The map gives some idea of the extent of the area

                                                                      Black Down

Southern England may be one of the most populated places on the planet but it is easy to find plenty of quiet spots with miles of countryside all to yourself. Sussex and Kent form a great bowl bordered by the North and South Downs and filled with the delights of the Weald, but in that bowl are numerous ridges and pockets of high ground that sit up like giant lumps of cereal. One such area is Black Down.

View out over the Weald

The slopes of Black Down

 

Black Down is a popular Sussex beauty spot that Lord Tennyson loved so much that he decided to get a house here to get away from day trippers on the Isle of Wight where he lived. You can understand why he liked it because it is the highest spot in Sussex and also in the South Downs National Park (919ft) and sits like a great mound just south of Haslemere, with fantastic views all round towards Leith Hill, the North and South Downs, and of course the Sussex Weald. ill Sussex is the most mature and tame of landscapes and Black Down is about as wild as it gets round these parts, which isn’t very, and shares the same features as other well known southern beauty spots such as Ashdown Forest with its open heathland  and scattered woodland. In fact it’s like a much hillier Ashdown Forest, crossed by winding and switchback little lanes swinging between banks of trees and undulating countryside.

The Weald from Black Down

 

You can access Black Down directly from Haslemere town centre by following the little lanes south up from the main street. This takes you up to Tennyson Ridge and Tennyson Lane. Take the Lane and the road heads upwards in a pretty straight trajectory past some rather large ‘stockbroker’ type houses to end up at a series of car parks at the top where the highest points of Black Down can be easily accessed. There’s lots of sandy paths through the woodland and heath, but in the winter you do need boots as the mud and puddle mix does mount up.

You can do a ‘circular’ route which takes you south to the Temple of the Winds which sounds like a place where you will meet assorted time lords doing funny wizardy things with staffs and the odd Gollam scurrying through the undergrowth. In fact it is a splendid viewpoint looking out over the Sussex Weald and across to such iconic spots as Ditchling Beacon, Chanctonbury Ring and Devil’s Dyke. Here there is a topograph (bet you’ve never heard of that!), one of those steel direction pointers that indicates direction of well known landmarks and how many miles away they are .

Woodland on Black Down

If you swing round to the west from here you can follow the slopes of Black Down along a well marked path which follows the contours and enjoy the more rolling countryside but still expansive views out to the west. Whereas trees hide the horizon to the west when approaching the Temple of the Winds, here the views out to the west are uninterrupted and more treeless heathland. Keep going and the path takes you back into the woodland and then back to the car park.

Haslemere is an ideal place to find respite after a bracing walk on Black Down, although it is a tad well heeled (definite beige handbag area) so be prepared for any steep prices. Actualy it has  a little museum in the town centre with quite an interesting section on Black Down. Visiting this museum was the first time I became aware of the famous local beauty spot.

Black Down at dusk

 

Stockholm, Sweden

Stockholm centre

Stockholm in winter

Stockholm is a good visit in the winter but just make sure you take a warm jumper/fleece, coat, hat and gloves to be prepared for those cold crisp sub zero temperatures.

Stockholm is seriously expensive, you need a lot of spondulux to survive in Sweden for more than a few days, but it’s also fun to visit, even in the middle of winter. But don't get up too late or the hours of daylight will swiftly disappear mid afternoon! I arrived there one snowy night the 3rd of January leaving an incredibly blustery UK. We landed at Skavsta Airport which is about an hour and a half by bus from the centre of the city. The snow was more of a smattering than a blanket but was a suitable introduction to Scandinavia. Yes, it was indeed Ryanair that I flew with!

Classic Stockholm waterfront scenes

Once I arrived at the bus station in the city centre I asked directions to the hotel without much success. It sounded like it was just up the road but it took a little while to find my bearings, and eventually I caught a taxi as it was on the late side.

