This is ABBA-solutely one of the world’s most attractive cities

It was almost half a century ago that a fantastical foursome, decked out in preposterous ’70s stage costumery that could well have been straight out of an Elton John garage sale, launched its full-frontal Scandinavian assault on the effervescent world of pop.

The song was Waterloo, the year was 1974, the event was Eurovision, the city was Brighton, England. The winners? ABBA.

On stage with “Waterloo” at Eurovision 1974.Credit: Alamy

Now, 50 years later, Eurovision will return to Sweden in 2024 following the victory earlier this year by yet another Swedish performer, Loreen, with her song Tattoo (can you recall it as much, if at all, as an ABBA tune?).

Sadly, ABBA’s all surviving and seemingly still thriving 70-something members – Agnetha Faltskog, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid “Frida” Lyngstad – have ruled out an appearance at Eurovision 2024, with the event to be held not in Stockholm but the southern city of Malmo.

But fear not, Fernando. I’m in Stockholm on my second visit and I’m here to give the Swedish capital its ABBA dues, Malmo or no Malmo.

Always an ABBA fan but not a devotee, on my last visit I somewhat snobbishly overlooked the city’s ABBA heritage, including its then newly opened museum dedicated to the band. The band had tended to be to music what IKEA is to furniture.

Naff or not, and notwithstanding their global impact and legacy, the band’s phenomenal, earworm-driven success just won’t go away and nor will the members of the group itself.

In the ensemble’s discographical dotage, ABBA announced their groundbreaking Voyage virtual tour that’s now playing in London (with hopes of an Australian season), meaning they need not leave their Swedish designer rocking chairs at all.

I’m fleetingly here in Stockholm, one of the world’s most attractive cities, as a passenger on the appropriately Scandinavian, Norwegian-flagged. Viking Jupiter after a 15-day Baltic-wide voyage.

Such limited time can concentrate the mind of a traveller and, in my songbook, it’s always better to have at least been somewhere than nowhere at all.

Ahead of my Stockholm port of call, and having grown up with the group and become a latter-day admirer, I’m determined to create my own ABBA tour of Stockholm, matching ABBA songs with its key architectural, design and cultural sights.

THE SONG Arrival

Arrival is a stirring instrumental track, beloved of military tattoo mass band performances (really) these days, showcasing both the musicality and versatility of ABBA songwriters Benny and Bjorn. It featured on the eponymous fourth studio album.

THE PLACE Stockholm Archipelago and Sodermalm

The Stockholm Archipelago.Credit: iStock

As it happens, the captain of Viking Jupiter pre-empts my ABBA tour even before I can launch into it on fertile Swedish soil.

From aboard the ship, as it passes through the 30,000-island-dotted Stockholm Archipelago, he announces over the PA that passengers could look out for a white cottage (or summerhouse), where Benny and Bjorn secreted themselves to write and score many of their greatest hits.

It proves harder to spot than even a restrained Eurovision act. Not to worry as there is a full recreation of the cottage inside the museum dedicated to the band (see below).

There’s certainly plenty else to marvel at during what is one of the most glorious processional arrivals to a city by ship.

Passenger ferries, nearly the size of cruise ships, glide by us with the profusion of islands dominated by immaculately maintained, all Jaffa-red-coloured timber summerhouses set between thin sandy shorelines and densely vegetated army-green forests.

A museum replica of the summerhouse where Benny and Bjorn composed their music.Credit: Alamy

It’s around here that another of Sweden’s cultural exports, albeit more recent, Morden i Sandhamn (Sandhamn Murders), a kind of Swedish Midsomer Murders but sexier (and screened on SBS in Australia), was shot on the eponymous picturesque island.

After a few hours or so carefully threading its way through the archipelago, our ship berths at Stockholm’s cruise terminal, which is close to Sodermalm, one of the city’s most fashionable neighbourhoods.

It’s the ideal place, even though it’s early Sunday morning with most Stockholmers still in bed, to launch into my ABBA tour as it’s here that you will find the commendably understated Hotel Rival (rival.se), founded 20 years ago by Benny.

(Despite Stockholm’s importance to the history of the band, only one of the four members, namely Benny himself, was actually born in the capital, with Frida’s birthplace being Norway.)

Founded by former ABBA band member Benny Andersson, Hotel Rival is playfully understated.

The model of discretion, there’s little or no hint outside or inside these lodgings of any ABBA connections, though there’s at least an Australian flag flying, it being the ensign of a country credited with having been among the first to embrace the group beyond its native Scandinavia.

The first of the Mamma Mia! box office smash-hit movies – an unexpected success earning a cool $US600 million in takings – had its Swedish premiere at the Hotel Rival’s inhouse cinema.

Sodermalm is full of vintage, fashion and design stores as well as plenty of places to eat and drink, with the hood’s deli-cum-grocery-store Urban Deli (urbandeli.se) a perfect brunch pitstop overlooking a public park, Nytorget.

