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Published: August 22nd 2010
Stockholm Architeture
Plenty of pretty buildings in Stockholm, this spiral fire escape caught my eyeRatings explained:
'Bad times' - self explanatory
'Don't bother' - self explanatory
1* - worth a look
2* - Good Times
3* - Unmissable
+ - emphasis on the rating
I expect people to filter the rating through their own travel desires so if you know you hate museums you can downgrade a 3* museum to a 'Don't Bother'.
Our first impressions wandering the streets of Stockholm were of a pretty, healthy, prosperous place. We walked amongst parks with people playing after-work football, saw pretty pastel coloured buildings with architecture that reminded us a little bit of Paris, and had a lovely sunset to welcome us.
We were surprised to find the English availability a little limited in Stockholm; I'd assumed the Swedes with their reputation for a great education system all spoke English but we found that wasn't the case; some didn't and a lot of eateries didn't have English menus, not that it was a big problem for us, but a small surprise.
Our Stockholm accommodation was the 'Hotel Micro' an in expensive one star secure, clean, and central place that does small rooms like ship cabins with no windows. Bunks for beds with the
Stockholm Old town
The old rules of 'look up' and 'be observant' still hold true, I never would have spotted this little statue crouching amongst the vines around the roofs if not. top bunk inches from the roof. We found the no-windows thing to be a major problem when waking in the middle of the night to find the room stifling hot and the top bunk in particular was terribly hot and unbearable. Alicia went up to complain to reception at 01:30 and they said the cooling system was set for their premium hotel and the micro hotel so they weren't willing to change it and affect their 3* hotel guests, and there was nothing they could do for us, bad times. A splash of cold water and sleeping with a damp cold towel draped on our bodies helped us make it through the night but it wasn't a good sleep.
Next morning our formal complaint was countered with the loan of two pedestal fans for us to set up in our room to cool us down and circulate the air; they worked pretty well but I certainly felt sorry for all the other guests who would be staying there and suffering the same first night hell we suffered.
The weather for our first main day of Stockholm was light grey, dull overcast; Nick's just about most hated weather for photography.
Stockholm Beauty
I love the lines and look of this pretty building, Stockholm has loads of charming architecture. We liked the sights of the old town (1*) with the fairly pretty coloured buildings and winding old streets, it wasn't bursting in charm, but nice enough. The Swedes have a bit of thing about St George and we saw a nice sculpture of him slaying a dragon on our walk.
Nick got some nice pictures of some excellent statues down by the theater at the old town harbour then after lunching on a step at the quayside (bread and jam and nutella) we got on the 'hop on hop off' boat (2*). The boat gave us some fine views around the harbour areas of Stockholm, we saw some lovely buildings just along the old harbour/ town area and there was a big amusement park across the water too with lots of big exciting rides. We saw church spires and colourful little clusters of buildings at smaller wharfs around the bay and laughed at an industrial site that had painted two of their cranes to look just like giraffes, it was an excellent effort and looked really good.
At the Swedish Royal palace (2*) we saw some beautiful interiors including a lovely thrown with a big painting behind it
Contemplative Statue
This statue muses upon the mysteries of life down by the theatre at the harbour. and a great gold/ gilt edged hallway with black backed paintings all along the roof which Alicia loved; the absurd 'no photos' rule was in place (so I didn't get too many hehehe).
After the enjoyable palace interiors we saw a little changing of the guards, which was appropriately ludicrous in it's ceremony, the poor guards would have been HOT in their heavy uniform and ceremonial helmets.
We then took a quick look in the palace cathedral (2*) which had some lovely golden reliefs and a beautiful speakers pulpit, and a nice St George & Dragon sculpture too.
We then raced off for the armoury (2*) which ended up being more of an costume display than armour display. They had a few nice bits of Knight & horse armour but the majority of the display was more about royal dress from the past; we saw a nice masquerade outfit and a bunch of dresses and various other clothing of the time, also some of the royal coaches/ sleighs which were lavish and beautiful in wooden gilt carving. Nick got to try on a plate-mail gauntlet which was good fun and possibly we could have tried on some more plate armour
Stockholm Waterfront
There are some very pretty sights around the harbour cruise in Stockholm from the 'hop on, hop off' boat but another tourist was dressed head to toe in it and it would have been a long wait!!
