What's to Shoot in Stockholm?

A shout out to Patrick and any of our other Swede forum-ers. <p>

 

I'll be in Stockholm for a few days in the spring, and I'm doing

some early research. What's worth shooting/seeing in and outside

of town (I'll have access to a car).

 

I'm looking for civic and natural sights.

 

Thanks in advance.

Sheldon, I was there. Lots of breathtakingly beautiful natural sights everywhere you look, most of them blonde.

...unfortunately the Mrs will squelch that...

Sheldon, be glad you have a good loving woman. That beats all the eye candy on the planet. Get some good pix while you're there.

oh Sheldon, just tell her that the shots are for us chumps :)

"...unfortunately the Mrs will squelch that..."

 

Ouch, sounds painful.

 

"Sheldon, be glad you have a good loving woman. That beats all the eye candy on the planet."

 

Except Sweden. Worth getting squelched for.

Do you know that the great Swedish biologist Carolus Linnaeus established a system of biological nomenclature that is still used today? And that one of the rules he laid down is that a type specimen should be designated for every validly-named organism?

 

Well, he did both. He violated his own rule when he wrote the original description of man and named us Homo sapiens. Instead of designating a type specimen, he wrote "Look around you."

 

Good advice then, and good advice still for a photographer in Stockholm.

 

Cheers,

 

Dan

I've been to a rather eclectic set of three museums there, with a rather techno-geek mindset.

 

Postal Museum. No, it's not just a bunch of stamps. All about communications. There's a computer section which has interactive displays where you could catch some candids.

 

Telecommunications Museum. One of the best such exhibits in the world. Very attractive displays. Not very brightly lit, I found my Olympus XA challenging to use there. Located in an area of lovely parks.

 

Tramway Museum. Static exhibits in a former carbarn. A mix of restored and "as removed from service" cars. Also, there are some operations of old streetcars downtown during tourist season. (Streetcars in Sweeden fell victim to the conversion to driving on the right side of the road.)

 

But, the whole place is really cool, easy to get around, and photogenic (well, probably more so when you don't go in winter like I had to). Downtown take public transit, I'm sure that driving downtown is not fun. Just buy a 3 day pass and don't worry about fares.

Sheldon, I have a good friend in Stockholm. I'll try to get in touch with him and see if he might be able to show you around a bit.

Thanks James! ...and all...

If you're near the river, then you can walk to Gamla Stan, which is the old medieval town. The Royal Palace is there too. You can catch the changing of the guards at noon. On the other side of the river lies the National Museum. It's inexpensive for admission, and well worth looking around. You can't photograph inside, but you can purchase some beautifully glass mounted slides from the store within the museum.<p>You can also catch the ferries and have a look at some of the islands of the archipelago. There's a very picturesque square rigged schooner named the Af Chapman. She used to serve as a naval training ship (I think, going by memory here), and now serves as a youth hostel.<p>Stockholm has nice trolley cars that you can take to Skansen, which is a sort of period amusement park. No ferris wheels and that sort of trash, it's medieval in character. Some nice wildlife in there too.<p>If you're driving (you can also take the train), you may wish to give Uppsalla a visit. A very picturesque University town, it has a University and Medical school from medieval days. There's also Uppsalla castle to visit. Near Uppsalla, there are the Viking burial mounds. There is a visitor center there as well as a "Viking" restaurant that features "raids" by Vikings during dinner. Worth it for a laugh! (the restaurant, I mean - the burial grounds are rather sombre).<p>I went in the fall of 2001, and the weather was quite dreary and rainy. I brought along Scala 200 for the trip, but you may wish to bring along some faster film and color film also if you go in spring.<p>Of all the Northern Europeans, the Swedes are very warm and friendly. They speak English, as it's taught in school as a second language. You won't have much trouble getting around. Oh yes, there are some pretty blonde college students hanging around the areas I've mentioned too....

Don't mean to sound facetious (and apologies if I do), but why not just hit the streets in the city center and see for yourself?

 

If you don't want to take a chance, you could always get a basic guidebook and read up on what the town has to offer and go from there.

Here was my take:

<br><br>

http://www.pegden.co.uk/portfolio_pages/sweden/sweden_lightbox.html

I live in Uppsala and would recommend it. There is a lot of shooting

opportunites around the castle and down to the river. Many older

buildings. The fall is typically wet, winter tend to be snowy and

cold (but not at the moment, 5C). Uppsala is a univeristy town and

tend to get somewhat vacated during summer time. I would recommend

either June-September or January-February if you fancy snow.

September tends to be early fall and can be reasonable dry.

The other months tend to be wet, though April and May can be OK too.

 

There is also a nice narrow gauge train in the summer time that goes

from the center of Uppsala to Faringe. Mostly steam powered with a

small 18th century and an early 19th century train

(http://www.srjmf.se). You can get out in the country side with it

at a reasonable pace. You can also try the Vallonbruk in Uppland. I recommend Forsmark which is beautiful and have a

nice restaurant too (http://web.vallonbruken.nu/).

The cemetery in Solna (northern Stockholm) is very beautiful, and the cemetery to the south, skogkyrkogarden, is a World Heritage site. The markets in both ֳtermalmtorget and Hotorget are very colourful. Sigtuna (a 40 minute drive to the north)is quaint.

<center><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/1645540-md.jpg"></center>

 

<center>I second all the suggestions above. This is part of Gamla Stan, which is walking stuff.<center>

Try to venture away from Gamla stan and the city after a while. I'm partial to Södermalm (but maybe that's because I live there...). <a href="http://www.infundo.com/br/photo_stockholm.html">Some pics</a>.

