Without even having to leave the city, you can get a good idea of the culinary gems that attest to the potential of Nordic cuisine. In Stockholm, excellent avant-garde cuisine weds “bistronomies” and gastrobars with oodles of character. Depending on the style you’re after and how much you want to spend, here are six culinary lines in Stockholm which bear out the city’s gastronomic vigour.

Gastrologik Avant-garde

The moment you take a seat, you will find a menu waiting for you on the table. But, instead of a list of dishes, this is a statement of intent and attention, in a restaurant that takes care of the finest details. Avant-garde cuisine in a succession of bites strictly in season, asserting the wealth of local produce, pampered from source by the chef duo of Jacob Holmstrom and Anton Bjuhr. Algae, indigenous fish and alluring natural rarities are the highlights of a unique gastronomic experience.

Ekstedt Authenticity

Warmed by hot coals, the restaurant run by the popular Niklas Ekstedt has made its mark by creating a highly personal culinary line which the chef rounds off a few metres away in the guise of another, more “casual” business. Brilliant cuisine over the fire, in dishes which take shape before the diner’s eyes. I can highly recommend going for the room’s imperial table, even if you have to share it. Watch your bread being baked and brought warm to the table; be spellbound by the flames in surprising, ongoing flambé surges, as with the oyster flambé; savour the singularities of Swedish produce, rigorously executed and served up with gusto… All this is Ekstedt – a genuine yet unusual restaurant.

The Plenitude of Lilla Ego

The queues at the entrance to Lilla Ego before each sitting are a constant feature. Here, the emphasis is on the informal offerings based on sturdy market fare. Dessert helpings are a tad oversize and dishes are presented rather haphazardly, while the extensive wine list and pairings are bold. You can watch them cooking from the bar counter, as well as observe the various steps involved in preparing dishes, something outside the scope of the table diners. A feature of this venue is the upbeat atmosphere, both at lunch and dinner.

The Warmth of Babette

You don’t need to be invited to see the kitchen for, as soon as you step inside, it is the first thing you see and almost stumble over, as well as hands-on chefs who frantically ply their wares. Pizzas, salads and sautés based on fresh produce are the standout traits of the dishes in this venue, where you will feel at home among the books and various seating arrangements. As in all restaurants, it is best to book in advance to secure your place on the terrace. It opens every day of the week, which is unusual in this city’s hospitality sector.

The Freshness of Kaffeverket

There are so many cafés in Stockholm that you would be hard put to choose just one – or even two or three. But Kaffeverket has that enveloping atmosphere which ends up cajoling you into whiling away the hours there. Even locals recommend it. Offerings in the spacious interior, which looks onto an inner patio, with high tables and stools – and low ones, too – include one-course meals, sandwiches and top-notch homemade pastries, with options for vegans and celiacs, too. The friendliness of their staff is another point in their favour.

Where to Sleep, Breakfast and Vice Versa – Miss Clara

This boutique hotel is ideal for staying at a place with endless sky views, but also for having breakfast in the purest Swedish style, just a stone’s throw away from the shopping hub. If you have time on your hands and you fancy it, you can opt for a brunch, with cocktails and DJ music or jazz, or else sip a drink on their large pavement terrace in the heart of the city.

Still intact in this erstwhile convent are the Art Deco foundations, which blend in with an elegant and equally cosy interior design.

HTL Upplandsgatan

It is ultramodern and highly functional. With its designer hostel appearance and B&B down-to-earthness, you will appreciate the splendid location of this hotel in the city’s major shopping district, as well as its price and more than adequate breakfast buffet.

Book your Vueling to Stockholm and discover their gastronomic variety.

By Belén Parra of Gastronomistas.com

The seventeenth edition of Primavera Sound will be held in Barcelona from 31 May to 4 June. The main centre of operations is the Parc del Fòrum, but concerts will also be hosted at other points in town (check out the festival website for these extra concerts and ticket availability). Barcelona will actually become the world’s music capital for five days. This year the line-up is headed by a wide variety of top-notch artists, notably Van Morrison, Grace Jones, Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, Frank Ocean, The xx, Aphex Twin, Slayer and Solange, as well as a number of highly interesting b-series artists, including The Damned, Wild Beasts, Angel Olsen, The Magnetic Fields, Marie Davidson, Julie Dorion and Mac Demarco, among others.

Apart from treating visitors to myriad musical offerings, Primavera Sound also gives you the chance to see the city. Barcelona is a comparatively compact city, so you can tour it in a short space of time. Here, then, are some tips on how to do it at your convenience.

Room Wanted

Barcelona is a tourist resort and, as such, offers a host of hotel accommodations. Then again, that makes it difficult to decide on an option. Here are three quite different proposals to help you make your choice. The first is Hostel Generator, located on Calle Córcega, well placed in terms of the city centre, the Gràcia district and the Verdaguer metro stop where you can get Line 4 straight to the Fòrum. Another interesting option is Melon District Marina, a student residence which also accepts bookings for just a few days, located halfway between downtown Barcelona and the main Primavera Sound venue (it’s just a fifteen-minute ride by either Metro or Trambaix to the Parc del Fòrum). Lastly, if you’re on a shoestring budget, you could always check out the Couchsurfing Barcelona website to find free accommodation.

