SEEING STOCKHOLM
- Joelle McDonald
- Jul 14, 2022
- 9 min read
Humlegården • Stockholm Olympic Stadium • Sophiahemmet • Vasamuseet • Hermans Trädgårdscafé • Kungliga Slottet • Old Town Square • Nobel Prize Museum • Riksdagshuset • Högsta Domstolen • House of Nobility • Riddarholmskyrkan • Evert Taubes Terrass • Gamla Riksarkivet • Storkyrka • Mårten Trotzigs Gränd
Stockholm! The city that always seemed randomly printed on bags listing the world’s big cities: “NEW YORK, PARIS, LONDON, LOS ANGELES, STOCKHOLM,” etc. I have never really known anything about Stockholm but today is our one day to change that. We will be spending almost all of our time in Sweden in the forest, but first we are doing Stockholm highlights in a day.
Morning Run: Humlegården, Stockholm Olympic Stadium, and Sophiahemmet
--- Map Points 2-4 ---
In 1912 Stockholm hosted the Olympic Games. The track that was used in the games is now open to the public and well maintained so it can be used by anyone of any level (thanks for the tip, Dad). The stadium (map point 3) is only a few miles from our hotel, so I figure I better run my strides there. How often is running on an olympic track an option? Ready for my run, I ask a very sleep Hannah as I put on my shoes if she is sure she doesn’t was to come with me. Figuring that she was already woken up by my getting ready (in my defense it was a small room) she peeled herself off her pillow.
With the Google Maps route loaded into our phones we set off. Why Google Maps decided to send us up, over, and down a massive hill when we could’ve skipped the countless stairs for a flat route is beyond me. We run through yet another old Royal Garden (map point 2) to get to the stadium. When we arrive we open a gate that seems locked, but it swings aside easily. Walking into the stadium I catch my first glimpse of the track surface and… well… where is the track surface? This is just asphalt? It turns out that the track is being resurfaced. A construction crew is hard at work.
With the track option gone, I run out of the stadium, Hannah following behind me. I have no idea where I’m going, but I keep finding great places to run with no planning, so I’m confident something nice will pop up. I take a left into a campus of some sort. I can’t tell if it is a school campus, medical campus, or business campus (map point 4). I get nervous that maybe I was running around a hospital so I nearly leave, but I decide I should at least finish my lap first. Thank goodness I do because about a minute later I am running into undisturbed forest. Yes, undisturbed forest in the middle of Stockholm! I am baffled. The trees and forest floor looks just like the mountains at home. Hannah and I bump into each other a few times on the winding trails through this hidden mini forest (I checked later, the area isn’t even shaded green on Google Maps) before separately running back to the hotel for breakfast.
Transportation
Yet another place where we have to figure out the transportation system. Based on my research, you can buy a 75 minute transportation ticket for about three dollars at each transportation station. Hoping that was right, we walk to our tram stop and try to figure out the machine there. The screen is black and none of the buttons work, but a young woman in a bright yellow vest is nearby. Surely she can help. It turns out that to get transportation each of us just has to tap our debit card on her handheld machine and it both takes payment for our ticket and sends information into the transportation system so that our debit cards themselves serve as our tickets. We can present them to the reader on the bus and it will register as a transportation pass. Very cool and no unnecessary waste!
The Vasa Ship Museum
--- Map Point 5 ---
Our tram brings us to The Vasa Ship Museum. So many people recommended we go here; we couldn’t possibly skip it. Thank you to the Tuckers (my 8th and 9th grade history teachers) for sending us here and continuing to teach me years later! This museum is true living history. The Vasa Museum displays the Vasa Ship in its entirely. The Vasa was built between 1626-1628 and is nearly perfectly preserved. How so? Well, it turns out that after countless resources and a monumental effort to create the Royal Navy’s most fearsome ship, the Vasa wasn’t seaworthy. It sank only 1000 meters into its first journey due to a combination of being not wide enough, being too tall, and not having enough weight at the very bottom of the ship. The boat began tipping almost immediately and water came rushing in through the gun ports. The ship laid at the bottom of the ocean for 333 years before finally being excavated in the 1960s. The restoration effort took ages of careful searching, cleaning, identification, research, and assembly. The thick mud the ship had been buried by acted as a preserver for the boat, its contents, and the bodies of some of the 30 aboard who lost their life in the ship’s sinking.
There are seven levels from which we can view the Vasa on almost all sides and information about the ship and what life at sea at the time was like. We found the “Life Aboard” section title ironic considering that people only lived on the Vasa for under an hour. The entire museum felt a bit ironic because everyone there is oohing, awing, and learning maritime history from a ship that isn’t seaworthy. Despite the ship’s uselessness at sea, seeing what a ship looked like at the time and all of the information archeologists were able to extract for the wreckage was fascinating. It completely changed my perspective on so many historical events. We got a picture of whence power came for much of the modern world’s most foundational history. Stories of pirates and battles at sea and exploratory sea voyages all have a new connection to reality in my brain.
Hermans Trädgårdscafé
--- Map Point 6 ---
Hungry (we spent much longer than expected at the Vasa), we were both past ready for lunch. Our next sightseeing spot for the day is Gamla Stan (Old Town) so we find a vegan, plant-based all-you-can-eat buffet just past there. If you are ever in Stockholm, we highly recommend Hermans Trädgårdscafé! We we able to get student discounts so it was $15 each (eating out in Scandinavia is expensive) and we ate a lot. It was definitely our best value meal so far and we didn’t have to compromise on any dietary restrictions.
