Autumn in Stockholm

We began the day with our breakfast (included) at the Hotel Alvik. Sarah joined us. It was quite the spread, with a lot of the usual stuff (eggs, toast) and some nice additions like Swedish pancakes. They had the texture of a crepe and you topped them with a jelly or jam.

It was an overcast morning, and about 45 degrees. I've read that's fairly typical weather for this time of year here. Sarah tells us we can also expect sporadic periods of rain, though today has been dry.

We went across the street from the hotel to the Alvick T stop (yes, they call it the “T” here, too). Rachel and I purchased 7-day T passes for Skr 230 ($35), a really great value when you consider each ride is $5 a pop if you pay-by-the-drink.

The subway here didn't disappoint. It was clean and had very comfortable seats. Was it a smooth ride, you ask? Well, I saw a gentleman standing and reading a Swedish Metro, holding the pages open with both hands – not once did he see the need to grab one of the handle bars.

We took the metro to T-Centralen (which runs below Centralstationen and is the main hub for the T lines). We walked upstairs to the lower plaza of Sergel's Torg (translated: Sergel's Square). Sergel's Torg is sort of the epicenter for dissent here, I'm told, in the form of protests. Recently, there was an international one opposing the United States occupation of Iraq.

Today, though, there weren't protests. Instead, there was a skateboarding/snowboarding festival. Sweet Skateboards had its sign over a half-pipe that was set up along the lower plaza beside the entrance to T-Centralen. Over on several flights of stairs leading down to the lower plaza, a dump truck unloaded tons and tons of snow. Boys dressed in baggy skater pants smoothed the snow over the steps, giving it a nice consistency. At the top, they built a ramp and dumped snow over it. I thought it'd be fun to stay and watch a few jumps, but we kept moving.

We climbed the stairs from the lower plaza and began strolling down Drattninggaton, a street lined with shops (some touristy with postcard stands in the doorway) but others more fashionable. The Swedes, it seems, are generally very fashionable. We spoke with Sarah about her conversations with her aunt, who works in fashion in New York. She says while Stockholm is by no means a first adopter (that distinction, of course, belongs to New York and Paris), they at least pay attention very closely to what's going on in those bellwether cities and then follow soon after. Everyone here is dressed in points. Pointy shoes, coats with pointy cuts. It's sort of a 1980s, quasi-punk, pseudo-hipster style (Disclaimer: I know nothing of fashion, so that's my crude assessment).

We ambled around the Norrmalm section of the city before moving slightly east and down along the water. As we walked along Strandvagen (a road that runs along the Djurgardsbrunnsviken inlet, we saw ferry boats that take people around the archipelago of the city. The buildings along the water, a lot of which are owned by companies or are hotels, looked marvelous with their empire-like towers.

We had lunch back at Sergels Square. We ate in Bern's restaurant and Cafe, which resides in an ugly modern building over the sqaure but that had wonderful food. We had pressed sandwiches and Pepsi's from longneck, retro-looking bottles.

In the afternoon, we took the Redline T south two stops to the Slussen stop, where we went to the unapologetically touristy (yet really helpful) Katarinahissen, a tall elevator, that shows you a bird's eye view of the city from high up. We paid Skr 10 each to take it to the top. The viewing area is basically a long walkway, which leads you into one of Stockholm's little neighborhoods. We stopped by a park and I took some pictures of the foliage.

The smell of the smoke billowing from a nearby chimney, coupled with the brittle leaves cracking under our feet, evinced thoughts of a New England winter back home. Oddly, I didn't find the thought depressing as much as a comforting reassurance that the seasons still change, after all.

We took the T back to our hotel and Sarah to her apartment for a much needed nap. Such a full day, but we still had dinner and a Saturday night out in Stockholm to contend with...