Sunday - The Town Hall, Gamla Stan and about the Nobel Prize..

The Town Hall (Stadshuset)

Sunday started with a visit to the Stockholm Town Hall or Stadshuset. It is an imposing red brick building with an inner court and an 100 m high tower. It was was built in the 1920's and it houses the Blue Hall where the Nobel Prize banquet takes place every year.

Unfortunately entry into the Town hall is restricted to certain specific times (only 2/3 times a day when guided tours happen). So we could not go inside and visit the Blue Hall. What we did was to go to the top of the tower of the City Hall. We got beautiful panoramic views of the islands of Norrmalm, Kungsholmen and Gamla Stan from the top of the tower.

Just across the City Hall in the island of Ridderholmen, stands Riddarholmskyrkan (Church of Riddarholmen) which is the burial church of the Swedish monarchy.

Gamla Stan (The Old Town)

Gamla Stan is the oldest part of Stockholm and consists of medieval alleyways, cobbled streets, and archaic architecture. It is quite an experience to walk through these narrow streets and enjoy the splendid architecture all around.

The most important building in Gamla Stan is the Royal palace. This palace has 608 rooms and is said to be the biggest palace in the world still used by a head of state - King Carl XVI Gustav. The palace is huge and houses the Royal Apartments, the Hall of State, the Apartments of the Orders of Chivalry, the Treasury, the Tre Kronor Palace Museum, the Armoury and the Museum of Antiquities of Gustav III. We did not have time to cover all these that day and made a quick visit to the Royal Apartments only.

But we were overwhelmed by the show put by the Palace Gaurds during the The Changing of the Guards ceremony. The whole ceremony lasted for well over an hour and the guards paraded in various maneouveres accompanied by splendid music.

Then we went to Stortorget, the main square in Gamla Stan. The square was the site of the Stockholm Blood Bath, where over 80 Swedish noblemen were massacred by the Danish King Christian II in 1520.

Nobel Musuem and Stockholm Concert House

Then we went to the Nobel Musuem. This houses memorabilia of all Nobel Laureates including Rabindranath Tagore. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed inside.

By this time we were short on time and only had a few hours before our flight. We made a rush to the Stockholm Concert Hall, where the Nobel Prize (except the Peace Prize which is given out in Oslo) is given out each year on December 10. This is also home to the Royal Swedish Philharmonic Orchestra. Even though we went there when there was no official tours on offer, the lady in charge of the Hall was kind enough to let us in and personally guided us around the place.

It was quite an overwhelming feeling to climb on the stage which has been graced by all Nobel Laureates since 1901.

That brought an end to our trip. We rushed back to our hotel, picked up our luggage and took the Arlanda Express train to the airport to catch our flight to Copenhagen.