Two Days in Stockholm - Gamla Stan and the Vasa Museum

[yflyer]

The designated BA lounge in Stockholm is the Aurora Lounge.



This is a fairly large lounge which was not busy when I was there (I was there at an off-peak time: late afternoon on a Saturday).





A variety of seating spaces in different styles...

[yflyer]

Self service dining area...







Some of the buffet items when I was there...





Just a few hot selections...



Dessert...



The beverage selection...





A very unique way of serving red and white wine...



I had to try it out...



Overall a decent lounge, although the catering was more suitable for snacking than a full meal.

[yflyer]

Note that there is a separate outbound immigration checkpoint to pass through before heading to the international boarding gates. Thankfully, there was no queue there, unlike the inbound immigration queue when I landed, which took a few minutes to clear.

The boarding gate...



Once again, today's flight was operated by a BA 767.



A shot of the Y cabin, in 2-3-2.



Not a lot of recline in these seats.



I had a great seat on this lightly loaded flight: An emex row window seat.



Heading for take-off...the 747 in the background has been converted into a hotel.



Above the clouds at sunset...



G&T onboard...thumbs up for serving Fever Tree tonic water!



More cabin views...





Nothing quite like the serenity and comfort of a lightly loaded widebody. I am sure this flight is busy on weekdays, but this Saturday evening, the rear of the Y cabin was fairly empty.

Metal sink in the bathroom...



We approached Heathrow from the East, flying past central London, Wembley Stadium and Heathrow...the brightly lit airport visible from the left side windows, along with the M25 motorway curving alongside...before turning round for a landing from the West.

[yflyer]

An on-time arrival in T5, where I had dinner in the BA Galeries Lounge before boarding BA15 for Singapore.

I've covered BA15 before in other TRs. This as a 77W service with a wonderful modern Y product: very comfortable seats (9-abreast, 3-3-3 layout) and superb IFE.





My dinner on this flight was a Thai chicken curry.



This was delicious, and only mildy spicy.





Breakfast was a fairly standard eggs and/or full English breakfast, which I have covered in other TR's.

I slept very well on this flight. I had an empty seat next to me, and in Y, with wide 777 seats in 9-abreast config, this is probably as good as it gets, short of laying flat on a row of 3...

I learnt earlier this week that BA has also buckled to market pressures and have started reconfiguring some of their 777's to 10-abreast in Y. Well, if they ever do this for BA15, which continues on to Sydney, I believe they will ignite a firestorm of protest from BA regulars (Who are quite a vocal bunch, at least based on what goes on in TOF...).

Certainly, the day they switch this route to 10-abreast, if that day ever comes, is the day I stop flying this sector on BA.

That said, I hope they will retain this 9-abreast 77W config for key sectors like BA16/15. It is an excellent hard product as it is right now. I had a great flight from London to Singapore.

[yflyer]

Final reflections?

Stockholm joins the list of cities where I would definitely want to squeeze in a run or two in the city on every trip, both for exercise, and also as an excellent way to see the sights.

Food-wise, Stockholm looks quite promising as well. I stuck with traditional fare this time round...perhaps I will try more adventurous cuisine on my next trip.

In terms of what to see and do, the highlight of my short visit was undoubtedly the Vasa Museum. A must see in Stockholm, and an amazing tale of both the ship's tragic history, and of the awe-inspiring salvage and restoration operation.

Thanks for reading!

[CarbonMan]

Thanks for another great TR, yflyer! It has been more than 10 years since I visited Stockholm. Thanks for the reminder of the city. If you intend to visit it again, make sure you don't do it anytime between December and April. Three of my four trips there were during that period - I nearly froze to death and hated the very short days.

[SQ_326]

Thanks Yflyer. I will be at stockholm next june.

[yflyer]

Thanks for another great TR, yflyer! It has been more than 10 years since I visited Stockholm. Thanks for the reminder of the city. If you intend to visit it again, make sure you don't do it anytime between December and April. Three of my four trips there were during that period - I nearly froze to death and hated the very short days.

Thanks, CarbonMan! The novelty of snow still hasn't worn off for me, so I think I would enjoy at least one trip there in the heart of winter. That said, it was great when the sun was up for at least part of one day while I was there...

Thanks Yflyer. I will be at stockholm next june.

Thanks, SQ_326! The weather should be great at that time of the year!

