Last Saturday Mr Lifecruiser and I went to Långholmens Crown Prison in Stockholm, Sweden, to be locked into a double cell for the night.

No, we didn’t get arrested for doing something naughty in public, I swear! *giggles*

I got one of my “Let’s do something fun spasms” and booked a night at Långholmen, an old prison.

Afterwards I’ve come to realize that we did a very trendy thing: so called dark tourism, visiting places where bad things has happened. It seem to be very popular at the moment.

We found a special weekend package deal on the internet including a two course dinner and prisoners hats, which of course were impossible to resist for crazy peeps like us…. *giggles*

From the beginning the island were just pasture with a customs station. In 1724 there were buildings built for forced labor, to get to terms with all the vagabondism in Stockholm and later on it turned into a jail.

I guess we have the vagabondish blood from the vikings…

It was converted to a combined hotel and hostel in 1989. The name Långholmen is mentioned for the first time in the 1400s, but must have been used much longer since a silver treasure with German coins from the 900s has been found on the island.

It got it’s name from the long island where it’s situated. It’s about 1400 m long, 400 m wide and is located a couple of km from the city kernel.

This jailhouse has hold some of Swedens most wellknown criminals, like the spy Stig Wennerström and the author Lasse Strömstedt, as well as other guests to the warden, like the old famous Swedish poet and composer Carl Michael Bellman.

The Crown Prison was built in the early 19th century, but in the middle of the building is the gallery from 1866, which makes it very bright and striking appearance despite the fact that it’s the typical jail look.

What’s so cool about this hotel is that the rooms actually are the old prison cells. Though you get two cells as one room today, since one of them is the shower and toilet which of course, didn’t exist for the poor real prisoners before… but some of the furnitures actually are from the late prison time.

Just think about it for the moment, wouldn’t it have been really cool if you got to lay in a really old authentic prisoner bed for the night? (By the look of it, I should probably be thankful that so was not the case…)

The past and today’s prisoners comparison:
  

I do look a bit nervous in the photo, biting myself in the lips, don’t I? *giggles*

Were there knocking on the walls to communicate with the neighbors in the other cells?

No, we couldn’t hear any knocking on the walls – maybe our neighbor prisoner had died from the rough times there? I mean, 15 hours hard work per day, only bread and water on the menu, isolation, dark cells in the cellar and corporal punishment is enough to break down even the strongest…

Or maybe he had been executed? Because it was here the absolutely last execution were done in Sweden, performed with a new guillotine from France (of course, where else?), but I’m really pleased by the fact that it was the first and last time it were used!

Yes, and quite delicious dinner with a very compliance waitress serving on us, who also had a very good sense of humor on top of the very good service.

Starters:
Kalix vendace roe with cheese waffles
Wine:
Petit Chablis 2005

My Main course:
Pikeperch with asparragus and white wine sauce
Wine:
Petit Chablis 2005

Mr L’s Main course:
Grilled veal entrecote with tomatoes and walnuts,
sage bouillion and mojo rojo
Wine:
Cline

The restaurant as well as the pub Finkan (The Nick/Lock-up), are situated in the old prison hospital, but I sure can tell you that it’s nothing left of the hospital feeling!

Especially the nick is very cool decorated! I just love the old vintage images and the fact that a safeblower has been working on the safe. They really got the right details there.

  

In 1840 new ideas with cells for the prisoners and open exercise yards came along, which meant that Långholmen had to be changed to the similar form it has today. It weren’t particularly difficult to escape from there in the beginning, but on the other hand wasn’t the city so big and the underworld wellknown at that time and the jailbreakers could rather easily be found again.

Personally I was kind of surprised though, that this had been a functional jail up to the seventies – the last prisoner left as late as in 1975.

Today it’s used as a recreation area for the Stockholmers as it is very green and lush. We have to thank the prisoners during the 1800s for that, since this was a desolated island covered in stone, which they covered with mud dredged from the lake Mälaren and planted vegetation.

    

The old exercise yards is used as a café in the summertime, opening in the middle of May, so it was too early in the season for us to enjoy it.

Instead we went to the nearby café “Lasse i Parken“, which is very popular among the Stockholmers. Prepare to stand in a long line to order there!

Funny thing was: we were having excellent weather until we had started to eat our sandwiches out in the garden there. Dark, dark clouds appeared from no where and before we knew it, it was thunder and rain! We got stucked there for a while longer than planned due to the heavy rain….

So, do you think it was my bad weather curse this time too? *giggles*

In the same building as the hotel there also is a small Museum, opened every day, which tells some of the history of the prison life there.

      

   

They also have different arrangements suitable both for team-building and for kick-offs. Of course some kind of jail-themed and sounds like great fun to me!

You can even hold your wedding there – no need for a striped wedding dress though – with the dinner at the Banqueting hall located in the oldest building in the complex, dating from 1670, the former spinning-house or women’s prison.

Would we recommend this hotel for others? Yes, without doubt, this is a very unique place to stay!

Of course, when going to jail, you don’t expect a 5 star rated stay there, but I must say that these 3 stars they got, felt like at least 4 stars. I assure you, I haven’t been whipped to say this

Actually it was soo good that we tried to get us thrown back in jail again when we were supposed to check out… *giggles*

OK, the real story was that the receptionist had to phone us, he thought we had left the hotel already without checking out or paying our bill which should have been done around twelve o’clock and this was around one o’clock. I guess you really have to obey the rules when in jail!

Since the beginning of 2006 it has been undergoing another renovating project to even lift it up a level higher and I must say that they have succeeded very well. Very neat, fun, interesting and above all: captivating!

The only disappointment though, was that there were no leg-irons waiting for us (even though we saw some there) and no ghosts clanking with their chains in the corridors at the night… but of course that was compensated by the other night activities.