THE SONG Another town, another train

This song was part of the group’s debut album, Ring Ring, released in 1973 prior to their international success and tells the story of lovers being parted, permanently it would seem, at dawn after having had, yes, a “groovy time”.

THE PLACE Stockholm Metro

Art inside Kungstradgarden Metro Station.Credit: iStock

By the time I take the train from Sodermalm to the city centre it’s late-morning. And if there’s one genuinely groovy place in a still largely conservative Stockholm (population 1.7 million), it’s the least expected one.

It’s the astonishingly decorated Stockholm subway system, which at 110 kilometres in length, is accurately described as the world’s longest art gallery. ABBA could have, should have, shot a music video here.

Since 1957, the stations have each featured not graffiti, per se, but bold artworks on their platforms, walls and waiting halls with artists incorporated in plans for each new station over the decades.

Since I’m just here for the day, I sadly don’t have time to explore the whole network, even on one of the self-guided tours, such as Stockholm Art Walk (stockholmartwalk.se) that covers five of the stations.

But I’m grateful to settle for a wander around T-Centralen, the hub of Stockholm’s subway system, where I’ve arrived from Sodermalm.

Per Olof Ultvedt, a Finnish-born artist, painted the platform’s rough-hewn, exposed bedrock ceilings in so much blue and white, with Greek garland-like leaves, that it can feel more like you’re in the Athens underground.

But the effect is stunning, particularly the section where that almost organic blue and white daubed bedrock, purposefully left behind by the metro’s engineers, dramatically frames sleek sets of silver escalators. T-Centralen and its companion stations is one ticket well and truly worth the ride.

However, it’s time to make tracks towards the capital’s dazzling waterfront with Stockholm rivalling Sydney for urban aquatic aesthetics, and comprising more than a dozen islands and 50 bridges.

THE SONG Money, Money, Money

One of ABBA’s best-known and memorable songs, Money, Money, Money – all about a “hardworking woman” in search of a loaded man, was released in 1976 as the second single from Arrival in the same year.

THE PLACE Ostermalm

An enviable waterside setting has landed Ostermalm the nickname Venice of the North.Credit: iStock

One of Stockholm’s most monied neighbourhoods with an enviable waterside setting in this so-called Venice of the North, chic Ostermalm is known for its architecture, museums, theatres and posh al fresco cafes.

Less well known is the fact that Ostermalm is also the location of Svenskt Tenn (svenskttenn.com), one of Scandinavia’s most prestigious – though by no means conventional – department stores founded in 1924.

The store faithfully showcases and retails the eclectic designs of Josef Frank, the inspired Austrian-born architect, artist and designer who adopted Swedish citizenship in later life.

Even here you’ll uncover certain ABBA connections, since in some scenes in Mamma Mia!, actress Meryl Streep is surrounded by Josef Frank designs.

They were chosen by the film’s production designer, Maria Djurkovic – to emphasise the film’s connection to Sweden, Djurkovic borrowed textiles from the store.

By now you’ll no doubt be hungry again, if not for yet more ABBA nostalgia and trivia, then certainly a light Scandinavian lunch.

Fortunately, Svenskt Tenn has its own small, charming and colourful inhouse cafe, decorated in full Frank regalia, which is run in partnership with Petter Nilsson, founder and owner of Petri (petrirestaurant.com), the lauded Stockholm restaurant.

The menu features local Nordic treats such as classic open sandwiches with prawns, horseradish, dill and fingerling potatoes on rye bread and desserts such as meringue with fermented blueberries, roasted plums and buttermilk.

THE SONG Dancing Queen

Dancing Queen, yet another of ABBA’s biggest hits, was the only single to make it to number one in the US, though three other songs by the group did make it into the top 10.

THE PLACES Opera House and Royal Palace

The royal palace at the Norrbo bridge. Credit: iStock

A short walk from Svenskt Tenn is Stockholm’s 18th century Royal Swedish Opera, a decidedly antique contrast to the ultra-modern, 21st century equivalents in its sister Nordic capitals Copenhagen and Oslo.

It was at the Opera House – national venue for opera and ballet since January 18, 1773 – that Dancing Queen had its first live performance by Frida.

It took place on June 18, 1976, with Frida decked out in an 18th century outfit, during an all-star gala event broadcast live on Swedish TV in honour of the country’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and his then bride-to-be, Silvia Sommerlath.

Seventeen years later, Frida was invited back to the Opera House to perform the song again in order to mark Queen Silvia‘s 50th birthday.

You can relive moments, and at the same time immerse yourself in the building’s majesty, by booking one of the backstage guided tours (operan.se) conducted in English on most Saturdays.

Alternatively, if you’re in town for a further day or more, simply reserve a seat or two at one of the regular performances and recitals.

Further on from the Opera House is surely Stockholm’s most important building, the baroque-style, 600-room, 11-storey Royal Palace. Even though it remains the king’s official residence and is the setting for most of the monarchy’s official receptions, much of the sprawling complex is open to the public.

