I once spent a whole month in this uncommonly beautiful city. That was almost three decades ago, when this city – built on 17th century imperial ambitions and late 19th century industrial wealth, and once progressive and affluent – was suffering from a particularly bad self-image, mired in self-doubt, excuses, exorbitant taxes, a mini banking crisis of the early 1990’s. Recently, I returned on a work related trip and stayed for a weekend after my meetings. I found a different Stockholm: the city’s former confidence was now fully recovered, the exodus of its young talent reversed, the creative energy of its blonde modernism fully repatriated. A few of my humble but inspired observations follow.
If Stockholm is an acquired taste – it takes some getting used to – it is exceptional, cool, and well worth the effort. Just get your wallet ready, this is still Scandinavia where liquor tax may approach 100% and a glass costs what you would pay for a bottle South of the Alps.
- This is a colorful pocket size metropolis of stunning water views, panoramic skylines, and exceptionally picturesque waterfronts, consisting of islands and quaint parks that straddle the Baltic Sea and Lake Malaren.
- A city where real estate surface area is dominated by water – ubiquitous water views somehow make it feel bigger that it really is – and where density of built environment drops off quickly as you head inland, away from the spectacular Potemkin’s Village veneer lining the waterfronts. Sure, smaller islands of Gamla Stan, Riddarholmen, and Skeppsholmen are exempted but go ahead and test this theory in Kungsholmen, Sodermalm, Norrmalm, or even Ostermalm, its larger central islands and neighborhoods.
- Stockholm’s topology – like in Chicago, the best stuff here is on display along the waterfronts – runs opposite to the logic of inward facing Copenhagen (or Manhattan) where waterfronts had to be reclaimed by force.
- This is a city that is regal, bourgeois, and Nordic at the same time – although more bourgeois than regal (think wide boulevards and imposing buildings) and more Nordic than Continental (think tin roofs rather than red tile). If regal and Continental is your thing, Stockholm will still do but will lose hands down on a relative basis, in a comparison to Copenhagen, its close long time rival.
- Whatever your first impression, this is a beautiful city and urban planner’s paradise that checks all the boxes of a great long weekend destination – in terms of historic eye candy, contemporary coolness, and creative energy – yet remains underrated. Paradoxically. Chronically. And unfairly.
If you are looking for a civilized old town center that is more style than kitsch and is not overrun by cheesy souvenir shops, Gamla Stan should be on your list.
- It is well-preserved but without a tourist trap feel, and is lived in, or at least used by the locals as the city’s true center. Plenty of variety here, a few major longitudinal streets running up from Slussen to the Royal Palace, a number of short transverse ones, and plenty of nooks and crannies. No shortage of stylish storefront signs and vintage boutiques, most of them more than tolerable, pleasant, authentic. For bars and open squares I would go elsewhere, but Gamla Stan’s embankments offer stunning and truly unique views, both from, and of, the island. The distinctly different look and feel of its Western and Eastern flanks is something to contemplate and appreciate, after careful observation, but also to revisit from a distance, looking back from other islands across the water.
- Besides the interior treasures and the exterior courtyards of the massive Royal Palace, the 13th century Storkyrkan cathedral, and Tyska Kyrkan, the German Church, Gamla Stan offers a few major landmarks amid its narrow lanes, as well as superb views of the nearby Riddarholmen. Stockholm is full of hidden gems of large scale French and Italianate renaissance and baroque architecture from the golden age of Sweden’s power from late 1500’s to early 1700’s. Don’t miss the Riddarhusset, the grand and classical house of knights, and possibly Stockholm’s most beautiful facade, and Bondi Palace, today the supreme court of Sweden, both from the Golden Age of the 17th century: both are in the NW segment of Gamla Stan, to the side of the Royal Palace and away from Stortorget square, the Nobel Museum, and the Academic Library.
Don’t fall this common trap of limiting yourself to the old town – or the City Hall that hosts Noble Prize ceremonies – venture beyond the inner city clichés. While Gamla Stan certainly holds its own in skyline and character, it is just one of the 17 islands.
