Friday, September 3, 2010

Old Sweden...

From Colorado to Sweden in three days - talk about contrast. Language, flora, history, and weather is all very different, and also very different from New Jersey.  100 degrees Fahrenheit in NJ, and then 50 degrees in Sweden.   Two days ago we visited a living outdoor museum on a mountain (Torekällberget) in the city of Södertälje, south of Stockholm.  It has old historical buildings (the typical Falu red paint is on them of course), and also exhibits a living farm with heritage breeds that are endangered now. In the part that mimics a little old cobblestone town you can find real stores with craftsmen making pottery, printing (with old presses), weaving (mostly linen from flax), baking, and blacksmithing.  I bought two really nice kitchen towels, and took lots of photos, which you can see here.  Here are some:

Råbystugan (old farm house from 1776-1777)
An 200-300 year old Swedish kitchen. Note the crispbread on the poles in the ceiling, and also the two large painted boxes, those contains two beds. This building was built in 1775-1776 and was moved to this museum much later.

old Swedish fence (round pole fence, gärdesgård)
An old-fashioned Swedish round pole fence, made from all plant materials and no nails or strings. People still maintain these around Sweden.

Axlings Linne (Linen shop)
I bought the green ones of these kitchen towels locally out of linen. The store is called Axlings Linne.

Swedish cinnamon buns (kanelbullar)
Swedish cinnamon buns (kanelbullar) is a really Swedish thing. At the bakery they come in many innovative varieties, not just cinnamon.

4 comments:

Olle said...

As to the museum room above and the bed alcove: When I see such old beds it strikes me how much shorter people must have been then. It is not long back in time, though!

Flor de Luna said...

Thank you for your photo on Flickr

http://ecriteriumes.wordpress.com/

LS said...

Olle, I also think that people slept partly sitting up, at least I have been told that. That seems kind of uncomfortable.

EH said...

I think they slept sitting because it was thought to be unhealthy to get too much blood in the head? But I´m wild-guessing know, I just had this thought...