Smaller text Larger text

Destination: Sweden

Posted on

Stockholm’s City Bikes Program Works Great for Tourists

Cities all over northern Europe have loaner bike programs. Some cities lend themselves to biking, while others don’t. Some programs seem designed exclusively for locals, while others work well for foreign visitors, too. Stockholm is the best of both worlds: great for biking, and with a system that’s very tourist-friendly.

The Stockholm City Bikes have no locks, so you can only joyride or go from point A to point B (rather than parking it while you’re visiting a sight). And many of the stations are around town are either completely without bikes (a pain if you’re looking to borrow one) or already full (problematic when you need to drop one off). Fortunately, the Stockholm City Bikes app — which is free, easy, and fun to use — lets you know exactly how many bikes and open spaces are available at each station.

As I worked on the Stockholm chapter for the upcoming 2015 edition of Rick Steves’ Scandinavia guidebook, I proposed merging this “be a temporary local” experience with the best biking joyride route…and suddenly, Stockholm has another great activity. This video clip is your intro to a cheap and breezy experience next time you’re in the Swedish capital.

Posted on

Live Music on Kalmar’s Main Square

One of my favorite towns in Scandinavia is Kalmar, on Sweden’s east coast. This clip captures the fun of being in a perfectly Swedish scene surrounded only by Swedes… and then being struck by the fact that scenes like that are commonplace all over the world.

Posted on

Europe’s Mightiest Bridge, Connecting Denmark and Sweden

Part of the fun of traveling in Europe is using massive and inspiring infrastructure — like this bridge that connects Denmark and Sweden. In this clip, my train is in an erector set-type tunnel under an-eight lane highway crossing the Øresund Bridge. Behind me is Copenhagen (not Stockholm, as I say), and up ahead is Malmö, Sweden.

What are your favorite “infrastructure” experiences?

Posted on

ABBA — The Museum

I’m cruising Scandinavia and Northern Europe to update our new, hot-off-the-press Northern European Cruise Ports guidebook. And it’s fun to be sure not to miss any new sights that need assessing and writing up. For instance, for years, Sweden has been trying to find a place for its long-awaited ABBA Museum. Now it’s finally open, in Stockholm. Here’s how I wrote it up after my visit, plus a quick virtual visit by video:

ABBA the Museum — This Swedish pop group was, for a time, a bigger business than Volvo. They’ve sold more than 380 million records, and the musical Mamma Mia! (based on their many hits) has been enjoyed by 50 million people. Now the long-awaited ABBA Museum has finally opened, conveniently located just across the street from Skansen open-air folk museum and next to Gröna Lund amusement park on Djurgården. Like everything ABBA, this is aggressively for-profit, with pricey tickets and slick promotion. The museum is high-tech, with plenty of actual ABBA artifacts, recreated rooms where the group did its composing and recording, lots of high-energy video screens, everything explained in English, and plenty of interactive stations. Included in the ticket is a “digital key” that lets you record a music video karaoke-style as a fifth member of the group, then pick up the production from their website. To control the crowds, only 75 people are let in every 15 minutes, and tickets come with an entry time. You can buy your ticket online or at the TI to choose your “slot time,” or just drop in. If they’re busy, you may need to come back in an hour or two, but you can generally go right in. The ticket is expensive, and you’ll need to pay 40 kroner (about $6) extra for the audioguide, in which Agnetha, Benny, Björn, and Frida share their own memories. A small wing features the Swedish Music Hall of Fame, but apart from that, it’s all ABBA. If you like ABBA, it’s lots of fun (195 kr — that’s about $30, daily 10:00-20:00, on Djurgården at Gröna Lund, bus #44, tram #7, www.abbathemuseum.com).