was with the owner, still, we had never met these people and you never know. We continually checked the email to hear what the Swedish family would say. We towed the car to the repair near our house, per their directions, and we walked down to make sure it was delivered. As this was Friday evening the mechanic said he would not deal with it until Monday.

The Swedes emailed quickly and were apologetic about the failure and offered to pay for our cab ride, which we of course refused. They would contact their mechanic and take care of everything, so we didn’t have to do anything. Fortunately we had decided to spend our last three days in Stockholm with another transit pass, so the car had broken down during the last hours we were in it.

They also updated us on their trip. They spent 4 days in New York and had a great time visiting all the sites and using new baseball gloves in Central Park. They had also visited the major sites in DC including Mount Vernon. They took a sightseeing cruise in Alexandria, went to two movies, our neighborhood pool, and shopped lots. They commented on how helpful and friendly Americans were. They wrote that someone offered assistance the minute they pulled out a map both in DC and NY. They did comment on how dreadfully hot it was and that they were completely drained by the humidity and heat in DC and NY. Given the cool temperatures and no humidity in Sweden, I can imagine this was a big shock. Despite the heat though they were having a great time, as were we.

What a great report!I'm thoroughly enjoying hearing about a place you don't hear too much about on this board.My sister and I are planning a bit of a geneological trip to Sweden that we'll take in '06,and this gives me a great little taste.

Stockholm – Sodermalm, playgrounds, and Gamla Stan

With our relief at hearing from the Swedish people we headed into Stockholm for our final three days at their house. We decided to split up for the morning so we girls could return to Sodermalm for some heavy duty shopping while those guys explored playgrounds and the Kaknas Tower. This tower was included in our transit passes and is the highest point in Stockholm. The men report that it was a great view and there is an adventure playground at the base. Unfortunately the area around the tower is mostly undeveloped and the playground was not well-tended. The grass was high and there was a lot of graffiti. It did keep both boys interested. After lunch they ferried to Slussen and then went by metro to Vasaparken and another good playground. They liked this park and the area here very much.

They ate lunch from a hotdog seller outside the Nordic Museum. He served inexpensive French hotdogs which were a huge hit and was extra friendly describing the sauces. French hotdogs, as my kids told me, use a bread sleeve with a hole at one end. The condiments are squirted inside the bread prior to the hotdog.

Grandma and I had a blast shopping. We purchased presents at Design Torget and 10 Swedish Designers (featured in this month’s Budget Travel magazine) and tried on jackets, shoes and other fun things. We had a ladies lunch at a small café and browsed the very large market along Katarina Bangata. We finally met up with the guys and wandered back through Gamla Stan.

Thankfully we had spent a day in Gamla Stan during our previous visit as it is really crowded during August. For drinks we popped into Café Tabac and because it was pretty early we got nice seats right before a rain shower. The boys were rewarded with a toy for being so good and they happily had juice and played with their new knights.

We had a lovely dinner at an Italian restaurant on Västerlånggatan, the main shopping street, chosen because it was close to Tabac since it had started to rain, was nice about taking a reservation when the boys and I went to buy their new toys, and didn’t mind having a tourist party with two kids. It was very good and I will look up their name if anyone is interested.

Massagediva, thanks.

I hope this report helps in planning trips. It was hard to find info on the board about Sweden beyond the basics in Stockholm. I discovered that the small municipalities or kommuns all have websites, some of which have excellent interactive maps and lots of tourist info in English. Either google the city name and kommun or www.insert city name.se to find these.

Stockholm – renting our own boat

We decided to rent our own boat to tour about and this was the best thing we did (Mr. Sprin thinks so too, the boys rate it second to Grona Lund). We rented at the Djurgarden bridge and got a boat seating 5 (although Grandma opted to stay at home today and explore our town, no boats for her). It cost 800 SEK for half a day and Oscar and Harry were very helpful and nice. Mr. Sprin got the maps, instructions and off we went.

