A Visit from Family: Skansen

On our final morning in Stockholm almost ended in disaster. We had packed our bags and started lugging them down to the parking garage under the hotel when I discovered that my car remote didn't work to unlock the doors. "Hmm. I must need new batteries in the remote", I thought, "No big deal." We just used the key. Then the button to unlock the doors didn't work. That's when I suspected that something was wrong. Very, very wrong. I climbed into the driver's seat to try to start the car, and it was as dead as a fly at a spider convention. My morning suddenly looked very bleak. Until someone drove into the garage to fix something. A light sparked in my head, and I approached them to beg for a jump. My wonderful hubby had left our jumper cables in our car, and God had cleared spaces on either side of my car, so getting a jump was easy. Relief washed over me like rain as I realized my hopes for the day were not lost.

Once we finished loading up the car and checking out, we journeyed over to Skansen, an open-air museum that includes dozens of buildings, animals, shops, and more.

We started off in the direction of the bears, only stopping a few times along the way.




The kids looking and the (goat) kids.



The Soldier's Cottage, known as a Säldefall.

This little bison kept harassing the older one. "Come on, let's play!"



Then these two were head-butting. The little one seemed to be rooting for both.

 After viewing several other animals and stopping for a snack (my boys and I were hungry), we finally reached the bears, which were located at the far end of the park.

My three on the bear carving.

Hello, bears



Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?

 We journeyed on past other Scandinavian animals as we headed back into the park.



A moose



This was one of several reindeer, but this fellow had the largest horns by far. The others seemed to follow him around.



In the forground, there was an old hut of sorts. They call it the "Sami Camp." In the background, Stockholm

  Shortly after this, we split up. I wanted to look at more of the buildings, and the others wanted to go see the lemurs.


A peacock wandering around one of the buildings.




An old spinning wheel in one of the farmstead buildings.

  After viewing some old farmstead buildings, H and I happened across a playplace.



I thought these sheep were so cute. H liked them, too.




H sitting on top of a mushroom




Playing in the sand and oven/fireplace.

 After a short while, we left the playplace to continue our journey toward the entrance, where we had agreed to meet. I came across some old stores, where I started to take pictures before H began pilfering garden tools.


Some interesting old pots, pans, pitchers, and more on display behind the counter.




H playing with a watering can in front of an old heating stove.

We left the store, leaving everything in its place, despite H's protests, and we headed toward some other buildings in the "Town Quarter." We visited a bakery, a pottery store, and a couple of other places before I realized we needed to move it to get back in time to meet the rest of our gang.

A woman making a bowl at the pottery store. They had some beautiful items for sale. Too bad we are moving.

I found myself at the edge of the park, so I took a picture of the view across the way.

H and I headed down an escalator which brought us near the entrance. I even beat everyone else there. H and I walked to the Skansenbutiken to browse while we waited, then we walked toward the entrance again. Everyone was there this time, so we walked to the car, loaded up, and headed home.