Greetings from Frankfurt. A dream trip is drawing to a close, or at least trying to. As we were preparing to board the flight from Edinburgh to Frankfurt this morning around 5:30 am local time, the pilot made an announcement at the boarding area to the effect of “I’m not sure if you’ve seen the news yet, but the Frankfurt airport is completely shut down.” My mind immediately went to tragic possibilities. Instead, I was relieved (I guess?) to learn that environmental protestors had intruded the perimeter and glued themselves to the runway. Outrageous! It felt like a game of TrapDraw bingo and something that Randy and I would be gleefully covering in the natural course of a Chop Session. Thankfully, the Germans dealt with it swiftly and things are back on schedule after a moderate delay.
Today marks one month away from the US and judging by the news and the weather across much of the country over that time, I picked a great time to leave. This column will be more of a notebook dump than some of the previous iterations of this column, and intersperse golf and personal travels throughout. I get a lot of travel questions and requests for advice on itineraries and such, so I’d like to flesh this out more once I have time, but for now, here’s a brief overview of where I’ve been and some observations from along the way.
We set off JAX-IAD-MUC-ARN on June 25th. This was our first international flight with the kiddos and they did wonderfully. Explaining to Freddie how time zones work, talking about the map and why we were flying so far north, and pointing out different planes to Freddie and Gustav was a highlight. We also got to fly upstairs on the A380, so going up the stairs on the plane when we boarded was a thrill for him. With the connection in Munich, we didn’t arrive in Sweden until mid-afternoon, which was actually ideal as we could head to the hotel straight away and then not have to keep the kids up for 12-14 hours to get them on schedule.
Gustav refuses to wear anything that isn’t a sports jersey, so we hacked this during our trip and started buying him nice-looking European soccer jerseys once we got there.
It was hot in Stockholm when we arrived - a high of 85 Fahrenheit - and people were apoplectic about the “heat wave.” We’d decided to stay in Södermalm, which is a bit like the Swedish version of Brooklyn, and booked the NOFO Hotel, both for value and proximity to a great park across the street. Within twenty minutes of arriving, Freddie was playing soccer with a neighborhood kid around his age across the street in the park and within an hour or so they’d arranged (in English, which most Swedes speak better than Americans do) to meet the next day at 6 p.m. That made me really happy. It showed the power of sports and the perks of being a kid (it’s also one of the things I love about golf - I feel like I get the adult version of this often.) We hung out in Stockholm for a few days, ate a bunch of ice cream and Toast Skagen, went to a lot of parks, visited the Gröna Lund amusement park in the city, and picked up Freddie and Gustav’s Swedish passports. I cannot emphasize enough 1) how bad Gustav was at the police station where we had to fill out all the paperwork and get pictures taken and 2) how patient my wife Alex was with him - she is a saint!
After a few days, we headed out to meet up with Ann & T (Alex’s aunt and her fiance, both of whom featured prominently in Tourist Sauce Season 8, Episode 1) at a house out in the Stockholm Archipelago near Värmdö. We played a little golf, ate some delicious food, and enjoyed a couple of long Swedish summer evenings by the water.
On Sunday, we set off for Copenhagen by train. Sweden lags other European countries as far as their train infrastructure and high-speed rail network, but it was a nice journey - about five hours - southward to Lund, and then onward to Copenhagen. We’d found an Airbnb right next to the royal palace and it was perfect. There was a great park a block away and close enough to the action, but also quiet and peaceful. We made a couple of visits to Tivoli Gardens - I am not an amusement park guy, but it is AWESOME. Truly a mix of gardens and rides, and great for all ages, not just kids who are of a minimum height.
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We ran it back from Tourist Sauce at Restaurant Barr, and then I heeded a couple of DJ Pie’s recommendations and visited Hart Bakery and Barabba and they were SPOT-ON. Barabba was among the best meals I’ve eaten this year. Sanchez, Propaganda, and Restaurant Iluka were also worth of a mention. We went to a wonderful science museum, a bunch of other parks, rented a boat, took a guided boat tour, and explored the city at leisure for four days. The way that Scandinavians, and especially Danes, treat children is something that warmed my heart. It truly felt as if they were valued and welcome everywhere we went, whether a coffee shop or a Michelin-starred restaurant. And the variety of parks was eye-opening, with various swings, slides, salvaged cars, and other flourishes.
