Travel Tuesday: Stockholm old town

Guide to Stockholm old town

Now when I spend a lot of time in Stockholm I got the idea to take a close up look at different parts of the city. First out is Stockholm old town. This neighborhood is usually filled with tourists and I sometimes take a walk through this part of the city which I really like. It is one of my top five parts of the city. I love the old architecture and one day this spring when I had a lot of time I walked through the narrow alleys and explored it like I would have done if I was a tourist. The result, a tourist guide.

Being a tourist at home isn’t that bad. The weather was shifting from hail, to sun, snow and a few drops of rain. Typical April weather so to say. If you would like to have ideas what to do when you have guests over for a weekend I have a suggestion HERE. But now over to my “best-of”.

Restaurants and cafés

Save some space in your tummy before you enter the old town. Here you find plenty of places to eat. Alright, they are catering towards tourists serving typical Swedish dishes but isn’t that also great that from time to time have the typical Swedish meatballs or a cinnamon bun weather you are a tourist or not.

The range of outlets goes from formal restaurants, to fast-food chains and small places where you can have typical streetfood items like ice cream. If you decide to go for drinks I could strongly recommend Pharmarium which is an old pharmacy serving tasteful cocktails.

Churches

There are two churches in the old city. St Gertrud German Church and Storkyrkan. When I had my walking tour I went inside to Storkyrkan to have a look and it was fun to finally walk inside.

I have been to more churches than I can count in my life but never this one. It was nothing special inside but still, always fun to look at local attractions.

Narrow alleys and squares

Is it just me or do you also like to go out and explore narrow alleys hoping to find hidden gems? When I walked the cobblestones in the old town I was getting flashbacks to a time 100 years back in the history. Thinking about the people that lived there at that time, often close together and they were fighting the Spanish flu and pest. Rats were a common view on the streets and indoors. Internet and smartphones was definitely not on the agenda. So what am I actually complaining about now when the pandemic is hitting us? it is a good reminder to look back in the history to start thinking about how privileged most of us are now although it is lonesome and boring to have too much time and too little things to do.

Anyhow, among the old streets you will suddenly bump into squares. At the moment they are empty so great for taking photos at.

Svenska akademien

This building is the highest language authority in Sweden. The representatives in the academy are deciding who will get the Nobel price in literature. If you have followed the news in 2018 this academy got more or less blacklisted due to inappropriate behavior of academy members in accordance with #metoo hashtag. It was the first time I saw this building during my walking tour this Eastern. Although the black history in the past I like the building and like others in this area it is very beautiful. Don’t you think?

With a phone like below, doesn’t it feel like traveling in a time capsule when you see these outside of museums?

The royal castle

In my opinion the royal castle isn’t beautiful compared to many other castles in Sweden but still, it is there and you cannot miss it out while exploring the old city. I would recommend a visit to the chamber of treasures.

When I was walking around the I timed it very well with the change of guards so I got a glimpse of the ceremony. I was actually the one and only spectator this day. Every day 12:00 it takes place. Don’t miss out.