Places/Sweden

Stockholm

Stockholm

A capital scattered across islands, expensive, and serious about winter as well as the postcard summer.

Stockholm is water and granite and a public realm that works. Gamla Stan is genuinely old and genuinely crowded in the middle of the day. The city that makes people stay is the island to the south, and the museums on Djurgården.

Sweden is in the Union and not in the euro. Cards are the normal way to pay. Winter is dark and perfectly visitable if you came for rooms and light indoors.

See

• Gamla Stan, early

  The palace quarter and the narrow streets before the cruise passengers, if a ship is in. Then leave.

• Södermalm

  A viewpoint, a walk down toward the water, dinner. This is the city you can imagine using twice.

• One museum

  The Vasa is a ship and a single story told well. Skansen is a park of houses and a different appetite. Do not do both half-heartedly.

• A ferry as transport

  The local boats are how the city fits together. Use one to go somewhere, not as a tour with a microphone.