After resting my feet (note to self - do not wear heeled shoes when you will be doing a lot of walking!) and getting a bit of sleep, we got up bright and early, ready to make the most of the day and the lovely sunny weather which had finally arrived! We nipped downstairs for some breakfast and then headed out to the waterfront just in time to catch the morning fog lifting and the sun coming through.
Our hostel was right on the waterfront so we walked past all the boats and enjoyed feeling warmth on our faces for the first time in what seemed like months. We were staying just around the corner from the Royal Palace so we had a little peek through the gates and tried to inconspicuously take photos of the soldiers standing guard.
As it was such a lovely day and we didn't want to waste it being stuck inside we headed over to Skansen, the world’s oldest open-air museum situated on the island of Djurgården. The aims of the museum are to bring the traditional rural culture to life by exhibiting furnished houses and farmsteads, cultivated plots and gardens and both domestic and wild animals. I was sold as soon as I read that there was a zoo with Scandinavian animals!
Once you climb the hill and get inside you realise that Skansen is actually huge, 75 acres in fact! There are houses from all through the centuries built in their original form and actors dressed up going about the daily lives of people at that time. It was fascinating to see and speak to some of them and learn about traditional Swedish industry and life. Inside one of the houses they had a table laid out with traditional Easter decorations, including these pretty painted eggs.
The museum is high on a hill in the park and has some amazing views out over Stockholm.
It was so easy to forget that you were in a capital city, it felt like you had travelled back in time and were wandering through the Swedish countryside.
Because it was Easter they had a special market set up in the centre, it was surrounded by a picnic area where they had big barbecue pits that people could use if they had brought sausages and burgers to cook. It looked and smelt wonderful, unfortunately we hadn't got anything to cook for ourselves so had a peak at some of the market stalls.
Then it was on to the main attraction, the Scandinavian animals! They had reindeer, lynx, wolverine, moose, bears, foxes and owls. Some of the animals were doing a good job at hiding away from all the tourists but I managed to get some snaps of some of them.
Randomly there was also a monkey zoo at Skansen as well but you had to pay extra to get in so we gave it a miss. I was sorely tempted to pay the extra £12 just to be able to get this close to these monkeys though!
After a jam packed day marvelling at all the traditional Swedish houses and animals we headed back, getting some pretty amazing views out over the canals on the way.
That evening we just went and got Thai food (my leftovers of which someone then stole from the fridge, dammit) and planned our exciting trip for the next day…
