Culture, class and crystal-clear water

You can pack in a lot in a pitstop visit to Stockholm, as I found out during a snowy one-night stay last month. The beautiful capital is indeed a city built on water — it spreads across 14 islands, interconnected by 57 bridges.

Apart from having a vibrant cultural life, Stockholm has many national cultural institutions.

There are two Unesco World Heritage Sites in the area: the Royal Palace Drottningholm (within Ekerö Municipality) and the Skogskyrkogården (The Woodland Cemetery).

Beautiful architecture

The city's oldest section is “Gamla Stan'' (Old Town), located on the small islands of Stockholm's earliest settlements and still features the medieval street layout.

Some notable buildings here are the large German church (Tyska kyrkan) and several mansions and palaces: the Riddarhuset (the House of Lords), the Bonde Palace, the Tessin Palace and the Oxenstierna Palace.

The oldest building in Stockholm is the Riddarholmskyrkan, from the late 13th century. After a fire in 1697, when the castle was destroyed, the Stockholm Palace was built in a Baroque style.

During the 19th century, Stockholm grew rapidly, with architecture inspired by the large cities of the continent, such as Berlin and Vienna. Notable works of this time period include public buildings such as the Royal Swedish Opera.

In the 20th century, a key landmark was built — the Stockholm City Hall, by architect Ragnar Östberg. His other beautiful works in the area include the Stockholm Public Library and the Forest Cemetery, Skogskyrkogården.

Nature and culture combined

The air in Stockholm is clean and the same goes for the water. And you can absorb all this purity at its best at Djurgården, a small, lush island in the centre of the city.

Here you'll find not only the popular Wasa Museum, showcasing the old ship Wasa that sank in 1628 (kind of like a Swedish Titanic — but on a smaller scale), but also the Gröna Lund amusement park and Skansen — an open-air museum that showcases the nature and animals that can be found in the Swedish wilderness.

Stockholm is one of the most crowded museum-cities in the world, with about 100 museums, visited by millions of people every year.

One of the most renowned national museum is the National Museum, with Sweden's largest collection of art: 16,000 paintings and 30,000 objects of art handicraft.

The collection dates back to the days of Gustav Vasa in the 16th century and has been expanded with works by artists such as Rembrandt and Antoine Watteau.

The Museum of Modern Art, or Moderna Museet, is Sweden's national museum of modern art. It has works by famous modern artists such as Picasso and Salvador Dalí.

There are also boat tours that give tourists the opportunity to explore the city by water on the canals. These are immensely popular and (I'm told) lovely in spring and summer.

Stockholm also offers great cuisine, understandably specialising in fresh delicates from the sea — herring being a big favourite.

Due to immigration, the city also has plenty of international restaurants, including Asian, Italian, Turkish, French, Greek, Scandinavian, Spanish and Middle Eastern cuisine.

And as of 2009, Stockholm boasts a total of nine Michelin-star restaurants, two of which has two stars.

Along with the usual souvenirs, you'll find unique items such as crystal from the famous “The Kingdom of Crystal'' in the south, and a glut of real fur coats — so animal lovers be warned!

For those of us who live in the Middle East and yearn for some fresh air and cooling walks, Stockholm is a real tonic. Just go outdoors and take it in at your own pace.

Go there . . . Stockholm . . . From the UAE . . . From Dubai

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— Information courtesy: The Holiday Lounge by Dnata.
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