Stockholm, the most beautiful capital in the world!

Well that is my honest opinion at least. As a Swede at heart I may be biased but I think most people that have visited Stockholm would agree, if not fully, at least to some extent with that statement. Maybe they want to reserve the top spot for their own capital for patriotic or other reasons, and that's all right by me.

The most pleasant time to visit of course is the summer, June through August. But if you want to avoid the bigger crowds, I would suggest coming in September when the weather can still be quite nice and the city is back to the more normal state after the hectic height of summer months with a flurry of activities and increase in population. There is still a lot to do and see in Stockholm so do not worry about getting bored because of a lack of activities. Museums are plenty, art is everywhere and if architechture is your interest you can indulge in architecture spanning close to 800 years.

Stockholm is built on many different islands so therefore by nature there is a lot of water in the city and surrounding it. The water is nowadays so clean that you can fish in the middle of Stockholm and the catch can be eaten without having to worry about ingesting any higher levels of harmful chemicals than from any fish. You can actually find public beaches in the middle of the city where you can soak up the sun and go swimming during the summer months.

Stockholm has this spring 2006 embarked on a trial of reducing inner city traffic by implementing a toll system during weekday rush hours. The greater Stockholm area or Stockholm County has about 1.8 million inhabitants and many of them travel to the inner city for work and other reasons and although public transit is a well functioning system, many still travel by car. There is really no need to drive in Stockholm since public transportation can take you where you want to go much more efficiently and you don't have to deal with the hassles of traffic either. People in general do speak English so there is really no language barrier to make communication difficult.

I hope visiting Stockholm will enrich your life,

Per