Americans in Stockholm - Day 4

Today we had a chance to get away from school work for a day and to enjoy the beautiful day in Stockholm.  We started out in Skansen, the open air museum where one can walk around and observe how the Swedes used to live in history.  We saw small huts with grassy roofs, a bakery, glass blowing, and a zoo of Scandinavian animals. . . a furry rabbit, brown bear cubs, moose, and boars.  And, naturally, we sampled bakery goods whenever we saw them for sale--at the tiny bakery shop on Skansen and, later, at the NK department store.  We also visited the Vasa museum.  Vasa ship sank on her maiden voyage in 1628 and remained under water until Swedish divers found it (333 years later!), and it was raised in 1961.  The place was amazing! The whole ship is there, put together from pieces (95% from the original) that were found in the muddy waters of Stockholm harbor.  Definitely worth visiting when in Stockholm.

I should mention that after all that history, our group members were ready to embrace their inner tourists by raiding the Made in Sweden shop on Klarabergsgatan and the little shops of souvenirs on Drottningsgatan.  At nightfall, we split up to two groups: one group dined at McDonald's, while the other found a little more exotic fare at the Sushi/Korean restaurant. The last two members of the group stayed behind in the city to get their fingers frozen at the Icebar 

inside the Nordic Sea hotel . . . a very cool place.  

We look forward to our last group member, Chanelle, joining us tomorrow; she is en route to Stockholm as I write this.  On Thursday morning, we head back to the Stockholm County Council to learn more about their health care system.  We have been promised a discussion with one of the working County politicians and we're racking out brains to come up with good questions to ask.  Hejssan!