Tag: Sweden

Stockholm. June 8, 1996

We get up on the late side after an on and off sleeping night. We eat breakfast at the hotel, the SAS Radisson Royal Viking.

Today we are sightseeing in the old town.

Mary sightseeing by the harbor in Stockholm
John beneath the Swedish flag

It is very crowded. I buy a magnet, a Tshirt for Jon, a book for Sarah, and a Viking for the windowsill.

A crowded, narrow lane in Gamla Stan (old town)

We head over to the Royal Palace and see the changing of the guard. It is all very stately until the military band breaks into “When the Saints Go Marching In.” Kind of weird. We look in some glass shops but don’t find anything we want. We head back to the hotel around 3 PM. Nap time!

Mary waiting for the changing of the guard
John by a statue in the palace grounds
Changing of the guard in Stockholm (Stock photo)

Later we eat dinner in a restaurant in the cellar of the town hall called Stadshuskällaren. It is where they hold the Nobel ceremonies. I order a salmon roulade as a starter and follow that with veal. At last there are some vegetables!  John has veal pate and a entree of monkfish.

Interior of the Stadshuskällaren,

It is all good. We walk back to the hotel in the dimming light around 11 PM.

HP conference Sweden, Finland. June 6-13, 1996

June 6-7, 1996

The flight seemed very long on AA via Chicago. We do not sleep much. We arrive in Stockholm on Friday, June 7, 1996 at 9 AM. The airport seems to be out in a forest somewhere. We take a hotel shuttle downtown to Stockholm. It is very pastoral on the way in.

John finds that he has a meeting and must leave for it by 10:45 after we have only just checked in at 10AM. He takes a shower and is on his way. I, on the other hand, sleep off and on until he gets back around 3PM. Then we both nap until 6PM, shower, and walk to the old city.

Stockholm is a beautiful, clean city with shops, restaurants, and waterways. There are old buildings with picturesque tops. We walk around the old city and decide to have dinner at the restaurant, Stortorgskallaren. It is in an old wine cellar and is a very intimate setting with European (glacial) service. We have wine and kind of a carpaccio of reindeer with mousse, lettuce and lingonberries. The deer is a little gamey but good. The next course is salmon with horseradish butter and we finish up with brandy. It is all good.

Inside Restaurant Stortorgskallaren

We walk around for a while after dinner and then back to the hotel. Even at 11PM it is still light out.