Northern Europe hotel finds

We traveled by train and Norwegian coastal steamer throughout Northern Europe in August ’05. Here are some of our “finds.”

• Hotel Birger Jarl in Stockholm (visit www.birgerjarl.se/eng) is “the first hotel in SWEDEN with the concept of modern design.” Rooms and the small lobby/bar have been decorated by some of the best fashion designers in Sweden. During our stay, not all the rooms had yet been redesigned.

The hotel is a bit north of the main sights of the harbor and Old Town; we took the subway most of the time.

The rooms were pleasant and quiet, the breakfast was excellent and the desk staff was very accommodating. There was free Internet in the lobby. We also enjoyed dinner one night in their restaurant. Our small double room cost 990 Swedish kroner, about $155 per night.

• For those of Swedish descent, the House of Emigration in Vaxjo, Sweden, in addition to having a small but informative museum of emigration, is a treasure trove of information about emigrant relatives.

Within walking distance of the train station and the House of Emigration is the Elite Stadshotellet, one of the small chain of Elite Hotels (www.elite.se). It is a refurbished “grand” hotel with a nice restaurant, an excellent breakfast (included) and a very helpful staff. Our large double room cost $95.

• Lübeck, GERMANY, a UNESCO World Heritage Site (whc.unesco.org), was a Hanseatic League city-state, founded in the 12th century. It is easy to explore the Old City on foot. It contains 15th- and 16th-century patrician residences, public monuments such as the famous Holstentor brick gate (under restoration in the summer of 2005), churches and salt storehouses.

We stayed at Gastehaus Schusselbuden at Schusselbuden 4. The owner, Klaus Friedrich Gayken, spoke perfect English and gave us a warm welcome along with a complimentary glass of wine plus full instructions for sightseeing of the compact Old Town.

By the time you visit, Klaus may have leased it and retired, but it will continue as before. A basic double room with shower and toilet cost €65 (about $82), including a generous breakfast.

The Old Town and the guest house are a rather long walk from the train station, but buses are frequent and the guest house is perfectly located in the center of the old section.

• Also in Lübeck, we had a lovely dinner in the “oldest restaurant in Europe,” the Schiffergesellschaft at Breite Strasse 2. The beef stew with apricot-rum gravy and noodle dumplings was divine. Dinner and wine for two cost $49.

• The Tourist Information hotel-finding service in the railroad station in Copenhagen, DENMARK, found us a great hotel, The Square (www.thesquare.dk). The rate was 1,025 kroner plus 75 kroner for making the reservation (about $121 total); the weekend rack rate was 1,290 kroner.

The hotel was perfectly located near the rail station as well as Tivoli, shopping and other main sites. The hotel opened in 2003, and the lobby and rooms are very design-forward in a minimalist Scandinavian way, with the “square” theme carried thoughout. The included breakfast was delicious and provided in a very nice sixth-floor breakfast room.

If anyone has questions, I can reached by e-mail c/o ITN.

MARGO WILSON

Scottsdale, AZ