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[chezp]

Thursday 7 July – part seven: meeting the native Scandinavian wildlife!

We passed the herb garden:




and the Alvros farmstead:




which dates from 500 years ago and the main market square area:



It was there that we came across our first encounter with wildlife here and this really was wild:



We just stood there, not really wanting to get in their way and let them pass. After going through the Mora farmstead:




we were into the animal area, first the farm pasture:



and then into the zoo area, which was wonderful. Our first sighting was the seals, but we would see more of them later on:



and then the otters:



and then we found out where the rest of the seals were – they weren’t stupid. They were lying out in the sun:



Now I don’t know about you, but I have never seen an elk before and I was fascinated by those creatures, especially as we were able to get so close to them and, as for the baby elk, they were just adorable. Mark quickly spotted that I was falling in love with them and immediately told me that we weren’t having one. Spoilsport!










By now, we were at the far edge of the park from where we came in and that gave us at stunning view over to Ostermalm, the eastern part of Stockholm:




Next: bears at play!

[lauren-roxy]

Another great update Cheryl!! Those wildlife pictures are fantastic!! Can't wait for the next installment!!

[Colexis Mom]

What great pictures of the animals I otters

More please

[debsta922]

Great update!

[BritDisFan]

I love the pics of all the animals, especially the seals .

Karen

[chezp]

Thursday 7 July – part eight: bears at play!

Then we found the highlight of the park for me – and one that the guidebook had said would be a highlight – the brown bears. Oh my goodness, they were just so adorable especially the cubs. I’m sure that you’ve seen the nature documentaries, where you see the cubs playing and really they’re learning how to fight and defend themselves. Well, we got to see it first hand and it was truly fascinating to watch. I could’ve stayed there all day, but eventually we had to leave them to their games.






One sad thing was the way people treated the animals. I felt very sorry for one of the brown bears, as he playing with something and then I realised that it was a piece of plastic that obviously been dropped into their enclosure by someone. This is not the sort of thing that these animals need and suddenly I could see why they avoid things like straws at Animal Kingdom and Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Just one of the stops further along, we witnessed a child (probably about nine or ten) throwing stones into the lynx enclosure. As Mark told him, “it’s bad enough that they’re in captivity, but you have to make their life worse by throwing things at them”. I don’t know whether the little brat spoke English or not or where its parents were, but we were appalled by his behaviour.

The woman we saw a moment later was no better – smoking by the animals. What is wrong with people? Can’t they just respect these beautiful beasts? Ok, rant over now.

From there, we stopped to see the bison – at least I think that’s what it was!




And then Mark found what he described as “my new home”:



Next, we made our way through the Ekshard farmhouse:




before our final stop at the Seglora church:



Now I know that this was a “must-see” from the guidebook, but what I didn’t realise was that it was a real working church. We heard some singing coming from it, as we walked up to it and I thought that it sounded very real. We got to the entrance, only to find that it was real and there was a service going on as we watched. No photos were permitted during the service, but it was fascinating to watch for a few moments all the same.

And then our tour of Skansen was complete. We had done everything we wanted to in a couple of hours. As I’ve said before, I’ve no doubt that we could’ve stayed longer and got more out of it, but it had already been a long day and we both felt it was time to head back to the hotel for a much needed rest.

On the way back to the front of the park, I grabbed a few photos mainly of the town quarter:





Another view out to Gamla Stan

Next: a trip back in time and going underwater!

[lauren-roxy]

Another wonderful update Cheryl!!!! Those cubs are adorable! Some people just seem to have no respect for animals at all, it's such a shame. That museum was such a fascinating place! I cna't wait to read more!!

[debsta922]

Wow Cheryl... if it wasn't for the buildings you may as well been in NH... First the Elk (much like our Moose) then Brown Bears, and near my Dad's house in Errol NH there' a Bison Farm!... Great Pictures

[katspjs]

I've seen elk and moose, we have black bears here and a few times a year they walk down Main Street and have to be captured.

I love the picture of Mark looking pleased with himself as he's ushering you into your "new home" !

Another great update and photos!