Kungliga Slottet
--- Map Point 7 ---
The most content we have felt after a meal, we walk to The Royal Palace, Kungliga Slottet. The palace has 608 rooms and is the largest castle still used for its original purpose in the world (according to our Lonely Planet guidebook). No, we did not get enough of palaces in Copenhagen. We want to see a fifth in almost as many days. Only problem: by the time we arrive it is 4:30 and the castle closes at 5:00. We’ve only got one day in Stockholm and we are seeing that castle. We run inside and up the stairs to the ticket desk. We approach, unsure if they will sell us tickets. Many places we have visited recently don’t sell tickets within 30 minutes of closing.
Ticket woman: “Hello, you do know we close in thirty minutes?”
Me: “Yeah… we know.” Awkward.
Ticket woman: “Are you able to come back tomorrow.”
Me: “No, we will just be fast.”
Ticket woman: “Okay, sure. So two tickets?”
The ticket woman proceeds to tell us that there are four things to see, but in her opinion we only have time to see two and they are the best ones anyway. She gives detailed instruction on how to maximize our time: “You will go downstairs, spend 5 to 7 minutes in the treasury, look at the pretty things, then you will come back up here and spend the rest of your time seeing the royal apartments.” Sounds great! We take off running to the treasury and very efficiently look at the shiny, pretty things. These are definitely the shiniest and prettiest items we have seen in any palace yet. The crowns, swords, and coronation cloak are impressive. We take a few (silly) pictures and run back upstairs, sticking strictly to our suggested time limits. The royal apartments are stunning. They are perhaps the most open we have seen and the rooms generally don’t feel small, dark, or cramped (though it would have been nicer if all the curtains weren’t drawn. We speed walk through the palace, not stopping to read any of the informational signs or deeply inspect the artifacts in the room. We decide this is now our preferred way to see castles, not overwhelming our brains with information we won’t remember anyway and laughing at ourselves the whole way. Our pace definitely earns us some attention. One woman says, when she catches us taking pictures, “Ooh, now I understand why you two are going so fast. They close at 5:00!” The staff dispersed throughout the castle make sure we do not forget they are closing. They clearly want to go home or onto their evening plans. You wouldn’t know we are rushing by the fun pictures we take through the whole castle. We have gotten very well practiced by now.
We finish our whirlwind tour with four minutes to spare, of which we spend two wearing crowns in the gift shop. Feeling pretty good about ourselves, we next decide to go to the old town square here in Gamla Stan (map point 8). It takes us a few tries to get going in the right direction (turns out you should put Stortorget into Google Maps). The square is very cute, but isn’t particularly special beyond housing the Nobel Prize Museum (map point 9) and buildings with photogenic facades. After taking some pictures of those photogenic facades (by standing on top of a concrete police barrier to get above the people), we go into the Nobel Museum. We have already used our Museum energy today on the Vasa, but we decide to go into the entrance before the ticket stand “for the vibes.” We are both surprised by how modern and trendy those vibes are considering how long ago most of those prizes were awarded and the average age of most recipients. Nice work Nobel Museum!
Walking Tour: Stockholm Edition, Brought to You by Hannah
--- Map Points 10-17 ---
After getting an uninformative information pamphlet at Nobel Museum, we sit down on a bench by the door inside and decide now is a good time to try to change the pickup time for our rental car tomorrow. I navigate a maze of Avis-Budget Call Centers before finally giving up. To anyone who travels to Stockholm, I wouldn’t recommend renting from Avis-Budget at Stockholm-Arlanda Airport. Figuring we have definitely overstayed our welcome as non-paying guests, we go back into the chilly air outside for a walking tour led by Hannah.
I did all the research and planning for this trip, with occasional calls to Hannah asking her preferences (the response always some variation of “I don’t care, anything sounds fun.” Very unhelpful). I was very excited to have an afternoon planned entirely by Hannah and our guidebook, which I gave her a very brief tutorial on navigating. She did a great job of putting together a trail of destinations for us:
Riksdagshuset (map point 10) - The Parliament Building. It is big and beautiful, just what you would expect form an important government building in Old Town.
Högsta Domstolen (Supreme Court) (map point 11) - It’s a pretty small building. Yes, it is pretty, but not nearly as impressive as most the buildings we’ve seen here.
Home of Nobility (map point 12) - Just a neat old building really. It is pretty grand looking.
Riddarholmskyrkan Church (map point 13) - One of the most impressive churches yet! From the outside, we were there after it closed. When we arrived we thought we were at Storkyrka, the church used by the royal family for baptisms, weddings, and other important religious events. We only realized later that we had yet to find that church.
Evert Taubes Terrass Park (map point 14) - Eye level outlook of the city from over Lake Mälaren
Gamla Riksarkivet (a cute old pink building) (map point 15) - I am not sure if this has any historical or cultural importance, but its color is so bright and it stands out in the plaza by Riddarholmskyrkan.
Storkyrka (map point 16) - This church was very hard to find. We were walking all over the island trying to find it, baffled because according to our map we had walked past it at least four times. Well, folks, a warning for your next European journey: when you see a restoration project covering a building in scaffolding, you should really read any signage on it saying what building under all the construction is. Turns out the big construction project walked past countless times in the rain while looking for Storkyrka actually was Storkyrka. Oof.
Mårten Trotzigs Gränd (map point 17) - Stockholm’s narrowest street. This little ally definitely only handles foot traffic (the stairs are a factor) and one person at a time. We had to walk down the street like we drove over one lane bridges in Iceland: waiting for traffic coming the other direction to clear before entering. We could touch the building on both sides without fully extending our arms.
Tired and needing to pack to leave early tomorrow (we have to pick up our rental car from the airport at 9:00 AM; I was optimistic when I selected that time) we manage to walk back to the hotel before falling into bed. Thankfully our lunch was big enough to save us the energy of finding dinner.
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