Norway and Sweden (9) - Stockholm Day 1

Stockholm is a very beautiful city. It consists of 14 islands. We visited several of them:

• Kungsholmen, west of Stockholm Central Station, where the famous Stockholm City Hall is located.
• Stadsholmen, virtually synonymous with Gamla stan (Old Town).
• Riddarholmen, just west of Stadsholmen, where Riddarholmen Church is located.
• Skeppsholmen, east of Gamla stan, where the Museum of Modern Art is located.
• Djurgården, east of Skeppsholmen, where the famous Vasa Museum, the amusement park Gröna Lund, and the open air museum Skansen are located.
• Södermalm, south of Gamla stan, where The Swedish Museum of Photography is located.

We bought the 72 hours Stockholm Card (795 SEK) which allows free public transport as well as free admission to 80 museums and sights in Stockholm. It is really worth it.

1. Walking toward Gamla stan.


2. A pretty building on Riddarholmen.


3. Walking toward Riddarholmen Church.


4. Riddarholmen Church.


5. Taking a few pictures of Stockholm City Hall while waiting for Riddarholmen Church to open.


6. People assembling bikes nearby.


7. Tour buses started to arrive at Riddarholmen Church.


8. Inside Riddarholmen Church where the royal families were buried.


9. Another church we stopped by on Gamla stan.


10. While tourists wandering around inside the church, a lady came to the center of it and started singing "Amazing Grace". She had a beautiful voice and perfect pitch,  and she sang with emotion, I was really touched. She left the center area as soon as she finished singing. Later we saw her sitting with a group of people on the side,  getting ready for the Mass.


11. Nobel Museum and Stortorget (The Big Square).


12. Ever since Nobel Museum opened in 2001, each Nobel laureate is asked to give the museum something to showcase their work. 2012 Nobel Prize Literature winner Mo Yan gave the museum a set of his books.


13. Just off Stortorget, 2 boys and 2 girls dressing in matching clothes were doing some ceremonial dance.


When we were at Nobel Museum, the tour guide told us that Stockholm Concert Hall was having a Nobel Prize exhibition and today was the last day so we hurried over by T-bana to see it.

14. Stockholm Concert Hall where Nobel Prize Ceremony is held on December 10 every year, the day Alfred Nobel died.


15. Inside Stockholm Concert Hall. Workers were setting up for Polar Music Prize. You have to take a guided tour (60 SEK) to see this. The guided tour was covered by the Stockholm Card. It was really short, 30 minutes total, including 5 minutes to take pictures here.


After Stockholm Concert Hall, we got back to Gamla stan and visited a couple of more museums.

16. A one-hour Royal Canal Tour was also included in the Stockholm Card. We got on the 6:30pm one. It was packed. There were 4 seats on each side. We had to sit in the middle seats. The last boat was at 7:30pm, and there were only 10 people!


(To be continued)