I've been taking my summer holidays in this beautiful city now since 1987, and I can honestly say I now know it better than my home town of Bolton here in the UK!
I wanted to see this wonderful place ever since ABBA's heyday in the mid seventies, but somehow I always got dragged along to places in Spain and Greece by my friends! They were convinced it snowed even during the summer in Sweden, so there was NO way they were going there!

Apart from the obvious influence of ABBA, my interest in Sweden was sparked further by Radio Sweden. I came across the station by accident one winters evening in the late seventies, and became fascinated with the music and features it sent over the airwaves every night from then on. I especially enjoyed the "Saturday Show", presented by Roger Wallace and Kim Lofgren, which introduced me to so many new Swedish artists. I even enjoyed the comedy sketches they used to do, even though they often used to take the mickey out of ABBA! Unfortunately the "Saturday show" is no more, so perhaps we should campaign to get it back!?

It wasn't until 1987 that I decided I could wait no longer, and so I booked to make the trip alone; something I was a bit unsure about at the time I must admit!
I'll never forget the excitement of getting off the plane, and stepping onto Swedish soil for the first time! Then on the way into Stockholm on the Airport bus, the first sighting of the red bricked City Hall was just amazing....it looked even more impressive than how I remembered it from the TV show "A for Agnetha", which I'd seen earlier that year.