Mr. Sprin grew up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and he is pretty confident with a small boat. For those of you who’ve read of our exploits last summer in the Cinque Terre, renting a boat was the highlight there as well. I think it was harder than the CT because there was a lot more traffic here, but Mr. Sprin didn’t think so, and approached the driving in his calm, conservative manner. We went up the Djurgarden canal, circled Fjardholmarna, up the coast of Lidngo far enough to see Millesgarden, past the amazing Milles fountain / statue at Nacka, and then slowly toured Grona Lund and Gamla Stan from the water.

We followed another boat (Mr. Sprin says this is the safest way to see what to do) under the bridge at Slussen between Gamla Stan and Sodermalm and it was then that we realized that Slussen means LOCK and we were instructed in Swedish, but then in English (thank goodness) to hold onto the rope along the wall and pull up close to the boat ahead. They filled the lock with water and then opened it allowing us to go from the Baltic Sea to higher Lake Malaren. We had read and read about this but guess it took experiencing it to really hit home. The lock is free when going from sea to lake but costs 120 SEK when going from lake to sea. We learned that the hard way too, so have your money ready.

On the Lake side we circled Kungsholmen, and then went out away from the city for a time. We had no set destination, just loved waving to people and seeing things at our pace from the water. Both boys got to drive the boat (with dad’s help). After dropping the boat off safely I got to experience a French hotdog and the seller was pleased we returned a second time. I think next summer we are going to explore a holiday with more time on our own boat, anyone got ideas?

Stockholm – Nordic Museum, Slussen, Vanadisbadet

We stopped in the Nordic Museum to see the table setting exhibit and this museum was really neat. It interprets Nordic life, the customs and culture. The boys had a blast at the children’s room. It is designed to be an old Swedish farm and store. There is a painted river through it and you can either cross it on bridges or a rope ferry, which all the kids enjoyed. There are wheelbarrows to take your crops to the store, scales in the store to weigh your crops and items to purchase. There is a full-size cart and horse and a house. It is all low-tech and well maintained. My kids spent a long time immersed in a story about two farm brothers. The rest of the exhibits seemed interesting as we walked to our exhibit and best (or saddest) of all, the museum was practically empty. It is free and I will definitely return on our next trip.

Once again we took the ferry from Djurgarden to Slussen and had a drink overlooking the lock we had just mastered. We felt very proud (and Oscar and Harry had seemed impressed when we dropped off the boat) that we had maneuvered through the lock. There are many cafes along the water here and it is a nice place to stop and see the boaters up close. Remember to wave to the kids.

To end our fun day we decided to seek out Vanadisbadet, “an adventure bath with swimming pools, water slides, etc.” according to Stockholmtown.com and parentnetsweden.com, located in Vanadis Park near Odenplan. We arrived about an hour before closing and this might have influenced my opinion. It is a large swimming complex with two pools, a shallow one and a deep one. The shallow pool has a small slide and a long open water slide. The deep pool has two long, curvy closed water slides, one of which was very fast and scary. There is also a mini-golf course and another long water slide but this area was closed. The grounds were overgrown and it had an unkempt look. There was no one at the entrance and we just walked in and changed to our swim suits, no one bothered us.

There were about 10 people in the water and we met an American family while exploring how to access the water slides. They were staying in the Vanadis Hotel located directly under the pool complex. They claimed the pool was private, for the use of the hotel only, although my web searches indicate it is open to the public with an admission fee. They happily offered to claim us as guests if anyone inquired, but we were left completely alone. Our kids played together and the boys had a great time. The view from here is superb. The whole place was sort of spooky being so deserted, closed up and unkempt. It was a short walk to our train station and we bypassed a metro ride.

The End - Båstad and we finally meet the Swedish people!

I don’t know if anyone is still reading but thought I would finish…For our last three nights we had previously arranged to rent a car and go south. Our reservation with Avis was upgraded upon pick-up from a Saab wagon to a Volvo wagon. Pick-up at Arlanda was super easy, and the kids’ booster seats were included for FREE, gotta love Sweden!

