[postlink]http://laybtv.blogspot.com/2009/09/cnn-although-most-swedes-would-be-too.html[/postlink]
(CNN) -- Although most Swedes would be too modest to say so themselves, Stockholm can stake a decent claim to being the capital of Scandinavia.
Built on 14 islands, Stockholm seems to float on water.
Built on 14 islands where Lake Mälaren meets the Baltic Sea, Stockholm is a soft-hued vision of light and water, the bewitching start to an archipelago of some 24,000 islands and islets.
Sweden's neutrality during World War II meansStockholm was spared the bombing inflicted on most European capitals; the result is the unspoiled old town of Gamla Stan, with its winding, cobbled streets.
Despite a post-war building blitz that saw the construction of some particularly uninspiring modernist architecture, it is a city where gray concrete facades are largely eschewed in favor of a smorgasbord of pastel colors, rusty reds and glowing ochres.
For a capital city it's unusually green -- not just leafy and dotted with verdant parks, but environmentally sound. Stockholm proper has a population of just 800,000, avoiding the congestion and pollution that plague larger cities -- so much so that you can fish from, and swim in, the waters surrounding the city center.
My City_My Life
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Cold and sometimes bleak during its long, dark winters, Stockholm comes alive during the summer, when the Scandinavian sun barely sets. As temperatures rise the city's cafe culture blossoms, only for Stockholm to become a ghost town during July, when the locals make the most of their generous holiday entitlement and slip off to holiday cottages in the archipelago.
But beyond its historic heart Stockholm is a progressive, evolving city. Its financial fortunes grew with the mid '90s IT boom and shrank when the dotcom bubble burst, but it remains a hotbed of technology and communications companies.
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