What other night activities? Well, you do know what the prisoners are doing in the cells at night, don’t you? *giggles*

This is obviously me and Mr Lifecruiser in a hot kiss. Can’t you see the flaming desire? *giggles*

You might be wondering what we’re up to since I’ve not been in the blogosphere much lately. You already know that I’m working hard with a lot of arrangements around my Mom’s funeral and all the paperwork, the little spare time I’ve been spending with Mr Lifecruiser trying to relax and have some quality time together.

The weather has been extremely nice and sunny this week and after this long, grey and awful winter, we did as every one else here in Stockholm: we were out all days enjoying the sunshine we haven’t seen for so long!!!!

There has been a lot of other stuff too. Like visiting the elderly home where my Mom stayed, to leave them some home decorated baskets with candy & chocolates and a thank you card, plus that Mr Lifecruiser played the piano for them. It was truly heartbreaking how happy they were to see us and to get to hear some live music again! For me it was heartbreaking to go there for the first time after my Mom has passed away…

We’ve also been all over the city trying to find a spring and summer jacket to me. Without much luck I’d like to add. Too late. No spring jacket to be found (I found a summer jacket at least). We did search for one before we went to Spain too, but then they told us we were too early. And we did search for one in Spain. No luck.

What’s the problem? To start with, I don’t want to look like an aunt, neither a teen – where is all the really cool clothes for us in between??? Second: I’m too tall. Every jacket seems to be made for a shorter person, the proportions are not right, the waistline ends up just below my tits…. *giggles*

And before you say something: NO, it’s not the fact that my tits are hanging because of age, that create this problem!!!! *giggles*

We’ve even been considering going to Copenhagen, Denmark to look for one. We do like Danish clothes. I haven’t found the time to book a trip there yet, too much stuff going on. It’s not the first time I go abroad to find clothes (Holland is excellent for me, they also are tall over there). Or shoes… (Milano, Italy).

Instead we’ll surprise you by saying: we’ll go to jail tomorrow – I’ll tell you all about it as soon as possible – if and when they let us out again…. *giggles*

I promised you to report back about our Räkafton (Shrimp Evening) out with M/S Vindhem the 16th of April in the Stockholms archipelago, together with my sister Susan.

I found this boat last year and registered for their news emails, since I thought it sounded like a fun trip to take, but we never got the chance to go out with them then. Recently I got a email with a very good “season opening-deal” from them, pay 100 SEK ($16) per person for the boat trip and all the shrimps you can eat, so we did jump on it!

Normally in the summertime it costs 280 SEK ($46), both for the shrimp evening and the Rock & Tacos they also have. I think we’ll try that one later on – if we get the time for it…

This boat trip is made very simple and unpretentiously, so you can really feel the cool styled, relaxed people and totally be yourself. No tight formal behavior, just simple fun!

As you know if you have read my earlier posts, you know that we went there with the purpose to cheer us up a bit – to celebrate life – and to dance since it’s a live music band aboard, this evening it was Janne & Emma that played pop & rock music.

It was such a surprising coincidence that the very first song they played was one of my Mom’s absolute favorite songs, the one that she always listened to in the evenings in bed: “Ta mig till havet” (Take me to the Sea) by Peter Lundblad. A very lovely and popular Swedish summer tune.

This was the only video of it I could find, to show you. I guess it’s really showing some real Swedish traditions to sit out and eat, this is probably out in the archipelago somewhere.

I did choose to show you the lyrics because my dear Scandinavian readers can understand it. It’s all about love in the summertime, at the sea, so no wonder it’s popular

You’re supposed to eat as much fresh shrimps with bread at the boat as you want to – which we most certainly did. I don’t think I ever have eaten that much shrimps. The shrimps are very fresh and with a lot of roe in them to Mr Lifecruiser’s gusto!!!

There were absolutely no need of the cheese and biscuits they served as dessert later… Well, maybe the fact that we managed to sneak in at a pub before we went aboard the boat, had something to do with it too. Because we did drink Guiness as a starter…. *giggles*

This was at Beefeater Inn since it’s very near the place where Vindhem departure, but Söder, the southern part of Stockholm city has many very cozy, kind of “feel at home directly”-pubs. If you ever come here, you probably can get stuck there for the whole evening just wandering from pub to pub!

Here you can see that we had a lot of dark clouds for a while, but it was rather mild in the air so it was quite nice actually.

We got really lucky though. The weather turned out to be really good for a boat trip and offered us a beautiful sunset at the boat too, but it was too difficult to take photos of it to show you unfortunately.

No, no no, it wasn’t at all that I got too drunk to be capable to take photos! I promise! I just were occupied having fun!

The left drink is Susans P2 (Vanilla vodka, apple sourz, sprite and lime), which I can report tasted almost too good, like candy…. My own Tequila Sunrise (Tequila, orange juice and Grenadine) to the right was just good as usual too.

If you want to see the drink lists content, click on the photo to enlarge it in Flickr.

The boat doesn’t go so far out in the archipelago, because it returns back at midnight again. It goes out to the Waxholm Castell which you might remember from our steamboat trip we did last year.

So, how was it, was I too occupied dancing to the live music or did I got too (grande!) drunk…? Well, we were so very occupied dancing that I didn’t have the time to get drunk…. *giggles*

As the matter of fact: I even ordered Coca Cola once :-O

So, why haven’t I reported about this until now? Well, erhm, you know, I shouldn’t dance with my bad back… so my body has been aching ever since… But it’s totally worth it!

Who knows, maybe we’ll meet there some evening? I’ll just say this warning: prepare to be sweaty from all the dancing!!!

If you want to see some more pictures – or register as a club member as I have done, just visit Vindhem.com.