I stayed at the Crystal Plaza Hotel on the street Birger Jarlsgatan, an art deco nineteenth century apartment type hotel on this main thoroughfare in a central part of the city, just north of the waterfront. Adequate for a short stay, it is warm, has great décor (colourful carpets and paintings, great chandeliers), a spiral staircase, and a brilliant breakfast with very attentive staff. It provides a welcome lair at the end of a cold winter day, with TV and internet access, a minibar and a nice clean bathroom. (By the way the best hair gel I have ever bought I used here and it was a mini tube from Gatwick Airport Boots which I have not since been able to find again). The downside was that the shower door was not quite fit for purpose as it was broken and took a little adjustment to position properly, and the mattress was a little hard for my liking (I am a soft bed/pillow fan, bit of a wimp really!)

Stockholm - Venice of the North

A ten minute walk from the hotel lands you in the middle of the city centre. Here you can mosy up and down the long straight walking streets and visit the indoor shopping centre with its very helpful tourist desk and scrumptious confectionary displays. Stockholm is strewn over a haphazard shoreline which twists in and out around a substantial harbour and island setting. Around the city lies an archipelago of islands which provide a summer playground for the locals and plenty of work for the ferries that ply their trade between the city and its surroundings. There's not much sign of water activity in the winter with lines of boats tied up against the promenade hibernating for the winter. The city centre is concentrated on a small number of compact islands, the tiny island of Gamla Stan (the Old Town) being right at the heart with its classic government buildings and chic shops and eating joints. It's an ideal spot to start a Scandinavian murder mystery! You can walk easily from one island to another or use the transit system, the efficient trams or the extensive underground. To the north of Gamla Stan is the modern city centre, Norrmalm with its grid iron pattern streets and modern shops, and here is the main railway station. South of Gamla Stan takes you to Sodermalm which I got the impression is quite a hip and trendy area to coast around. Its northern shore rises quite steeply to the settlement above, and once over the bridge you can ascend to a viewing platform high above the city for great views all around the city centre and waterways. It was icy cold up there on a brisk blue sky day which will leave your eyes watering and your nose running. The main street cuts straight through the island from north to south, again splitting the characteristic street grid pattern.

To the east of Gamla Stan is the tiny island of Skeppsholmen which I breezed round in double quick time in the evening. It has the Modern Museum for international art, with a great collection of Swedish and international masterpieces.

Entrance to Gamla Stan

Waterfront view

The green and parkland style island of Djurgarden can be reached by a short tram ride along the harbour front, then over a little bridge to find the rather large Nordiska museum on the right. This is an island of at least three museums, but be ready to part with a tidy sum to get in! I managed the Nordiska museum at a cost of about £9. This is a hulking old bulk of a building with a massive atrium and comprehensive exhibits on several floors, tracing the history of Sweden down through the ages in architecture, dress, furniture and decoration, lifestyle, Swedish minorities, customs and religion, photography and goodness knows what else. You need at least half a day to get around, and roller skates would be useful.  It's got a nice cafe as well. Just shy of the Nordiska is another evocative museum, the Vasa museum where you can study the 230ft  Swedish warship, the Vasa, which sank on her maiden voyage in 1628 in Stockholm Harbour! and was salvaged in 1961. It has been restored to almost original splendour. The museum is described as a five star attraction.

Attractive harbour front

Winter sun central Stockholm

You can't beat the cold crisp high pressure, admittedly short, days when the sun casts a beautiful hue upon the pastel coloured Swedish buildings, as in the above photo.

You can buy a Timmarskort, a 72 hour card that gives you three days travel throughout the Stockholm area by bus, underground, tram and train which costs you 230 kr. This is about £20. The trick with krona is to divide by ten and then knock a little bit off to convert them to pounds. This card can take you way out of the city to far flung towns as well as give you quick mode around the city centre.

