Henrik's Recommended Walking Tour Of Stockholm (Sweden)

From: Henrik
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 12:29 AM
To: Wanderer
Subject: Re: Travel advice...

Hey there,

Let's definitely talk before you leave for Europe! A couple of ideas though for your stay in Stockholm...

You want to take a walk through the "Gamla Stan" = "Old city" which is the middle of the city. Walk down the "Västerlånggatan" street where you'll find a ton of touristy shops, but also some nice cafes. Be sure to wander off in some of the alleyways that start from the "Västerlånggatan" - supposedly one of these alleys is recognized as the worlds narrowest street. If you're close to the royal castle around 12 noon it may be worthwhile seeing the changing of the guards (although this will be a Thursday, so it won't be the full deal that you'd see on a Saturday or Sunday.

From "Slussen" (south end of "Gamla Stan") you can take a ferry boat out to the "Djurgården" peninsula (schedule at http://www.waxholmsbolaget.se, click on UK flag at top right for English) . Out there you'll find "Skansen" which is a park that has full size buildings collected from all over Sweden from different time periods, which I think the archaeologist in you might find interesting. "Skansen" is also a Zoo,

but that part is less interesting. You're also very close to the "Vasa", a battle ship that sunk on it's maiden voyage in the 1600's. It was recovered in the 1960's and is in an amazingly good condition.

If you then proceed across the "Djurgårdsbron" bridge to the "Strandvägen" boardwalk you have an easy 20-25 minute walk till you get to the downtown shopping areas of Stockholm. It's worth taking a look at "NK", a major department store, that has been around for over 100 years.

I guess you'll spend Thu night in Stockholm - for a nice relaxed drink its nice to go down to the "Mariatorget" square in the "Södermalm" part of town. Here you'll find plenty of nice pubs and bars that have a fairly relaxed atmosphere. For a slightly more "posh" area of town you can go to the "Stureplan" square, just north of the central shopping district. This is more of the banker & consultant type setting, but there are some nice bars around here too.

A good web site to visit is http://www.visit-stockholm.com/ which has lots of info, and some good maps (print one and bring along).

Hope this is helpful! It's too late to write a similar note on Paris right now, but I promise I will try to get to it tomorrow night!

Talk to you soon!
Henrik