The Swedish capital Stockholm, spread across 14 small islands at the mouth of Lake Mälaren, on the Baltic Sea, is a northern city in the very best sense of the word. Major corporations such as telecommunications giant Ericsson have their head offices here, and the city is full of unmistakably Scandinavian urban architecture.

Gamla Stan, the old centre of Stockholm, is one of the main destinations for the many visitors to the city. Here you will find the Royal Palace, the official residence of the Swedish monarch, and the Storkyrkan, which is the Swedish name for Stockholm's St Nicholas's Cathedral. Also in this part of Stockholm is Stortorget, a city square that in the Christmas season hosts a famous Christmas market offering traditional handicrafts. Standing on the square is a building that until recently was the home of the Stockholm Stock Exchange but today houses the Nobel Museum and the Nobel Library.

Other sights to see in Stockholm include Skogskyrkogården, a famous cemetery which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You can also visit some of the city's more than 100 museums, which attract several million visitors every year, and shops stocked with the creations of the world's top designers. Every year on 10 December – the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel – Stockholm hosts the famous Nobel Prize Award Ceremony, although tickets to that event and the banquet that follows are harder to get hold of than a ticket to the Moon...