A Day in Stockholm

I spent a marvelous day in Stockholm in June 2024.  I stayed two nights while on my way to Finland to go on the epic Svalbard expedition, but more on that in a future post. To me, getting there is half the fun, and these side trips are a major part of the fun.

I have been taking a brief respite from posting. Illness and overwhelm, you know the story. But with a new summer of travel ahead, I must get back on the horse.

This post is mostly a photo dump of my brief stay in Stockholm. I rate my visits in relation of would I go back or not.  I do hope to go back and experience more of what this city has to offer. As usual, the computer has interesting ideas on how to change up my layout. Click any photo to see a larger version and have a slide show and skip what little verbiage I have added. 

I stayed in a Scandia Hotel. Think Marriott's or the Hilton in Swedish. 

A pretty standard high rise commercial hotel. And some times that is just what one needs. 

The breakfast buffet was marvelous. I was bemoaning the fact that I had to leave before the buffet opened in the morning, so they had a box prepared for me that I fetched from the desk first thing.

As I had only one day, I decided to spend it in the Gamla. The old town.

As one might expect, there was the standard tourist shopping experience. And the historic old buildings. But there were delightful back streets and alleys with limited auto traffic. Once out of the madness, the shops were unique, historic, artistic, and welcoming. 

This photo is outside the Royal Palace. There were lots of uniforms out and about for something that was going to happen later in the day. I didn't have the patience to wait for it.

I love little alleys.

Marjorie these are especially for you.

 

 

The most narrow street in the Gamla.

Fountains

This fountain dates from 1778 in Stortorget, the main square. It was moved in 1857 when the spring went dry. It was restored to the square in 1973.

We forget how important these fountains were in the lives of especially women and house hold staff.  This was the source of all water for cooking, bathing, cleaning, horses etc. And in a time where buildings were wood, and heat was fire, water had a very important place in their lives. 

The water was hand pumped with those odd ball things. It flowed out of the lions' mouths and into the large basins where it ran off in drain culverts. 

   

   

Store windows

   

Doors

These side by side door knobs, one polished one not. Hmm

Many people spend a lot of time looking at and photographing doors. I like the ones that show me a bit of how people live, then and now.

Small random squares, often have fountains so important for urban life.

  

   

Random Art

Carl Larsson

This is Evert Taube, a noted Swedish folk musician.

He  reminds me of Riggy.

 I nearly lost my mind in this second hand store. 

I had to rely on my mantra "You have a very small suit case and a 10 kilo limit."

This is not costume stuff, or fancy stuff....just second hand stuff.

      

This shop is one of the treasures I found.

Studio Barbara Bunke 

A paper artist, selling paper art supplies.

She was a bit stand offish, but when I folded her some origami, we found common ground. I bought the small hand made book for my daughter.  I wish I had room to bring home her book

A visit to her shop is reason enough to go to the Gamla.

So just down the road from the paper shop was a small square.  A map shop about to retire.

A photo shoot.

And the wig store

And the most awesome wig shop.

She was getting stuff ready for Carnival.

  

         

The following square was so random that it doesn't even show a name on Google Maps

 

 

At this point I am getting hungry, and a bit foot weary.
Across from the delightful Stockholms Gästabud were buildings with heraldry. 

 

   

 

At this point my feet are done.

Time for one of my mundane pleasures, a harbor tour.

I find that the view from the water is a view into the past, when water travel was important.

To get back to to the hotel, I take a commuter ferry.  No cars, only people.  It is a weekend and the wrong time for workers going home, so I got a small glimpse at the modern side of Stockholm.

Not a bad commute.

What I wasn't expecting was that Google had not updated the walk paths, giving me an extra mile of walking in streets that were getting darkish. (This being the summer in Sweden it never gets too dark.)

So with no open businesses, and an increasing need I got to go on a new adventure.  

Fortunately I found a super market. And a new difficulty.

How to get into that door. 

This being a business that serves locals, not every one had English.  But one young man finally realized my predicament, and pressed some buttons. And I did get access to the WC.

My day ended up with a beer at the hotel and that high up view of the harbor that opens this post. 

 

The adventure will continue in the next post about Turku.