Stockholm : Stieg Larsson Tour

Have you read the Millenium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson?  If you have, you'll know how great they are, and if you haven't, then you should give them a try.  The first one is "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and it's a gritty, dark story revolving around the characters Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist - set in Stockholm.

Stieg (1954-2004) was a Swedish writer and journalist, who was three and a half books into his Millenium novels (he was planning on writing around 10 in the series) when he unfortunately passed away of a heart attack.  His first book was just about to be published when he died, so he never knew how successful his books became.

There is one book remaining unpublished, that he hadn't quite finished at his death, but his loyal readers are waiting to see if his partner will be able to finish and publish it.

Hubby, Jim and I have read and enjoyed the books, so this past weekend in Stockholm, we booked ourselves on the English walking tour of Sodermalm, where much of the action in the book was set.

Fiskargatan 9, Lisbeth's Apartment

The tour lasted for two hours and commenced at Bellmangatan 1, where the character Mikael Blomkvist lived.  We had a fantastic English speaking guide, Lena, and she really fleshed out the story for us.  Along the way we also learnt about Sodermalm's history, and stopped to take in great views across the city and water.

Bellmangatan 1, Mikael's Apartment

The tickets were 140SEK/head (about £14) and very well worth it.  One thing to remember is that Sodermalm is quite hilly, and there is a fair bit of walking, so it's maybe not so great for babies in prams or people in wheelchairs.  That said, we did have an older gentleman with a walking stick and he seemed to be okay.

Now we'll just have to wait for book number 4 to be released ...