At Home in Stockholm

ITN staff has chosen a winner from among the entrants in the last essay contest. The subject was “At Home in Stockholm,” and the essay most favored by the judges was written by MARV and CAROLE FELDMAN of Jacksonville, Florida, who will receive a 50-dollar gift certificate from Magellan’s Travel Supplies (800/962-4943). The Feldmans’ essay appears below.

Our recent, first visit to Stockholm (often called The Venice of the North) was a trip to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. Our Ibis hotel, in an attractive, quiet, suburban residential neighborhood, made us feel right at home. 

As in Sydney, Australia, ferries connect Stockholm’s many islands and coastal communities, so we bought a hop-on/hop-off ferry ticket to explore this beautiful city. Carole, from Sydney, said the ride made her feel at home. In fact, we enjoyed the experience so much that we repeated it twice more! 

With many wonderful museums from which to choose, including the Spirit Museum (about Sweden’s approach to drinking!), we focused on just one. The Vasa Museum, a “must see,” was tops! Inside is the massive, well-preserved, elaborately decorated, Swedish warship Vasa, which sank minutes after it began its maiden voyage in 1628. 

The warship lay on the bottom of the bay for over 300 years until it was raised in 1961. It was awesome to see the shoes, cannons, skulls and personal artifacts taken from the ship. Today, with modern technology, faces have been added to skulls to bring the crew’s remains to life.

For something different, we visited the world’s largest IKEA, one of Sweden’s impressive global chain of contemporary stores (and similar to IKEA stores back home) focusing on modern Scandinavian home accessories. We were truly at home in Stockholm! 

And what more appropriate way could we conclude our holiday in gorgeous Stockholm — and Scandinavia — than to enjoy a delicious farewell smorgasbord buffet lunch at the restaurant overlooking Stockholm’s premier Östermalms food hall, with its dazzling and seemingly endless display of visual and edible gourmet taste sensations. Yum!

We were quite at home in Stockholm.

Marv & Carole Feldman
Jacksonville, FL