[yflyer]

I found myself travelling to Stockholm again earlier this month, in mid February. This was part of a trip which also included London, and once again I flew there on BA, this time on an A321 rather than a 767, out of Heathrow T5.

This additional TR segment starts a few hours prior to my flight, on an unusually cold day in London for this time of year. So cold, in fact, that there was light snowfall in parts of London.



I am also a budget-constrained audiophile and I enjoy listening to music on the go. However, my regular music playback equipment comprises iTunes on my MacBook and my iPhone. Decent sound quality, but not audiophile grade out of the box.

Audioquest recently released a USB Headphone DAC called the Dragonfly Red, which costs GBP168 (or about SGD300), which provides an amazing sound quality upgrade to either your PC/laptop or your smartphone (iPhone or Android).

I tested it out a few weeks before in Singapore, at Zeppelin & Co, which is an amazing headphone and hifi shop in Sim Lim Square (I would highly recommend this shop, which is very different from the other outlets in Sim Lim), and was so impressed that I wanted to buy one there and then, but they were out of stock at the time (They may be in stock now, but seem to sell out of this product very quickly.)

Since I was in the UK, I located a shop, Audio Sanctuary, called them to verify they had it in stock, and headed there to pick it up. The store was close to London, in New Malden, a 25 minute commuter train ride away from London from Waterloo Station.

By the time I got onto the train in the late morning, light snow was falling...it continued to snow when I arrived at New Malden.





It was quite interesting to visit this suburb, which I discovered to my surprise had a very large Korean community. The streets were lined with Korean restaurants, shops and hairdressers.



I eventually found the hifi specialist store, whose name on the storefront was, misleadingly, different from the website. "We are still getting approvals for the new signage" the gentleman in the store said. This was a wonderful specialist hifi store with a good selection of hifi/home theater and headphone gear on sale, not to mention very helpful and knowledgeable sales staff.



I picked up my Dragonfly Red and on impulse, headed into one of the Korean restaurants for a fairly authentic (And inexpensive) Korean lunch...



I then headed back to my hotel via train and tube to pick up my left luggage, and immediately went to Paddington for the quick Heathrow Express train ride to T5 for my flight to Stockholm...

[yflyer]

It was dark an a little foggy at Heathrow when I got there, but thankfully there was hardly any snow, and consequently no flight delays.



A new Harry Potter store had opened in the T5 airside area since I last visited...



I parked myself in the BA Galleries Lounge and unwrapped my Dragonfly Red to test it out.



To connect it to an iPhone, you need the USB Camera Adapter (Or better yet the USB-3 to Lightning adapter)...



It sounded beautiful...

To connect it to a MacBook, all you had to do was plug it into a USB port.



The difference in sound quality was quite apparent. I was going to enjoy music and iTunes Movies/TV much more with the Dragonfly Red!

[yflyer]

I boarded the BA Airbus A321...



Nothing remarkable about the cabin or seats...smart black leather in 3-3...



...with decent legroom...

[yflyer]

The real difference was that BA shorthaul flights now offered only paid-for catering. No more complimentary snacks or beverages.

A fancy M&S menu was offered...

[yflyer]

In truth, the menu looked quite appealing...



That bacon sandwich looked beautiful.



As did the other sandwiches.

But these menu glamour shots are sometimes deceptive...you never know if this is the actual dish, or a prettified "stunt double". I didn't order one this time round, so a verdict would have to wait...

A decent snack selection...





Chocolates and sweets...



And a large beverage selection...







And wines and spirits...

[yflyer]

Nothing wrong with for-purchase menus on a flight I suppose. LCC's have been doing it for years. And many full service carriers, including UA and Finnair, just to name two airlines I have flown recently, do it too.

But what was different about BA was that nothing was complimentary. On UA domestic and Finnair intra-Europe, you had complimentary soft beverages, coffee and tea.

On BA short haul? Nope. When I asked for just a cup of water, the cabin crew member said curtly "At the end...". And in the end none came.

Eventually I went to the galley and asked for water, and there another cabin crew member poured me a cup and handed it to me with a smile. Thanks goodness for that.

I wonder how long BA can get away with a short haul catering policy like that. By all means charge for F&B, but at least provide water when the cart comes round! No plain water during the main drink service? That's just mean.

[yflyer]

All that aside, the BA cabin crew were otherwise pretty good, and as far as I can tell, so were the tech crew.

The Airbus A321 economy cabin ambience was fine too.



We had a smooth flight and landed on time in Stockholm.