Coming to Stockholm for a work meeting I had no idea I would be landing in the midst of the event of a lifetime for a Swede - a royal wedding. Love 2010 is the celebration, open to everyone, of the marriage of the crown princess of Sweden. When the King eventually dies or steps down it will be his eldest daughter who will be crowned Queen of Sweden. It is pretty interesting because, though there is a prince, the rules were changed to have the line of succession go through the oldest child, regardless of sex. Poor Prince was born being the heir to the thrown and then it got swiped away and given to big sis.
Anyway, the city is full of people and police. They are having concerts, shows, events, and strange people up on stilts to entertain the visitors.
Read more about it in the link above.
Stockholm itself is a fantastically beautiful city on the water. The city has gorgeous gracious architecture, a quaint old town called Gamla Stan, and hip bars and restaurants. It's clean and fun and beautiful. Quite a nice recipe for a good travel location. You can take a boat ride out into the archipelego - a series of cute little islands where they have upscale summer cottages and the well heeled Swedes can spend their summer days fishing and shopping for the latest in Swedish design or art.
Summer is a little bizarre - it is light almost all the time now (end of June). We finish dinner at 10:30pm and it's like dusk. If you wake up at 4am, you can see the light trying to creep through your hotel curtains. Friends here tell me trying to get their kids to sleep is nearly impossible since putting them to bed at 8pm is like trying to put them to sleep at 3 in the afternoon.
Winter by contrast is the opposite. I first came to Stockholm in January many years ago. The sun rises around 10am and starts to set around 2-3pm. No wonder Swedes are known for their drinking!
It's a really fascinating place and for people who aren't into the exotic or bizarre location, Stockholm is perfect. Literally everyone speaks English, menus in English are easy to find, people are friendly, food is good, etc. They have one of the coolest museums I've ever seen called the Wasa Museum which is a building built around an enormous wooden ship from the 17th century. It sank in the archipelego on its maiden voyage due to improper ballasting. They pulled it up in the 1970s or so and it's in gorgeous condition. You can walk in platforms up and around the ship and there are great little displays and explanations everywhere to convey what the ship and sailing were like in its heyday. Stockholm also has a cool site called Skansen which is a huge park filled with traditional and historical buildings from all parts of Sweden's history that were brought here to kind of recreate a Swedish village.
I've probably been here 5 times and every time I thoroughly enjoy Stockholm. I look forward to the next trip!
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