Stockholm, the capital built across fourteen islands

Stockholm is a city of water. It stands at the point where Lake Mälaren, a long freshwater lake reaching far inland, drains into the Baltic through a narrow gap, and it is built across fourteen islands at that gap, joined by dozens of bridges. Beyond it to the east, the Stockholm archipelago scatters tens of thousands of islands, islets and rocks out into the sea. From almost anywhere in the centre you can see water, and much of the time you are crossing it.

That makes it an easy city to understand if you take it island by island, and a pleasant one to get around: on foot, over the bridges, or on the small ferries that are part of the city's public transport.

Gamla Stan, the old town

The city began on one small island at the outflow of the lake, Stadsholmen, and it is still the heart of it. Gamla Stan, the old town, is a tight medieval street plan of narrow, curving lanes between tall ochre, rust and yellow merchants' houses, with the great square bulk of the Royal Palace on its northern edge and the Storkyrkan, the city's cathedral, beside it. Stortorget, the small square at its centre, was the market place of the medieval town. Its lanes are crowded in summer, but early in the morning, or in winter, they are quiet enough to hear your footsteps.

Next door, the small island of Riddarholmen has the Riddarholm Church, with its open iron spire, where most of Sweden's kings are buried. From its quay, looking west across the water, you see the tall brick tower of the City Hall, where the Nobel banquet is held every December.

Djurgården and the Vasa

East of the old town, the green island of Djurgården was once a royal hunting park, and is still largely parkland, with some of the city's best museums along its western shore. The greatest of them is the Vasa Museum.

In August 1628 the warship Vasa, the pride of King Gustavus Adolphus's navy, set sail on her maiden voyage from the quays of Stockholm, heeled over in a gust of wind before she had left the harbour, and sank in front of the crowds that had come to see her go. She was too tall and too lightly ballasted, and she lay in the cold, brackish mud for three centuries, where the shipworms that eat timber in saltier seas could not reach her. In 1961 she was raised, almost complete. Today she stands in a hall built around her, dark, enormous and covered in carved figures, and it is one of the most remarkable things to see in Scandinavia.

On the same island are Skansen, the open-air museum of old Swedish houses and farms gathered from around the country, and the Nordic Museum. A ferry crosses to Djurgården from the old town, and it is the best way to arrive.

The lake and the archipelago

Stockholm faces two ways. To the west, Lake Mälaren is fresh water, with old towns and palaces on its shores. Mariefred, a small wooden town on the lake to the south-west, is overlooked by Gripsholm Castle, built in the sixteenth century at the initiative of King Gustav Vasa and now home to the national collection of portraits; in summer an old steamer runs there from the city.

To the east lies the archipelago, which can be reached in an hour or two by the white ferries that leave from the waterfront. On a summer day, the outer islands, with their red wooden cottages, jetties and saunas, are as much a part of Stockholm life as anything in the city.

Tours that start here

Just You's six-night Scandinavia's Jewels: Stockholm to Copenhagen, for solo travellers, goes from Stockholm to Mariefred, Jönköping on Lake Vättern, the Glasriket Moose Park in Småland's glass country, and the university city of Lund before crossing to Copenhagen.

Travelsphere's eight-night Scandinavian Explorer joins three capitals: Oslo, then Örebro and Stockholm in Sweden, Jönköping, and finally Copenhagen.

Explore's nine-night Discover Scandinavia begins in Norway, with Bergen, Voss, Gudvangen and Flåm, then continues to Oslo, Copenhagen and Reffen before ending in Stockholm. It runs from May to September.

Summer is Stockholm's high season, and for good reason: in June the nights hardly darken, the city is out on the water and the archipelago is at its best. May and September are quieter and often bright. Winter is dark and cold, but the old town in the snow, with candles in the windows, has a charm of its own. Whenever you go, buy a travel card and use the ferries. A city of fourteen islands is meant to be seen from the water between them.