The lively city is a hatchery of new trends in music, technology and design, innovations which often go viral around the world. Its art centres –museums, galleries, spaces for creation– are the places for taking the city’s pulse and feeling its spirit. Let’s visit the most emblematic venues, each of them a world unto itself, and immerse ourselves in the city’s contemporary art, photography, decorative arts, and music.

Stockholm boasts a rich, thousand-year-old cultural heritage, with wonderful architecture, museums, the Royal Palace, and the perfectly preserve medieval city centre, the Gamla Stan. Here, trendy bars and fine restaurants mingled with historic cafés and pubs. Similarly, modern shopping streets and malls feature all the major international brands, along with a stunning variety of local boutiques unusual shops, and the city’s museums range from the classic Vasa Museum to ABBA The Museum, and Fotografiska. In Stockholm there are more than a hundred cultural and recreational attractions to choose from. Here’s our choice of just five:

The Vasa Museum

The Vasamuseet features the Vasa, the world’s sole surviving, almost fully intact 17^th C. ship, a real artistic treasure. More than 95% of the ship is original, and it is adorned with numerous carved wooden sculpture. The 69-metre-long, 64-gun warship sank on her maiden voyage in 1628, and was salvaged 333 years later, in 1961. Nearly fifty years were spent restoring the ship to her original splendour. Her three masts tower above the building that now houses the Vasa. The museum is today the most popular in all Scandinavia, and receives more that a million visitors each year. Ten separate exhibits illustrate different aspects of the ship, including what life aboard was like. Children are admitted gratis.

Royal Palace

The 600-room Royal Palace or Kungahus, still the residence of the Swedish royal family, is one of Europe’s largest palaces. It is open to the public and houses no fewer than five museums. It was built in the Italian baroque style in the 18^th C. on the site of the 13th C. Tre Kronor (Three Crowns) palace which burned to the ground in 1697. Visitors first see the splendid reception halls whose breathtaking furnishings and adornments date from the 18^th and 19^th centuries. Next is the Rikssalen (Hall of State) with the silver throne used by Queen Christina (1629-1689). Also worth seeing are the Ordenssalarna (apartments of the orders of chivalry), the Gustav III’s Museum of Antiquities, the Kronor Tre Museum, and the Treasury.

The Royal Palace also houses the Armoury, with its marvellous collection of royal costumes and body armour, the coronation carriages, and the magnificent horses in the Royal Stables. The colourful changing of the guard ceremony can be watched at 12:15 h. on weekdays and at 13:15 h. on Sundays and holidays.

Fotografiska

One of the world’s largest photography museums, Fotografiska stages as many as four major and twenty smaller exhibitions each year. It shows the works of Swedish and foreign photographers, both established and emerging. The new restaurant in the museum is run by master chef Paul Svensson and has already won awards for its seasonal and ecological dishes. From the café on the top floor visitors can enjoy some of the best views of Stockholm.

Moderna Museet

Here we find one of Europe’s most important contemporary art collections, with works dating from the early 20^th C. to the present, including masterpieces by Picasso, Dali, Matisse, and Sweden’s own Siri Derkert. Its permanent collection and its temporary exhibitions make it a must for visiting art lovers. The Moderna Museet is located on Stockholm’s fairytale Skeppsholmen island in a spectacular building by the Spanish architect Rafael Moneo. Its restaurant affords lovely views Djurgården park and Strandvägen boulevard.

ABBA The Museum

Music, clothing, lyrics, videos, and interactive displays concerning Sweden’s most celebrated pop group ABBA can be seen and heard in this museum on the island of Djurgården. The famous quartet, founded in 1970, sold more than 378 million records before is disbanded in 1983. Its biggest hit, “Waterloo”, reached the top of the charts in 1974. The 1994 musical “Mamma Mia” revived interest in the group.

The vibe in Stockholm is open, easy-going, and welcoming. Diversity and innovation are prized. Stockholm is a place the whole world should visit. So, what are you waiting for? Check out our fares here!

