Sweden Archives - Rachel's Ruminations

Falun Copper Mine UNESCO site in Sweden

Rachel Heller — Sun, 14 Mar 2021 16:15:21 +0000

“It’s a big hole in the ground.” I think “underwhelmed” is a good word for my first impression of the Falun Copper Mine in eastern Sweden. We were on our way south on a road trip from the northernmost part of Norway back home to the Netherlands after our Hurtigruten cruise up the Norwegian coast....

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The Decorated Farmhouses of Hälsingland, Sweden

Rachel Heller — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 16:24:10 +0000

A collection of farmhouses with unique interiors filled with folk art decorations.

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Gammelstad church town UNESCO site in Sweden

Rachel Heller — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 16:37:51 +0000

Back in the 17th century, not long after the Reformation turned Sweden Protestant, a new law required church attendance, depending on one’s distance from the church. People up in the cold north of Sweden, despite living on widely-scattered farms far from the nearest church, still had to get to church. Disclosure: This article contain affiliate...

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Kitsch and karaoke: the ABBA Museum, Stockholm

Rachel Heller — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 13:43:39 +0000

Admit it: You like ABBA. Okay, maybe you don’t like ABBA, but you catch yourself singing along when you hear an ABBA song on the radio. Disclosure: I received free admission to the ABBA museum as part of a TBEX conference in Stockholm. All opinions, however, are my own. A second disclosure: This article contains...

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Öster Malma Estate: Not for Animal Lovers

Rachel Heller — Tue, 06 Sep 2016 13:50:55 +0000

Öster Malma Castle and Wildlife Park, which I visited as part of a familiarization tour organized by Visit Sörmland and Visit Sweden, includes a beautiful estate house and a large wildlife park. It is more modest (read: smaller) than the others we visited, like Gripsholm, Nynäs and Sparreholms, but was nevertheless interesting. Built in the 1600s,...

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Hop On Hop Off: my only bad experience in Stockholm

Rachel Heller — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 13:52:32 +0000

As you’ve probably guessed from my posts about Sweden, my trip was a great success. I took part in two familiarization tours: one before and one after the TBEX conference. The first was an introduction to the Stockholm archipelago and Swedish military history. In the second, I visited several manor houses and castles in the southern province of Sörmland....

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Nynäs: more than “Upstairs Downstairs”

Rachel Heller — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 15:41:58 +0000

The very impressive Nynäs manor house (pronounced new-nahs) is about a 30 minute drive from Nyköping. What makes this manor house special is that it was occupied continuously from when it was completed in the 1680s until 1984. In that year, the Gripenstedt family, who had owned it since the 1850s, sold it and all...

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Flying into Skavsta? Nyköping is worth a look.

Rachel Heller — Sat, 27 Aug 2016 11:02:09 +0000

Budget airlines seek out secondary airports because the landing fees are lower. Skavsta airport, an hour outside of Stockholm, is one of these: both Ryanair and Wizz Air fly to Skavsta. Most visitors get on the express bus to Stockholm straight from their plane. That is a mistake. While I had booked a cheap Ryanair...

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The Medieval Museum of Stockholm

Rachel Heller — Wed, 24 Aug 2016 18:40:34 +0000

Back in the 1970s, the Swedish Parliament planned to build a garage underground next to the Parliament building in Stockholm. As often happens in European cities, the construction stopped when excavation uncovered the remains of what turned out to be the original medieval center of Stockholm. For two years, archeologists excavated and studied the city wall, built by...

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Skansen open-air museum, Stockholm

Rachel Heller — Fri, 12 Aug 2016 14:14:51 +0000

Or: Both of these statements are true. The fact is that most of us only have limited time when we travel, and, if you’re like me, you want to see as much as possible in that limited time. Open-air museums help us cut corners by letting us see buildings from a wide area assembled in...

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