Our First Visitors!

Our friends arrived before our furniture...

We had our first visitors in Stockholm this past week. They successfully threaded the Covid gauntlet to visit Stockholm. I’d like to think that they couldn’t stand being away from us for an extended time, but I think ultra-cheap international fares may have had something to do with it as well!

We started our weekend adventure on Saturday by meeting at the Verandan Restaurant at the Grand Hotel. The Grand Hotel is a Stockholm institution and is situated on the waterfront with an amazing view. It is old school charm personified. The food was fantastic, and although it was pouring rain the whole time, the view was fantastic as well.

Seriously, check out this salad:

And my tortellini:

Feel free to stop by and we will happily take you here!

Despite the rain, we took a canal cruise that went around the historic island of Djurgården. This island has been part of Swedish crown since the 15th century. It currently hosts several of the most popular parks and attractions, such as the Vasa Museum, Skansen, the Nordic Museum and, of course, the ABBA museum! We have only scratched the surface of all that there is to do there.

Here we are at the start of our 50 minute trip:

I was there too:

After our tour, we went to Södermalm to try one of the best and most awarded microbrews in Stockholm: Omnipollos Hat. I have no idea what that means.

After 45 minutes of standing in the pouring rain, we had to abandon our beer dreams and headed to a nearby pizza place for dinner. But we did find out that the same beers were available at Omnipollos Flora, which is a lovely outdoor café located in Humlegården - which is just a few minutes walk from our house!

Since our theme was apparently eating our way through Stockholm, we started our Sunday with brunch at Oaxen Krog & Slip.

Oaxen has a seasonal menu with a contemporary take on Swedish classics. We enjoyed smoked shrimps, artichokes w/ cheese and fries with smoked mayo (yum) to start. There was grilled turbot, king crab and lamb for mains. I highly recommend this spot. The menu is seasonal. The last time Mrs. CB was there they had a completely different offering. Unfortunately my camera skills were lacking, so you’ll just have to trust me that the food was delicious!

Later, we tried to visit Omnipollo Flora, but they were closed due to the heavy recent rain. So we stopped at a nearby outdoor café for drinks and snacks:

Our friends are off to Gotland for the remainder of their trip. But we enjoyed hosting our first guests despite our furniture still being somewhere on the Atlantic!

Oh, and we did finally make it to Omnipollos Flora and it was worth the effort! The beer was fantastic. Here’s me with one of their classics as photographed by one of the Cinnamon Sticks:

to be continued…