The next day I took the train to visit the small and quaint village of Marienfred, by the lake Mälaren, and the castle of Gripsholm. Marienfred is a scenic little village, with wooden houses, a small church whose steeple towers over it, a nice waterfront with boats and views over the lake and the castle.
The castle of Gripsholm, built under the Vasas, is a beautiful red brick palace (the most recent tower is actually faux-brick, painted to resemble the rest) and houses the biggest portrait collection in Europe. And a truly remarkable collection it is, displayed all over the castle, whose architecture and décor are also worth seeing. There are portraits from all the royal houses in Europe since the Renaissance, the Swedish nobility, and Swedish personalities from the last two centuries, from Dag Hammarskjold to Greta Garbo or Björn Ulvaes.
After visiting the castle, I enjoyed a nice walk to the train station – only in Sweden can one enjoy walking 4 km in the sun at 3 PM of an August day! I ended the day catching up with a couple of old friends over dinner in a Thai restaurant in Gamla Stan – perfect.
The following day, I headed to Sigtuna in the morning. The oldest city in Sweden, it is a nice little town with a very touristy main street, some good rune stones, and a wonderful church. Mariekyrke was worth the trip by itself – beautiful wall decorations and altarpiece, and a bucolic graveyard.
Back in Stockholm, I walked from Odenplan to Karlavägen, a beautiful street lined with splendid buildings, towards the Historiska Museum. This is another wonderful museum, with an outstanding Medieval art collection, a treasury room full of amazing gold artifacts from the Viking age, and an interesting exhibition about the history of Sweden.
I walked along the sumptuous and super-posh Strandvägen, with its nice boat cafés by Djurgården, before having dinner with another old friend from Malmö who luckily happened to be in Stockholm – surstömming and Sauvignon Blanc at a terrace by the lake, talk of politics and travels, lovely.
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