Affordable Snacks

Barcelona’s culinary array is also endless. Here, we focus on a few reputable restaurants serving a Mediterranean diet and, more importantly, at reasonable prices. Let’s begin at Urretxu, a Basque restaurant near the Olympic Village which serves up market cuisine – ideal for a quick meal before any of the concerts. It is close to several stops on Line 4 and just a stone’s throw from the Fòrum. More centrally located – specifically, on Calle Diputación – is Gelida, with its typically Catalan culinary offerings which will suit all pockets. They do not have a house menu, but the list of dishes based on fresh products is great. Winding up these recommendations is the Bacoa hamburger chain, with several outlets scattered about the city. You can sit down to a meal of their organic meat hamburgers in any of their establishments, or opt for a takeaway, a good choice if you’re looking to get to the festival grounds as early as possible.

Hunting For Vinyl

If you’re left with any spare time after the flurry of activity generated by Primavera Sound, why not drop in on some of the city’s most venerable record shops? It’s worth embarking on that quest for the vinyl you’ve been seeking out for some time in the Calle Tallers, right next to Barcelona’s Rambla. There you will find the two stores owned by Discos Revolver, who celebrated their thirty-fifth anniversary just a short while ago. Another place of pilgrimage for music lovers which you should make a point of visiting is Ultra-Local Records, located on Calle Pujades, just a few metres from the line 4 metro stop of Llacuna (three stops from the Fòrum). Another way of “searching for the lost record” on the Sunday hangover morning is by visiting Mercat de Sant Antoni, an emblematic second-hand street market where, apart from vinyls, you can pick up all sorts of collectibles at very reasonable prices.

Book your Vueling to Barcelona and gear up to revel in the Primavera Sound festivities.

Text by Xavi Sánchez Pons

Holy Week is a festivity accompanied by a long culinary tradition, among other things. Some of its hallmarks include confectionery and desserts, which adopt a host of guises across the geography of Spain. Not to be outdone, Santiago de Compostela, a city of fine food, has its own versions, as evinced in the gems created by different local religious orders, those inherited from the city’s long chocolatiering tradition and imports from the Americas, which have spread all over Europe via the Road to Santiago.

In an effort to keep this tradition alive and provide enjoyment for locals and visitors alike, the second edition of a gastronomic event catering to the sweet-toothed known as Santiago Paixón Doce will be held from 7 to 17 April. For the duration of this festivity, some 29 venues, notably bars, cafés and restaurants, will be offering a special menu laced with traditional Holy Week fare, among which confectionery features prominently. Highlights include torrijas (a kind of French bread), leche frita (literally, “fried milk”), buñuelos (fritters), rosquillas (a ring-shaped pastry), melindres (buns), roscas (a kind of doughnut), “passion chocolates”, cakes and other confectionery typical at this time of year. Check out the list of venues taking part in this tasty experience here.

Eight Delicacies in the Compostelan Holy Week

For those not familiar with Santiago de Compostela’s Holy Week culinary tradition, we have drawn up a selection of the confectionery you simply must taste on your visit to the city. Take note!

1. Concha de Santiago (St James Shell)
This is a veritable tribute to the city of Santiago de Compostela, as it features its paramount symbol, the pilgrim’s scallop shell or viera worked into a delicious chocolate figure. One of the many establishments where you can taste the concha de Santiago is the Chocolat Factory, located in the Praza do Toural.

2. Tarta de Santiago (St James Cake)
With its origins going back to the 16th century, the tarta de Santiago is unquestionably the most popular cake in Santiago de Compostela. Needless to say, you  can find it in all the city’s pastry shops and bakeries, from Las Colonias – with its long-standing tradition – to Á Casa Mora, said to be the artificers of the Cross of St James having been incorporated into the cake.

3. Chocolate a la taza
As mentioned earlier, Santiago is a city with a long-standing tradition of chocolatiers. One of the local favourites is “chocolate a la taza”, which is thick hot chocolate for dunking churros (fritters) in. A classic spot for savouring this wonderful delicacy is the Chocolatería Metate (Rúa do Preguntoiro, 12).

4. Monastic Delights
In bygone times, it fell to the religious orders to introduce foreign traditions to Compostela, including the recipes using almonds and egg yolk, which had a marked influence on local confectionery and ended up spawning both the tarta de Santiago and almendrados (macaroons). There are currently two convents in Santiago which still make their own confectionery. One is the Antealtares Monastery, where the Benedictines make almendrados, tarta de Santiago and cookies, all of which are available on a daily basis, and brazo de gitano, a kind of Swiss roll which is made only to order. The other is Belvís Convent, where the Dominicans make bespoke batches of almendrados, mantecados (a kind of shortbread made with lard)and tarta de Santiago, as well as selling freshly baked cookies.

5. Cheese and Chocolate Cakes
We recommend you drop in on the Airas Nunes Café, which specialises in homemade cakes and tortiñas (milk tarts).

6. Assorted “Pecados” (Sins)
The Cantón del Toural is home to the so-called Pecados de Compostela (Sins of Compostela), a unique type of candy wrapped in seven forms to match the seven deadly sins, one for each day of the week. Be a daredevil and try them!

7. Xacobea
Despite having very similar ingredients to the Easter cake known as the rosca de Pascua,the Xacobea is moister as it contains syrup. Available in numerous pastry shops dotted about the city, notably La Estrella (Suevia).

8. Rosquilla
The rosquilla, also known as a melindre, typically eaten at traditional shrine festivals in Galicia, is also a classic of Holy Week and Easter in Galicia. Sold at a host of venues in Santiago de Compostela.

Text and photos by Turismo de Santiago

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