Riddarholmen is the small island the nobility built on, hung off the western edge of the Old Town, and it pairs naturally with the great civic pile across the water — the Stadshuset. The afternoon is the time: the light comes off Riddarfjärden and lands on both of them.
Cross from Gamla Stan onto Riddarholmen and the cast-iron spire of Riddarholmskyrkan is over you straight away — the burial church of the kings, the oldest building on the island. Past the Wrangelska palatset, which became the royal seat after the old castle burned in 1697, and out to the quay, where the whole of the bay opens up and the City Hall tower stands across the water. That view is the reason to come in the afternoon.
Then round the water to the Stadshuset itself — eight million bricks, the climbable tower, and the two halls inside that do the real work: the Blå hallen, bare brick despite its name, where the Nobel banquet sits down each December, and the Gyllene salen above it, eighteen million gold tiles deep. The interiors are tour-only. After, walk up to T-Centralen.
