Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ACCOMMODATION
Fågelsångens vandrarhem
Fågelsångsvägen 3
T
0731 82 11 95,
E
fagelsangensvandrarhem@hotmail
.com.
This is a delightful little youth hostel with no dorm
beds and only two rooms (100kr extra for sheets), right in the
town ce
ntre by
the main square. Booking ahead is essential.
Doubles
500kr
Sigtuna Stadshotell
Stora Nygatan 3
T
08 592 501 00,
W
sigtunastadshotell.se.
Luxurious five-star hotel stuffed
full of period fittings from the early 1900s when the hotel
first opened as well as contemporary Scandinavian design
furniture. Useful as an alternative to
more ma
instream
hotels at Arlanda airport, just 10km away.
2490kr
2
EATING AND DRINKING
Båthuset
Strandpromenaden
T
08 592 567 80.
Set on
a floating pontoon in the harbour, this little wooden
restaurant dishes up delicious fish and beef mains for
around 250kr; the tasty fish and seafood stew is particularly
good (238kr).
Tues-Sat 6-10pm.
Farbror Blå
Storatorget 4
T
08 592 560 50.
Located
next to the town hall, this place serves excellent Swedish
home cooking - mains cost around 200kr. There's also a
popular outdoor terrace where people gather to listen to
local bands.
Daily 10am till late.
La Passione
Södergatan 29C
T
08 591 409 80.
The best
place for Italian food is a 10- to 15min bus ride away
opposite the train station in Märsta; rack of lamb with
rosemary is 189kr whilst fresh pasta dishes go for 109-
169kr.
Mon 9am-2pm, Tues-Thurs 9am-10pm, Fri
9am-midnight, Sat 4pm-midnight.
Tant Bruns kaffestuga
Laurentii gränd 3
. This
atmospheric old café specializes in home-made bread and
is housed in a seventeenth-century building (the oldest
wooden structure in Sigtuna) with outdoor seating in
summer in a small flower garden.
Mon-Fri 10am-5pm,
Sat & Sun 10am-6pm.
Nyköping
If you're looking for a taste of provincial Sweden before pushing on further south or,
alternatively, to Stockholm Skavsta airport, historic
NYKÖPING
, 100km southwest of
Stockholm, is perfect. Indeed, since Ryanair established a base in 2003 at Skavsta (7km
northwest of the town), the airport has effectively become Nyköping's lifeblood, supplying
a steady flow of arriving and departing Ryanair passengers. Capital of the surrounding
pastoral province of Södermanland, Nyköping's underrated charms include an excellent
museum in and around the ruins of its thirteenth-century
castle
, and a thriving harbour
- a regular target for the Stockholm yachting set - that bustles with life in summer.
St Nicolai kyrka
Storatorget • Mon-Fri 10am-4pm, Sat & Sun 10am-2pm (try the back door if the front one on the square is locked)
On the main square, Storatorget, opposite the tourist office, stands the vast
St Nicolai
kyrka
with its white, vaulted ceiling. The building dates from around 1260, although
most of what you see is the result of sixteenth-century refurbishment. The pillars here
are adorned with dozens of beautiful, heavily moulded silver candle sconces. It's the
Baroque pulpit, though, that's the highlight; crafted in Norrköping in 1748, it was
modelled on the one in the Storkyrkan in Stockholm. Outside, standing proudly on a
nearby rocky outcrop, is the red 1692 bell tower, the only wooden building not
destroyed in 1719 when the town was attacked from the sea by invading Russian
troops who burnt virtually the entire place to the ground.
Nyköpingshus
King's Tower: June-Aug daily 11am-5pm • Free •
W
sormlandsmuseum.se
From Storatorget, it's just a couple of minutes' wander south, down Slottsgatan with
the river to your left, to Kungsgatan. Here you'll see the
King's Tower
, the main part of
Nyköpingshus castle. A late twelfth-century defensive tower, built to protect the
trading port at the estuary of the Nyköping river, it was subsequently converted into a
fortress
by King Magnus Ladulås.
In the sixteenth century, Gustav Vasa fortified the castle with gun towers; his son Karl,
who became duke of Södermanland, converted the place into one of Sweden's grandest
Renaissance palaces. Devastating fires here in 1665 and 1719 reduced all lesser buildings
