Carolina and I had time to kill in Stockholm for a day as we waited for her daughter to arrive from Italy. After recovering from our red eye flight from Greece with a car garage nap, we wandered the streets and did a little self-guided landmark and art museum sight-seeing.
We were on our own and pretty aimless until we met up with an old friend of mine. Giles took us around to a few of the more interesting spots including a sunken warship museum with a funny backstory.
This top 10 must-see’s include some typical stops but also some unexpected ones, like where to find Stockholm’s legendary stone face crying over—you’d never guess it—a sculpted vulva! Keep reading to find out more about our 24 hours in Stockholm!
1. Walk the streets of Old Town “Gamla Stan”
The first place Carolina and I walked to in Stockholm was its Old Town or Gamla Stan area. This part of Stockholm dates back to 1252. With its cobble stone streets and architectural features, Gamla Stan is considered the best-preserved medieval city centers in Europe.
Walking down Västerlånggatan, one of its main streets, we saw lots of shops with quinessential Swedish souvenirs and gifts. These included bags with moose on them, stuffed animals after the Swedish children’s television show Moomin, and, of course, everything Pippy Long Stocking!
One sourvenir especially stood out to me.
The Reoean hand painted wooden Dalahäst or dala horse is a traditional Swedish souvenir originally created for children. The red reflects the same traditional paint color Swedish people use to paint their houses.
I recognized this right away as an item that my mom kept in a display case in our living room growing up. Perhaps it was a gift from a family member from Sweden?
I mostly followed Carolina’s lead as we walked these streets. However, the recommended starting place for a self-guided tour of Old Town is from Stortorget, the oldest square in Stockholm. You can then take Köpmangatan, the city’s oldest street and try to find Mårten Trotzigs alley.
This alley is only 90 centimeters wide! Carolina and I planned to find it but ran out of time on this visit. But here’s a shot of it from Google Maps:
Google Maps screenshot of Mårten Trotzigs alley
While in this area, be sure to also check out the Nobel Prize Museum, the Museum Tre Kronor, and the Royal Palace (later in this post).
2. Try Swedish Food
While walking around Gamla Stan, you are sure to walk by many restaurants advertising local and infamous Swedish cuisine like deer meatballs, moose fillet, herring, smoked salmon, lingonberries, wild boar, and reindeer.
If you’ve never experienced a Swedish coffee break or fika, make sure that you do while in Stockholm. Usually this involves coffee, a snack, and some social time. The snack can be anything from a cookie to an open sandwich (smörgås).
The most typical snack is cinnamon buns (kanelbullar) or even a slice of apple cake (äppelkaka).
You may want to try this at Stockholm’s oldest surviving cafe since the 1920s called Vete-katten not too far from the Gamla Stan area.
While in town, you may want to get right into the mood of the history and visit a Viking themed restaurant. We spotted one on our walk through Gamla Stan that looked like something out of a Ren Fair in the states.
Alternatively, if you’re a fan of fast food, skip the McDonald’s in Sweden and give their own country’s fast food a try at Max.
I am not a fast food person at all but Carolina insisted I have some Max Hamburgers. They had a great chicken sandwich option with fries and chili cheese bites. I have to say, this did not taste like fast food in the U.S.! And apparently, Max is pretty sustainable, boasting their “climate positive” status.
3. Visit The Vasa Museum
I’m not a big museum person but Carolina and I unexpectedly met up with an old friend of mine, Giles, who insisted we visit Vasa Museum. He said it is the one paid-entry museum in Stockholm that is worth the fee (SEK 150)—and he’d even pay it for us. With a proposal like that, we couldn’t say no and I’m so glad we didn’t!
Vasa Museum is on the island of Djurgårde. Inside is the preserved remains of a sunken Swedish warship. This isn’t just any tale of a sunken warship. Vasa never actually saw war but it did sink… immediately.
Vasa was built according to the wishes of the King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus, for a war he started with Poland-Lithuania. He wanted the ship to be richly adorned with all sorts of carvings and sculptures and equipped with 64 bronze cannons.
She set sail on 1628 but only made it 1300 meters and a few minutes before a wind easily tipped her. The king was eager to see her set sail and the ship builders were too afraid to postpone despite knowing its structural instability. This ultimately led to its landing at the bottom of Stockholm harbor.
This incredibly humorous story is why Vasa is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Sweden since it was salvaged (mostly intact) in 1961. You can visit Vasa between 10am and 5pm any day of the week. Just don’t call her fat—it hurts her feelings, ok?
4. See The Royal Palace & Other Famous Buildings
Stockholm is full of famous capitol buildings and other landmarks. It’s almost impossible to walk around and not spot some of them. With very little effort, Carolina and I saw many—and the first we stumbled upon was the Royal Palace.
Near Gamla Stan, the Royal Palace is a surprisingly dull building. You might think it would be a big, beautifully adorned structure with towers and Viking-like architectural features. At least, that’s what I imagined. Nevertheless, the palace is just a big boxy building with a fancy guard out front.
You can see the changing of the guard at 12:15pm on weekdays and at 1:15pm on Sundays.
Despite its dull outer appearance, Stockholm’s Baroque-style Royal Palace has 600 rooms set over 11 floors making it one of the largest palaces in Europe.
The King of Sweden does in fact live at the Royal Palace with events and royal operations taking place there. There’s also three museums attached to the palace: The treasury, the Tre Kronor Museum, and the Gustav III Museum of Antiquities.
