Saturday the weather was to be much better, so I bought a Stockholm pass and thought to do the hop on hop off. It did not start so well. I and an increasingly cranky people waited at the bus stop for over an hour. Three of the other company’s busses passed by in the time it took for one of ours. At the first practical point, I hopped off and transferred to the boat line and headed for Djurgaten and Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde. Djurgaten is a largely forested island with a small bit of commercialization at one tip.
The sky did clear and Waldemarsudde was wonderful. It was the first royal home I could actually picture myself living in. It was cozier than most and had a deep connection to the surrounding nature. The Prins himself was both a painter, and a collector. There are painting in the downstairs rooms that are still furnished as rooms, while the upstairs is a gallery. I enjoyed the exhibit of mostly landscapes
Being mid-afternoon, the Café at Waldemarsudde was a perfect choice of a beautiful landscape and one of those amazing Swedish sandwiches. Tried a local fizzy lemonade/raspberry drink and enjoyed it.
Heading back to the boat dock, I decided to stop and visit Skanska, the open-air museum of Nordic life. Like the cultural museum in Pakistan, they had brought whole houses, farm community buildings and Sami camps, relocating them to the museum for preservation. The farm animals were local breeds and I have to say, “Sorry, Patches, the spotted Swedish piglets are cuter.”
There were Nordic animals too, no lions or tigers, but yes, to bears, lynx, wolverine, wolf, moose and (you want me to type squirrel don’t you) reindeer. It was the perfect afternoon to be out and enjoying the sun. On the way back, I stopped at the restaurant on the water. The goat cheese toast was not as successful as the mushroom and I didn’t really care. I did leave a few things still to do in the event that I get invited to World Water Week again.
