Saturday, October 18, 2008

Stunning Stockholm

Wandered around Skansen this morning, a mixture of a living history museum and a zoo (featuring animals found in Sweden). Skansen turns out to be the world’s oldest open-air museum, situated on the island of Djurgården within the Stockholm city limits. You can go by tram - or grab a ferry which costs 30 Kr and takes just 7 minutes from the centre of town. Visitors meet a miniature historical Sweden reflected both in the buildings and their surroundings – from the Skåne farmstead in the South to the Sami camp in the North. The buildings are life-size, it is just the distances that have been shrunk. The venues illustrate the different social conditions in which people lived in Sweden between the 16th century and the first half of the 20th century. The majority of houses and farmsteads are from the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries.

The colours of the trees this time of year are stunning. Lucky with the weather on Saturday morning...in the afternoon it clouded over.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Jonathan!
There are actually not only animals from the Nordic Countries at Skansen. There are also animals lika monkeys, alligators och snakes not found in the wild in Sweden. Still it is a wery nice place because these animals are behind bars.
/Göran Lindemark, Stockholm

Jonathan Marks said...

Yes, you're right. In my short tour I skipped the monkeys and snakes. I see the bears, reindeer and elk's have a commanding view of the rich part of Stockholm - and the satellite dishes on the roof of Radio Sweden.

Unknown said...

Lucky you, STHLM this time of the year is a real treat. Have been living and working up there for 5 years during the 90s. And Skansen is a wonderful place... If I remember right, the name became synonym for this kind of museums in a couple of languages!

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