Östermalm and Norrmalm: Saluhall, Strandvägen and Kungsträdgården

North of the fast-flowing Norrström water channel that surrounds Gamla Stan lie the two districts that form Stockholm's modern commercial, culinary and architectural mainland: lively Norrmalm (City) to the west and refined, leafy Östermalm to the east, separated by the fashionable shopping avenue of Birger Jarlsgatan.

Östermalms Saluhall (1888) and Strandvägen

Step out of Östermalmstorg Tunnelbana station onto the square in front of Östermalms Saluhall, Stockholm's brick-turreted temple of gastronomy built in 1888 by architects Isak Gustaf Clason and Kasper Salin and meticulously restored in 2020. Inside the soaring cast-iron hall, wooden stalls trimmed in carved dragons display the best of Swedish produce: mounds of hand-peeled Smögen prawns, cured gravad lax, bleak roe from Kalix, smoked reindeer and moose charcuterie from Lapland, aged Västerbotten cheese and wild cloudberry jam. Pull up a stool at one of the historic seafood counters (such as Lisa Elmqvist or Husmans Deli) for a midday plate of pan-fried Baltic herring or toast Skagen.

From the market hall, walk ten minutes south through Stureplan (past the landmark meeting point under the concrete mushroom canopy, Svampen, and the gilded mirrors of Riche brasserie) to the water at Nybroplan, where the gilded Art Nouveau marble façade of the Royal Dramatic Theatre (Dramaten) faces the bay. Stretching east from Dramaten to the Djurgården bridge runs Strandvägen, laid out for the 1897 Stockholm Exhibition as a wide tree-lined boulevard flanked by palatial brick-and-stone apartment buildings, classic wooden archipelago steamers on the quay and Svenskt Tenn's famous interior design flagship at No. 5.

Kungsträdgården, Norrmalm and Drottninggatan

West of Nybroplan opens Kungsträdgården (The King's Garden), originally the royal kitchen garden in the 15th century and today Stockholm's central public living room, famous for its double tunnel of pink cherry blossoms in late April and its outdoor ice skating rink in winter. One block north on Hamngatan stands the 1915 granite flagship of NK (Nordiska Kompaniet) department store. Continue west to the sunken geometric black-and-white tiled plaza and illuminated glass obelisk of Sergels Torg, the brutalist heart of the Kulturhuset Stadsteatern, or stroll north up pedestrian Drottninggatan past Hötorget's open-air fruit and flower market and the blue neoclassical columned façade of the Stockholm Concert Hall (Konserthuset), where the Nobel Prizes are handed out each December.