[chezp]

Thursday 7 July – part nine: a trip back in time and going underwater!

As we came back down the escalator, we were debating how best to get back to the hotel. We could catch the bus back or the ferryboat. Whichever we did, it was irrelevant, it would only take us so far and then we would have to catch the T-bahn back the rest of the way. As we came out of the park, Mark spotted that there were buses waiting, but there was also a tram waiting. OK, this seems like as good a way as any to travel, so we hopped on and were one of the first and secured seats. Boy did we need them, as you can tell from the look on Mark’s face!




This truly was a masterpiece and full credit to all those who helped to restore it, it was like stepping back in time.

As we rode back, I grabbed a few more photos of one of the water side areas that we hadn’t seen before:




It was a lovely way to travel and I had to get a shot of the tram:



Our destination wasn’t bad either. We finished up in Normalamstorg:



… just a short walk from another of the main shopping streets:




We got back to Serg Torgels Square:



and decided to take the T-bahn the rest of the way back to our hotel. As we walked underneath the square, heading for the station, we noticed that we were directly under the fountain which you can see through the covered skylight:



We weren’t sure what we were going to do for dinner, but I knew one thing – once I got back to the hotel, the likelihood of me moving out of there again was fairly low! It had been a long and tiring day and I wasn’t going to make my way back into the centre again that night.

As we walked from the station, a solution appeared to present itself, a food store with some lovely offerings or so we thought…. We stocked up on salmon paté for me, meat for Mark bread and a bit of Edam cheese, the idea being that we would share it and some citron muffins for dessert. I think of those items, only the paté, meat (apparently) and bread were edible. I managed one bit of the Edam slices and they were disgusting, so they went straight into the bin. They were quickly followed by the citron muffins which were nearly as bad. I tell you, it’s just as well that we weren’t that hungry, because we didn’t eat well that night.

While eating dinner, we caught up with the news on BBC World. We were in time to catch the UK 6 o’clock news, which had been extended in light of events in London, so that told us pretty much all we needed to know and we were just relieved to see that the death toll wasn’t anywhere near as high as we’d earlier feared, although we both knew that the likelihood was that it would grow over the next few days. In fact, when we first walked into the hotel lobby, we saw the news and I just sat there and gasped “thank goodness” when we realised that we weren’t talking about hundreds dead. It could’ve been so much worse – there were a lot of lucky people that day.

After that, we cheered ourselves up when we found Extreme Home Make Over (with Swedish subtitles, I tell you, it’s bizarre here! ) and wow, what a great programme! I don’t know if this is what they usually do, but they transformed the house of a family whose soon was in a wheelchair after an accident and it was just magic to see the difference that it made to his life.

On that note, it was time to hit the sack. For once, I wanted to be in bed early, so that we could get an early start in the morning.

Today we walked 10.8 miles
The weather today was hot and sunny, with temperatures in the high 80’s. It was quite draining to be out in.
The best thing today was the Vasa museum – very well laid out, informative and the ship itself is amazing.
The worst thing today was the terrible events in London. It really put things in perspective.
The funniest thing today was watching the brown bear cubs play at Skansen.
Today we tried Skansen
And the result was it was a lot better than the one in Oslo and the animals were just adorable.
The most magical moment today was walking into the Vasa museum for the first time and just having your breath completely taken away by the view which awaited us.

Next: Where’s the City Hall?

[katspjs]

Sorry to hear about your nasty dinner. Your pictures are great. Looking forward to the next installment.

[Colexis Mom]

Those are the cutest bears ever Glad you had a great time Great pictures as well

[chezp]

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Those are the cutest bears ever

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They were beautiful Marnie.

It's interesting actually to hear all the comparisons to the north east of the States - I think that's where NH is I've never thought of that before, but I guess the climates are pretty similar and therefore they have similar wildlife.

[lauren-roxy]

Sorry to hear about your yucky dinner. Your pictures are just beautiful!! Can't wait to read about more of your trip!!

[Tara O'Hara]

Gosh Cheryl! I've just completely caught up with your wonderful report!! What a terrific time you guys are having and your pictures are absolutely gorgeous!!