Stockholm is full of museums. We took up the noble mission of improving our knowledge of Scandinavia, and visited three - the Vasa museum, the Nobel museum and Skansen. The Vasa museum is dedicated to a ship built by the Swedes in the 17th century. Skansen is an open air museum, somewhat of a mix between a zoo, a farm and a historical village. And obviously, the Nobel museum focussed on the Nobel prizes. All three museums were brilliant. They were all interesting, interactive and very well designed. Attractive and practical design is something that is present everywhere in Stockholm, and the people pride themselves on it immensely. Unfortunately, sometimes the practical aspect of design gets thrown out the window...

The Vasa was a ship that was commissioned to be built in 1625. She was to be the biggest, most beautiful ship in the Swedish naval fleet. Due to poor engineering, the Vasa sunk on her maiden voyage, before she had even left the harbour. A rather large blemish on Stockholm's reputation for good design! Later, in 1956, the Vasa was rediscovered lying on the ocean floor, incredibly well preserved due to the brackish water and lack of shipworms in the area. She was refloated and reconstructed over a period of tens of years. The museum contains the original ship, along with exhibitions on how she was built, discovered, refloated, restored and preserved. There was also information about the history surrounding the boat, why she sank and the people onboard. Fascinating stuff.

We managed to spend almost an entire day at Skansen. The museum is a collection of historical buildings from all over Scandinavia. In each building are people demonstrating traditional trades such as glassblowing, furniture making, baking bread and making cloth from flax. Part of the museum is dedicated to the native animals of Scandinavia, too. I saw my first moose.

After wandering through the old town one morning, we headed into the Nobel museum. We spend a few hours perusing exhibits on the history of the Nobel prizes and the acts and discoveries of people that have received them. Of interest was a video documenting the Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2005, which was awarded to Professor Barry Marshall and Doctor Robin Warren from UWA. Both Aisha and I attend(ed) UWA.

Besides visiting museums in Stockholm, we also met up with an Aussie mate on exchange there, spent a good deal of time shopping, meandered around the streets and sampled Sweden's awesome lollies and icecream. Most excellent.

My new boots - a result of shopping in Stockholm

Location