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The Old Town is a favorite not only of the cruise ship travelers but such luminaries as former U.S. President Bill Clinton, whose picture was on display at the window of a small shop with his arms around the owners’ shoulders.
The German influence was prominent in the elegant 17th and 18th century buildings that lined Stortorget.
Swedes themselves were to be found more on the other islands of Stockholm. The King only accommodates his guests in Kungliga Slottet; his own residence is elsewhere, in Drottningholm Palace. From the late 19th century, the richest families of Stockholm began to build
In a konditori (bakery café) on one corner of the Square, we sat for a sandwich (smorgas), contemplating Stortorget’s colorful history.
Stockholm began as a trading post in Birka, a town the Vikings established on an island in Lake Malaren. In the 13th century the German merchants of the Hanseatic League expanded it at its present site of the Old Town (Gama Stan.
Stockholm’s nod to the rest of the world was on display also on its streets. Going north on the main shopping street Drottninggatan, I noted that many of the shopkeepers were not blonde. At the end of the block young women and men with punk hairdos were idly lounging on the steps of a large concave open space.
Near a restaurant, a woman in a red dress and high heels was sitting on a chair as she sang Fado. She had to stop when a young man playing an accordion and singing French songs strolled by. Going south, I saw a grey haired man playing an accordion, accompanied by a woman singer.
The Peace Prize is given in Oslo because Nobel thought that Norway (still in a Union with Sweden) was more peace-loving. The others are granted on the same day, December 10, at a dinner ceremony in the Blue Room of Stockholm’s Town Hall. I noticed that the color of the Blue Room was in fact not blue; the architect had changed his mind.
Smaller in size but more worldly in appearance was the Gold Room of the Town Hall where dancing takes place on the evening that the Prizes are granted. This room is decorated with Byzantine style mosaics and murals depicting the Statue of Liberty, elephants from the East, and other symbols from distant lands.
Affixed at the door that opened to the terrace of a restaurant I noticed a bar with several colored yardsticks. I asked our waitress what it was. She said “this is here so that when we have a robber, we would know how tall he is.”
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