Stockholm Memories: Vasa and Skansen Museums

European bison at the Skansen

Mom and baby moose at the Skansen

My husband and I went on a Baltic cruise for our tenth anniversary last year. My favorite parts of Stockholm were the Vasa Museum, Skansen Open Air Museum and the surrounding waterways. I especially loved our sail out of Stockholm to Drottningholm Palace.

The Vasa Museum centers around a warship that sunk in 1628 and was refurbished starting in 1961. But I found all the other things in the museum of far more interest - the statues and reproductions of her hull and how she looked as she sailed out of Stockholm almost three hundred years ago.

Vasa Museum wall painting

My husband Moises at the Vasa Museum

Me at the Vasa

Reproductions of the hull ornamentation circa 1628

More information about the Vasa Museum can be found at this website:Visit the Vasa Museum

Carousel at the Skansen

After the Vasa, we visited the Skansen Open Air Museum, a combination small zoo and living history museum, showing the lives of Scandinavia in times past and includes shows and entertainment. The museum is 120 years old.



 More information can be found on the Skansen open air museum at:Explore the Skansen Open Air Museum

I found this youtube video which I think is especially good about both the Vasa and Skansen Museums.

  


But our favorite part of that day was the view we had while up on the hill in Skansen, looking out over the water. We were hot and tired and had just bought two bottles of water and dreamed of the wonderful lunch we would have later at a Hotel in Gamla Stan (the old part of the city.) I had the traditional smorgasbord, makes my mouth water just thinking of it. 

We ate lunch at the Grand Hotel, with fabulous service and amazing surroundings. For additional information on Swedish smorgasbord, check out:
Swedish classic: the smorgasbord
or 
information on the Grand Hotel:
Grand Hotel Stockholm

View from the Skansen