Skansen – Stockholm

Anyone else caught in a perpetual daydream about travel and past adventures at the moment?   I think for me started with the first lock down here in the UK, and has probably been exacerbated by the second lockdown that started yesterday…   I have come to realise that whilst we might not actually be going anywhere all that soon, we can still dream and plan…

There are still plenty of places that I have travelled to fairly recently, that for some reason or another I didn’t get around to writing about so  I can do a little bit of mind travelling to last years adventures to Singapore and Savannah, and – somewhere else beginning with S –  Skansen in Stockholm…   Stockholm is somewhere I would actually like to revisit really soon.  It might not be huge, but there’s plenty to see and do…

Our first visit was primarily to spend time with friends there, but during our few days we managed to pack a lot in, including a big midsummer feast of crayfish and schnapps at our friends’ apartment overlooking the city!!

We also spent a great morning at the imaginative home of Pippi Longstocking – Junibacken, as well as exploring Gamla Stan and a really memorable day spent on The Feather Islands (Fjäderholmarna).  I had no idea that Stockholm is home to one of the World’s largest archipelagos, did you?….   Perhaps my favourite Stockholm sojourn of them all though was our day spent at Skansen  – the biggest (and one of the oldest) open-air museums in the World.

Some of you might recall my obsession with these kind of museums (I still blame How We Used to Live – if anybody remembers that?!)  I think if I added up the entirety of the time we lived in Denmark, I bet you at least a quarter of that would have been spent at the Frilaands Museet just up the road from our house…  In Bavaria (where they are also quite good at this kind of place) we frequented the Bauernhof Museum in Schliersee, a much smaller alpine affair, which despite its size, still came with a fully operation Brewery – it is in Germany after all…

Skansen differs from both in that it’s quite a lot older (having first opened in 1891), and features over 150 houses, buildings and farmsteads.   There’s also a vintage fairground, a little zoo, and gardens that stretch out across thirty hectares.

Situated on historical Djurgården,  you really should set aside a whole day to explore.    Start out at the Hazelius entrance and take the  Funicular Train up (Skansen is perched high up at 45 metres above sea level, so you get the most amazing view of the city).  When we visited, we found it to be a slightly quieter entrance (plus the little funicular was a big hit with the children).   Of course, I am talking about a visit in pre-Covid times here, so you might find that things are a lot quieter generally, and opening hours may differ for a while (it’s usually open 365 days a year from 7am to 7pm, and there are a few celebration days where it’s open a lot later)…

Skansen takes you on a time-travelling journey through the centuries.    The buildings were selected from various periods of time (from roughly 1720 to modern times), scooped up from all over Sweden, rebuilt and furnished accordingly.   The staff are dressed in keeping with the time that their particular building hails from, and they are on hand generally to give you the history of the place, and give you an insight into life in those times.

The buildings vary wildly across Skansen.   Don’t just expect to find houses and farmsteads, there’s a fully functioning town complete with a book bindery, saddlery, bank, printers, a bakery selling all manner of sweet Swedish goodies,  a small traditional cafe, a school, pottery studio and an ironmongers amongst other things.    Most of these buildings are fully operational, and the staff have been employed because they are bakers, ironmongers, bookbinders etc, in “real life”…

We managed to cover an awful lot of Skansen when we were there, and some parts of it really stick in my memory – the more unusual (like the giant Bellfry – in older times in Sweden, the Bellfries were separate from the church buildings) as well as the more day to day such as the family houses with various decor depending on how wealthy the owners were, and the kind of era that they came from.    The children really enjoyed the school building and comparing it to school life today.   The sweet wooden building with its rows of desks felt a lot less intimidating than English schools from the same era.

Obviously, we had to take a fika break at the little historical cafe – home to quite possibly the best cinnamon bun (kanelbullar) I have ever had in my life.   Should we ever live in Stockholm, I would quite like to get a job at Skansen, and if I could choose, I would definitely work here (because of the buns!)…

We also spent quite a lot of time exploring the zoo with our youngest, which is definitely an area that you should head to with smaller children.   The bunny section is great fun – you can stand underneath their enclosure, and stick your head up through plastic bubbles to get a closer look at them whilst they eye you back inquisitively.   Skansen also features many smaller wild creatures native to Sweden, and a couple of the domestic variety too – look out for the slightly bizarre cat section featuring a special area where it’s tradition for small Swedish children to hand over their dummies when they are considered too big for them.     In Denmark, this ritual is mainly seen in the city parks, where Danish children bid farewell to their babyhood by giving up their once loved dummies and hanging them from the branches.  I have to say I preferred this slightly bonkers Swedish version of the same tradition which involved a special machine with bells and whistles with which to say goodbye – the cats seemed oblivious by the way!…

The animal section also has a great little car ride for smaller members of the family, and a brilliant interactive playground nearby…As is the case generally with a lot of Scandinavia, everything has been done with children in mind, so whilst you might want to spend time looking at something they might not be so interested in, you can guarantee that not too far away, there will be something aimed at them specifically that you can blackmail them with…

You are more than welcome to bring your own picnics to Skansen to make a day of it by the way, but there are plenty of eating and drinking options otherwise…  If you do happen to bring your own picnic, do make sure to save a few crumbs for the resident wildlife.   I have never seen such tame tiny wild birds in my entire life, and when we talk about our visit to Skansen nowadays, feeding the birds was a real highlight for my older two in particular…

I really love how the lines of time are blurred in places like these.   You might leave Skansen’s 18th-century pharmacy, only to spot an ancient runestone outside for example, or explore a turn of the century mansion before investigating a 16th-century grass-roofed cottage next door.   It has to be the best and most interactive way to learn about history and Swedish life at the time…

If you happen to be visiting during the Midsummer celebrations, word has it that Skansen is THE place to be, and locals queue up during the day to get in with their picnics…   I would also really love to see it decorated for Christmas, and by all accounts, the New Year’s Eve celebrations here are very special.    Whenever you visit Stockholm though, do include a day at Skansen, I promise it will be a highlight of your visit…

Talking of which…  If a visit to Stockholm is high on your bucket list when travel starts up again, and you would like to really get to know the place, you could always opt for one of Original Travel’s Stockholm Itineraries.      Original Travel Europe will happily create a customised Swedish itinerary crafted by destination experts from their European Team– it has the inside scoop on seeing Sweden at its best across all seasons and backdrops.   By travelling with them you can enjoy a wealth of additional services that you wouldn’t find with another UK tour operator making for a stress-free Sweden adventure.   Every client has access to a network of 70-plus well-connected Concierges who live locally, and know their destinations inside and out. Every trip booked with Original Travel includes UK airport meet and greet, fast track UK check-in, fast track UK security, lounge access, and pre-booked flight seats.

Our last trip before the first lockdown was our weekend in London with my older two thanks to Original Travel.   We spent the morning on a brilliant behind the scenes tour of the British Museum, before a wonderful guided tour of Soho and Covent Garden with another expert guide, and I will definitely use them for future trips.

In these days when travel seems all that more precious, I want some kind of guarantee that every aspect of anyt travel experience is perfect, and I think you really get that with Original Travel.