Text: Isabel y Luis Comunicación

Illustrations: Visit Stockholm, Ola Ericson

The idea is not new. For some years now, these artificial urban beaches have popped up each summer in Berlin, Hamburg and under the bridges of the river Seine in Paris. You won’t have to cram the whole family into your car, or embark on a long, hot journey to feel the sand under your feet and freshen up in the water. In Brussels, this tropical paradise is known as Les Bains de Bruxelles and it lasts for five weeks on the Quai des Péniches, along the Brussels Canal. It opens from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, and from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

True, there aren’t many waves, but some ingenuity has been applied to making the beach as attractive as possible; indeed, it draws an extremely diverse crowd of beach-goers. The 6,000 m² of sand are dotted with deck-chairs, palm trees and coconut palms, striped sunshades and beach bars serving vividly coloured cold beverages. The atmosphere is a family one during the day and sports activities include beach football, volleyball, boule and ping-pong, as well as games for young children. Pedalos and kayaks can be hired at reasonable prices on Sundays. You can also go for a ride along the canal on board the Bruxelles les Bains, which offers various tours – the short one takes 55 minutes; the longest one is a 2-hour cruise, and there is also a “cocktail cruise”, by night – while the harbour’s history and geography is expounded on by a guide.

This chill-out on the beach is accompanied by the Let It Beach festival, now in its third year. A variety of concerts liven up the evening on weekends, while on Fridays the music turns to folk, rock, pop and hip-hop. Jazz and world music take centre stage on Saturdays. The Sunday programmes target the younger set, with workshops, dances and, of course, more concerts. Night reverie is bolstered by free sessions of Croisetteke, every day from 6 p.m. on, in addition to theBoat Club,an exclusive floating club which hosts the liveliest parties in Brussels.

Not Without My Ice-cream!

When the thermometer seems to be driving endlessly upwards, another delicious way of keeping cool is to have an ice-cream. And, for those who can’t contemplate a day at the seaside without ice-cream, here are some of the best parlours in town:

Comus & Gasterea (Quai aux Briques, 86)

A place for trying the newest and most unusual flavours. It features some of the strangest ice-creams in the world, with such flavours as caviar, olive oil, Roquefort, lichi, wasabi aubergine and basil, home-made and free of additives or colouring agents. All you need is to be patient, as queues can sometimes build up outside its doors.

Capoue (Rue de Wand, 112)

Chez Capoue is one of the oldest ice-cream parlours in Brussels and, while at Comus & Gasterea you find the most unusual flavours, in Capoue they make the most daring combinations, notably bounty, blood orange and spiced bread. They are also have them sugar-free for diabetics, or lactose-free for those allergic to dairy.

Il Monello (Chaussée de Charleroi, 31 -33)

While Il Monello opened only recently, it has already made a name for itself in the city for its traditional pastries and homemade ice-creams. They also serve the latter atop a waffle for those seeking consistency (or calories).

Zizi (Rue de la Mutualité, 57A)

Zizi, a veritable institution in Brussels, is the city’s best-known ice-cream parlour. In the sixty years they have been open, they have never altered their manufacturing process. The flavours are natural and free of colouring agents.

Brussels Rules!

Brussels is a refreshing destination this summer, but not only because of its urban beach. Throughout the summer, every Friday from 5 p.m. to 11.30 p.m., the Apéros Urbains or animated afterworks are held in some of the most attractive spots in the city. Also featured is the Midis Minimes classical music festival, with daily concerts lasting 35 minutes from 12.15 p.m. (until 28 August), held in the Church of Saint-Jean et Etienne aux Minimes and in the Conservatorio Real.

Come and experience it for yourself. Come on! Pick up your towel and check out the flights to… Brussels!

Text by Scanner FM

Images by Eric Danhier

John Waters shot to fame by directing outlandish, low-budget movies such as Pink Flamingos (1972) which glorify violence, sexual perversion and bad taste. He uses provocation as a weapon targeting the good-mannered hypocrisy, iron-fisted morals and religious values of the American way of life. However, few realise that the American dandy with a pencil moustache has also designed large-format collages and photomontages. He has chosen 40 of these pieces – including storyboards from his movies – for the exhibition, How Much Can You Take?, which runs until 1 November at the acclaimed Kunsthaus Zürich, coinciding with the murals by Joan Miró on display there until the end of January.

