Saturday we headed to the Stadshuset (city hall) first since it was a short walk from our apartment. It is also the venue of the Nobel Peace Prize banquet. We ended up just looking around the outside because there wasn’t an English tour any time soon. Plus we wanted make it to the Palace for the changing of the guard. The guards literally walk around the entire palace perimeter before going into the courtyard- but we didn’t know that. So we ended up walking around the entire thing to (almost running) to keep up with them. For next time we’ll know to just go straight to the courtyard!
Once the guards were changed out, we toured the Royal Palace. The Royal Palace is the official residence of the Swedish Monarchs, though the King and Queen live at Drottningholm Palace and only use the Royal Palace for official events. The current palace was completed in 1754, after the palace that was here previously (the Tre Kroner) burned down in 1697. The Palace is HUGE – 1430 rooms to be exact. It was really beautiful inside and we were disappointed they don’t let you take pictures, but you can find them on the internet. We toured the State Apartments, the Treasury, and the Tre Kroner Museum. The Tre Kroner Museum is in the basement of the palace, where you can see the foundation of the old castle and some artifacts from it. If you happen to read the Wikipedia page about the Tre Kroner and you read the paragraph about the sentences that were handed down to the fire marshal on duty that night and his two assistants (who all were slacking off from their duties)- you’ll see they had to “run the gauntlet”. I’ve heard the saying, but never knew it came from a form of punishment from back in the day! Running the gauntlet or gantlet is a form of physical punishment where a captive is to run between two rows – a gauntlet – of soldiers who repeatedly strike them.
By the time we finished up at the Palace we were starving so we walked over to Grillska Huset – a cafeteria run by the Stockholm Stadsmission, a charitable organization for the poor. It is in a great location (right on the old square) and has really affordable prices by Stockholm standards. Plus, here we got to try semla (or fastlagsbulle) is a traditional sweet roll that is only made during Lent. The dough itself is sweet and then the top is cut off and a sweet whipped cream, a little lemon curd, and powdered sugar on top. It was really delicious! After lunch we continued to walk around Gamla Stan (the old town) following Rick Steves’ guide (thanks to Bern and Andrew for letting us borrow it!). We had already walked around the Palace, seen the Obelisk, and Stortorget (the old town square) so we continued on to see: the Cathedral (Storkyrkan), the Nobel Museum, the Rune Stone on Prästgatan Lane, the German Church, and ended at the locks. The Cathedral is the oldest church in Stockholm – it was built in the 13th century. A rune stone is a memorial left to a deceased man; a tradition of the Vikings. This one says (in Nordic) “Torsten and Thorgun erected this tone in memory of their son”. I loved this old area with its narrow streets, big gas lamps, crooked houses and curvy lanes.
After checking out the locks, we kept heading across the bridge to Södermalm, another one of the islands that makes up Stockholm. We took the Katarina Lift (the passenger elevator which connects the slussen (lock area) with Södermalm (which is at a much higher elevation). Well, we didn’t actually take the Katarina Lift (since it is now closed due to construction concerns – the current one is from the 1930’s), we took the elevator in the building now attached to the old lift. Anyway, the view from up there of Gamla Stan (and the city in general) was pretty great!
Next we walked back towards our apartment, walking along the water front of Gamla Stan. When we got back to our part of town (Normalm) we stopped at a pub just over the bridge to have a drink and rest our feet. After we had ordered, we saw a couple come in that we had talked to a bit earlier at the observation tower. We ended up getting a table with them and having a few rounds of beers and eventually dinner. Shaun and Deborah are from Ireland and we had the best time talking with them. After dinner we all headed to the Ice Bar for a drink. First you are fitted with huge tunics (that went over our coats) and gloves; then you go in and enjoy a drink in an ice glass, on an ice bar, in an ice room with ice windows! It was an expensive but unique and memorable experience!
Sunday morning we walked around the Sergels Torg area (near our apartment) to do some window shopping and eat breakfast before catching our bus to the airport. They had lots of stores I’d never seen before so we had fun just looking around. After three days of non-stop walking around and staying out late we were glad to get back home and relax.