Ostermalm is Stockholm’s Upper East Side: upscale and elegant but lived-in, Belle Époque in character, Art Nouveau in style, it is spectacular, and not just by local standards. There is a neighborhood that serves exactly this purpose in any major city – take the 8th, 17th or 16th arrondissements in Paris – but the history of Ostermalm’s development is unique.
- Strandvagen, the face of Ostermalm, is Stockholm’s answer to Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive, and while not exactly a match to Prague’s exquisite Masaryk’s embankment, its ten long blocks mark one of the most beautiful waterfront boulevards in Europe.
- With its near end facing the Blasieholmen peninsula across the Nybroviken bay, the straight line of Strandvagen traces an exceptionally grand esplanade along on the Baltic Sea, lined by handsome, uniformly proportioned, 19th century apartment buildings and separated from the yachts by rows of trees stretching its full length. To get the best perspective, walk close to the water with the buildings in full view from a respectable distance.
- Its far end faces Djurgarden, former hunting forest turned city park: with its museums, world’s largest skansen, an amusement park, a circus, various weekend attractions, and even embassies, it tends to be popular on weekends. The district’s first few blocks inland may be quiet and unexceptional but are of noble layout and welcoming. And filled with coffeehouses, bars, and eateries, some of them quite interesting.
Sodermalm and Katarina Sophia areas South of the center are easy going and sort of hispterish – crazy boutiques, odd cafes, an occasional theater – and make for a nice Sat afternoon stroll if nothing else planned.
- Start on the far end about half-way into Sodermalm and walk back towards Slussen, the lock and dam system separating Lake Malaren from the Baltic Sea.
Take advantage of this scenic viewpoint: panoramic views over Riddarholmen with the eponymous royal church with a huge spire visible from everywhere, all of Gamla Stan, the Skeppsholmen with Kastekholmen to the East, and the Kungsholmen to the West. Also in view are Norrnalm on the far side of the old town, behind the Royal Palace, parts of the spectacular Ostermalm waterfront, and the popular Djurgarden on the East.
Sweden of Charles X and Gustavus Adolphus was a mini superpower in late 1600’s. It is not clear how the Thirty Year War would have ended if Sweden, the only professional army outside Spain, did not intervene on the side of Protestant Europe against the Habsburg Empire. And whatever you think about the merits of the monoethnic nation state vs supranational Holy Roman Empire or the City Republics of Italy and Flanders, you have to thank the Swedes for today’s world order, at least in part
Maybe this is why the Royal Palace is well worth a quick visit. Its facades are monumental, monotonous, the structure built to exceed the size of the Buckingham palace by exactly one room, and is among the very largest in Europe.
- But it is unmistakably Italianate and classical at the same time (the adherence to Italian and French standards by Swedish court will impress by its authenticity, even if you are a classical art purist and a Continental European snob).
- Its royal armor, library, royal and state apartments and numerous other riches are a pleasant surprise, helped in part by muted expectations. Despite the quality of its collections, the palace has no crowds – perhaps unsurprisingly for an underrated royal capital, still functioning but oddly subject to old and stubbornly sticky cliches that just won’t peel off and go away – so you will practically have the dynasty’s winter residence to yourself.
- The palace is home to the royal office staff but the royal family prefers its spectacular Drottningholm Palace on Lake Malaren and half a dozen 17th century garden palaces and villas scattered throughout outer districts and suburbs of the city that function as their official residences.
- Also the equestrian parade in the palace square, which has been a daily occurrence for nearly five centuries, quaint and almost cute as it seems, is not entirely without interest.
- Drottninggatan – a long and overly commercial street, pedestrian in more ways than one – starts from the Royal Palace and cuts through between the semicircular and square buildings of the perfectly neoclassical Riksdag Parliament complex on the Helgeandsholmen island directly behind the palace complex and continues on the other bank straight up through the Norrmalm business district. This street was the old royal road in the 1600’s, it starts monumental but bland and, once you make it past big chain department stores, gets significantly more lively and interesting further up, with good bars and restaurants, and a promise of a nice walk.
My Golden Triangle of Stockholm (it is not a thing and made up entirely but worth a careful look).
