Visit to Stockholm

15 - 19 August 2007

After spending some good old times in Brussels, think it's time to do a bit of travelling again. So the next destination is...Stockholm, Sweden!

Because Stockholm is a city of islands (in fact it is built on 14 islands), there is always some special attractions in each major piece of land, as such, you can spend a day or half just roaming around, and soon you'll realize the days have gone by fast! Beside the expensive transport cost, think Stockholm is a great city!


Waterfront skyline. Out of 5 days, I was lucky to get at least 2.5 days of sun...


Gamla Stan, the oldest part of Stockholm, containing cobble-stoned streets, narrow alleys, vaulted cellar restaurants and the royal palace. This is also known as the 'Altstad' (old city) that most European cities have.


Riksdagshuset, the National Parliment Building on the island of Helgeandsholmen, with an architecture influence by the German neo-baroque style. Across the arced gates, it leads into...

...the busiest street in town...Drottninggatan...where shoppers gather to find good deals. Another shopping street is the Hamngatan, always crowded with shoppers, shopping malls, street concerts...reminds me of Orchard Road ;)

Kungliga Dramatiska Teatern, very near to Hamngatan..maybe it's the summer holidays, lots of young kids and pretty blondes overspilled the streets!!!

Surprising, there is no red light district...knew that it's illegal to pay for sex...are there any countries that ban red light districts?

Kungliga Slottet, the Royal Palace, consists of the Hall of State, the Tre Kronor Museum, Gustav III's Museum of Antiquit, the Royal Armoury.

Another interesting thing about Stockholm is that, it has millions of boat rides, ferry trips to neighbouring islands. So first few days, we did a boat trip to Drottningholm to view its beautiful castle by the sea, and had picnic in its pretty gardens...

I wish to own a small little sailing boat next time, and going out to the sea and relax the sun & breeze :)


Don't miss the archipelago tour too, where there are daily ferries to little islands around Stockholm. I did one to Vaxholm, the capital of the archipelago. Vaxholm is a small little village with little cozy cafes by the coast, small little houses, little dirt paths that connect everywhere, and traditional handicrafts such as wool, leather, wood.

Herrings with tomato and baked mashed potato, from Bakfrikan, recommended by Lonely Planet :) yummy!!!


Located in the island of Djurgarden is the Nordiska Museet, in an enormous Renaissance-style castle, which houses temporary exhibitions and Swedish collections. Skansen, an open-air museum contains all the ancient traditional historic buildings and artefacts brought from all over Sweden and relocated here, very impressive! A pity, I did not have a chance to go in :(

As seen everywhere, the Dalecarlian Horse is inevidently part of the Swedish culture. In the olden winter days, woodcarvers made toys for their children, using simple tools. It was only natural that many of these toys were horses, because the horse was invaluable in those days - a trusty friend and worker who could pull great loads of timber from the forests during the winter months, and in the summer could be of just as much use on the farm.

Overall, this was a fruitful trip, had time to catch up with Jiewei, and we did most trips together, like me, she is also pretty new in a new town ;) I also got some home-made blueberry jam from her boyfriend, 100% pure & natural blueberry jam...probably so pure & natural that it stains my teeth blue!!!