War ship, Wildlife and Waterways

Day14 Friday 30 August

A full and fabulous day began with a modest breakfast and out the door by 9:45 to catch the Ferry across the road for the short trip to Djurgården island. Djurgården (Animal Garden) was formerly a garden hunting island for the king, but these days it is for the public to enjoy being home to an Amusement park, and several museums including the Vasa, ABBA, a Nordic, and Skansen which is one of Europes best ‘open air’ folk museums.

The sun was out with few clouds and makes such a difference to the predominately yellow palate of colours Stockholm has making everything seem so much brighter and more cheerful. Most of the photos you see in promotional material or on line are definitely colour enhanced – Stockholm is not as vibrant as they depict.

We planned to see two museums today – the Vasa and Skansen. The Vasa story is a bit like the Titanic. The glamorous and huge war ship built 1626-1628 for King Gustav to a Dutch ship builders design. It was 69m long by 50 tall and weighed 1200 tonnes. Sporting many elaborate sculptures and 64 cannons she was built to impress and put the fear into Swedens opposers. Vasa was not the biggest at the time, but the one with the most fire power. The designer was not confident in her design but the King insisted on her extra deck of cannons and skinny shape.

As it transpired she was too ambitious and top heavy and after travelling only 1500m on her maiden voyage a gust of wind made her list, the crew corrected, then a second gust hit and over and under she went. There were nearly 400 on board, not all perished fortunately. She sat in the harbour mud under water for 333 years before a careful and lengthy process to salvage her. the current site of the museum is close to where she lay.

On entering the dimly lit exhibit hall we were struck by her size and beauty. This admirations lasted for the next hour and a bit as we wandered through the various levels, taking in the the displays and the ship close up and from all angles. You cannot touch or go on the ship, but you circle it from top to bottom quite closely over 6 levels.

Displays included her salvage, a real size replica of a portion of the cannon deck which you could walk around, skeletons of deceased and their clothes and belongings with wax recreations and medical information such as nutrition, and health. The wax busts of the people were eerily realistic down to shiny eyes and pores of the skin. There was a lovely model of what she would have looked like when built – in light Japanese oak and the brightly coloured front and statues – quite a different view to the dark Pirates of the Caribbean ship in front of us.

By the time we had finished our viewing we were ready for a comfort stop and lunch so we popped next door to the cafe and were delighted by clean toilets and the best and cheapest dining we had in Sweden. We got a half serve of meatballs, mashed potato, pickles, lingon berries and cream sauce for (75 SEK), a cardamom bun (kanelbulle), coffee, and a fruit salad. Bread and spreads including tapenade and pesto mayo were free and self serve, as was good water and ice. All up it cost us only 240 SEK. The quality of the foods was high and better than what we had seen in more expensive restaurants in old town.

Swedish cuisine is simple, and often quite rich. The butter and cream load in the meatball dish was very high – and of course delicious. Balanced by the nice tart lingon and pickles. I think I make better meatballs, but these were the best we have tried so far. In the cabinets they had amazing open sandwiches with shrimp and mayo (skagen) piled high over boiled egg and a lettuce frill over nice brown seeded slices, and veal or salmon salads also reasonably priced. We chose the meatballs as I saw the chef in the open kitchen dishing up another meal and could tell by his handling that it was going to be good. Also this we could share and I had already eaten toast Skagen this morning.

Suitably fortified and not over full we walked about 10 minutes back towards the ferry wharf to Skansen. Founded in 1891, Skansen was the first in what became a Europe wide movement to preserve traditional architecture in open-air museums. It’s a huge park with a collection of more than 150 historic homes, churches, shops etc transplanted from all corners of Sweden including farm homesteads and Sami villages. They have people in traditional costume going about life as it were in the day and you can some their shops and home (if open). There is also a children’s zoo, and a section with Nordic animals, the latter being of particular interest to me.

On arrival you can take a tram up the hill to begin your exploration – which we did as we had plenty of walking yet to do. The size of the hill was a surprise as for some reason we thought the island was flat – so we certainly earned our 19,000 steps today. I really wanted to see the Elk (Moose) and Reindeer and was delighted to get fairly close. Reindeer look just like you expect but they smell real bad like koala pee. Almost put me off eating them…. the calves were cute and very white, and both the Reindeer and Elk were very lazy and fat. the grounds in the park had great areas for the animals – large enclosures, lots of trees and water and space. And because of this we didn’t get to see some of the others close up – but that’s ok, as I rather know they have good lives.