Paradoxically, the multifaceted filmmaker has other traits in common with Zürich, such as class, a sense of order and extreme cleanliness. Deep down, Waters also has a tenderness and fetishism that suggests he would delight in the bric-a-brac on sale in downtown Teddy’s Souvenir Shop, offering the music boxes, Swiss army knives, cowbells and cuckoo clocks so typical of Switzerland’s bucolic image. That same cliché embodied by Heidi, the children’s character created by the writer, Johanna Spyri who, like the poet, Gottfried Keller, is buried in the leafy park of Sihlfeld Cemetery, the first in Europe to incorporate a crematory. Waters would surely relish a visit there, both for his fascination for the macabre and his professed love of literature, which of late he is more engaged in than cinema. Hence, we might also recommend he visit Fluntern Cemetery, site of the beautiful tomb of James Joyce, who in Zürich gave himself over to a licentious alcoholism while writing much of Ulysses, a diatribe against Church and State. Another writer who also passed away in this city was the German author of The Magic Mountain, immortalised in the Thomas Mann Archives, a small museum housed in the ETH Zürich. This State university has also been graced by no fewer than twenty Nobel prizewinners, notably the scientist Albert Einstein, as much a rebel against conventional mores as Waters. Located in the same university is the spectacular Law Faculty Library, designed by the architect, Santiago Calatrava. However, the maker of morbid films would probably prefer to read in the old abbey housing the Zentralbibliothek Zürich, the city’s main library.

The filmmaker’s more iconoclastic side would relish the recollection that Zürich was the cradle of Dadaism, the anarchic “anti-art” so critical of middle-class society in World War I. That was when the artistic couple, Emmy Hennings and Hugo Ball, founded the celebrated Cabaret Voltaire in Niederdorf’s Old Town. Together with Tristan Tzara, the locale broke with all established canons. The building gradually became derelict until it was occupied in 2001 by a group of artivists and used to stage neo-Dadaist-style performances before vast crowds of Zurichers. After their eviction, the City Council overturned its original plan to demolish the building, which was then refurbished as an alternative cultural centre. Also located in the Old Town is the unusual Musée Visionnaire, where visitors choose what they want to see – and are encouraged to critique it – from a catalogue of Art Brut, a movement also known as Outsider Art – the work of amateurs, the mentally disabled and any creator alien to institutions and the boundaries set by official culture. In short, characters who would not be out of place among the Dreamlanders, counter-culture misfits and such regular collaborators of Waters as Mink Stole or Divine.

The young Waters who was so enthralled by gruesome accidents and bloodthirsty tales would also take a fancy to the Moulangenmuseum, a museum featuring wax representations of body parts twisted by disfiguring diseases, including exhibits in the University Hospital’s medical teaching collection dating from 1917. And, lured by the repulsive, he might also look up the dark oeuvre, biomechanical aesthetic and highly charged erotic sense of another illustrious native of Zürich who designed the visual effects for the movie, Alien – the recently deceased H.R. Giger. Although fans of the illustrator and sculptor have to choose between a visit to his comprehensive museum in the walled town of Gruyères (nearly two hours south of Zürich), and the stunning Giger Bar in his native Chur (about an hour’s drive from Zürich), situated, strangely enough, in the same land that inspired the pastoral Heidi.

To wind up this walk on the dark side, nothing better than supper at Blindekuh Zurich, the world’s first restaurant where diners eat in the pitch black. Fortunately, Waters is not the chef, so you needn’t worry about being served what Divine ate in Pink Flamingos. I assume you get my drift but, just to make sure, before you take the plunge you should go to a quality chocolaterie like Sprüngli.

In any event, remember that the Waters exhibition only lasts for a few more weeks, so get your tickets here!

Text by Carlos G. Vela para ISABELYLUIS Comunicación

Images by David Shankbone, Roland zh, Juerg Peter Hug, Absinthe, Edsel Little