Stockholm

Tuesday 11 and Wednesday 12 June 2024 – Stockholm, Sweden

I like trains. I like the freedom they bring, the expectation and anticipation that something is going to happen, but not quite yet. This is the journey and not the destination and life should be suspended while the journey works its magic. The rhythm of the wheels on the tracks, the rattle and clangs of the carriage mirror the sounds from the headphones stuck in my ears. A new found love for the motorik beat of 1970s krautrock mixed with the noise of the train turns every train ride into a different soundscape. It’s a time to disconnect and just be.

Tuesday really started late on Monday when we boarded the 21:10 sleeper train from Berlin to Stockholm. The four of us had a six person couchette room. Thankfully no one turned up to take the other two bunks, it was very tight and required patient negotiating to move around. We crossed the German border into Denmark around 2:30am and then left Denmark for Sweden at 7:30, arriving in Malmo with enough time to nip into the station to get a decent coffee from one of the cafes before breakfast on the train once we were on the way again.

Between Copenhagen in Denmark and Malmo in Sweden we travel on ‘The Bridge’. For those less familiar with Scandi-noir television, this is the magnificent Øresund Bridge, a road and rail bridge that contains the border between the two countries and was the scene of a gruesome murder in the Tv series. We didn’t have to show our passport at any time between arriving in Berlin and leaving Oslo at the end of the trip.

Our sleeper carriage was, up until Malmo, right at the end of the train, affording a great view out of the large windows at the back. Annoyingly, in Malmo a second engine was added to our train and the view was gone.

Luckily there was plenty to see out of the side windows, Sweden is a beautiful country. There are a lot of trees and a lot of lakes.

We arrived in Stockholm mid-afternoon and took a local train to our hotel in Hornstull on one of the many islands that make up the city.

Like Berlin we mainly used our feet to get around, occasionally catching local trains when we got tired or when it poured with rain – and pour it did…

I particularly enjoyed Gamla Stan, the old town, and visited it twice, both times in the rain. Rain on cobbles down a narrow alley is one of my favourite things to photograph and one of the many things that Europe has to offer that New Zealand doesn’t. Is that a good reason to live over here? I think so.

We also visited the modern art museum which was interesting, and at times disturbing, especially the works of Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan.

I won’t spoil the surprise with this piece ‘Him’ in case anyone is visiting the gallery; but if you read this and do visit Stockholm and like your art modern and mildly disturbing then museum is a must!

I liked Stockholm and would like to come back and explore a bit more, there is a lot to see that we didn’t have time to check out and it’s cheaper than I expected. I didn’t feel an affinity for it like I did with Berlin but I enjoyed it immensely and the people were friendly and they have that lovely smokey, streaky bacon cooked to a crisp that the English don’t do. Yes, it’s probably carcinogenic but man, it’s delicious!