Day 4, The Max Day

We slept in our sad single beds quite well on the ferry until the announcements started through the disembodied voice from the speaker in the ceiling who repeated everything very politely in 3 languages repeatedly until we gave up and got up and showered. Maybe that was the plan! Disembarkation was pretty smooth and we were soon on the Swedish motorway an heading the 300 miles or so towards Stockholm.

The Swedish roads were a revelation after the hell that was the German autobahns. The roads were smooth, straight and relatively traffic free. We travelled for miles just flanked by millions of trees. We stopped off near a huge lake, and utilising Harvey’s cooking facilities to the max, and showcasing my not too shabby culinary skills I made cheese on toast for lunch. Not just cheese on toast you understand. Oh no, it was more your M & S style cheese on toast; bubbling cheddar laid on a bed of chilli jam, on top of German rye bread with sunflower seeds. It definitely filled a breakfast free gaping hole in our bellies.

We carried on out journey for a few hours until I saw a big sign saying “Max”. This rang a bell from my limited research for this holiday. I knew Max was a hamburger chain, but not just any old hamburger chain. It is a family own Swedish hamburger chain that has been operating since 1968 and outsells McDonalds in Sweden! Now, the thought of local food has worried me on this holiday; (pickled herring or fermented herring anyone??) but this was a local food II could wholeheartedly get behind! We pulled off, and in we went. Luckily the girl behind the counter spoke better English than we speak Swedish, (plus most of the signs were in English with pictures!) so we w ere soon tucking into hamburgers with bacon. The burgers were god; on the scale of hamburger awards they were better than a McDonalds (what isn’t??), better than a Burger King, but not as good as a Five Guys. The chocolate milkshake was VERY good, with chunks of flaky chocolate inside.

We were soon back on the road and following directions to our campsite in Stockholm. Now, when I say campsite I might be conjuring up images of grassy green fields. Uh oh! No, we are in a motor home site right in the centre of Stockholm. We are within touching distance off the vans each side of us and there is no facilities other than a toilet and shower block and the view of the underneath of a bridge! Oh, and we have hook up….which means…..drum roll pease….a fan at night! Yay for fans as it’s 32 degrees.

Stockholm is on 14 islands, mostly connected by bridges on the Baltic Sea. We are camping on the island of Langholmen, which is the the old prison island. We are right next to a little bridge over to Sodermalm, which is the hipster island, and that connects by bridge to Gamla Stan, which is the old town.

We took a walk from our camp site last night over into Sodermalm. There is a lovely seafront prom, overlooking the buildings on the island of Kungsholmen opposite. The view is lovely, at times it felt like being back in Venice or even the Hong Kong harbour front (without the high rises).

We passed a load of floating houseboats and stopped at a floating bar where I got a mediocre mojito. Some of the boats have plaques saying how old the boats were, one was built in 1870’s and is now a house boat. It was really interesting to see how they live on these summer and winter!! We walked on, past all the construction work, as they are building a new bridge, and then over to Gamla Stan. Gamla Stan is full of windy cobbled you narrow streets with bars and shops, very touristy. We wandered through to the other end of the island to see the Royal Palace, where the royal family of Sweden live.The front of the palace is very open, but their soldier guards are not a patch on ours, as they are constantly moving and fidgeting.

We walked back to Soderholm and sat outside a little locals bar. Where we had a very expensive G & T and a beer, to walked back, intending to stroll along the seafront watching the sunset, when we stumbled across a little chill out cocktail bar. It was like being in Ibiza, watching the sunset with good music, lots of young chilled out locals and a fabulous view. Our type of vibe, we’ll definitely be going back. A fab way to finish off our first Stockholm day. At last I feel the holiday has started!