Today's adventure: Skansen

It was so darn cold yesterday that our trip to Skansen was postponed until today, even though today ended up being colder than yesterday. After a few layers of long underwear, and the warmest outerwear we could find, we braved the relatively mild 26 degree weather for a day at the outdoor museum. (The wind was quite brutal yesterday, so we planned for the worst.) It doesn't help that Skansen is located on top of a large hill on Djurgarden, an island on the east side of Stockholm. It offers a nice view of the city, pictured here, but unfortunately the pictures don't really do the view justice. Djurgarden also is "the city's playground." The west side of the island is covered with museums, embassies, shops, a theme park and restaurants while the eastern side is covered in walking paths through a mixture of open grass areas and small forests. On a nice day you'll find people flocking to the island to get away from the enclosed streets of the city.

Skansen is the world's first outdoor museum, opened in 1891. It is a living history museum, showcasing life for the common Swede throughout the centuries. People are dressed in character, talking about all aspects of Swedish life. We visited shops from different eras, the houses of rich men, farmsteads from different areas of Sweden, open-air markets, school houses, and even the Nordic zoo which is also located in Skansen. A large portion of the buildings were closed for winter, but those that were open were quite informative. If you have a chance to visit, do your best to enter a building when Swedes are exiting, that way you can get the story in English. Otherwise you have to wait around, listening to a language you don't understand, hoping for a break so you can ask for a repeat in English.

The Nordic zoo was a bit of a letdown today. The moose (called elk in Sweden) were all resting and were missing a male. The brown bears were hibernating, the wolves were sleeping, the lynx was sleeping, the reindeer were there, but looked a bit sad, and we couldn't find the red fox. The wolverines were active, and the otters are always fun. It was kind of funny to see the otters walking around on a thin sheet of ice...looked way too cold to go for a swim though. Even though the animals were a bit reclusive, at least the Dala horses were fun.

We played a traditional Easter game for adults called Aggpickning (Egg picking). Each adult, armed with a hard boiled egg, brandishes the end of the egg towards the opponent and tries to crack the end of the opponent's egg without cracking his own egg. The game is played twice, once with each side of the egg. Miranda totally defeated me. The loser's spoil? I had to eat my egg...I hate hard boiled eggs. She was a good sport and ate the last half. Probably because she didn't want to see me throw up. I just realized, most people think museums are boring. If you've made it this far, you must be bored. Check out more pictures in the photo gallery, if you're up for it!