Raggers :)

Sheldon, lucky you! :-) </p>

 

Stockholm, the Venice of the North. You really cannot go wrong it that city, consisently ranked as one of the top 10 most beautiful cities in the World.

# 1 if you ask me... </p>

 

I could probably write an essay on this topic, but here are a few things that comes to mind: </p>

 

IN THE CITY: </br>

 

Gamla Stan/Old Town: Just take a morning or afternoon to stroll through the <a href="http://users.belgacom.net/bike8000photos/stockholm.jpg">Old Town</a>, visit the Royal

Palace,

perhaps see the change of Guards, stop by Stor Kyrkan (The

Big/Grand Church next to the Palace). All nice stuff, but pretty touristic by now. </p>

 

Moderna Museet/Mornd Art Museum. A small island in the middle of the city off Old Town. A beautiful museum designed by Spanish architect Rafael Moneo. While at that island,

named Skeppsholmen, stroll over to the other side and visit <a href="http://p.vtourist.com/1316151-Hostel_af_Chapman-Stockholm.jpg">"Af Chapman"</a>, a old sailing ship

turned youth-hostel and a Stockholm landmark. </p>

 

<a href="http://www.vasamuseet.se">Wasa Museum</a>: The <a href="http://naturecoast.com/hobby/images/realwasa.jpg">flag ship</a> of the then powerful Swedish Navy that

sank on it's maiden voyage in 1628(!). Preserved by the mud in Stockholm harbour for 300+ years and then

raised and restored. An awesome experience! While in on that island, called Djurg岤en (Royal Animal Garden(?), do visit "Skansen" which displays the cultural herritage

of Sweden, where you can learn how to blow glass, bake old breat, visit the rural cottages/farms 200 yrs old, plus see a number of Swedish animals like Mouse, Wolf etc.

Very nice indeed, but somewhat time consuming, I guess. </p>

 

For trips outside/around Stockholm: Start by taking some of the local boats. There is a guided tour boat that goes around the 7 islands that make up Stockholm, which

you can take outside The Grand Hotel or by Nybroviken (in front of the Royal Dramatic Theatre, which by the way is a very nice building to step inside if you get a

chance. The same goes for the Royal Opera - fabolous - all conveniently located within a few hundred yards of each other). For full day excursions by boat, take the

high speed commuter boats to Vaxholm, stop by for lunch at the Grand Hotel there - the Sm�rg峢ord, of course - or why not take a trip on one of the old steam-engine

boats. Very picturesque. The last alternative would be to take the boat to Gripsholms Slott (Royal castle of Gripsholm), have lunch there and go back in the afternoon.

The last possible all/half day boat trip would be to visit the old Viking city of "Birka". It used to be a viking trading place on a little island, lots of old

history, but also somewhat dull... </p>

 

Views: There are a coule of places where you get a unique view of Stockholm. One is to watch the sunset or sunrise from

<a href="http://www.wcities.com/en/record/,89784/98/record.html">"Fj䬬gatan"</a>, situated on S�dermalm (the South

Island). THe other view may be to go the further end of Djurg岤en and take the elevator up in the <a href="http://kaknastornet.lunchinfo.com/">"Kakn䳴ornet</a>,

a large TV/Communications-tower with a scenic floor towards

the top. On the way out there, stop by the Telecom Museum, if you like that, or the Royal Maritime Museum right next to it. (Personally, I'd rather stop by the hotel/

restaurant of K䬬hagens V䲤shus on the way there, sit down by the fireplace and have a coffee with some home baked sweet bread. </p>

 

Another must see/do experience is to have lunch at <a href="http://www.ostermalmshallen.se/">"ֳtermalmshallen"</a> situated by ֳtermalmstorg, a coule of hundred

yards north of the Royal Dramatic Theatre/Nybroviken.

Don't miss the opportunity to stroll around the old school bazar/shops of fish and meat, like a food court (but we are not talking a suburban mall here) and then sit down

at "Lisa Elmqvist", a charming little restaurant in the middle of all the buzz, and have a glass of white wine and a "Toast Skagen" (local speciality, a scrimp sandwich

from heaven). </p>

 

If you in to food, Stockholm has lots of it. Unfortunately with the weak dollar combined with high taxes of Sweden, dinners and lunches tend to be very expensive nowadays.

The Sm�rg岤sboard at "The Grand Hotel" is very nice indeed. The Grand is Stockholms only true 5 star hotel and has a beautiful view over the Old Town and Royal Palace.

"Fredsgatan 12" is another very exclusive restaurants with stellar menu. Less fancy, still not cheap, is "Stures", right in the center of mid town by Stureplan. </p>

 

Alright, I can go on forever and ever. Ping me directly if you need some one-on-one advice based on your preferences. Again, you really cannot go wrong in Stockholm,

especially if you are looking for scenes to photograph. Photoblogger Fredrik Olsson at <a href="http://www.smudo.org/blog/">smudo.org</a> has some nice photos from

Stockholm among his work. I think <a href="http://contaxg.com/files/1454/stkhlm1_.jpg">this image</a> from Fj䬬gatan by a contaxg.com member sums it up very nicely.

(actually go to www.contaxg.com and search on Stockholm, there are several nice images there. </p>

 

Cheers,

 

p.

Have you also tried right here, under your nose? <p>

 

<a href="http://www.photo.net/travel/sweden/" >http://www.photo.net/travel/sweden/</a>

</center>. center off! that is not a shabby review actually. thanks for the link.

</center> :-( help!

Backlit blonds. Are you blind?

Thanks to all! Shots from the trip - <a href = "http://www.yellowrhino.org/gallery/Europe2005">http://www.yellowrhino.org/gallery/Europe2005</a>

fabolous photos, Sheldon! Looks like the European dream vacation to me!