For instance you can take a train from Stockholm Central Station north to visit Sigtuna, the oldest town in Sweden founded in the tenth century, where the first Swedish coin was minted. You have to take a bus for the last part of the journey. The rail north takes you right out of the urban area into a landscape of gently rolling countryside of fields and interspersed woodland under a leaden sky, a dusting of snow covering everything in the near zero conditions. Once you get on the bus, it takes you up and down through little towns and then to the lakeside upon which Sigtuna sits. Sigtuna itself is a small township centred on a high street of old wooden buildings running parallel to the lakeshore, with suburbs stretching up the hill and down the lakeside. If you take a walk along the lakeside you get classic Nordic views across the waters to far wooded shores and into tiny inlets, all set beneath the pinks and reds of a setting sun. it’s just as you would imagine Sweden to be if you had never been.

So what’s worth doing in Sigtuna:

Well you can hit the tourist office on the main drag, Storagatan, the oldest street in Sweden. The tourist offce has an interesting mix of things to buy, and here I availed myself of a fine red woolly hat. The office told me about the following:

The 18th century Town Hall - a cute little building, the smallest in Scandinavia, with a clock tower that looks a bit like something out of a Hansel and Gretal story. It’s used for wedding ceremonies.

The church of Maria - the oldest brick building in the local valley going back to 1247.

The church ruin of St Olaf if you like old ruins.

Further west are the church ruins of St Lars and St Per, the latter which stands on a hillock isolated from the rest of the town.
These old ruins are likely to have been built in the 12th and 13th century.

Sigtuna waterfront

Sigtuna Museum - this was closed although the local information said it was open. I peered inside but didn’t see much. However it does have a collection of exhibits from Viking times and the Middle Ages.

I went up the hill out of town to the west to see the Sigtunastiftelsen (Sigtuna Foundation), a cultural and Christian meeting place founded by Manfred Bjorkquist in the early twentieth century. It’s quite an extensive set of buildings, but after prowling around for a while trying to find a way in, a lady appeared at one of the entrances and told me the place was closed!

Rune stones - Sigtuna has more rune stones than any town worldwide.

These are some of the highlights and I also ate at the buzzing Café Valvet on the main street which did a very good lunch of egg and potato, a Swedish delicacy.

Stockholm centre

Nykoping (pronounced Knee shopping!) is an ancient Swedish town, a seat of old Swedish kings, about a twenty minute ride from Stavska airport which is definitely worth a visit. Here you can stroll along the long, straight main street, and also visit the castle, wander along the river past the old watermill, and take a walk out to the harbour. Nykoping Castle is quite an easy visit with lots of exhibits and displays and virtually no visitors, so there was plenty of time to get the attention of the reception department if you had any questions. It was originally a 13th century defensive fortress, and a colourful story from its past is the Nykoping Banquet when King Birger (Burger King!) invited his brothers to a banquet at the castle, but then chucked them in the dungeons where according to legend, they died of starvation. Nice chap!

You use your card to pay on the bus, they don’t take cash, something you would have to get used to in Sweden. So I had to use my euro currency card. Fare was 24kr each way. By the way Swedish buses and trains seem to run like clockwork, I guess there is a little more joined up thinking here than in the UK.

(NB If you need to stay at Stavska Airport overnight you can stay at the Connect Hotel which charges 595 kr per night for a basic but comfortable room with a bunk bed, although you have to share a bathroom which is modern, clean and of substantial size with ample shower space.)

Scenes of Nykoping



Classic Swedish architecture

Prices

Three nights at the Crystal Plaza cost 1759kr including bar snacks

Left luggage charge 50 kr per day

Coffee at Skavsta Airport Food Hall: 24 kr

Bus journey Stavska Airport to Stockholm city centre: 259 kr (Flygbussarna)

Evening meal at Ristorante Sogni, Kungsgatan 3 was an eye watering 286kr for a plate of pasta, a beer and a tiny dessert, and that was service not included! It was very nice, a substantial bowl of pasta, but we’re talking about £25!

Latte in Stockholm: 35kr

Southern Rail:

Book ahead with Southern which has the franchise of the main commuter routes between London and Sussex and you can save a lot of money e.g. I have paid £11.50 Durrington to Gatwick Airport return (£4.50 there, £6.75 return).

Entrance to Gamla Stan

Dusk in Stockholm - yes it is a statue!