One of the areas that every visitor to Stockholm must explore is the island of Djurgården, home to many different museums, monuments, historical buildings, an amusement park, and the open air museum Skansen.
We dedicated a whole day to spend in Skansen. One part of this large park is the zoo featuring Scandinavian animals, such as reindeer, elk and moose, bear, wild boar, wolves, wolverines, and many others.
The other major part of Skansen is the open air living history museum with various different exhibits including old-fashioned village houses, farms, and a settlement featuring life in Sweden in 1800s with various re-enactors dressed in traditional period clothing, demonstrating various arts and crafts.
We couldn't miss the bakery demonstration on making Swedish flat bread. It was interesting to compare the Swedish flat bread to Norwegian lefse. Although the steps in making the breads seemed similar, the breads are very different. The dough for the Swedish flat bread contains wheat flour, rye flour, yeast, sugar, and anise seed.
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One of the museums that we visited in Djurgården was the Vasa museum. Vasa was a 17th century warship, the largest built at that time. Despite some reported structural problems, Vasa sailed for its first test run, as the king was eager to show the ship off. However, several minutes after it sailed, Vasa sank, as bewildered spectators on a shore watched on. Because the ship was so large, it sat underwater until very recently when using modern technology it was lifted out of the water and repaired to display in the museum.
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My daughter's favorite place in Stockholm was Junibacken, a children's museum and amusement park, dedicated to the stories of Astrid Lindgren, such as Karlsson-on-the-Roof and Pippi Longstocking. The main feature is the story train that goes through various scenes from the fairy tales. In the waiting room before the story train begins, there are fun interactive setups from the stories that the kids can play on as well as an exhibit about the life of Astrid Lindgren.
At the end of the story train is a reconstruction of Pippi's house, Villa Villekulla. Also at Junibacken there are other playgrounds, a cafe with a spectacular view of Stockholm across the water, and a large bookstore with Astrid Lindgren's works.
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One of the most special sites we visited on our trip was Birka, an island located on the Lake Mälaren, outside Stockholm. Birka was one of the oldest towns in Sweden, and one of the earliest Viking settlements founded around the 8th century. It was an important trading center at that time. For unknown reasons, Birka was abandoned as a settlement 200 years later. Today it is an important archeological site and a national park.
There is a fabulous museum that displays exhibits on Viking life at Birka.
Nearby is a recreation of Viking boats, and a reconstructed village with traditional style houses and craftsmen demonstrating their skills to visitors.
There are hiking trails throughout the island leading to important archeological sites such as ancient burial mounds. The beauty and quiet of this island is awe inspiring.
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Along with learning about Swedish and Viking history and culture, we also explored traditional Swedish cuisine by visiting two of the classic restaurants in Gamla Stan.
Den Gyldene Freden is the oldest tavern in Sweden, opened in 1722. The atmosphere and the spirit of the restaurant remains unchanged , giving the diners a terrific experience of a typical 18th century tavern. The name of the restaurant means "Golden Peace" referring to the famous peace of Nystad in 1721, the year before the restaurant was opened. The food served in Den Gyldene Freden is traditional rustic Swedish home cooking with a modern twist.
We started our meal with a tasting of three kinds of herrings with various toppings. We really enjoyed the experience of comparing the different herrings side by side. The pickled Matjes herring reminded us of the herring we had in Denmark, while the salted Matjes was very similar to the herring we sampled in Norway. The Baltic herring was a classic Swedish style, served with cream and lingonberries. This course also included "XO Prästost” cheese, a creamy semi-soft traditional Swedish cheese made from cow's milk, originally produced by only priests in churches from 16th to 19th century.
For our main course, we had to try the classic Swedish meatballs that had been on the Den Gyldene Freden's menu from the beginning. There were delicious, served with cucumbers, lingonberries and cream sauce.
A light dessert of petit fours chocolates was just the perfect way to end our meal here.
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Fem Små Hus is a traditional Swedish restaurant that has been open since 1969. To construct this restaurant five houses were connected together, and this is why the restaurant was named Fem Små Hus, or "five small houses". Some of the dishes from the original menu are still served, such as Kalvfilé Anna Lindberg (veal fillet), named after the restaurant's original owner.
We tried two different 3-course menus. The menu "Anna Lindberg" featured Gravlax, marinated salmon, with mustard sauce as a first course.
The main course was the classic Fillet of Veal Anna Lindberg served with morel sauce and potato gratin.
A delicate Vanilla Pannacotta with Passionfruit was the dessert course.
The second menu we tried was the menu "Gamla Stan". This menu started with a Bleak Roe, served with a toast, sour cream, red onions, and chives.
The tender and delicious Fillet of Reindeer with Mushroom Cream was accompanied by a port wine sauce, scrumptious potato croquette and lingonberries.
Finally, the dessert on this menu was Vanilla Ice-cream with Raw Strirred Cloudberries and Cream. The combination of ice-cream and cloudberries was wonderful.
We really enjoyed our culinary experience at this classic Stockholm restaurant.
