Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1
North of the park, Hamngatan runs east to
Birger Jarlsgatan
, the main thoroughfare
that divides Norrmalm from Östermalm.
Sergels torg to Hötorget
At the western end of Hamngatan, past the enormous NK department store, lies
Sergels torg
, the ugliest square in modern Stockholm. It's an open-air meeting area and
venue for impromptu music performances or demonstrations.
Kulturhuset
Sergels torg 3 • June-Aug Tues-Fri 11am-6pm, Sat & Sun 11am-4pm; Sept-May Tues-Fri 11am-7pm, Sat & Sun 11am-5pm;
café
Tues-Fri 11am-8pm, Sat 11am-6pm, Sun 11am-5pm • Free, but fees for exhibitions • T-Centralen T-bana
Sergel torg's events are centred around
Kulturhuset
, whose windows overlook the
milling concrete square below. Inside this building, devoted to contemporary Swedish
culture, are temporary art-and-craft exhibitions and a great design store. As you come
in, check with the information desk for details of poetry readings, concerts and theatre
performances. Before leaving, make sure you head up to the top floor and the
Panorama
café
(see p.70), where you can indulge in delicious apple pie and custard,
and take in the best
views
of central Stockholm.
Drottninggatan
A short walk along Klarabergsgatan, west of Kulturhuset, brings you to the
Centralstationen
and
Cityterminalen
, the main hub of Stockholm's transport. The area
around here is given over to unabashed consumerism, but there's little to get excited about
in the streets surrounding the main drag,
Drottninggatan
, just run-of-the-mill shops
selling clothing and twee gifts, punctuated by a
McDonald's
and the odd sausage stand.
Klara kyrka
Klara Östra Kyrkogatan 7 • Mon-Fri & Sun 10am-5pm, Sat 5-7.30pm • T-Centralen T-bana
The area around Drottninggatan has one highlight in the
Klara kyrka
, just to the south
of Klarabergsgatan. Hemmed in on all sides, with only the spires visible from the
streets around, the church is particularly delicate, with a light and flowery eighteenth-
century painted interior and an impressive golden pulpit. Out in the churchyard, a
memorial stone commemorates the eighteenth-century Swedish poet Carl Michael
Bellman, whose popular, lengthy ballads are said to have been composed extempore;
his unmarked grave is somewhere in the churchyard.
Hötorget
Hötorget T-bana
Stockholm's main market square is the cobbled
Hötorget
, where you'll find a daily
open-air fruit, vegetable and flower market (roughly 9am-5pm), as well as the
wonderful
Hötorgshallen
, an indoor market boasting a tantalizing array of Middle
Eastern sights and smells (Mon-Thurs 10am-6pm, Fri 10am-6.30pm, Sat 10am-
4pm; June & July Sat till 3pm). The tall building across the square, PUB, is a former
department store where
Greta Garbo
once worked (see box below). Hötorget is also
GRETA GARBO IN STOCKHOLM
Greta Garbo
(1905-90) began her working life in Hötorget in Stockholm. She toiled as a sales
assistant in the hat section of the PUB department store on the square before hitting the big
time, acting in no fewer than 27 films. She spent most of her life in the United States, dying in
New York in 1990, and it wasn't until 1999 that her ashes were returned to Stockholm after a
long legal battle. Garbo is buried in the Skogskyrkogården cemetery in Enskede in the south of
Stockholm (take the T-bana green line to the station called Skogskyrkogården to visit).
