The history of Stockholm is one of ebbs and flows, freezes and thaws, sunken ships and shifting locks. History, though, isn’t exactly at the forefront of my mind 20 minutes into a morning kayak tour, when I’m frantically paddling against the frothy, destabilising wake dispatched by a passing city ferry.
“Always look both ways before crossing the lake!” shouts our guide, Leon, as we breathlessly reach one edge of the freshwater expanse and pivot our kayaks to face the skyline. It’s an epic scene: the gilded crowns topping City Hall; the mint-hued spire of the German Church; the imposing brick structure of former brewery Münchenbryggeriet. All of it, in every direction, underlined by blue.
People talk about Venice and Amsterdam as being defined by their canals, but the DNA of Stockholm is every bit as watery. A patchwork of islands set on the edge of 75-mile-long freshwater Lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea, its landscape was shaped by the last Ice Age, when glaciers compressed soils to below water levels. Over time, the terrain began to re-emerge from the depths, forming the 14 islands that now make up the city.
Leon, a guide for local tour operator Stockholm Adventures, leads paddling tours between some of them. Over two hours, we cruise the leafy, sun-dappled channel between Långholmen and Södermalm, past rows of polished wooden pleasure crafts, and skirt along the swan-dotted waterways between Kungsholmen and Norrmalm.
Back on dry land, my city guide Gunilla Kühner shows me around Stockholm’s historic centre, Gamla Stan, which dates back to the Middle Ages. Around us, colourful buildings vie for space along cobblestone alleyways. Here, in the 14th century, merchants would trade local iron and copper with Hanseatic League cities every summer, wrapping up business before the
