Stockholm - The Old and the New

After some research and lots of consternation, we found the visitor information center and purchased a city pass that should allow us to use all public transportation and get into most museums at no additional charge or at a reduced rate.  Today we used the card on a tram and a boat and got into an open air museum.

Stockholm is built on 14 islands and the islands are connected by 50 bridges. St. Eric is the patron saint of Stockholm even though he is not an ordained saint, he is beloved and deserving of the title.  ABBA is the famous band of Sweden and even though they disbanded in 1982 they are the third best selling music behind the Beattles and Elvis. There are over 9 million people in Sweden with most of them in the Stockholm region. The canals freeze in the winter so people can walk or skate on them and in the summer the 8000 km of shoreline is lined with 1 million boats.

The tour boat took us on an historic canal tour around Kungsholmen Island or Kings Island which was first occupied in 1672 by the king of the time. The City Hall of Stockholm is not only a place of business but also where Noble Prize winners are honored, banquets are held and is a huge tourist attraction. It was built in 1923 and is undergong renovations now. The tower holds the symbol of the the city - three gold crowns.

Other sites on the island were an old hospital that is now apartments, a sports palace, Alfred Nobel's home, and the place where ABBA was born. There were 'alotments' or garden plots, a prison where prisoners would spin wool to make army uniforms and is now a youth hostell, and the original distillery for Absolute Vodka. Across from the island is a palace that is now a military acadamy and a brewery that is now offices.

During the afternoon we took a tram out to the Djurgarden Island to take in the Skansen, an open air living museum that shows what Sweden was like in the 1700's and 1800's. Homes and buildings have been moved to this island and set up in a community with people dressed in period clothing to tell you or show you how things were done in those years. I found the homes to be quite interesting. The earliest ones had no furniture except for benches and beds attached to the walls, they had floor to ceiling, tile covered, wood burning fireplaces to heat the homes. During the winters every family, servants and animals lived in one building. The church ceiling was hand painted as were the walls in many of the homes. The church also had a working pipe organ.

We had a traditional Swedish dinner tonight.  See if you can guess what we had: rimmad oxbringa and stekt agg.  Give up?  Beef brisket hash and fried meat hash.  Good comfort food for a rainy evening.  Yes it is raining but at least we were done sightseeing for the day.