I would go back to Stockholm. For one thing, the weather was mostly grey for my entire visit, which I should not complain about but I do. For another thing, it felt like there was so much to explore here that I never got to. There are 14 islands in Stockholm, I was on five of them. There are massive parks to the north of the city, perfect for bicycling, and I walked through a small part of this. The truth is, I just loved this town. It has what few European cities have, which is a beautiful setting, ripe with unexpected and pretty views. I also found that just wandering in the city, with little purpose, continually brought me from one pretty vista to another, there was something about the flow of the city that appealed to me a great deal. I have never felt this before, or at least so strongly, as in Stockholm.
Photo List (Total 481 Photos)
Click bolded headers below to view, or click "just the best" for quick tour
-
Central Stockholm (259 photos) - This large gallery includes the central island of Stockholm, which is where the old city is located, and it also includes all views across the water in that area, including views of Södermalm and north of the Gamla Stan. It starts with the majestic buildings along the Strandvägan. It follows the curve of the water to the Nationalmuseum, then dips to Skeppsholmen Island where I visited the Moderna Museet and ArkDes (the Swedish Centre for Art & Design). It jumps then, and returns to the mainland to a shopping area along Hamngatan and to the big commercial square, the Sergels Torg. It veers down towards the Gamla Stan, passing by the Riksdaghuset or parliament, and then past the Royal Palace (which I thought very ugly). It criss-crosses the Gamla Stan with its tiny narrow streeets, jumps over to Riddarsholmen Island, over to the City Hall, and shows a few views across water to the south shore.
-
North Stockholm (92 photos) - My hotel was north of the downtown, near a small park called the Tegnérlunden. This gallery starts there, then follows two walks that I took, one to the north-west, where there is a collection of modern buildings in a new neighbourhood called Hagastaden that is being built over an expressway. Another walk was to the east, including the Humlegarden, and the Östermalms food hall. I ended up in a large complex of parks in the north, which collectively are known as the Royal National City Park. I was a bit overwhelmed by this, the weather was quite grey but still I was longing to be on a bike and explore it more thoroughly than the hour or two that I spent there. I walked back down to the water, and the gallery ends just north of the water.
-
Södermalm and South (64 photos) - Södermalm is a large island just south of the Gamla Stan. This gallery starts at the Fotografiska Museum (photography) where I primarily took photos of the very colourful TOILETPAPER exhibition. Then there are a few walks around in the pretty urban areas of Södermalm. Further south than Södermalm, I also visited the stunning Skogskyrgården cemetery and park, and a modern building nearby.
-
Tunnelbana (Subway) (66 photos) - I took quite a large number of photos of the subway. The subway consists of three primary lines, each of which has spur lines when they leave the central city, making for more like seven lines. The blue line is the most recent one, and if you've seen photos of the Stockholm metro system, it's probably a stop on the blue line. The blue line stops have a standard design which involves leaving the walls and the ceilings of the tunnel portion of the stations with rough rock, sometimes these are referred to as a "holistic cave stations". These stations are mostly the same design, but they are painted in very interesting and diverse ways. My favourite, by some distance, was the odd everyday rural paintings of the Solna Centrum station by Karl-Olav Björk and Anders Åberg. However, I quite liked the design as well of the everyday stations on the green and red lines.
