Travel to Stockholm
We left San Francisco on August 13, 2023, and United Airlines strikes again. Thus, we departed 1 hour 50 minutes late for Zurich, making our 2 hour 20 minute connection to Stockholm questionable. They were able to make up some time in the air.
By a miracle, we made our connecting flight on Swiss to Stockholm on August 14. Unfortunately, one of our suitcases did not make the connection. After making a luggage report, we took a taxi to our hotel on Skeppsholmen Island, an oasis of calm in bustling Stockholm.
It was late when we checked in, so we had dinner in the hotel garden and went to bed.
Here is the flight routing, a distance of 6,765 miles.
15 August 2023
We took the Djurgården ferry from our island to the old town of Gamla Stan, Stockholm’s historic and geographic heart, with its cobbled streets, old churches and the royal palace. Transit is easy to use in Stockholm, you just tap a mobile payment method (credit card or phone), and that’s it. Since it was before 10 a.m. opening time for most of the sites, we wandered a bit and went to Riddarholmen Church, with its tall, impressive spire. It was built by Franciscan monks in the late 13th century, is one of the oldest buildings in Stockholm, and is the burial site of King Magnus Ladulas (1290).
View from the ferry heading to Gamla Stan, above
and Riddarholmskyrkan, below.
Next, we visited Sweden’s Royal Palace (Kungliga Slottet), which is short on residential rooms, but has many public–ceremonial rooms. It is the world’s largest royal palace which is still in use. The royal family has lived there since 1754. Older parts of the palace were destroyed in several fires. The palace boasts the Karl XI gallery, long and impressive with mirrors and held a dining table several football fields long. We also went down to the basement Treasury, with its old jewels and royal crowns.
One of the impressive rooms in Kungliga Slott.
Our next stop was the pink Storkyrkan, Stockholm’s oldest building and its cathedral. Since the outside was very plain, we almost skipped it. But we fount it is beautiful inside, with its brick columns and other architectural features. The simple exterior gave little clue of interior’s ornamentation.
Cathedral interior is shown above. The next photo is detail
of the beautiful altarpiece in the Cathedral.
The last site we visited before lunch was the Nobel Prize Museum, with its focus on intellectual and cultural aspects of invention.
Before leaving Gamla Stan, we acted like we were at home and stood in line for lunch at a very good ramen restaurant.
A typical Gamla Stan street, above, and a nice
building, a library, below.
We then took the same ferry back to our hotel, and after trying to locate our missing luggage, decided to visit the immense National Museum. This art museum has an impressive collection of art, sculpture, furnishings and other items, with particular emphasis on Nordic artists, but also with paintings by Rembrandt and other European master artists. There was a nice gallery devoted to twentieth century Swedish design which we enjoyed. We were surprised at how great this museum is.
We then walked back to our hotel through a sculpture exhibit attached to the Modern Art Museum (Moderna Museet). We decided at this point to go back to the airport (at least 45 minutes each way) to retrieve our suitcase out of storage since the promised delivery seems to have been illusory. We were lucky to be successful, phew. We got back to Stockholm just in time to make our dinner reservation at a very fine Thai restaurant.
Here’s another nice view from a ferry ride.
Tomorrow, we will head to some more of Stockholm’s top museums.
