Woolly says – We were up and ready to head of on the Woolly’s walking tour of Gamla Stan or the Old Town if your not in the know. I had a simple route in mind and as long as Jo could keep up, we should be fine. The cold wind of yesterday had gone and the sun was warming on my tusks as we followed the main road towards City Hall.
Stockholm City Hall is the seat of Stockholm Municipality it is the venue of the Nobel Prize banquet and is one of Stockholm’s major tourist attractions. Construction took twelve years, from 1911 to 1923. Nearly eight million red bricks were used. As we approached, I could see the tall tower high above the skyline with its green dome on top which had its own cherry on top of that of a golden flag.
The exterior wasn’t much to shout about but entering the courtyard took us into a beautiful array of autumn colours as well as some interesting sculptures.
A lovely arched walkway looked out over the water providing a rather nice vista. The passageway also had a rather fetching ceiling of some faded blue pictures. Having taken the required pictures, we headed to the entrance.
Sadly, his plan started to unravel as having got ready to pay we were informed that there were no guided tours that day, not a problem said I, not being a fan of them, yes, it is a problem replied the lady behind the counter as you can’t go in without a guide. My small furry companion glared at the poor women and stormed out of the door leaving me to catch up with him several minutes later.
Woolly says – Having explained to the human that I was not in a huff merely disappointed we set off for our next port of call. Crossing the bridge across the water gave us an opportunity to admire the buildings and large number of ships and boats that were moored.
Stockholm seemed to be carrying out a lot of construction work with many places covered over and blocked from entering, having realised that my route was blocked I looked around for another way to get through spying a small set of steps which I took keeping my paws crossed that it would take us to the next place on my list. And as if by magic as we reached the top of the stairs there it was in front of me.
In a large square with some rather fetching buildings and a large statue the lovely site of Riddarholmskyrkan Church.
Riddarholm Church was consecrated around the year 1300 and was originally built as a Catholic monastery church for the Gråbrödra Monastery, founded in 1270, belonging to the Franciscan Order. It is Stockholm’s oldest preserved building although additions had been made over the year including the rather lovely west tower with it’s cast iron spire. Having admired the outer walls, we arrived at the front door only to find it firmly locked.
His small face gazed up at me and I did feel a bit sad for him as his plan seemed to be unravelling. Having glanced around I spotted a sign which told us that it was closed until the 1st May.
Woolly says – Well I wasn’t waiting that long to go inside; with no other option it looked as though we would be finished for the day before it was even snack time! Surely the palace wouldn’t be closed.
We walked on passing the House of Nobility which was used to host assembles.
Heading up the slight incline we arrived at the Royal palace to find three other people waiting for it to open, hurrah at least something was going to plan. As we waited for the unlocking to take place, we ambled towards the front looking at the obelisk and a large statue of Carl Johan sitting astride his horse.
Having watched the boats for a while we arrived back at the palace just as the gates were opened and I raced inside before they decided to close them and shut up shop for the day.
I found myself in the treasury and an underground room where the crowns of the former monarchs of Sweden sat.
A beautiful ermine cloak looked soft and inviting unlike the swords on display which looked sharp and pointy.
Stockholm Palace or the Royal Palace is the official residence and major royal palace of the Swedish monarch King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia. A castle has stood in the same place since the middle of the 13th century when the Tre Kronor Castle was built which was destroyed in a fire on 7th May 1697. The current building had finally been finished in 1754, when King Adolf Frederick and Queen Louisa Ulrika moved in.
Having completed our short tour of royal finery we headed upwards and back into the open before heading round the corner to view the Royal apartments. Set in a circular courtyard I was looking forward to seeing the opulence that the current King and Queen lived in.
Mounting the stairs was difficult as I was too busy looking up at the ceiling and its lovely artwork.
Following the arrows, we found ourselves in a number of rooms exhibiting the honours that the Royal family bestows on its people. The lovely yellow and blue colours of Sweden featured heavily until we reached a display of all colours of the rainbow of honours that the current king holds, there were lots certainly enough to cover the king from top to bottom if he choose to wear the formal ones instead of the smaller medals that are usually worn.
The Hall of state came next with a lovely silver throne at centre stage guarded by two huge sculptures of previous monarchs.
The hall was large and up until 1975 it was where the King opened parliament every year with a formal ceremony.
