Final Scenes from Stockholm

Royal Palace

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Stockholm.  It's a vibrant city with lots of great outdoor activities, culture, and food.  We spent both nights walking through Gamla Stan (Old Town) in the center of the city, seeing both the Royal Palace as well as Stockholm Cathedral (Storkyrken).

Interior of Stockholm Cathedral

We immersed ourselves in all things Nobel.  We visited the Nobel Prize Museum and learned about the history of the prizes as well as learned about previous winners and their accomplishments.  Of special meaning to us was a new temporary exhibition that just opened this month that focuses on the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Stadhuset

One fact about the Nobel Prize I didn't know is that the prize in Economics is not one of the original five prizes (Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Literature, and Peace).  The economics prize is actually the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel and has only been awarded since 1968.  


We also visited the Stadhuset (City Hall) where the annual Nobel Prize Banquet is held after the prizes are awarded each December.  Fun Fact -- the 

Scarf worn by Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzi

largest pipe organ in Scandinavia is in the City Hall.  I'll have to mention that at work when I get home.

We paid homage to Sweden's foremost sculptor Carl Milles at Millesgården, an outdoor sculpture garden at his home and workshop on the island of Lidingö, high on a bluff above the water.  He dominated the Swedish art world in the first half of the twentieth century until his death in 1955.

Millesgården

Our final stop as we left Stockholm was to Drottningholm Palace, current home to the King & Queen of Sweden and a UNESCO World Heritage site.  As it is still the main royal residence, only a portion was open to the public and those sections are decorated in much the same way they would have been in the 1600s when the castle was built.  Immediately behind the palace is Drottningholm Palace Park, with both a 17th century Baroque Park and an 18th century English-style garden.  The grounds are immense and we walked from one end of the park to the other, in much the same way the royal family has done for the last three centuries.

Drottningholm Palace

We've picked up our rental car and have started our drive across Sweden.  We'll stop for the night and then tomorrow, finish the drive to Norway.  Next up........Oslo.