#640 Swedish Smorgasbord

The food celebration continues in Sweden with a traditional Swedish smorgasbord.

We started with cold foods - bread, eggs with caviar, salmon, herring, eels, cheese, liver pate, sausages - and moved onto hot foods including ribs, boiled potatoes and, of course, Swedish meatballs.

Yours in eating well,
Mary

#639 Skansen in Stockholm

Our first stop in Sweden is Skansen, the world's first outdoor museum.

Skansen contains homes, workshops, and stores from five centuries of Swedish history.

 

And this beautiful bicycle wheel macrame:

 

Yours in appreciation of preservationists,

Mary

#638 Vasa Museum

Have you visited the Steamboat Arabia Museum in Kansas City?

The Arabia hit a snag and sank near Kansas City in 1856.  It was re-discovered more than 100 years later in 1988 and the artifacts are available for viewing in a Kansas City museum.

The Vasa Museum in Stockholm is a lot like that.  Sort of.  The Vasa first set sail in 1628, a couple centuries before the Arabia.  It was too top heavy and sank on its maiden voyage.  It was re-discovered 3 centuries later and the artifacts are available for viewing in this Stockholm museum.

 

To avoid the long lines at the most visited museum in Scandinavia, we arrive soon after opening and walk right up to the front door. 

The Swedish king may have shown some excessive pride when he ordered the building of the Vasa with its 64 cannons and hundreds of ornate carvings.  As a work of art it was wildly successful.  Its lack of seaworthiness gave us this glimpse into 17th-century Nordic culture. 

Yours in comparing sunken ships,
Mary