September 26-27, Weekend #2 in Stockholm

We had a busy weekend.

First, on Saturday we attended a performance of (mostly) Bach choral music. This was held in the Adolf Fredriks Kyrka.

The choir was spectacular.

After the concert we walked around the old town and while it was gray, there was plenty of activity in the colorful old shops.

On Sunday we visited Djurgarden, a large park on an island connected to the downtown area.

All these photos were taken from the bridge over to Djurgarden.

I like this one in particular since it shows some of the wonderful old buildings facing the harbor.

From Djurgarden looking back to the bridge.

The Museum of Nordic History located on Djurgarden. You can't really see it in this shot but the spire has bits and pieces of gold on it that really stand out in the sun.

The park is very large and some if it contains walking trails through the woods and along the water.

Other areas such as the one to the left are well manicured. This reminds me of the kind of public gardens you see in British Columbia.

The reason for walking out to Djurgarden was to visit Skansen. Skansen, the world's oldest outdoor museum, gathers together houses and artifacts that illustrate the lifestyles of people from different times and different parts of Sweden. Actual villages were torn down and brought here to be reassembled.

Special events are held throughout the year at Skansen and this weekend was the autumn holiday market and "potato festival". The potato festival sounded promising: bring your potato and have its type identified, making potato prints, taste potatoes cooked every conceivable way, and best of all potato carving. In fact it turned out to be a bit of a bust with just a few little stands displaying potatoes.

While the potatoes were a bust, there were lots of other things to see.

To the left is an old manor house.

An old carpenters house. One of many houses at Skansen with roofs in need of mowing.

The autumn market proved more interesting than the potato festival. There were minstrals, dances, animals for the kids to pet, and stalls selling food and crafts.

At Skansen they not only recreate the period buildings but also have people in period dress illustrating how life was back then (e.g. in a number of the houses people were baking traditional foods).

So Skansen is a bit of a human zoo. But it also has an animal zoo. We didn't spend much time exploring this but did see a few Swedish natives.

A (non-marzipan) moose.

It wouldn't be Sweden without reindeer.

A Sami hut in a recreated Sami village.

Some views of Stockholm from Skansen:

Folk dancing.

A couple of the different building styles at Skansen.

Hej!