A Smorgasbord of Stockholm Snapshots

 

A view from Skansen to the Nordic Museum

Hello again, Blogonauts!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, today's Jaunticle could qualify as the longest (but really one of the shortest) posts yet! More photography, less verbosity... at least for today! (And if you click on a photo, you'll see it enlarged.)

My wanderings today first took me to an outdoor museum on Djurgården, the island that once served as the royal hunting ground. Nowadays it's filled with museums, trails, parkland, and the very first ever outdoor history museum, Skansen, which opened to the public in 1891.

Characterizing Skansen is a challenge. It contains some genuinely interesting farmsteads, churches, & homes, each painstakingly transplanted from a different part of Sweden, and often representing different eras in Swedish history. 

But rather than begin by exploring early rural Sweden, visitors enter first into a village of urban shops and craft stores that were dismantled and moved from elsewhere in Stockholm to Skansen. I was surprised to start there, but they should be applauded for preserving not only the structures, but also the historic stories they represent.

This village welcomes visitors to Skansen

The general store as it would have appeared in the 1890s in Stockholm

These businesses are clustered together to appear like a village, but each shop represents a different period in history from those around it. The result is that the village seems more like a collage than a narrative whole.

The hardware store as it would have looked in the 1930s

A bookbinder's shop from the mid-1800s

A printer's shop from the mid-1800s

There was an interesting living quarters mimicking a middle class household from the 1930s. The docent noted that having indoor plumbing was still not guaranteed in Stockholm into the mid 1950s.

A 1930s kitchen with an "up to date" electric range next to the coal-powered cookstove.

In the 1930s, this was the very latest in crappery.

 But as mentioned before, further into the park there were some lovely farmsteads relocated to Skansen.

A rural farmstead from the 1830s. The next two photos show interior rooms.

The main living space in the 1830s house. The "box bed" in the corner is for adults, not children.

A "special occasions" room in the 1830s house. Such a room showed you had some wealth.

A home from the mid-1800s that would have belonged to a poor, landless family

A barn from Gotland, a large island in the Baltic Sea. The horses there have roamed free for centuries.

Among the older buildings in Skansen is a large, red church, built in the 1730s. The docent there mentioned that when they moved the church, they found evidence that it had been moved before. These days it's a popular place for weddings.

The 1730 Seglora Church was moved to Skansen in 1916.

The altar & ceiling are well decorated.

The pulpit, too has depictions of biblical stories.

But Skansen's curators knows that families need more than antiques to entertain children. 

They need ANIMALS!!!

So visitors can find a petting zoo, several pens of farm animals, and an ersatz zoo where you can see penned critters from Sweden's wild and woolly north.

People aren't alone among critters that eat in bed, although we typically don't lie down on our plates.

Swedish Yellow Ducks

Maybe one of these geese is a mother who knows how to tell children's stories.

 The animals of the north were not domesticated, and so the pens were a bit less permeable.

There were two enclosures where sea lions were living.

A grey heron hanging out with the sea lions, perhaps waiting to snap up some of their dinner

What Europeans call an Eagle Owl, in the New World we call a Horned Owl. Regardless, they're BIG!

 

Ungulates ungulating: A mamma moose with her calf

A river otter seemed to have no trouble finding something to do.

And none of the 3 brown bears could be troubled to do much of anything. (They may be hibernating soon)

After leaving Skansen I took a walk along Stockholm's waterfront. They really have invested a lot of pride (and money) in their local architecture.

The Royal Dramatic Theater, built in 1908. Greta Garbo & Ingrid Bergman attended acting school here.

 So let's close out today's photo album with a sign that caught my eye outside a restaurant on the water front.

That's all for now, gang! I hope you enjoyed glancing through today's photo album. Tomorrow will be my final day in Stockholm. Come back soon for a Baltic wrap up!

Blog to you later!

Larry