We saw the royal treasures of Sweden in the Treasure Chamber (2*) including the crown jewels; there were many crowns for various princes/ princess and the king. I know the jewels in them are valuable but they look like cheap plastic jewels e.g. emeralds/ rubies! We saw sceptres, orbs, and royals ornamental swords which had very tiny orbs with christian crosses on the butt of the handle which were lovely decoration but would have been a shade impractical for crushing someones skull with if needed.... Not a bad little treasury; no stunning pieces like the British Royal family's star of Africa diamond though.
In the afternoon with improved clear blue sky weather we took a canal cruise, along the canal we watched in amazement as 300 metres from the central train station in Stockholm a fisherman landed a big, healthy looking fish from the river. Good times.
The canal cruise (1*) was on our Stockholm card (and thus free) and was fairly informative but the sights weren't anything to set the world on fire. We learned a little about the different
Industrial Giraffes
I LOVE the fact they've painted their cranes in the harbour to look like Giraffes. Fantastic work Stockholm. districts of Stockholm, their industry, and how they'd developed, and where the desirable neighbourhoods were to live. It was warm on the boat and we each had a little nap toward the end.
Back in the city centre a lovely sunset was developing through pretty clouds and we walked to central station to tube home, on our way we laughed at some of the amusing (to English speakers) Swedish signs with words like 'Ooooops' and some other words not fit to reprint on a family blog but must mean less disgusting things than what they sound in English....
Our final day in Stockholm we were cursed with awful weather; heavy overcast skies, light rain that got heavier as the day went on.
Alicia's calves are covered in over 14 bruises and she looks like a beaten woman. This seems to be from falling down in Iceland, bashing herself with her luggage, and climbing the ladders/ beds in our Stockholm Micro hotel. Nick's sure people on the streets will be giving him filthy looks but it's nothing to do with me!!!
We went to Stockholm's excellent Vasa museum (3*). The museum focus is all on the 17th century
Fine Thrown
A suitably impressive seat of power I think. ship the 'Vasa' a top-of-the line vessel built with Royal direction and approval that sank one it's maiden voyage in Stockholm harbour area (oops!). Unlike the poor 'Mary Rose' of Portsmouth, England, the Vasa is very accessible and very, very impressive and good.
It's amazing the state of repair the old ship is in and it sits in a giant hall surrounded by multi-tiered viewing platforms. We took a little English tour and learned more about the ship. It was originally painted in bright colours but is just wooden dark brown now. The host said the ship won't last much longer in it's current display and 100 years from now will probably fall apart. It astonishes me they can take a ship that sank around 1663 and put it up on blocks in a museum the way they have without it falling apart!!
The story behind the sinking was basically the King was demanding this brand new, heavily weaponised ship quickly and so they sailed it out without enough ballast or crew and it basically got knocked over on it's side after one of the crew had a big sneeze, filled with water and sank inches from the harbour
Stockholm Cathedral St George
St George slays the dragon yet again; one of the many beautiful decoration inside the Royal Castle Cathedral front. Whoops!
We took the time to visit the Swedish Royal palace: Drottningholm (1*) a little out of town in moderate rain.
At the palace we toured the nice apartments, 'no photos' rule was in force sadly so Nick only got a few cheeky ones of the very pretty apartments. As per usual afterward we found the postcard photos to be total crap, taken by an untrained monkey.
The palace was on large grounds with large cultivated hedges leading through grassy fields and some nice little fountains. We booked onto the Theater tour (2*) which was a mandatory guided tour (no photos); our guide added lots of value and we learned the royals had built the theater on the grounds basically out of their own pocket and barely had any money, so the builder had had to chip in a lot of his own money and had to be crafty e.g. disguising painted wood as marble to make the place look classy. He'd done a nice job. We enjoyed the theatre tour and learned a lot, e.g. that the indoors stage was lit with candles for performances (!).
Finally for our last night in Stockholm Nick was feeling
Plate Armour Gauntlet
Nick dons a real gauntlet and looks about for someone to challenge to a duel... they'd be unlikely to get up from the challenge! pretty stressed about getting to Russia, Alicia was responsible for learning Cyrillic alphabet and hadn't spent much time on it and our research was in a bit of disarray. We spent a lot of time printing all that we needed then went out for a quick tea.
Everything close by was either stupidly expensive or stopped serving food after 9pm so we ended up in an American steakhouse where Nick had ribs and a Swedish beer (breaking our healthy regime in Scandinavia at the final hurdle but justified due to stress).
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