Gamla stan

Stockholm’s old town on its central island, reached from the north over the Strömbron bridge; see Stockholm.

At a glance

Source	Author	Role	In one line
Neither Here Nor There	Bill Bryson	setting	A shabby, knocked-about old town in the rain, where Bryson later decides to leave for Rome.

Neither Here Nor There — Bill Bryson (1991)

Source: Readwise highlight

The area had an oddly Central European feel to it: narrow, hilly streets lined by severe, heavy buildings, the color of faded terra-cotta, sometimes with chunks of plaster missing, as if they had been struck a glancing blow by tank fire

• Role: setting
• In the book: Chapter 12. Bryson’s first walk in Stockholm takes him across the Strömbron Bridge into Gamla Stan. He finds “a kind of knocked-about charm” but none of the prosperity he expected: dirty windows, plaster missing, corners knocked off by trucks. At the end of the chapter he is back on the Strömbron, staring out over gray, rain-studded water, when he takes his decision: “I was going to Rome.”
• Why it matters: Gamla stan is the first crack in his image of rich, tidy Sweden, a theme the Drottninggatan and Sveavägen scenes develop. The bridge beside it is the book’s hinge from Scandinavia to Italy.