Yes, we also liked the Stockholm City Hall.
Yes, I love Stockholm City Hall. You can climb up the tower and there is a great view of the city. You can see the lake and the Baltic sea, Gamla Stan, etc. It closes sometime in September because the window openings are not covered in the upper half.
I’ll put in another plug for the Djurgarden, which is a large island that ends up being mostly just off the map for most maps of downtown Stockholm. The Vasa Museum is there, the Nordiska Museum, Groena Lund (an amusement park and concert place), Skansen and finally Rosendals. You can take a regular trolley or the coffee trolley there.
Downtown, the two big department stores are Ahlens (pronounced Oh-lens) and NK. Ahlens is like Macy’s, NK is a little more upscale. Go to the crystal department. I almost fainted the first time I did! There are bright colors and crazy shapes everywhere. They also have many dishes with scenes from literature - Pippi, the Moomintrolls, Elsa Beskow drawings, etc.
There will be H&M stores across the street from each other. There is another store Indiska, which my D’s liked. I can’t remember who the parent company is. The Drottninggatan (Queen street) has many shops and touristy things if you want your Swedish flag underwear or whatever. The Sveavagan is the street that people cruise with their classic American cars every Saturday night in the summer.
Sodermalm is one of the hip neighborhoods, featured in the Dragon Tattoo books. There are crawfish parties all over the country in August, although there are very few local “crayfish” left.
http://travelsquire.com/stockholms-sofo-is-sogood/
http://travelsofadam.com/city-guides/stockholm/
http://www.djurgardslinjen.se/en/the-cafe-tram/
@nottelling OMG! :-t
“There will be H&M stores across the street from each other.”
I somehow think I can skip that, given that there is an H&M store within 2 miles of my house and they don’t have anything I want anyway 
Thanks everyone - keep it coming!
Crazy about the ants at Noma. It is actually closing later this year and will reopen in another location sometime next year, according to what I’m seeing online. Michelin 2016 gave it two stars this year. The hot restaurant in Copenhagen right now might be Geranium. Michelin gave it 3 stars for 2016.
“Finnish isn’t much like any other major language (closest to Elvish, Tolkien used it as his basis for Elvish ).”
Finnish is fairly close to Estonian and a distant cousin of Hungarian, and all three plus a few more even smaller languages belong to their own linguistic group that is unrelated to the Indo-European family to which most European languages belong. Finns and Estonians can communicate a little, but only linguists can detect the similarities between Finnish and Hungarian.
And as much as I like Finns and Finland, I have to agree that Stockholm is better bet than Helsinki for an American visitor.
Besides, if I did Helsinki I’d want to drag H to St. Petersburg (which I loved), and that becomes a whole 'mother trip.
Couple of Copenhagen sites that (I think) no one has mentioned:
Botanical Gardens (Botanisk Have)–Beautiful and a lovely quiet oasis. I was in Copenhagen in the early summer so the gardens were quite beautiful–lots of walking paths.
NY Carlsberg Glypototek–art museum that focuses on antiquities and modern art. The modern art collection has some outstanding sculptures by Rodin and French Impressionists (Renoir, Manet, Degas).
Canal Tour–I can’t remember what group we used. We bought our tickets in Nyhavn. We spent time walking in Nyhavn too.
While H was at his conference I made a trip to Christiania Freetown–it’s an area that a group of hippies established; they took it over in the 70s and created their own set of local rules. There are interesting shops, art galleries, organic eateries. There’s a park (can’t remember the name) that took me back to the 70s–music, hippie types, hash, etc.
I traveled alone quite often and had no trouble using buses. Almost everyone speaks English and the people were very friendly. It was amazing to see how many people commute on bicycles. Lots of people on their cell phones while commuting. Be careful if you step off the curb–you’re in the bicycle lane and can get wiped out easily. I really had to pay attention because I’m always in a hurry and don’t like to wait.
I thought Tivoli Gardens was overrated. It’s basically an amusement park. Also, the Little Mermaid statue was disappointing (the guy who founded the art museum I mentioned (Carlsberg) gave the statute to the city. The area has tons of tourists snapping photos. Seemed like lots of cruise ships stopped nearby. Maybe I’m the only one who thought it was uninteresting.
The Little Mermaid statue is not spectacular but is one of those things that is associated with the city, and I think still worth seeing because of that.
The Little Mermaid is overrated, but still worth a visit to say you’ve seen it. It’s just like the Mannekin Pis in Brussels.
We took a boat tour that passed by the Little Mermaid so we could say we saw it without taking a special trip. (Of course, we only saw it briefly and from the back…)
When we went to Tivoli it was Christmas time so it was all decorated for the holidays. Definitely worth the stop. But yes, it’s an amusement park but there are lots of restaurants in there and we enjoyed our meal there. Fortunately, pricing is such that you can just pay to enter if you don’t want to ride anything.
Speaking of amusement parks. If you are in the neighborhood, you may want to stop at the world’s oldest amusement park:
http://www.bakken.dk/english/bakken-the-worlds-oldest-amusement-park
Some locals took us there just to see it but it was winter and everything was shut down, so I have no idea what it would be like open. I don’t know if it’s worth a special trip, but it may worth a stop if you are close just to say you’ve been there. (And it’s free)
Though I mentioned Noma and reservations, you don’t have to make a big effort to eat well in Copenhagen. I could eat the vast selections of creative smørrebrød till the cows come home.
If you do decide to go to Tivoli Gardens, I suggest you make sure to be there in the evening, when things light up. Like the Little Mermaid, Tivoli Gardens is iconic and strongly associated with Copenhagen. I also thought it was definitely worth the stop. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/denmark/copenhagen/sights/attractions-performances/tivoli-gardens
I agree about visiting Tivoli. I am the last person you are going to see on an amusement park ride. But there is something about having Tivoli smack dab in the middle of their city that captures the fun loving spirit of the Danes. They are a good humored people and strolling around Tivoli in the evening can be a wonderful experience.
Would HATE to be in the region and miss this:
If anyone has recommendations for a reasonably priced fiord cruise, I am all ears. Small boats and rustic are fine! DH did Vasa and Skanska, said they were good.
@CountingDown There is some interesting info in Norway’s official travel guide. Norway in a Nutshell that @skieurope mentioned is in the guide. That would probably be one of the more economical and quickest ways to at least see some of the fjords. There is info on fjord cruises, top attractions, off the beaten path attractions, etc. in the guide There should be cruises at all price points. Depends on how much money you want to spend and how many days you want to spend exploring the fjords. https://www.visitnorway.com
I was about make the same comment. In both instances, I thought, “That’s it?” but at least I can say I’ve seen them. @NoVADad99
“at least I can say I’ve seen them.”
Well, it’s not as if seeing the Little Mermaid statue really gives anyone bragging rights, or anything ., I say skip it!
I don’t think it’s about “bragging rights” anyway. When one of my kids was going to Brussels last year, I told him to be sure to see the Mannekin Pis. It’s certainly no Eiffel Tower or Big Ben. But, it is still interesting and clearly associated with the city. Same with the Little Mermaid. Can you miss these things and still have a great trip? Of course, but why not embrace these kind of things if the opportunity is there.