At Djurgården

When the weather was gloriously pre-Summer one day the other week we had to make the most of it. And to do the most of it usually means a long walk followed by a good meal. It's quite common that Stockholmians take those long walks at some of the vast park or forrest areas in the Stockholm vicinity.

One park/forrest area neatly situated quite in the middle of Stockholm is of course Djurgården - yes there's a football-team that goes by that name too - but I'm as far away from a sports-nerd so I have no idea how they got their name or how well they play. I know they play football with their feet and a ball anyway! I think... -

At Djurgården there are many walkways, the major ones frame the canal. It's all very peaceful and scenic. I actually remember we took one of my highschool pictures, all dressed up in old-fashioned clothes and a horse in one of the groves at Djurgården. I'll see if I can find that photo...

At Djurgården you also have many museums, embassy-buildings and consulates, the outdoor museum of Skansen - were every Summer for years now there's a really boring, twerpy, but in some circles very popular, outdoor live TV-show with some world-famous artists now and then called "Allsång på Skansen" (allsång = singsong, på = at), and the old amusement park of Gröna Lund (gröna = green, lund = grove). And lots of different restaurants and cafes.

There are also som lucky ones actually having a house and living their everyday life at beautiful Djurgården. Well, lucky and lucky, I'm not sure its all roses and wine being a part of the amusement with people trying to get a peek in the windows with the walkways and paths next to your housewall... But the houses sure are lovely!

So this beautiful day, with all those tender green trees and flowerbuds just in bloom, we headed out to Djurgården, past some embassy buildings, past the huge Maritime Museum (as seen partly in the first pic above) and just behind that museum is the Ethnographical museum with its restaurant Babajan Etnobar. They serve international inspired and quite spicy food, very often vegetarian. Where we had lunch. I chose a greek sallad which wasn't all that, unfortunately. Pretty uninspired and bland.

But my friend's veggie dahl was quite the thing, spicy, chewy and yummy. Included in the lunch is also a sallad-buffet - I love the fact that the buffet has pineapples and just slightly cooked beetroots to chose from too - and home-made bread.

After having eaten the lunch we decided on a slight detour on our way back and the walk turned out to be a bit longer than we had expected. So by all means, a coffeebreak was well deserved. And for some odd reason we happened to sort of stumble over the fact that at Skånska gruvan (gruvan = the mine), just outside Skansen, the coffeeshop now is run by Flickorna Helin & Voltaire (yes the women with the name Voltaire are two sisters, being pretty well-known bakers and chefs in Sweden and yes, they are descendants to THE famous philosopher/writer Voltaire...).

Part of the building the cafe is situated is the beautiful tower which you can see here. And while enjoying the weather and the view outside, if the weather permits, you might want to try a slice of this chocolatier than chocolate cake with pistachios. A bit too rich fo my taste but if you're into really dark chocolate, I should say its a slice of heaven!

Even if you can usually take the car to Djurgården, I'd say, leave it at home and enjoy the walk, take the bus, the streetcar or the charming little ferry which gives you a very scenic glimpse over the wonderful city of Stockholm.