25 Jan Stockholm Pub Crawl

Our cute bartender at the Strand serves up Schanpps chasers. This is how we began our Pub Crawl!

On our last evening the “Siblings in Sweden” decided to do a “Pub Crawl” of our parents’ favorite wartime Stockholm hangouts.

As an afternoon prelude, we went to Södermalm, the trendy neighborhood south of Old Town. We know Herman was in this area a lot because it is where his best friend and fellow internee Charles W. Smith had an apartment..  We headed right for the beer garden at Mosebacke torg, perhaps Södermalm’s best known square. I’m not sure of its wartime history and would love to have input from my readers. The views of Stockholm were incredible.

Pub Crawl #1 outside the Strand. The September weather was beautiful!

Pub Crawl #1 was the Strand Hotell at  Nybrokajen 9. Today it is the Radissoon Blu Strand Hotell and is much different than it was during the war. We decided to start off the evening with a bang and ordered the traditional Swedish beers chased by shots of schnapps or as our parents called it, “snaps.” When we explained why we were there, our waitress told us that her grandmother used to come to the Strand. An orchestra played from one of the upper balconies overlooking the ballroom, and she would dance the night away.

Our parents would eat on the “Strand Terrace.” That area is gone today, but in their honor we ate outside in front.

Pub Crawl #2 at KB!

From the Strand it was just a short happy walk to Pub Crawl #2, Konstnärshuset, also known as “KB”.  We’d had lunch there a few days earlier but this time we wanted to see it in the evening and dine in the part of the restaurant that was there during the war, where we are sure our father and his companions would have headed for … the dark, lush, mirrored booths in the back.

And in case you’re wondering … we had no drinks at KB. Our father would have!

Pub Crawl #3 at Berns … whiskey sours anyone?

The final stop, Pub Crawl #3, was the fabulous Berns Salonger. And yes, we’d also been to Berns but at night the atmosphere was totally different. It was a happening place, a dimly-lit party of young hip smartly dressed Stockholmers. The grand chandeliers were there during World War II so I’ll bet it was just as spectacular back then.

We finished the evening off with whiskey sours, our mother Hedy’s favorite drink. It was our last night in Sweden and Kathy’s birthday. An evening none of us will ever forget as we toasted to our parents and all their World War II Stockholm friends.  Skål!

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