On Friday, we took the train back up to Stockholm and headed back out to the archipelago, this time farther southeast, to an island called Algö (aka Moose Island) and rented a spectacular Airbnb that felt radically underpriced. One of Alex’s cousins came down from Upsala with her husband for a night, my parents flew in on Sunday, and we generally just vegged out on the back deck and ate, drank, hot tubbed and sauna’d for three days. On Tuesday, we headed back into the city and stayed in Östermalm right on the water. We took an archipelago cruise that morning, took the kids to the Vasa Museum, and walked around the city and visited a variety of parks.
Alex and the kids left on Thursday morning, and then I stayed with Ann & T until departing for Scotland on Sunday. Over the next few days, they took me to a few of the best restaurants in Stockholm, some new, some institutions, and we played a little golf. I also got a much-needed haircut (my second of the trip) in an excellent barbershop. This is a tradition I’ve adopted from Neil and is a fun diversion and a good chance at off-beat conversation.
On Thursday night we enjoyed an exceptional dinner at Ann & T’s place with my parents and they stayed up well past midnight, which is far later than I’ve seen from them in recent years. Ann made a traditional Swedish shrimp appetizer, T made his favorite Persian dish - a rice and tomato-based chicken dish that had about 37 different levels of depth and flavor, and then fresh strawberries and cream for dessert. Peg and Steve set off on their cruise a couple of days later (and are loving it!)
On Friday, we met Olle Widegren (who played with us in Episode 1 of Tourist Sauce) for coffee/breakfast at his favorite spot, Park Bakery, west of the city, and then visited Stockholms GK. Seeing the culmination of all the agronomy and architecture work that was being done at SGK during our first visit was rewarding - what a gem. It feels even more like a golf course you’d find in San Francisco than in Stockholm than I’d remembered - you could’ve told me we were at Claremont Country Club in Oakland at various points.
Stockholms GK
That afternoon we visited Ullna, which is the grand dame of Swedish championship golf, having hosted a Solheim Cup and various iterations of the old Scandinavian Masters. Major mea culpa from me on not having this one on the itinerary for Tourist Sauce. The reputation of the course is that it’s too short for championship golf these days, and the “Nicklaus Signature” designation doesn’t possess the same panache as it did a couple of decades ago, but what I found was a thrilling second-shot golf course that placed a premium on accuracy and distance control. Raised greens, exceptional conditioning, and a creative routing that maximized the gorgeous lakefront during three different stretches of the round added up to a round of golf that resonated deeply. The Nicklaus flourishes (the good ones!) were present - it felt like the best elements of Muirfield Village, but along a lake and a far easier walk, and then you finish the round and sit on a back patio with a beer in a quintessentially Swedish setting. I look forward to returning!
Ullna Golf and Country Club
The last day I played at Ann & T’s club, called Ingaro, and it was one of the more unique, quirky courses I’ve ever played with tree-lined fairways, rocky outcroppings and intimate green sites perched on small shelves. In fact, the course reminded me a lot of Greywalls in Northern Michigan. Randy would’ve been appalled at the number of people out there playing - it’s a 36-hole complex and by the time we finished there must’ve been 300 people having lunch, hitting range balls or getting ready to go off. Golf is alive and well in Sweden, at a variety of clubs.
Ingaro GK
Other restaurants we ate at in Stockholm:
- Solen (WOW! South of the city and a blend of various cuisines, and a diverse wine list to match. And great scene.)
- Cafe Nizza (would move to this neighborhood just to live near this restaurant. Everything you’d ever want in a corner cafe, but also world-class and focused)
- Symbios (fun spin on Nordic flavors in a sharp space)
- Drop Coffee (came recommended - didn’t disappoint. Serious coffee.)
Overall, it was an invigorating, peaceful, substantive two weeks in Scandinavia. The long days, lack of bullshit, and exceptional food added up to something I haven’t had in a long time. I put the phone away, reflected, and took a step back to take stock of my life. A lot has happened over the last decade, both personally and professionally, and it’s tough to press pause and make any course corrections along the way. I’ll be back soon with a more golf-focused writeup of a couple of weeks in Scotland attending The Open and playing a dozen different courses. I also want everyone to know that I’ve been monitoring the Delta Airlines debacle from afar, particularly Ed Bastian’s role in it all, and will have a statement to offer in the near future. -TC
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