- I would spend some time in deliberate discovery of the central area – stretching roughly from Gamla Stan and the Riksdag/Royal Palace complex in the West to hotel Diplomat on the Strandvagen in the East – and including the Gustav Adolph Square, the Opera, the long Kungstradgarden square behind and the old blocks around it.
- Within the same footprint, of especial interest – and hard to miss – are the quaint Blasienholmen peninsula with the iconic Grand Hotel facing the royal palace across the water, it is one of the very best on Europe’s hospitality map. Check out the busy lobby bar, it is welcoming, beautiful and nearly always happening, especially on a busy night closer to the weekend.
- Make a note of the three Michelin stars on premises spread across Grand Hotel’s two restaurants (I am against Michelin stars and like to at least try to ignore overhyped gastronomy but in a city with traditionally some of the worst food and still much blandness on the menu, places that carry affirmation of haute cuisine may be justifiable). The ones by Matthias Dahlgren may be just as welcome here as the new tapas and casual but international foodie places opening all over town that are anything but traditional Swedish.
- Don’t ignore the Lydmar boutique hotel next door (cool breakfast), between the Grand Hotel and the National Museum.
- On the other side of my made up triangle intended to depict Stockholm most worthy of note, you will enjoy the Berzelius Park squeezed between the National Drama Theater and the historic Berns hotel (spectacular Asian restaurant bar inside, uncharacteristic for small venue, opulent by local standards, impressive chandeliers and mezzanine, go for a drink, plus a rooftop bar and at least one more, always good).
- This walkable area that’s not be ignored extends all the way up to Nymngatan that joins Norrmalm (business district, very plain, dreadful, commercial, crowded, underground city with thousands of shops, some cool metro stations, otherwise avoid) and Ostermalm.
Birger Jarlsgatan, an architecturally distinguished avenue separating Norrmalm and Ostermalm, and home to Stockholm’s stores by exclusive brands, runs diagonally from the Nybroplan, next to Berzelli Park and Strandvagen.
- Its axis is traced by uniform facades featuring Stockholm’s monumental architecture at its best (other than along Strandvagen), attesting to its big city ambitions during the prosperous era during 2nd half of the 19th century and around the turn of the 20th The section b/t the embankment and Stureplan sq at Sturegatan especially impressive.
- The major streets around this intersection, including Birger Jarlsgatani tself, are lined with its busy, compact bars teaming with people of less advanced age late into the night, at least from Thu through Sat.
For people watching of exceptional quality and surprisingly jaw-dropping beauty, even for Sweden, check out Riche, an old fashioned bar and restaurant a block up Birger Jarlsgatan, for a drink: everyone will be stunningly beautiful there, which more than makes up for a relatively pitiful state of the kitchen’s cooking. This is the type of place where even the most visual of admirers of things beautiful would not dare reach for his pocket camera or even phone, constraining himself instead to taking precise mental images, in continuous mode. An experience I can attest to.
Random stuff.
- Kungsgatan is interesting with its overpass and busy shopping and eatery scene.
- NK, Ahlens worth a look if you are into department stores, the former is historic, from early 1900’s.
- Generally look for rooftops, water views. Stay away from serious sit down restaurants – in terms of food, even more than in outlook, Stockholm is such anti-Copenhagen, but then again few places would compare to the place where New Nordic cuisine was born – opt instead for bar food and casual foodie establishments. And if you are into Michelin star scene, Mathias Dahlgren in the Grand Hotel is among world’s best 50 restaurants.
- A biker will truly enjoy Stockholm’s unique topology and manageable size, in fact this may be the best way to explore it.
- And if you have time, or if somehow this outdoorsy capital city no longer seems outdoorsy enough, make sure you visit the royal domain of the Drottningholm Palace with its museums and gardens.
- For an even more remote experience, and if you run out of city islands – after all, there are only 14 in the city proper – try the famous Archipelago of 24,000 islands just East of the city, in the Baltic Sea: many uninhabited but offering an escape, if not mass exodus, for the locals in summer months. But that may require more than one weekend.
