Stockholm, 11 on the dial — Writer & traveller

Stockholm turned the dial to 11 on our last day.

Apparently you don’t come to Scandinavia for the weather, but there’s no word to describe today than perfect.

The city sparkles.

An early morning walk then a ferry across to Djurgarden for some fun at the interactive ABBA museum. We recorded an audition tape for Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) and busted a few moves to Dancing Queen, but the results are too awful to share, even for this blog. Oh, OK, ‘spose it’s too late now to be coy...

“Please visit Svekst Tenn for me,” says Dom La Rosa via WhatsApp. It’s a Swedish interior design emporium established in the ‘20s by art teacher and designer Estrid Ericson, and it’s as happy and colorful as a pop of ABBA hits.

DLR also puts us onto Ben Pentreath, whose recent blog post sends us to the Stockholm Public Library (Kungliga Biblioteket).

The library’s reading room is a magic place, light, tranquil and imaginative.

Note to self: this is where I’m coming back to research and write my book. It’s set in Gotland, in a white-washed farmhouse with an old stone well and gnarled plum trees. It’s about a middle-aged couple who want something so bad they’ll do anything to get it.

Stay tuned.