Stockholm
Trip Start
Jul 07, 2007
1
18
45
Trip End
Sep 22, 2007
Stockholm,
Sweden
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Do remember the place is a capital city. Be prepared for lots of tourists, litter and shops.
Don't be taken in by all the propaganda trying to persuade you to linger all day in the shopping malls and the passageways of boutiques - visit Skansen instead.
Do expect the sun to disappear as you arrive but try and stay for long enough to see the view when it returns.
Don't arrive via the central train or bus stations if you like colour.
Do expect the drab, concrete buildings to blend into a general, background nondescript blur.
View from Strandvagan
Don't be too surprised when you spy the odd building with colour - they do exist!Do plan for the museum you are trying to visit to be badly signposted and closed for refurbishment over the summer.
Don't worry too much abou the Storkyrkan church next to the Royal Palace. It is pretentiously attempting to pretend it is better than the cathedral at Uppsala, but fails. Either that, or the designers and owners were rather jealous.
Do be grateful that most of the information boards are in Swedish and English.
Don't be put off by the confusing array of boat and bus sightseeing options. I'm sure £24 for a guided bus trip was worth it.
Do remember that there is more to Sweden than Stockholm.
Tor's view of Stockholm
Like Gavin, I wasn't that impressed as we arrived into Stockholm. The weather was overcast and the buildings outside the central train station were grey (gloomy), and tall (imposing). Still with map in hand we headed past these to Gamla Stan, the old town, that people and guide books said was one of the prettiest parts of Stockholm
The Royal Palace
.When we got there we were disappointed by what we found - narrow streets covered in litter, a pretentious cathedral that was no where near as nice as the one in Uppsala, and the Royal Palace, which didn't really have anything interesting about its exterior, apart from the view from it.
However, the weather and sightseeing improved as we walked to Skansen (an open air museum on Djurgarden). The walk along Strandsvagen beside the water was lovely, with trees, and old buidings. It was especially nice at the end nearest the bridge to Djurgarden where there were lots of cafes, bars and restaurants.
By the time we reached Skansen, the weather was lovely and it was a pleasure to walk around the museum, looking at the old buildings, people in costume and at the animals there, both in the collection and living there wild.
A different walk back, through a park and a couple of the main shopping streets, bought a mixture of feelings. The place seemed very commercial (huge shops and malls everywhere) and dirty (again there was an unusually large amount of litter, far more than you would expect in a capital), but had a few nice green and open spaces and some nice looking spots to stop for food.
Would I live in Stockholm - no. Would I visit again - yes. I am sure that we must have caught the place on a bad day and that it must be nicer than we first thought, however I doubt even if the second trip is much nicer that it will be enough to overcome our initial impressions and feelings towards the place.
