Winter Trip to Skansen

 Yesterday we went to Skansen, which is Stockholm's version of Weald & Downland Museum / Beamish (delete depending on whether you are from south or north). It has a huge selection of old swedish buildings which have been dismantled and moved there. It's one of Stockholm's main tourst spots and apparently very popular with the locals too for Walpurgis & Midsummer. Wandering around outdoors in Sweden in the winter for several hours is not the most sensible of options, but it was good to see trees and countryside rather than just more city. No bears in the zoo bit they have, because they are sensible and were hibernating. Nor did we get a chance to visit the petting zoo and stroke the hedgehogs - (interesting choice of not very stroke-able animal that one).

As you would imagine, the material of choice for traditional swedish buildings is timber, often with a chunky stone plinth to keep the timber off the wet ground. This rather romantic looking building is one of the oldest buildings there - an old storehouse from the 16th century. Most farms had a seperate store for all their tools and valubles - then if they had a fire and burnt the house down, at least the store would be OK.




This exotic looking rocket ship is simply a bell-tower for a church - the church burnt down and the bell-tower was shipped off to Skansen. The legs are covered with timber shingles - I guess to protect the legs and lengthen their lifespan.


Anyway, enough of the nerdy building stuff - I'll try to get Charlotte to write the next post.