Tuesday, May 17

We enjoyed, today, a visit to Stockholm University with friends we met last time we brought a group to Sweden. Helena Falkenberg, Niklas Hansen, and Johnny Hellgren, the chair of the occupational psychology department, took the time to come in...even though they are off work right now...and talk with us about the privatization of some of the hospitals here and how that has affected the employees who work at those hospitals. We enjoyed their presentation and then had the opportunity to eat lunch on the campus...real Swedish food. We enjoyed it.

Helena Falkenberg talks to our group. Meagan and Troy are listening intently. Helena met us at the subway stop and walked us around campus...giving a short tour. She also made sure that we found our way out and stayed to help us find some Stockholm University shirts and other goodies.

                                        Johnny, Niklas, Helena and Ken.

After our visit to Stockholm University and lunch, our group headed out to two of the key tourist sites in Stockholm...the Vasa Museum and Skansen. The Vasa Museum houses a hugh sailing ship from the early 1600s, that sunk shortly after it was first launched. It was basically top heavy. The entire ship was recovered from the depths and restored in the 1950s.

Jeremy stands by a model of the Vasa. The actual ship is behind the model and pictured below. It's hard to actually see how big the ship is with these photos, but below, you can see a man standing at the very bottom left of the picture and the ship...just to give some idea of the size.

Skansen is an open-air museum, depicting Scandinavia in the 1800s. It is a large campus with a variety of small shops and sites, including a zoo. Unfortunately, we had to jump in and out of some of the buildings to avoid the rain...we did have a few dry moments.

A number of the local Swedes have jobs at Skansen depicting the old days and old crafts. Below is a glassblower who was creating a number of small glass animals in front of us.

 Lisa and Dave are visiting with the experts at the hardware store. I think Lisa was asking about marbles and we were all having trouble with the translation. They didn't have any for sale.

It just so happens that May 17 is Norway's national day, so many of the visitors in Skansen were dressed in traditional Norwegian outfits. These little girls were willing to pose with Lisa, Jeremy, Eric and Dave.

Skansen sits on a hill above Stockholm. You can see some of the city in the background.

So far on this trip, we've used planes, trains, subway, buses and now the city tram. Meagan, Stefanie, Heather and Marcy are all pictured on the way back from the day's activities.