Sometimes the stereotypes are true: after days travelling around Stockholm, visiting restaurants, theatres, museums, churches, and galleries, I saw only once piece of litter on the streets. Such are the standards which allow the citizens of this city such pride. It is all about consensus, perhaps: valuing what they own. This is not to say that the city has no problems. As a local reminded us, Sweden is on the "Vodka Belt". We were told also about the mugging of a foreigner, and the advisability of avoiding the subway and certain areas late at night. And traffic has increased. But to Dubliners it seems a safe haven, relatively free of cars and full, if sometimes expensively so, of the good things.
It is a city composed of 30 per cent water and 30 per cent greenery with abundant artistic life, much of it in the old town where our hotel, the Victory, proudly showcases a letter from Lord Nelson to Lady Hamilton in which he complains of being sick. Each room is called after a ship's captain, with his picture and a model of this ship displayed. And in the double rooms, the captain's wives are included.
Scandinavian breakfast
You can eat in the basement, the base of the city's defensive walls, dating from the 14th century, have been uncovered. The Scandinavian breakfast consists of cold meats, yoghurts, bowelenhancing fruit and cereals, breads, and - what is hard to get used to - pre-boiled eggs done for five or seven minutes and then left wrapped in baskets for the guests when they toddle down to breakfast.
In the Victory's sister hotel, the amazing Bengtsson family has named each room after flowers representing the counties of Sweden, with the relevant flowers being painted in oil on the doors. Not too far away, along the cobbled streets, is Stockholm Cathedral, home to the Swedish Church, which is soon to be disestablished (meaning that its priests will no longer, as now, be civil servants). The German Church, set up by German merchants some centuries ago, and the Adolf Fredriks Church, with its predominance of white and gold, are also worth visits from churchaholics.
The Royal Palace with its eight museums, the cathedral and the parliament are all within a short walk of each other, in line perhaps with the Swedish notion of checks and balances in society. The palace, one of 10 in Stockholm, is used only for official business and for welcoming foreign guests; the King and his family live upwater at Drottningholm, home of an amazing theatre, of which more anon.
The purpose of our visit was to study Stockholm's preparations for 1998, when it will become European Culture Capital. Work has been going on since 1994 and few cities can carry this festival, which will have well over 1,000 programmes, with such aplomb or in such a magnificent setting. The massive globe arena, we were told, is the world's largest round building, used for ice hockey, concerts, and visits such as that of the Pope and the Dali Lama.
Neutrality flag
Visitors to next year's jamboree will see the neutrality flag, which remains hoisted as long as Sweden is unoccupied, the youth hostel housed in a ship, the old house being renovated as a theatre, the area where galleries remain open on Sundays, and the "people's opera house" which, we were told has attracted new audiences to this sometimes elitist entertainment.
They will hear about planning rows: about how locals stopped a former brewery being turned into apartments and how it now houses offices and a school; about residents who got the court to stop developers tunnelling under their area; and about how house boats are sometimes are illegally used for undesignated purposes.
This is a country where in fishing is free in the largest lakes, where you can ice-skate for 70 kilometres from the capital, and where you can pass the house where Nobel lived and worked until he was asked to go elsewhere after one of his workers was killed by explosives. You can see former factories and power plants renovated into theatres and museums, and you can stay in a former prison, on bread and water, and be cared for by staff in prison gear.
And you will pass the home where Greta Garbo lived, the museum which is fronted by an old Volvo car, and the new Museum of Modern Art designed by the Spaniard Rafael Moneo, whose criticisms of posturing architecture are evident in his unobtrusive work.
Ship museum
You might see The Black Rider, a cross between Cabaret and the Rocky Horror Show, or listen to the Berlin Philharmonic perform at the Vasa ship museum, perhaps the only museum in the world dedicated to one object, and that a failure. This naval warship sank in in 1628, 20 minutes into its maiden voyage. In 1961 it was lifted from the seabed and, following 17 years' preservation work, is now housed in a magnificent setting beside a replica of the original, which is open to visitors.
But for many the highlight of any Stockholm sojourn is a trip up water to the 18th-century Drottningholm theatre which, after Gustaf III's death in 1792, fell into decay until it was rediscovered in the 1920s, largely intact, with all its machinery and much of its original scenery. Today, at ballets and other performances, up to 35 stage hands are needed to deal with scenery and curtains, lighting (which had to replace candles), and the old wind machine. There are now about 25 performances yearly. And sometimes the Queen attends unobtrusively in the sheltered "Mistress's Box", so as not to make a fuss.