By Ken Mink (third in a series on Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm)
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN – We capped off our 10-day tour of Denmark, Norway and Sweden with a three-day visit to Stockholm and we found a bustling and beautiful city, filled with interesting things to see and do.
Stockholm, one of the world’s most beautiful capitals, is built on 14 islands around one of Europe’s largest and best-preserved medieval city centers, stunningly located by the Baltic Sea.
It ranks as one of the most beautiful major cities in the world, with its mirage of saffron- and terracotta-colored buildings shimmering between blue water and bluer skies all summer, or covered with snow and dotted with lights in winter.
It’s also a vibrant, modern city, famous for producing sleek designs, edgy fashion and world-class nightclubs.
Because its many intertwining canals and Baltic Sea are blended throughout the city there is a huge amount of waterfront restaurants, hotels, shopping, etc.
The Old Town, called Gamla Stan, is a compact little maze of cobblestone streets apparently built for small, thin people with very sturdy ankles. The stucco walls of its red, orange and vanilla buildings sag toward each other exhaustively over countless souvenir shops and ice-cream parlors, while the Royal Palace crowns the tiny island.
Just to the south of Gamla Stan is another island neighborhood, Södermalm, where high waterfront hills are graced by lovely old residences and the main drags are lined with bohemian shops, art galleries and rollicking clubs. On the other side of Gamla Stan is the main city center, a buzzing metropolis whose boutiques and restaurants can hold their own against just about any big city on the continent.
If you love castles, this is your place. Stockholm has 10 castles open to the public..
Settled since the Stone Age, the city itself has just under a million people, with 2.2 million living in the metro area.
Stockholm is the cultural, media, political, and economic center of Sweden. The region alone accounts for over a third of the country’s GDP and hosts the annual Nobel Prize ceremonies and banquet at the Stockholm Concert Hall and Stockholm City Hall. One of the city’s most prized museums, the Vasa Museum, is the most visited non-art museum in Scandinavia.
The huge Stockholm metro rail station opened in 1950 and it has been called the longest art gallery in the world and is a beehive of activity, with hundreds of thousands passing through each day.
For visitors, weather is always important. During our early-June visit we experienced three days of off and on rain with daytime highs in the upper 50s. But if you arrive in summer one of the perks of living in a city with warm summers and stringent environmental laws is that you can go for a swim right in the middle of town. Some of the best places to jump in are Norr Mälarstrand on the edge of Kungsholmen, the sandy beach on the island of Långholmen, which is particularly popular with families or, for the daring, the waters in front of Stadshuset, Stockholm’s City Hall.
The Royal Palace in the Old Town is large but lifeless. It’s still the monarch’s official residence but King Carl XVI Gustav and Queen Silvia prefer to live in the (relatively) less imposing 18th-century palace of Drottningholm, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. At the palace you can tour the public rooms, explore the grounds and, in the summer, stay for some opera at the perfectly preserved Palace Theatre, which dates from 1766 and still has all its original stage sets and equipment.
We happened to be there when there was the official changing of the guard, with a large white-uniformed band leading a contingent of khaki-dressed soldiers on a street parade to the palace.
We again used the Stromma double-decker sightseeing buses to reach the city’s major points of interest. You can take half-day tours, full-day tours and/or the hop-on, hop-off buses to stop at your favorite places and then catch another bus later.
You can get a taste of Sweden’s fascinating Viking and medieval past on practically all the tours.
The pick of Stockholm’s museums are; Moderna Museet for one of the world’s finest collections of 20th and 21st century art, its fabulous restaurant and kids activities. Also put wonderful open-air museum Skansen on your list. You can join Stockholmers in celebrating Christmas and Midsummer in traditional style here. Open every day of the year. If you’re coming with the family, the zoo and collection of 19th century buildings and settings from all around Sweden are a must. A short walk from Skansen is the Vasa Museum. The museum was purpose-built to house the 17th century Vasa ship and we don’t just mean bits of it – we mean the entire ship, which was raised from nearby Lake Mälaren.
We stayed at the L Motel in the upscale Hammarby Sjostad area. The hotel is only one year old and is as modern as one can get, beautiful at every turn. The hotel has lots of amenities, including a gym, and is conveniently located half a block off one of the city’s main rail lines (ten minutes from downtown). A beautiful canal is only a block away and offers a great location for leisurely walks or just sitting and watching boat traffic. On a three-block walk along the canal we discovered he Texas Longhorn Restaurant. Delicious American-style food served indoors or outdoors. A gem.
The hotel has a parking garage and a fantastic buffet breakfast as part of the room rate (with very competitive moderate pricing). For more info on the hotel: http://motel-l.se/en/find-us/
