Steves - Rick Steves snapshot Stockholm

SNAPSHOT

This Snapshot guide, excerpted from my guidebook Rick Steves Scandinavia, introduces you to Stockholm, the bustling capital of Sweden. With its modern buildings and dedication to green living, Stockholm has the feel of a gleaming metropolis, but it offers a satisfying blend of Old World charm and 21st-century tech. Start at its core with a stroll through the Old Town, Gamla Stan. Then visit the Vasa Museum with its 17th-century warship, the Nordic Museum covering five centuries of Swedish lifestyles, and Europes originaland unsurpassedopen-air folk museum, Skansen. Indulge yourself in this citys aristocratic delights, including the Changing of the Guard at the Royal Palace and the elaborate smrgsbord at the Grand Hotel. For a side-trip, visit Drottningholm Palace, the royal familys opulent summer getaway, or Uppsala, a classic university town with a soaring cathedral. Then catch a boat and unwind among Swedens rocky garden of more than 30,000 islandsStockholms Archipelago. Here in Stockholms playground, you can count the pretty red cottages, go for a lazy stroll or bike ride, or relax on a sandy beach.

To help you have the best trip possible, Ive included the following topics in this book:

Planning Your Time, with advice on how to make the most of your limited time

Orientation, including tourist information (abbreviated as TI), tips on public transportation, local tour options, and helpful hints

Sights with ratings:

Dont miss

Try hard to see

Worthwhile if you can make it

No ratingWorth knowing about

Sleeping and Eating, with good-value recommendations in every price range

Connections, with tips on trains, buses, boats, and driving

Practicalities, near the end of this book, has information on money, phoning, hotel reservations, transportation, and more.

To travel smartly, read this little book in its entirety before you go. Its my hope that this guide will make your trip more meaningful and rewarding. Traveling like a temporary local, youll get the absolute most out of every mile, minute, and dollar.

Ha en bra resa! Happy travels!

Sverige

Scandinavias heartland, Sweden is far bigger than Denmark and far flatter than Norway. This family-friendly land is home to Ikea, Volvo, WikiLeaks, ABBA, and long summer vacations at red-painted, white-trimmed summer cottages. Its capital, Stockholm, is Scandinavias grandest city.

Once the capital of blond, Sweden is now home to a growing immigrant population. Sweden is committed to its peoples safety and security, and proud of its success in creating a society with one of the lowest poverty rates in the world. Yet Sweden has thrown in its lot with the European Union, and locals debate whether to open their economy even further.

Swedes are often stereotyped as sex-crazed, which could not be further from the truth. Several steamy films and film stars from the 1950s and 1960s stuck Sweden with the sexpot stereotype, which still reverberates among male tourists. Italians continue to travel up to Sweden looking for those bra-less, loose, and lascivious blondes...but the real story is that Sweden simply relaxed film censorship earlier than other European countries. The Swedish newspaper ad at right shows typical stereotypes, and asks, Do you see the world as the world sees you? Like other Scandinavians, Swedes are frank and open about sexuality. Sex education in schools is routine, living together before marriage is the norm (and has been common for centuries), and teenagers have easy access to condoms. But Swedes, who are the most unmarried people in the world, choose their partners carefully.

Before the year 2000, Sweden was a Lutheran state, with the Church of Sweden as its official religion. Until 1996, Swedes automatically became members of the Lutheran Church at birth if one parent was Lutheran. Now you need to choose to join the church, and although the culture is nominally Lutheran, few people attend services regularly. While church is handy for Christmas, Easter, marriages, and burials, most Swedes are more likely to find religion in nature, hiking in the vast forests or fishing in one of the thousands of lakes or rivers.

Sweden is almost 80 percent wilderness, and modern legislation incorporates an ancient common law called allemans rtt, which guarantees people the right to move freely through Swedens natural scenery without asking landowners for permission, as long as they behave responsibly. In summer, Swedes take advantage of the long days and warm evenings for festivals such as Midsummer (in late June) and for crayfish parties in August. Many Swedes have a summer cottageor know someone who has onewhere they spend countless hours swimming, soaking up the sun, and devouring boxes of juicy strawberries.

While Denmark and Norway look westward to Britain and the Atlantic, Sweden has always faced east, across the Baltic Sea. As Vikings, Norwegians went west to Iceland, Greenland, and America; Danes headed south to England, France, and the Mediterranean; and Swedes went east into Russia. (The word Russia has Viking roots.) In the early Middle Ages, Swedes founded the Russian cities of Nizhny Novgorod and Kiev, and even served as royal guards in Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul). During the later Middle Ages, German settlers and traders strongly influenced Swedens culture and language. By the 17th century, Sweden was a major European power, with one of the largest naval fleets in Europe and an empire extending around the Baltic, including Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and parts of Poland, Russia, and Germany. But by the early 19th century, Swedens war-weary empire had shrunk. The countrys current borders date from 1809.