The Special Delights of Venice of the North

The Swedes have a marvelous mouthful of a word, smultronstalle, that translates into “wild strawberry patch” and is used to describe a very special delight that is hidden away or was happened upon unexpectedly.

Stockholm, a city as cosmopolitan and busy as any in Europe, is hardly the place one would expect to find a goodly number of such delights at mid-town. They come in the form of small and serene parks of trees, grass and a bank of flowers behind a weathered wall or gate, all but lost to the eyes of hurried passers-by.

Gamla Stan, the old town, was founded in 1252 on one of 14 islands that make up the city, the entire Stockholm Archipelago having 24,000, each in turn claiming one or more citizens who consider it their personal smultronstalle. Every tenth resident owns a boat, some even insisting that you can still catch beautiful salmon right off the pier in front of the Grand Hotel at city center.

With the town’s 14 islands strung together by bridges and ferries, little wonder that it is sometimes called Venice of the North, although it has enough scenic and other virtues to stand alone without tenuous comparisons.

More than 25% of the city is made up of woods and parkland. There’s enough bucolic greenery to bring residents out in season with their baskets to collect mushrooms and lingonberries without leaving town.

Here to there: SAS flies with a change in Copenhagen, British Airways with one in London, Finnair stops in Helsinki and Pan Am stops at J.F.K. and in Frankfurt. Take a bus for the 45-minute ride into town for $4.50, a limo for $23.

How long/how much? Two days for the city, another half for a boat trip through the islands. Little doubt about it, Stockholm is an expensive city. Good way to cut costs is with a Stockholm Card: unlimited travel on entire transit system, guided tours by bus and boat, admission to more than 50 museums and other attractions at a cost of $9.85 for one day, $12 for two, a real bargain.

A few fast facts: Sweden’s krona was recently valued at 0.154, about 6 1/2 to our dollar. Best time for visiting is May through September. Christmas season is lovely but a bit nippy; the dead of winter is only for the hardiest of souls. Save your purchase receipts for a hefty VAT return at the airport upon departure.

Getting settled in: Hotel Ornskold (Nybrogatan 6; $69 to $88 B&B; double) is small with huge rooms, old-fashioned and stately, some with enormous mirrors, velvet couches and marble statues. Excellent central location opposite Royal Theater, with many embassies sending their folks here.

Tegnerlunden (Tegnerlunden 8; $87 to $92 B&B; double, $62 in summer) has pleasant rooms in Swedish modern, and includes sauna and garage, plus garden terrace upstairs for breakfast in the summer. There’s a pretty park across the street. It’s a 15-minute walk to town center, but a subway stop is nearby. Friendly and helpful folks run this one.

Hotel City (Slojdgatan 7; $107 B&B; double, $77 in summer) is the big one with all the amenities, including some rooms facing an enclosed winter garden for any-weather dining. There’s a most handsome lobby with deep leather chairs, beautiful rooms and baths, plus a sauna. It’s in the dead center of downtown and everyone raves over the dining room.

Regional food and drink: Just about any of Sweden’s dishes are found on the smorgasbord, an endless parade of hot and cold foods (we once counted 56) on a table that stretches even more for the Christmas julbord. Staples are usually Jannson’s Temptation, a casserole of potatoes, onions and anchovies baked in cream sauce; beef Lindstrom, ground beef, capers and chopped beets; kalops, a goulash-like affair but less spicy, and salmon, herring, venison, elk and assorted other hot and cold meats and seafood.

Spendrups is the local beer, aquavit a high-potency clear liquid that is chased with the former every time someone says “Skoal,” which is often. A type of cloudberry called hjortron is a rare and very subtle dessert. Look for it and rejoice.

Moderate-cost dining: Glada Laxen (translation: the Happy Salmon) (Regeringsgaten 23 and Karlaplan 13, the first in the downtown Gallery) gets our nod, along with everyone else’s, as the place for excellent seafood at the best prices. Dine inside to piano music or on a covered terrace. The dagens ratt, or daily special, will run about $6, and includes a main course, salad, breads and sometimes a glass of wine. Salmon is prepared here in 10 ways; most costs about $12 and you won’t find better.

Another place nearby, for the $6 daily special, is Daily News Cafe (Kungstrad Garden by Sweden House tourist office). It’s an indoor-outdoor spot, and the other dishes are all in the dagens ratt price range.

For a fine luncheon or dinner, head for KB (Smalandsgatan 7), a bistro feel with typical Swedish food given a great deal of finesse. A hangout for theater and TV people, KB has been wooing the knowledgeable since 1890 with the likes of tartar of salmon with oysters, and venison in a mushroom cream sauce. Hotel Diplomat’s Teahouse (Strandvagan 7) draws a terribly chic crowd for lunch at about $7.

Going first-class: Grand Hotel Saltsjobaden (on Baltic at Saltsjobaden, 20 minutes from town; $164 B&B; double, $77 summers) is a gorgeous place set in lush gardens right on the water. There is tennis, swimming, saunas and sailing from the front door.

Grand Hotel (S. Blasieholmshamnen 8; $188 double B&B;, much less in summers) might just be Scandinavia’s finest, with Nobel Prize winners in residence at award time, and traditional atmosphere reflecting its 1874 origins. Superb dining, regal rooms and a fine cafe on the waterfront.

Ulriksdals Wardshus (Edsviken Bay in Royal Park Gardens north of town) is a 17th-Century rural inn that many say has Sweden’s best smorgasbord, certainly the best we’ve ever seen or tasted. The joyful staff keeps a decorated Maypole in the garden year-round, and all wear an indelible smile. The food is superlative.

Operakallaren (Operahuset) is a 1787 adjunct to the city’s older opera house. You feel like you’re dining in La Scala. One of the earth’s most exquisite ceilings is in the main room. Your roast ptarmigan or reindeer steak borders on the sublime.

On your own: Get started with an easy-does-it stroll through Gamla Stan, not missing the Royal Palace, medieval houses around Stortoget Market Square and the breathtaking view across the water to the architecturally striking Town Hall. Visit the open-air Skansen Folk Museum with traditional buildings from all of Sweden; take a steamer for an hour’s cruise through city waterways, and see the Wasa Museum, built to enshrine a royal warship that sank in the harbor in 1628.

And don’t dare miss a visit to lovely Drottningholm Castle, the royal residence, perhaps for a summer opera performance in its magnificent 18th-Century Court Theater.

For more information: Call the Scandinavian National Tourist Offices at (212) 949-2333, or write: 655 3rd Ave., 18th Floor, New York 10017 for a booklet on Stockholm, city map and brochure on Sweden. Ask for the Stockholm Package.