Visiting the Hallwyls

There can’t be that many people who have seen the cherry blossom in both Tokyo and Stockholm. Well, apart from people who live in either place. That’s what I was thinking today while we stood beneath the cherry blossom in Kungsträdgården. Mind you, I then saw a Japanese woman taking a photo of her kids under the blossoms so, perhaps, she’s another.

The number of people would be further limited by adding the fact that it’s during our wedding anniversary week.

The other week Mirinda thought the cherry blossom was fake. I don’t know how she thought someone was going to fill a huge area with fake trees full of blossom but, she did. Then she read about the cherry blossom in Stockholm and that it was real. She was determined that we should see it today.

We had also booked into a restaurant for a continuation of our 30th anniversary celebrations. And there was a sort of plan to go to a gallery. As it turned out, we didn’t go to a gallery. We went to a house instead. The Hallwylska House Museum.

Completed in 1898, the house was the summer home of the Count and Countess Walther and Wilhelmina von Hallwyl. They were ridiculously rich and more than a little eccentric.

As an indication of their wealth, the build of the house had no budgetary restrictions. It is still one of the most expensive private residences ever built in Sweden. You can see where the money was spent. Even the family portraits in the Upper Vestibule were copied from the originals by the artist Julius Kronberg (1850-1921). The originals came from the Walther’s family castle in Switzerland. They were returned after being copied. I guess, if you visit Schloss Hallwyl in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland, you can see the originals.

Wilhelmina had always intended for the house to become a museum. It was bequeathed to the Swedish state and, in 1938, became the museum it is today. The only stipulation was that it remain essentially unchanged. Which it has. It’s quite amazing.

Even the museum staff are in period costume. They all look like domestic staff in the great house. It gives the whole place a wonderful air of still being used. Even the creepy, headless butler.

While there were plague restrictions in place limiting the number of people in each room, we had a lovely wander around. Mind you, there was a bit of a problem between the Billiard and Porcelain rooms.

The Billiard Room allowed for three people and the Porcelain Room only two. The Porcelain Room is a dead end, and you have to return through the Billiard Room. We were two in the Porcelain Room and there were three women in the Billiard Room. It was an impossible situation.

I guess we could have created one of those logic problems like the fox, the chicken and the seed but, instead, we managed by holding our collective breaths and running on either side of the billiard table.

The Porcelain Room was amazing. Wilhemina collected things and one of her collections was over 500 pieces of porcelain. Among the many cups, saucers and plates, she also collected little figurines.

If you go on the guided tour (in Swedish) you can see even more of the house but, given we arrived on the spur of the moment and you had to pre-book, we satisfied ourselves with the ten rooms on offer. It was enough.

We’d already wandered around under the cherry blossom and had our usual fika. We were ready for a bit of a rest when we emerged from the house.

Of course, we had to have a bit of a sit down so we found a very handy outside dining place and I had a beer and Mirinda enjoyed a glass of rosé. We were not alone. There are quite a few outside dining places along the Wolodarski section of the Kungsträdgården and they were rapidly filling up. We collared a table and watched the people being showered by the flying blossom on the occasionally stiff breeze.

It was then time to wander down to the Bistro Bestick where we were booked in for a late lunch. And what a brilliant choice.

I’d been trying to find a Michelin starred place for our anniversary but without much luck. Then the Bistro Bestick popped up. I am so glad it did. Not only brilliant food and an excellent cellar, we had a jolly good chat with the head waiter, Dimitrios and found out his life history. More or less.

He was heading home to Greece last year, to start working in a Greek restaurant in Athens then the pandemic hit. He had cancelled his Swedish life in anticipation of a new start but, with three days before the Greek lockdown, he returned to Stockholm to start again. Fortunately they took him back at the restaurant.

I have to compliment the chef (and owner) Björn Fischer who has amazing skill with food. I particularly loved his crème brulee topped with 36 month aged parmesan and truffle. Genius.

All in all, a lovely Stockholm day and end to our anniversary week of celebrations.