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Published: January 2nd 2022
When my sister and I were trying to see each other after two years, initially Sweden was closed to Americans and UAE residents. The week before our Greece trip, the restrictions suddenly changed, so I decided to keep our Greece plans and go to Sweden after for a week.
My sisters and I took a quick trip to Stockholm back in 2004, when our other sister was studying in Finland. We had taken the ferry from Helsinki to Talinn Estonia for a few days stay, then an overnight ferry to Stockholm for a two night stay. Our ferry crossing then was memorable in that it was very rough seas. My sister I am seeing now has notoriously horrible motion sickness and she took dramamine pretty much immediately to pass out, but my other sister and I opted to try to ride it out, she by sitting on the upper deck. While she was gone, I was reading in bed, my head facing toward the bow; I felt us go up over a huge wave and dive back down, bring bile up my throat. I was fine, but thought,
wow, I can see how people get sick - just then I
heard cabins above, beside and across from me as people ran to their toilets to puke. My sister came in looking green and I said,
just puke, everyone else has! Anyway, this time was a bit more sedate!
My sister and her husband met me at the airport and we took a direct train into the city and had a short walk to their new apartment, which was quite impressive. We had a light lunch at a local café which was typical Swedish fare. Then we walked toward the seafront and thru the Statehouse which was actually performing a ceremony. Throughout the week, I mostly enjoyed time with the family. My sister isn't working for the first time in 15 years and is enjoying her time as "housefrau". She was making delicious foods, including yummy Swedish pancakes in the morning. While the kids were in school, we made a few adventures.
Vasa Museum This is Stockholm's most popular museum and we were curious why, so we headed there one morning. And it was actually amazing!
The Vasa was a ship commissioned and constructed by King Gustavus Adolfus in 1628, but it sank 1,300m into her
maiden voyage, being blown over by a stiff wind. The ship was recovered from the harbor in the 1950's. When you first walk in, your gaze immediately goes to the giant shop, and you notice how high it goes. The museum is ultimately seven levels, giving you good glimpses of the ship at various locations.
On the main level, we saw a replica of what the ship would have looked like, completely with colors and sculptures. Then we went into a small exhibit taking about women during this time period, how some of them contributed or were even invested directly in the ship building industry. There were possibly two women in the boat when it sank. Then there is a side room which shows a map of Scandinavia during the time period and where in the harbor the Vasa sank. At other locations on this level are artifacts recovered from the sea floor and the demonstrations of how they were recovered.
The next level has a little room that goes over the background of how and why the boat was constructed and the sinking, and who may have been responsible. The ship was to be built with a
second gun deck, to compete with other naval ships in the region. However, they neglected to account for the heavy upper level by not accounting for extra width of the hull or proper ballast. This made her top heavy. To the point when they held an exercise having 30 men sprint from one side of the top deck to the other, they were told to stop because the ship was in danger of turning over. And yet they considered her still seaworthy!
The additional levels showed the sculptures up close, as well as items that were either on the ship or were typical of the time period, a replica of the interior and a cross section of the ship. Then we ended our visit in the nice cafeteria where I got a Swedish meatballs dish. Very, very well done!
Junibacken Museum We took the younger kids to the very popular Junibacken Museum, which is based on multiple children's authors, but mostly on Astrid Lindgren. The first (Storybook Square) and second (Exhibit hall) rooms are set up to represent a lot of the kids' stories, with lots to play on or in. There is also a Storybook train
which goes thru the very sad Brothers Lionheart book (no pictures, but very worth it) and drops you off upstairs at the replica of Pippi Longstocking's house. Here we had (free) tickets to watch a play re-enacting part of the story. There are other rooms just before the well stocked gift / book shop that also walked you thru parts of Pippi's story. Another well done place where we spent most of our day.
Skansen Museum The Skansen opened in 1891 and was the world's first open air museum. The founders purchased various types of traditional houses around the country, shipped them to Stockholm and reassembled them to set up a traditional village, but walks you thru multiple time periods and even group types, such as the Sami people. The Sami camp has a few different building types with specific functions. Buildings come from all parts of the country and in different times. For instance, the Eksharad Farmhouse comes from the Swedish Mountains in Varmland in the late 19th century and was the first two-storey house built in that area. The Soldier's Cottage comes from the 19th century and is typical of the time where farmers were obligated
to provide soldier housing, food and uniform. The Mora Farmstead includes multiple buildings that come from the 16th century or even earlier.
There are areas that also have the traditional industries performed in some of these buildings, such as printing, upholstery, apothecary, etc. The main one open at our time and impressive as well was the glass blowing workshop, where you could watch them work and they had a very nice gift shop where we just wanted to buy everything.
In addition to the buildings, they also had a small zoo of indigenous animals, such as Moose, reindeer, seals, bison, brown bears,etc. It was very cool. There were also typical farming techniques, products, and typical farm animals you could observe. Really, you could a learn here, and we even saw a large gathering of high school students here for a field trip. Very educational and another well done Swedish museum!
Gamla Stan One night we all ventured out to explore the city, following my niece's gymnastics class. We walked to the popular Gamla Stan neighborhood, which is the old part of town, with many of the buildings more than 300 years old. This used to be
the poor part of town, but regentrification has made it the cool place to be. With cobblestone streets, boutique stores and cafes, as well as the Nobel museum, there is much to see just walking around. I was a bit sad as the Christmas markets would be starting just after I left, but they were already starting to set up and it looked be a lovely location. I also came to this neighborhood to get my Covid test - everyone was so nice here!
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Sweden
It is great you are exploring the world. Thanks for sharing parts of the 2004 trip with your sister. Great memories.