The man with the unending fascination with the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

A trip to Stockholm for an event that was OK was the perfect excuse to see some of the sights that inspired my favourite trilogy in modern fiction: Stieg Larsson's "Millennium" trilogy (you know, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and all that).

Bellmansgatan 1, where the walk takes place, is not the easiest to get to, as it's a little hidden away in a part of the city that's very multi-level. Luckily I'd given myself plenty of time to cross the river and walk through Old Town, so I got there just in time for the walking tour to start. Bellmansgatan 1 is where Mikael Blomkvist, the novels' male protagonist calls home. It's on a reasonably quiet but incredibly hilly road which, after a short walk gives a nice view of some of the city's smaller islands.

As I write this, it's a few weeks after the trip, and I'm a terrible journal-writer, but I'll do my best!

Here's where Lisbeth, the female protagonist gets her tattoos done. Apparently they're massively common in Sweden, and used to be a sign of nobility. Who knew?

Stieg was, by at least the account of the woman conducting the tour, a pretty brave journalist. He published a book about how to survive death threats, and used to try to address neo-nazis at public gatherings. In the books, Blomkvist works at a magazine called Millennium, and that dingy-looking building is where their offices were.

When Lisbeth runs off with a crook's millions - in a story that purposefully mirrored Pippi Longstocking in a way I had no idea - she comes back from a long holiday and buys the place above.

And when you give Steadman the chance to sit at a desk in a mocked-up Millennium office, the above is the result you get.

So a pretty enjoyable time then. I learned a lot, like the fact that Paolo Roberto is an actual boxer, like in real life, and that Larsson never sought his permission to be in the book, but apparently the boxer was fine with it. I would be.