I went to Sweden to attend a conference and visit a friend.
The trip ran from Thursday March 19, 2026 to Tuesday March 31, 2026.
This page includes pictures from the train ride from Norrköping to
Stockholm and exploring Stockholm. That includes the narrow, twisty
streets of the Old Town (Gamla Stan), a Fika break (and watching a protest),
waterfront areas including the King's Garden (Kungsträdgården),
plus tapas and hotel hijinx.
I took the train from Norrköping to Stockholm on Friday March 27, 2026, which takes about an hour and a half. The train's Internet was out, so I watched stuff whiz by and took a few pictures. It was mostly rural areas, farms, small houses by the inlets and bays, and eventually more population as we approached Stockholm.
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A (Volvo?) plant in the middle of somewhere (Nyköping?). There's a Good Morning...(more)
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A train station we didn't stop at which I guess is NOT Nyköping or Norrköping. ...(more)
Gamla Stan is the old town in Stockholm, dating back to the 13th century. It has narrow (some very narrow), curving streets, with cobblestones, and some buildings on around 500 years old (others merely a few hundred). It's nickname is “The Town Between Bridges” since generally everything is an island in Stockholm, connected by bridges. Faith and I wandered around the area, explored some of the shops, passed by churches, the royal palace (just after the changing of the guard, where they were taking down the stands and chains to keep the tourists away from where the old and new guards were swapping, which happens every two hours), and various other places. We were planning to get a tour of Parliament, but missed the part on the sign that said we had to show up 15 minutes prior to the time listed, which was the last tour of the day. Trying to be on time (though for the wrong deadline), we went to a grocery store and grabbed a quick lunch from there. Oops. It was a cloudy, cool day, Saturday March 28, 2026.
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Panoramic picture of Stortorget (The Grand Square), the oldest square in...(more)
Since we had skimped on lunch (I had a pre-made supermarket salad,
which was fine), we decided to stop at the Kulturhuset Stadsteatern
(Culture center and theater), by the icicle fountain thingy [link]
a couple blocks from my hotel on the way back. The center has a
(performance) theater, movie theaters, a library, restaurants, and
more. We went to the Teaterbaren to get something warm to drink
and some snacks and hang out for a bit and chat more. That is,
essentially, the meaning of the Swedish slang term "Fika".
We were sitting by a window, overlooking the
Sergels torg
(Sergel's Square") plaza below with a roundabout around a fountain
with a 37-meter (121 foot) tall glass obelisk called Kristall – vertikal
accent i glas och stål ("Crystal – vertical accent in glass and steel").
Faith noticed that there was a cluster of police officers standing around
the plaza. And then I noticed some blue flashing police lights reflected
off a building from a street just beyond our view. And other police were
setting up some temporary barricades on the roundabout. More police were
arriving and actively blocking some of the streets connecting to the circle.
And then from the street that was hidden by the building, heading north
(Sveavägen), we saw a group of protesters marching with flags and signs
and banners.
It seemed a little odd. There were a lot of Iranian flags. But also
some US and Israeli flags, as well as Swedish flags. Note that this
was March 28, 2026, the one month anniversary of the start of the
US/Israel-Iran war on February 28, 2026 (which is still ongoing as I
write this on April 27, 2026). It seemed odd to see flags from both
sides. In theory, the Swedes were sort-of, kind of, officially
(but not really) neutral in WWII, but it didn't really make sense
what or who they were protesting against or supporting.
We then saw a banner that read: “No Negotiation with
Blood Thirsty, Terrorist Regime of Iran.” As I write this
I noticed that people behind the lead truck were carrying a banner
that had a photo of Trump, Netanyahu, and a third person I can't tell.
I guess it was a protest against the current regime and supporting
for the bombing.
They took a 270° counterclockwise route around the circle (entering from
the north and exiting in the east). It wasn't a large crowd—filling
perhaps half the arc on the circle. We couldn't hear through the glass
how loud it was or if there were unified chants. And after a few minutes
they had moved on. I didn't check if there was coverage of it in any
local news. Just a moment that required some context to describe.
Given how many small islands make up Stockholm, a large part of Stockholm would qualify as “waterfront” ares, so that doesn't mean a lot. But it's a unifying factor for all the pictures, except perhaps the first three which are statues in the front of the Royal Dramatic Theatre, which is literally across the street from the water, the end of Nybrovikan (New Bridge Bay). This was on Sunday March 29, 2026.
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Taken from a dock on Nybrovikan (New Bridge Bay). From left to right, the first...(more)
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Looking across to boats tied up at Skeppsholmen island. The yellow buildings...(more)
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The Grand Hôtel, founded in 1872 is considered the best hotel in Stockholm and...(more)
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A panoramic shot of buildings around the Norrström (North Stream). From left...(more)
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Stockholm City Hall. Part 5 has photos from a tour I took a day or so later.
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This was taken next to City Hall by the water (Riddarfjärden, Knights Bay). ...(more)
A few pictures of mini-tapas dinner on March 28, 2026. It was
post-afternoon-Fika, so we didn't want a lot. The food was quite good.
The sign on the wall said "AW ZONE". Turns out AW stands for After Work,
which are English words but kind of mean sort of happy hour with a
Friday Night feel. It was 8:30pm on a Saturday night. I asked
Faith to do two different "aw" expressions.
And then, a couple pictures at the end, March 30, 2026, the day
before I left. The angle was a little too high in the
first one, and there was no evidence of wind, nor a drink sliding off
the table, nor a speaker. We worked with what we had. I wanted to
get a picture of the two of us for the last picture and use the self-timer
on my camera. I had no tripod and had to try a few times to have things
positioned correctly. I think this was the last of 4 attempts. Faith
was patient.