Heading back through the medal collection we arrived back at the staircase and headed straight through to the State Apartments. A finely decorated room greeted us with huge chandeliers under which three or four meetings of the cabinet are held each year.
The audience chamber came with a wonderful painted ceiling.
Next was Gustav’s III state bedchamber, the room where he had breathed his last which looked big enough to house at least fifty beds.
Even better was to come as we entered a long corridor with the most impressive ceiling of all, known as Karl XI’s gallery, where banquets were held. It had been based on the Hall of mirrors in Versailles and would have made an incredible track for skateboarding, which reminds me that I really need to get my skateboard back out when we return to the UK.
Beautiful tapestries lined the walls which looked as though they had been newly woven.
Our last room was equally long but much wider with a wonderful ceiling, known as the White Sea, it is still used today for receptions hosted by the Royal family.
Having completed the tour, we retraced our steps to the sunny outside and headed towards the Tre Kronor Castle or the Three Crowns Castle the remains at of the original castle. Buried underground we wandered through the dimly lit displays looking into the area where the original castle kitchens would have been prior to the fire that had destroyed the building above.
It was like a tunnel and quite low in places, not a problem for myself or my carer. We paused to look at a model of what the castle had looked like before devastation had hit and admire some of the few pieces of masonry that had been found when construction of the new palace had started.
With the palace done and dusted I trotted over the road to admire the splendid Parliament building before leading the way towards Storky church.
I had to chuckle, he had been on about Storky church for weeks and his need to see St George and the Dragon. Storkyrkan otherwise known as Stockholm Cathedral is the oldest church in Stockholm. It was consecrated to Saint Nicholas in 1306 but construction of the church wasn’t started in the 13th century.
Woolly says – The exterior of the church was rather pink and like many of the building around us had work going on to preserve its’s splendour, Baroque in appearance, the result of extensive changes made in the 18th century. The church played an important role during the Reformation in Sweden as the place where Mass was celebrated in Swedish for the first time.
Its immense brick pillars looked rather good as did the pulpit and the royal seats.
The silver and ebony altar were lovely as was the stained glass window above it.
But even better was the sculpture of old George and his dragon, which although made of oak looked anything but wood like.
As we wandered round taking in the memorials of those long gone and the floors where raised graves had once lain worn down by centuries of feet trotting over them.
I turned to take in the impressive organ and gaze up towards the wooden domed ceiling, areas of which still retained the original artwork which looked like an octopus party with lots of suckers.
Happy with myself and the finds inside we headed further into the old town arriving in Stortorget or the Grand Square. It is the oldest square in Stockholm and the historical centre on which the medieval urban conglomeration gradually came into being. It was surrounded by some lovely buildings with tiered tops. A very fetching orange one caught my eye and thinking of my humans needs I suggested coffee inside it.
Refreshed and recharged we headed towards a strange looking water fountain; well, it seemed like a water fountain, but you would need a mighty big mouth to drink out of it.
Having spotted a tall spire, we set off into the small, cobbled streets of the Old Town passing all manner of tourist shops.
The Spire finally arrived in front of us, and I craned up to read the name of the church it belonged to. The German Church, sometimes called St. Gertrude’s Church, it is named for standing in the centre of a neighbourhood that in the Middle Ages was dominated by Germans. Officially named Sankta Gertrud, the church is dedicated to Saint Gertrude (626 to 659), abbess of the Benedictine monastery of Nivelles, in present-day Belgium, and patron saint of travellers, which is very apt for us.
Inside was glorious with mountains of gold dotted around and a number of lovely portraits dating back over the centuries.
The stained glass was incredible, and we stood for a while admiring the fine work.
It was time to find our way back out of the Old Town and as we wandered along, we arrived at another fountain, this time curiourosstly got the better of me and I demanded that Jo go and ask someone how you were supposed to drink out of it.
I was equally keen to know the answer to this and promptly asked a gentlemen nearby who told us that they were indeed water fountains and that back in the day the homeowners would have arrived with their buckets to fill and taken the water back to their homes, which of course made perfect sense given the size of the spout.
With everything ticked off my list and my disappointment of two places not being open to me I felt that the tour had gone well and that maybe I deserved a cake or some other reward, happily the taller one of us agreed and we settled into a café for a well-earned rest.