Summer Bar at Hutton's Deck & Lounge

Hutton's Deck & lounge seen from the pier.

Ok. Perhaps the weather (a summer thunderstorm) wasn't the best yesterday for a visit to Hutton's Deck  & Lounge on the boat Mälardrottningen. But with a little positive attitude, it was a nice place to ride out the storm. And Mother Nature provided us with fantastic rainbows after the storm. I will definitely revisit the deck on a sunnier day!

Mälardrottningen ("The Queen of Lake Mälaren") was built in 1924 and was, at the time, the world's largest diesel driven yacht. Her most famous owner was Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton (known as the "Poor, Little Rich Girl") who received the yacht as a gift on her 18th birthday. Since 1982 it has been permanently moored at the island of Riddarholmen.

Södermälarstrand waterfront.

They do have a restaurant on the boat, but we were there to visit the top deck bar & lounge... named after the former owner of the yacht. They have recently restyled and revamped the deck area with nice lounge chairs and sofa groups as well as requisite palm trees. Part of the lounge area is outdoors while the rest (thankfully in our case) is under a roof. The views from the deck are pretty spectacular... with the old town skyline as well the Södermalm heights and Södermälarstrand waterfront. It was nice to sit there with a glass of rosé wine and watch the boats and water scooters pass by.

Riddarholmen island is just adjacent to Gamla Stan and it is either a 15-20 minute walk from the Rival Hotel. Otherwise you can take the subway to the Gamla Stan station and then just exit the station to your right as you go through the turnstiles. Be aware that they are currently doing some construction on Riddarholmen (building a train tunnel under the city) so it looks like you have to walk through a building site to get to the boat... but it is not a problem!

Riddarholm's Church.