Other native wildlife included the great grey and eagle owls, lynx (gorgeous pointy ears), big brown bears, wolves, Norwegian Fjord and Gotland horses, grey and harbour seals (spotty like Dalmatians), otter, wild boar and Linderod pigs and a cool surprise – wolverines. I thought these were a fictional movie beast but they are real. Unfortunately they were sleeping and hiding so I didn’t get to see them so took a photo of their pen description.

There were other native ducks and chickens that we didn’t get to see as they were in the children’s zoo section. We did see a playful wild squirrel up close as we were enjoying the flowers and another not so shy cute little fantail like bird.

We really enjoyed our time there with the animals, flowers, and green open spaces. We went inside an old church called Seglora which was built in 1730. It was very beautiful in its wooden simplicity and these days it is a popular venue for weddings. We left at 4pm so we could make it across the water in time to catch a river cruise, stopping on the way outside the ABBA museum for me to join the team in a photo. Vern was too embarrassed and even struggled in shyness taking the photo of me LOL.

Stockholm city as mentioned is made up of several islands. Where we staying at Gamla Stan, one side is on the Baltic and one borders Lake Malaren – separated by lochs. The river cruise started at 5pm and we spent a relaxing two hours gliding around the Baltic and lake Malaren, up some residential and city canals and under lots of bridges. We saw lots of grand old buildings along the city water edge, quaint cottages on islands, cube apartment buildings and green wooded islands. There is even an inner city ski slope for winter time – as of course it gets very cold here with the peak of winter providing only a couple of hours day light each day.

We also passed the notable recycling plant, and heard about the proud restoration of city and the lake waters. Whilst the Baltic is a work in progress, they have restored Lake Malaren from unhealthy to a drinkable state (minimal purifying). Even though the temperature had dropped to about 17, there were lots of people out and about in boats and young people swimming in the lake, bombing off bridges and kayakers enjoying a northern summer evening.

Cruising is not only a very enjoyable past time, it provides a very different perspective to a place, like an outside looking in, and around. If I was to rate or judge Stockholm from inside old town or the centrum – city centre it would be incomplete without seeing how they fit in the bigger picture of the city life and surrounds. For example my judgement of city central is not that high – its a bit ugly and boring, and not as swanky or clean as I would of expected from a nation that is known for sleek and cutting edge Scandinavian design and innovative recycling technology. Helsinki beats it in that regard, and if I think of Rotterdam in the Netherlands – it is not a patch on it.

The 2hr cruise around a few of the city islands tied in with the experience of arriving through the archipelago and has broadened my view to Stockholm being a city of several islands – linked by many bridges, lots of green spaces and thousands of boats. That is the cool and unique character of this city and brings my rating overall higher.

Because the islands are relatively small, building has always been upwards. A lot of the residential building are apartments in the Scandinavian modern “Functional” design which comes under some criticism for being boring and somewhat ugly. A bit of love it or hate it. I think it is a bit ugly – but the lovers of the design think the large windows and spacious balcony invite the active outdoor and nature relationship the locals have. I am obviously spoilt with big windows in my home and spacious indoor outdoor living areas as I don’t think they are spacious at all. This is a reminder of how different it is here in Europe with the millions and millions of people living in smaller areas, and both informs and highlights our appreciation for what we have in Aussie and New Zealand in regards to space. However, if it works for them and they love it – that’s the important thing – not my pampered opinion.

We would certainly recommend the river cruise for a rounded experience and scenic relaxing time. The boats by the way are a lot nicer than Russia, modern, clean big windows, nicely padded seats and good English commentary. By the time we got back we were a bit cold – despite having moved from the back deck to the inside. So we swung by the hotel to get changed before heading out to dinner. We chose the Vegetarian again (which is Armenian owned so I found out) for a couple of reasons – very well priced, good to get a big vegetable intake, and we had such a delicious lunch for a great price we feared we would be disappointed with anything else at twice the price! After a nice meal, which we didn’t over eat this time we completed our evening by strolled home enjoying the evening smells, sounds and subdued lights on cobbles.

We did happen to fall into the Coop market and therefore purchased a Rose cider (Pink apple cider from Sweden) and beer from Prague, plus a deodorant for less than what we could have purchased it at home – about NZD10 all up – well that is a plus to end the night on – as well as the wonderful flavours. They were very nice too, not too sweet.

It’s been a great time in Sweden – not too long, and not too short. My most memorable experience is coming through the archipelago on a perfect morning – very scenic. The people aren’t the warmest, and its not blown us away, but we are very pleased to have come. It it wasn’t so expensive we would probably have enjoyed it a bit more. Even though we have tried not to dwell on it and just suck it up as it where with the mantra “it is what it is”, it remains in the back of your mind down to the price of water!