Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Kids love Skansen, where they can ride a life-size wooden
Dala
-horse and
stare down a hedgehog, visit Lill' Skansen (a children's zoo), and take a mini-
train or pony ride.
Eating at Skansen:
The most memorable meals are at the small folk food
court on the main square,
Bollnastorget.
Here, among the duck-filled lakes,
frolicking families, and peacenik local toddlers who don't bump on the bump-
er cars, kiosks dish up “Sami slow food” (smoked reindeer), waffles, hot dogs,
and more. There are lots of picnic benches—Skansen encourages
picnicking.
(A small grocery store is tucked away across the street and a bit to the left
of the main entrance.) For a sit-down meal, three eateries share a building
just up the hill inside the main entrance: Skansen's primary restaurant,
Sol-
liden,
serves a big
smörgåsbord
lunch in a grand blue-and-white room (310
kr, June-Aug daily 12:00-16:00);
Tre Byttor Taverne
captures 18th-century
pub ambience with an à la carte menu (June-Aug daily 12:00-21:00, shorter
hours off-season); and the
Skansen Terrassen
cafeteria offers less-expens-
ive self-service lunches with a view (90-kr daily specials; mid-June-mid-Aug
daily11:00-19:00,shorterhoursoff-season).Nearby,theold-time
StoraGun-
gan Krog,
right at the top of the escalator, is a cozy inn; their freshly baked
cakes will tempt you (80-160-kr indoor or outdoor lunches—meat, fish, or ve-
ggie—with a salad-and-cracker bar, daily 10:00-22:00, until 15:00 in winter).
Stockholm turned a titanic flop into one of Europe's great sightseeing at-
tractions. The glamorous but unseaworthy warship
Vasa
—top-heavy with an
extra cannon deck—sank 40 minutes into her 1628 maiden voyage when a
breeze caught the sails and blew her over. After 333 years at the bottom of
Stockholm's harbor, she rose again from the deep with the help of marine ar-
chaeologists. Rediscovered in 1956 and raised in 1961, this Edsel of the sea
is today the best-preserved ship of its age anywhere—housed since 1990 in
a brilliant museum. The masts perched atop the roof—best seen from a dis-
tance—show the actual height of the ship.