In addition to the extraordinary Royal Apartments there is a trio of museums to explore, namely the subterranean Treasury with its extensive display of precious royal regalia; the Tre Kronor Museum, detailing the palace’s rich history and, during summer, Gustav III’s exquisite Museum of Antiquities.

Don’t get too immersed inside the Royal Palace, though, lest you miss Stockholm’s greatest and most rousing spectacle, the changing of the royal guards (forsvarsmakten.se), which proceeds through the city’s streets accompanied by a military marching band.

Then, in the outer courtyard of the Royal Palace, the blue and yellow-uniformed guards assemble for the 45-minute ceremony. If you find them in good humour, the crowd may even score a bonus musical performance (Dancing Queen requests not accepted).

THE SONG Thank you for the music

Thank You for the Music featured on The Album, released in 1977. The song features in ABBA: The Movie, a mockumentary feature film released in the same year, all about the pop group’s frenzied Down Under tour.

THE PLACE ABBA The Museum

Saved in wax at the ABBA Museum.Credit: Alamy

From the Royal Place, make your way by harbour ferry across to Djurgarden, the leafy (as the name suggests) centrally positioned island popular as a weekend playground for outdoorsy Stockholmers.

It was on Djurgarden that ABBA shot the cover for their 1975 Greatest Hits album but there’s another, bigger reason for coming here.

Since its opening in 2013, ABBA The Museum (abbathemuseum.com) – motto: “Walk in, dance out” – has become, with the band’s unflagging global fan base, one of the capital’s biggest ticket attractions.

While the building in which the museum is housed is rather unprepossessing, its contents are bound to satisfy not only ABBA tragics but even those with only a passing interest in the band.

Aside from the literally wall-to-wall ABBA memorabilia, inside the museum they’ve erected a virtual stage for fans.

Here visitors can become, should they dare, the fifth member of the group (ABBA’s late manager and lyricist, Stig Anderson, once enjoyed that unofficial title) with images of the other four members (never the greatest dancers) projected on a screen behind them.

Next year, with that 50th anniversary of Waterloo, the museum is set to celebrate the milestone in a big (though so far undisclosed) way but in the meantime fans can savour its exhibition on the making of the Voyage virtual concert experience and latest album.

Finish your admittedly rather full day in Stockholm before heading back to your ship or hotel with dinner at a lovely and relaxed bistro called Skip (slipen.se), conveniently close to the museum.

A more affordable and laid back sibling diner of the Michelin-starred Oaxen (both restaurants are located in Stockholm’s historic converted shipyards), it comes complete with old timber rowboats suspended from the roof above diners.

From this gorgeous vantage point, the Swedish early summer sun doesn’t slowly sink in the west until almost 10pm, rising again only five hours later.

So, all that remains to be said is thank you for the music, ABBA, those songs you’ve been singing all these years. Thanks, too, for all the joy they’re still bringing and will keep bringing.

The writer travelled as a guest of Viking.

FIVE MORE THINGS TO DO AND SEE IN STOCKHOLM

Visit Sweden’s most ignominious shipwreck
The Vasa Museum on the island of Djurgarden (where ABBA The Museum is located) displays the salvaged wreck of the Vasa, the 17th-century battleship that sank almost immediately into her maiden voyage in 1628. See vasamuseet.se

Take a stroll through the city’s old town
Dating from the 13th century, this cobbled labyrinth of pedestrianised streets and laneways flanked by faded 17th and 18th century townhouses, is worth a visit despite the regrettable profusion of tatty souvenir shops. See visitstockholm.com

Catch a ferry to one of archipelago islands
Many of the splendid Stockholm Archipelago islands can be surprisingly distant from the centre of town; if you’re short of time take an hour or so ferry ride to closer Fjaderholmarna, Vaxholm or Gustavsberg. See visitstockholm.com

See where the Swedish royals spent summer
It’s no wonder the island of Djurgarden is so popular for visitors in Stockholm’s more forgiving warmer months, since it’s also home to the early 19th century, fairytale-like Rosendal Palace. In its heyday it was a summer retreat for the royals. See kungligaslotten.se

Shoot into the Stockholm museum of photography
One of the best things, at least for those arriving in Stockholm by ship, about the capital’s Museum of Photography, Art and Culture (Fotografiska) is that it’s situated right beside the cruise terminal in a converted and imposing erstwhile customs building. See fotografiska.com

THE DETAILS

CRUISE
Viking Cruises’ 15-day Northern European “Viking Homelands” voyage from Stockholm to Bergen, Norway, or vice versa, starts from $11,495 a person. There are departures between May and August 2024 and April and August, 2025. See viking.com.au

FLY
Qatar Airways flies from Sydney to Stockholm as well as Oslo, Norway (connect to Bergen by air or preferably via the scenic rail connections) from its Doha, Qatar, hub. See viking.com.au; qatarairways.com

MORE
visitstockholm.com
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