Stockholm is a beautiful maritime city, stretching across 14 islands lined with ferries and sailboats. The architecture spans every style period, from the 13th century to modernistic glass palaces of commerce. I spent most of my day-and-a-half in the Galma Stan, the island that comprises the old town.
Lots of bridges in Stockholm!
Government building in Galma Stan.
Galma Stan, across the bay.
The angel at night.
Galma Stan.
Galma Stan.
Galma Stan.
The spire of Nordiska Museet in the background. Lots of top quality museums in Stockholm, I wish I could have explored more of them!
My hostel was on the Iland of Skeppsholmen, which is considered the museum district. Across the street was a tall ship with beautiful views of the royal palace across the harbor! I had a bowl of soup here for dinner - 20$ Stockholm is incredibly expensive, but apparently Oslo is even worse! An interesting measure of cost of living a friend told me about is the “Big Mac Index”, compiled by the Economist. It ranks the price of a Big Mac, including the currency conversion, and the difference is quite substantial. Scandinavia is very expensive, but a lot of this is due to their extensive welfare systems.
The tall ship where I had dinner, in front of my hostel.
The tall ship.
View from my table!
View of the Galma Stan (old city) from the ship (and from my hostel window!). The Royal Palace is the big brown square building on the right.
The Royal Palace treasury is quite splendid – it includes the Swedish Crown Jewels. One of the most interesting components was the collection of 8-9 small blue and gold crowns, made for different princes and princesses but that look very similar to eachother. I wonder why they would have made several copies? The sovereign and consort’s crown are spectacular as is the orb and scepter used at the coronation. Part of the state rooms were closed for an official function of King Carl Gustaf!
The Royal Palace (left).
The Royal Palace.
The Royal Palace.
The Throne Room, Queen Christina's coronation chair.
Beautiful furnishings inside. The palace is still used for official functions.
Modern drawing room. Those are paintings of the current King and Queen.
The entrance to the Royal Palace.
The Riddarsholmskyrkan, built in the 16th century, contains the remains of most of the Swedish monarchs since the 17th century. Lining the walls are the coats of arms, set on black metal squares, of all of the deceased members of the Order of the Seraphim, Sweden’s highest order. The plaques of the living members are on display in the Royal Palace.
The Riddarholmskyrkan.
The other main church in the old town is the 700 year old Italian-Baroque Storkyrkan. It was in this cathedral that Crownprincess Victoria married her personal trainer, Daniel Westling, in June 2010.
Storkyrkan Cathedral.
Statue of St. George and the Dragon, 1489.
Stockholm has many wonderful museums, but I was pressed for time so I only had a chance to see the Nobelmuseet and the Vasamuseet. The “Nobel Museum”, housed in the Swedish Academy in a beautiful medieval square, has exhibitions on the life of Alfred Nobel and of the hundreds of prize winners. A special souvenir I picked up was a chocolate nobel prize – apparently they serve those with coffee at the annual prize-winner’s gala!
The Nobel Museum (right), in Galma Stan.
The Nobel Museum, in the Svenska Akademien.
Yours truly at the Nobel Museum.
A must-see in Stockholm is the Vasamuseet – which houses the Vasa, a massive warship that capsized in the Stockholm harbor on its maiden voyage in 1628. Somehow it remained undiscovered at the bottom of the harbor until the 1950s, when it was painstakingly recovered and restored to 95% of its original appearance.
The Vasa.
My overall impression of Stockholm was of a city that maintains a healthy balance between history and the present. Although I mainly spent time in the old town, there are several areas with futuristic glass buildings. The people were very hospitalble, and yes, there are a lot of blondes in Sweden! The only downside was that it is very expensive, but well worth making a short trip to visit.
The "City", near the main train station. I didn't spend much time exploring the newer areas of the city, but what I did see was some beautiful examples of modern architecture.
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