The drive from Stockholm to Båstad took a long time, 7 hours including an hour’s stop in Odeshog for lunch. We checked into the Hotel Riviera and had dinner in their dining room after a swim and drinks on the beach. The hotel is about 1 km from Båstad
on a sandy beach. It’s an older hotel, only 3 tv channels, but our beds were excellent. We had connecting rooms with a queen and two twins while Grandma had a nice size single with a view of the ocean. Dinner was served in a large wooden dining room with a sea view, they offer one meal each night. Our night it was shrimp skagen (shrimp salad on toast garnished with caviar) and pork with a mushroom sauce. Supermom was able to cut the middle from the pork getting a piece without gravy.

We came to the southwest coast to visit potteries, this region of Skane is known for its potters. We spent a morning touring prehistoric sites between Bastad and Torekov and then headed south to Hoganas, the center of pottery. The afternoon we toured north to Molle, the highlights being Bax Krukmakeri and Peter Nilsson potteries.

We had an excellent dinner in Båstad at Hamnkrogen. We had fish soup, thick, flaky halibut and they have a nice kid’s menu and chic blankets to wrap around your shoulders as the sun sets. Båstad is the site of the Swedish tennis open and after dinner we walked through the pretty town and checked out the stadium.

The second day we shopped south of Hoganas and ended up at Wallakra Stenkarlsfabrik. This is a wonderful pottery with a very nice café. We feasted on a chicken pate with tasty gravy and vegetables. We sat outside and loved the ambience, the pottery is within a nature reserve and it is so peaceful. Inside you can explore an old kiln and attic. They’ve been making stoneware since 1864. What a nice stop, we all enjoyed it, and a picture of the boys in the kiln might be our Christmas card this year.

We spent each afternoon at the beach, you could walk far out and the kids thought that was neat. We also saw star fish, crabs, mussels and scallops which the kids thought were cool. For our last night we drove to Torekov, a tiny fishing village at the tip of the Bjare peninsula and ate at the Hamnkrogen where the food was also excellent. The sunsets were beautiful all three nights, but at Torekov many people gather to watch the sunset and we finished dinner just as it was going down behind Hallands Vadero. This area is full of quaint fishing villages and we were thoroughly enchanted.

Our final day arrived and we sadly packed our car and drove back to Stockholm. We had lunch at the Hamnkrogen in Granna, a picturesque tourist town on Lake Vattern. Peppermint candy is made here and the main street is full of these candy shops. I finally bought a pretty shawl / blanket to wear outside like we’ve seen all over Stockholm.

Our final night was spent at the Quality Inn Arlanda airport. We stayed at a Choice hotel in Kalmar, on our previous trip and this chain is, IMO, one of the best deals in Sweden. Our rooms, 2 room suite for us, nice single for Grandma, were large, clean with plush beds and large new showers. The minibar was free and the breakfast is excellent. Many of them have free extensive buffets at dinnertime and saunas with free beer. We were in the lap of luxury, too bad it was our final night.

We returned to our home exchange as agreed to drop off the house keys and finally met our exchange family. Their sons were great with our boys and all four played videos and computers together. They cooked us dinner, pasta and salad, and we spent our final evening asking and answering questions about our countries. They enjoyed America, especially how friendly the people were. They had read in their guidebook not to make eye contact with people on the DC metro, which we found amusing. They were also flummoxed by sales tax in the US and how you could never tell how much something would cost. Both families agreed we would do another home exchange and that the experience had worked out perfectly.

Our flight home was uneventful. We had a long layover in Newark and ended up volunteering to be bumped, the small plane was too heavy and it was having some kind of mechanical trouble which sort of scared me. We were each given a $200 travel voucher, dinner and put on a plane 2 hours later to DCA, much closer to our house than IAD, our original destination.

Our house was spotless and probably the worst part of the home exchange was that we had to make our beds and wash the used linens. We are already looking for our next home exchange and it is hard to stop saying “tack” (thank you in Swedish).

Tack for a wonderful report!((f))

Thanks for the interesting report. The kindness you two families showed each other was lovely to read about. We have talked about doing this, your report makes it more likely!

I am glad I caught the ending. I enjoyed your report very much.

I would be interested in a home exchange but live near Atlanta. I don't think there would be too much interest in visiting here. Sounds like a great way to take your time and enjoy, especially with children.

Thank you.