Europe 2026 - Sweden
- Tim Madison
- 2 hours ago
- 4 min read
London to Stockholm, Sweden – May 2, 2026
Last night's sleep is at the Hilton Garden Inn. There is nothing ‘garden’ about this hotel which is literally attached to Terminal 2 at Heathrow. The building is encircled by parking garages, freeways, and cloverleaf intersections. In the near distance are airport structures and taxiways. There is not a tree in sight. Our window grants us a perfect view of high speed traffic. On the positive side, everything about our room is modern and functional including the soundproofing. We don’t hear anything coming from the mechanical world outside.
Just as we’re getting ourselves together for a visit to the breakfast room, the fire alarm sounds. The announcement that goes with it orders us to evacuate the building. It is 8:40 a.m. CK has to pull her knickers on. We grab a sweater and our wallets & passports. Everything else we leave behind. The stairwell is full of other guests when we get there, some are dragging their entire luggage suite and blocking the way. There is no smoke or any sense of fire, so nobody is excited in any way. The building’s sprinkler system isn’t tripped. We’d be annoyed to another level if it had. As we exit the building, guests and staff are milling about. Good news: the weather is cool and dry. In 5 minutes los bomberos arrive with their red and yellow trucks, lights all spinning. They don’t seem very concerned, either. They aren’t unloading any firefighting gear or ordering the crowd to clear off. And there’s only 3 of them. At 9:05 a.m. the all-clear is given and we can get on with our plans. We only have to walk up the 3rd floor! Could have been the 12th! Breakfast awaits.
[[Here's sample of the fire alarm: https://youtube.com/shorts/2sA6xK4fiFI]]
It’s too bad we’re at the airport. We’re 1 hour tube travel [2 hours round trip] from Waterloo Place where Banksy recently placed a wonderfully self-explanatory sculpture about the destructive nature of nationalism. If we were still in town I would def go and check it out.
The airport is always an exercise is hurry-up-and-wait. Today our plane is scheduled to depart at 2 p.m. Between the fire drill and wheels up, 5 hours pass. We have two hours in the air, get passports checked, grab luggage, then 50 minutes by chauffeured van to The Lady Hamilton Hotel in the Old Town (Gamla Stan) part of Stockholm. This is one hotel of three that are themed in a mid to early 19th century style. That theme extends to functionality in many ways. Rooms are small. I think The Luna had more square footage than this. There is no HVAC system. Rooms are stuffy. Good news: the window opens. Bad news: the streets are noisy. Bad news: windows stay closed. The bath is a nice modern one, though. The remodelers were put to proper task here. And there is a heated towel rack! Yay! The deco and architecture are very 1790-1840 – ish. The hotel owners are big fans of Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson. Lady Hamilton was his mistress. The other two hotels are The Lord Nelson and The Victory. All are adorned with nautical items and deco.
We get unpacked in time to wander out in the streets looking for a bite to eat. We find it in an unremarkable pub-ish place which was a little dog-eared around the edges. Food was ok, though. We’re in the bar and restaurant district which invites us to take a walk after dinner. CK spots a set of stairs descending below street level sporting decorations of the medieval sort. There’s a menu that looks promising with home made sausages and bacon wrapped pheasant breast. This is called Tunnan. We will dine here tomorrow. It looks awesome. A few doors away is another cellar café called Källarbyn. I must investigate.
About halfway down the stairs I hear the very encouraging sound of a jazz piano trio with vocalist. Yes, it’s a live music club. We settle in for a listen. The piano guy is a 20 something, very worthy. The bass man is excellent, as well. They are playing old standards in the classic style, and doing a cracking good job of it. That said, the female vocalist isn’t terrible but not brilliant. She could do with a sound system considerably beefier in amps so she could turn down the gain. Drummer is, like most drummers in a small space, too loud and overbearing, which causes the other players to try to balance to his level. I’m picking wings off of flies, for sure. They put down a good groove. They are pros. However, they desperately need the guidance of a proper sound tech and about $8K worth of gear. At 9:45 they announce ‘open mic’. It doesn’t take long to understand that this isn’t just an invitation for stage struck amateurs. Only accomplished musicians may participate. One fellow unpacks his trombone and rips into a number that was clearly rehearsed with the combo. Maybe the band just wants to project the feel of improvisational inspiration? We couldn’t stay long enough to find out. It is late and we must hit the hay. We’ve had a terrific first experience here.
Tomorrow we are loose and on the prowl in Stockholm.
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