Visitors

From TCS Group Internal Wiki

Revision as of 17:08, 28 March 2013

This page is supposed to collect useful information for those who prepare for getting a visitor.

Accomodation

Hotels

• Best Western Time Hotel

https://www.timehotel.se/

• Hotel Birger Jarl

https://www.birgerjarl.se/

Hotel Birger Jarl is located at Tulegatan 8, which is here: https://tinyurl.com/BirgerJarl . To get there from the central station by public transport, you go by subway (marked with a T-sign) from the T-centralen stop at the central station on the green line two stops north to Radmansgatan and then walk a couple of blocks.

• Elite Hotel Arcadia

https://www.elite.se/eng/hotell/stockholm/arcadia/

Elite Hotel Arcadia is located at Körsbärsvägen 1, which is here: https://tinyurl.com/HotelArcadia . To get there from the central station by public transport, you go by subway (marked with a T-sign) from the T-centralen stop at the central station on the red line three stops north to Tekniska högskolan (i.e., KTH), exit at the front of the train (in the direction of travel) and then walk one block along Valhallavägen.

• Wallquistska Huset (KTH Guest House)

Wallquistska huset (the Wallquist house) is located at Villagatan 19, which is here: https://tinyurl.com/Wallquistska . To get there from the central station by public transport, you go by subway (marked with a T-sign) from the T-centralen stop at the central station on the red line three stops north to Tekniska högskolan (i.e., KTH), exit at the back of the train (in the direction of travel), walk two blocks along Valhallavägen and take a right.

To enter Wallquistska, you need a door code. If everything worked out as intended, the key card for your room should be in the mailbox inside the door in an envelope with your name on it. When you check out, just leave the key card in your room.

Breakfast is served 7-9 am weekdays. During weekends, guests prepare breakfast themselves. There are groceries in the fridge in the dining room. Rooms are cleaned once a week, at which time bed linen and towels are changed. Check in is 2 pm at the earliest (12 noon on weekends) and check out is 11 am at the latest (10 am on weekends) unless agreed otherwise.

Please bring your user information for the Wallquistska wireless when you come to KTH --- the same username and password will work there, and will save us a visit to the IT support to set up a guest account for you.

If you have any problems with the Wallquistska guest house, you can contact Lisa Gothberg and she can be reached at phone +46 (0)8 790 95 80/790 45 15 or cell + 46 (0)707 13 95 80.

Transportation

Bike rental

Stockholm citybikes can be rented with a 3-day card (165 kr), their station network is quite decent (check the color-coded status; they might be all closed in winter): https://www.citybikes.se/en/Here-are-our-cycle-stands/

Key and Access Card

From Delphi?

Text templates

Text snippets for info mails to visitors (note that some parts need to replaced).

Arriving at Arlanda Airport

Arlanda Airport is some 40 km north of Stockholm. If you take the Arlanda Express train or the airport bus to central Stockholm, you will arrive at the central station, which is located here: https://tinyurl.com/SthmlsCentral . From there, you can continue via taxi or by public transport. It is also possible to go by taxi from the airport directly to the city, although this might actually be slower than the Arlanda Express train (but in the end the prices are quite similar).

For taxis, I would recommend using one of the major taxi companies in Stockholm, such as e.g. Taxi 020, Taxi Stockholm, or Taxikurir. From Arlanda they all have flat rates to central Stockholm, recently Taxi 020 was cheapest. But you should always check the price beforehand when taking a taxi, because there are no upper limits on what taxis are allowed to charge, and if you ride with some other operator than the big ones there are scammers around. Going by the meter when getting around by taxi in central Stockholm should be fine if using one of the major companies, but it never hurts asking beforehand roughly what the price should be anyway. From the airport to the city, the price should be not more than 500 SEK. From the central station to the hotel, it should be around 150 SEK or so.

(Please keep receipts of all your travel expenses so that I can get the copies needed to process your reimbursement. This should hopefully be obvious, but I am saying it anyway since experience has shown that it never hurts to be on the safe side here.)

KTH and the Theory Group (TCS)

The Theory Group (TCS) is located at the 5th floor on Osquars backe 2 on the KTH main campus: https://tinyurl.com/OsquarsBacke2 .

From Hotel Birger Jarl, this is a nice and easy 10 minute walk as explained by the directions on https://tinyurl.com/FromBJtoOB2 . From Hotel Arcadia, you just walk to KTH along Valhallavägen as shown on https://tinyurl.com/FromHAtoOB2 , which should take less than 5 minutes. As to Wallquistska, you are pretty much there already --- just cross Valhallavägen as depicted on the page https://tinyurl.com/FromWallquistskaToOB2 .

When you get to Osquars backe 2, enter and take the elevator to the 5th floor (three floors up), exit to the left and walk up to the entrance door. Chances are that it will be locked, in which case you could call or ring the door bell. If you manage to get inside, shift slightly left and continue straight on (office numbers start with 15xx but change to 45xx after a while).

Some Useful Websites

• Maps

Google maps work mostly fine, but can be erratic at times. Two good Swedish options with fewer mistakes if you want to double-check are https://kartor.eniro.se/ (enter the address and click "kartsök") or https://www.hitta.se/ (enter address at "var?" and then click "hitta!").

• Public Transport

The website https://sl.se/en/Visitor/Plan-your-journey/ of the Stockholm public transport system is good. It does names of stops and stations as well as street addresses. If you are going to travel regularly by public transport, check out what tourist cards and other options they have (such as a "rabattremsa" with 16 slots for 200 SEK; a trip in central Stockholm is 2 slots, or probably even better a weekly card).

• Tourist Information

The official visitor guide is https://www.visitstockholm.com/en/ . Note that there is a tourist information office at the airport at Terminal 5 to the right just after you exit through customs. At the tourist information you can also buy tickets for the trains and buses to central Stockholm (although there are also vending machines along the walls). Another office in downtown Stockholm, very close to the central station and T-centralen (i.e. where one arrives by bus or train from Arlanda), is at Vasagatan 14: https://tinyurl.com/TouristCenterVasagatan . For general info about Sweden, go to the website https://www.visitsweden.com/sweden/ .

Other Practicalities

• Key and Access Card

Please remind me so that you get a key to the office that you will share, and also an access card. If you want to enter outside of office hours, you will see a blinking green light when swiping the card. If so, enter the code, which is ***INSERT-CODE-HERE***. The light should turn to a steady green and the door open. Please make sure that you lock the door to your office at all times, even when just going to the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee or tea. There are a lot of visitors and unfortunately there are recurring incidents of theft, even when people leave their belongings unattended for literally just a few seconds. If you make sure to lock the door, however, you should be fine.

• Getting Downtown

If you need to go downtown from KTH, the quickest way is to take the red subway line. Also, if you want to get back to KTH, usually the best alternative is to take the red subway line towards Mörby centrum and get off at Tekniska högskolan.