Constructed between 1897 and 1905, the Parliament House is another important building in Stockholm. This is where the 349-member legislature, or Riksdag, sits and conducts its supreme decision-making for the country of Sweden.
The Parliament House is also has the historic Riksdag Library which is one of the few parliamentary libraries in the world that are open to the public.
There are many identifiable churches with their sharp steeples around Stockholm. One that we kept seeing is Riddarholmen Church.
Riddarholmen is the burial church of the Swedish monarchs. It is Stockholm’s only remaining medieval monastery church. Nearly all Swedish monarchs—from Gustavus Adolphus (1632) to Gustaf V (1950)—are entombed there.
5. Enjoy Kungsträdgården
Keep walking past the Royal Palace and eventually you will come upon Kungsträdgården. There’s always something going on in this park. We admired some people watching and statue gawking here as we made our way to the Max on the corner.
In April, you can see cherry blossoms. There is a skating rink here in the winter. Alternatively, you may be lucky anough to catch a game of street chess!
6. Check Out Another Museum
While Vasa certainly deserved its own separate mention, it’s important to note that there are over 15 museums in Stockholm that have free admission. I mention two of them here, one that we walked by and one that we visited.
We walked by Sweden’s premier museum of art and design, Nationalmuseum, has over 16,000 paintings and sculptures from 1500-1900. It’s open from 11am from Tuesday to Friday and 10am on weekends.
This one would have been a lot of ground to cover on our short stay, so we opted for a different art museum.
Over on the island of Skeppsholmen is Moderna Museet, one of the leading museums in Europe for modern and contemporary art.
Moderna Museet has art and photography from 1840 to now. When we visited, there was a contemporary art installment called Who Are You Really (Vem är du egentligen?) by Jeppe Hein, a Danish Berlin-based artist.
This indoor and outdoor exhibit included various interactive components. For example, visitors could draw their own faces onto the wall and interact with a moving fountain. These experiences are meant to get you closer to who you are and to develop empathy for others, according to the artist.
Open 10am every day except Monday.
7. Take A Canal Trip Or Ride A Ferry
Much of Stockholm’s charm is in the waterways that encircle the many islands of this city. Seeing any part of the city from the water is therefore almost a necessity to get an authentic feel for it.
There are many sightseeing tours and canal ride trips that can get you some great exposure to what the city has to offer. Some recommend a canal ride that will take you east on the Djurgårdsbrunnskanalen, a canal on the side of Djurgården. This canal has beautiful, lush views of palaces and gardens.
Or you can hop a ferry to get from one area to the other in shorter time. This will still give you a whole new perspective to appreciate.
Moving around the city with Giles expedited a lot of our travel because he lives there. So he was insistent on using various modes of public transportation. He paid our tickets to board a ferry to easily get to the Vasa Museum, for instance.
This commuter ferry called the Djurgårdsfärjan takes people between the central quay at Slussen and Djurgården island, via Skeppsholmen island. The ride was only 10 minutes but even if it was just to get from point A to B, it was a beautiful, low-cost journey!
8. See A Sculpted Vulva?
The fun with Giles continued with a unique stop to view something a bit…unexpected! Yes, there is a sculpted vulva in the side of a building in Old Town.
Right above the door of Skeppsbron 44, there is a stone face with a very interesting expression of anger? disgust? sadness?
Below the face is a carefully sculpted vulva that nobody really knows exactly the reason for it being there. Legend has it that a 20th century man named Carl Smitt owned the building and had it sculpted. Supposedly, he discovered his wife was cheating on him. Out of revenge, he wanted the world to see her betrayal with the sculpting of her genitals and his tormented face about it. Furthermore, he had it sculpted such that the rain would fall from his face like tears “showering the labia he loved and lost!”
What do you think of Carl’s story and this legend behind the sculpted vulva?
9. Gröna Lund
On our ferry boat ride, Carolina, Giles, and I spotted Sweden’s oldest amusement park. Gröna Lund first opened in 1883 and includes many modern rides and attractions.
The state-of-art “Insane” is one roller coaster at Gröna Lund that keeps you upside down for the majority of the ride. The “Eclipse” is another popular swing ride that goes over 120 meters high.
While we didn’t have the budget or time to spend there, you may be interested to visit during your stay. So, if you go, try a weekday to avoid the weekend crowds. And check the concert schedule to avoid crowds attending the concerns in the park all summer. Big names have performed there such as Paul McCartney, Bob Marley and ABBA, to name a few. I wouldn’t want to be caught on one of those days!
A ticket including entrance fee and unlimited rides are 299 SEK to 449 SEK depending on the weekday and time of year.
10. Experience Stockholm Nightlife
Finally, Stockholm is a European city known for its nightlife. There are many bars and clubs to drink and dance and Swedes love to do both (especially the drinking part).
You can grab a quiet drink in a local bar, a venue with live music, or at the city’s largest club, Sturecompagniet.
After dinner, Giles, Carolina, and I opted for a lively, LGBTQ+ friendly local bar on the water at Malarpaviljongen on Kungsholmen Island.
In Conclusion
While we didn’t fully experience every point on this list, Carolina and I did cover a lot of ground and at least spotted quite a few of the various landmarks on our full day stroll through the city. We arrived early in the morning and left early the next morning.
So this was a whirlwind 24-hour tour complete with a friend meetup, food, architecture, modern art, and plenty of city-exploration. I feel like I just scratched the surface of Stockholm, however. I definitely need to go back!
