Stockholm

Travel guide to Stockholm

Stockholm is a city of islands—about 14 to be precise—and though the modern city has spread all over the mainland, the biggest sights for visitors are out on the islands linked by a string of bridges.

The city began on the island of Gamla Stan, where the Old Town is alive and well and waiting for your picturesque photo-ops. It's star sight is the Kungling Slot, one of Europe's few active royal palaces they let you wander about, admiring its largely early 18th century décor and visiting its museums and treasury.

The nearby island of DjusgOrden (Deer Park) is home to the Vasa Ship Museum, housing the oldest intact warship in the world. It set sail in AD 1628—and promptly sank to the bottom of Stockholm harbor, where it sat, undisturbed, until 1961, a giant, embarrassing time capsule of history waiting to be museumified (vasamuseet.se).

Nearby is the Skansen Folk Museum, an assemblage of 150 historical buildings from across Sweden laid out in a 75-acre park.

Hmmm. Historic ships, parks of historic buildings...sounds a bit like Oslo, eh? 'Course, there's a Tivoli Gardens amusement park, too, which smacks of Copenhagen. Is it any wonder we Yanks sometimes get our Scanindavian capitals mixed up?

You should also try to set aside a day just to cruise around the Stockholm Archipelago, a collection of some 24,000 islands, only a few dozen of which are covered by the city and suburbs of Stockholm itself, while enticing smaller resort communities occupy some of the outlying islands.

Yes, but how many pairs of long underwear will I need?

I'm as partial as the next guy to making flip comments about the Scandinavian winter, but it's really not that bad, especially in the capital cities, which all tend to be on the southern ends of the countries.

December through March, temperatures in Stockholm range from 25 to 32 degrees Fahrenheit. By April, we're looking at temperatures in the low to mid 40s all around. Of course, this far north, winter daylight hours are ridiculously short.