sightseeing in stockholm

As I alluded to in my last post, I did finally have the opportunity to do some sightseeing in Stockholm!  Last weekend, Julia (another science teacher) and I made our way by bus across the country to explore the capital city.  You can find pictures of our adventures on Picasa: https://picasaweb.google.com/100364241331133834764/Stockholm#.

We arrived on Friday evening, staying the night at Långholmen, a jailhouse turned hostel. Our adventures began the following day as we wandered over to Gamla Stan, the old part of Stockholm.  This section of town houses many narrow, winding alleyways and quaint shops.  We arrived well before many of the shops had opened, so we had the streets to ourselves. 

After getting our fill of Gamla Stan, we moved on to Skansen, a 75 acre open-air museum that contains buildings dating back to the 19^th century.  While there, we enjoyed visiting a number of places like the bakery, printshop, general store, hardware store, schoolhouse and zoo. 

The Vasa Museum was next up.  The Vasa was a ship that sailed for a total of 25 minutes before a strong wind tipped her over.  Three hundred years after its sinking, an amateur archaeologist discovered it in Stockholm’s harbor.  It was surprisingly well-preserved because the cold water and lack of worms.  The statistics varied in the museum, but the ship is made of somewhere between 95 to 98% original wood.  It really was an impressive sight, but I found the story behind the ship to be a little silly.  What an engineering disaster!

After the Vasa Museum, Julia and I headed over the Swedish Palace where the king lives.  Upon arriving at the palace, we both had a bit of a laugh because we walked right past it earlier that day.  The building looks similar to many others in Stockholm, aside from the guards standing around it.  As the palace is situated on the edge of Gamla Stan, Julia and I returned to the old town to find a nice café. 

The following day, we continued our adventures in Stockholm at the Nordic Museum.  In the museum, we enjoyed seeing a variety of displays about Swedish textile, Swedish housing, Swedish apples, Swedish weaving, and Swedish traditions.  (Perhaps the museum needs to be called the Swedish Museum, rather than the Nordic Museum?) 

Upon leaving the museum, Julia and I serendipitously came across the royal marching band.  We followed the parade back to the palace before finding our way back to central station.  All in all, it was a really lovely weekend and I appreciated having the opportunity to familiarize myself with Swedish culture a little more.  The weekend also provided a welcomed break from schoolwork. 

The sun is now shining here in Borås.  As this is becoming a rare occurrence here, I will end this post now so I can go out to soak up some rays.  Hope you all are enjoying your autumn weekends!