Birka

Skansen

Vasa Museum

Grona Lund Tivoli

Cosmonova

Birka

Twelve hundred years ago, the king of the Swedes established a new trading port at one of the inlets from the Baltic Sea. The place was called Birka, and became Sweden's first real town. Birka is today a popular site for excursions, where the archaeologists continuing excavations provide insight into the daily life of the former Viking town.

The island of Birka is today called Björkö and the intlet from the sea is nowadays Lake Mälaren. The grounds of Björkö were cultivated long before Birka's heyday and the island still has a thiriving landscape with grazing animals and verdant fields. Birka and Hovgården were added to the World Heritage List in 1993.

Birka was an important centre of trade for Northern Europe for 200 years. The town was founded in the late 8th century and abandoned before the end of the 10th century. During its period of prosperity, it had close on 1,000 inhabitants. Pagans and Christians lived side-by-side, and plenty of foreigners dwelled in Birka as well. When the king visited the town, he and his company lived on Hovgården, the King's estate on the island across the water.

Archaeological material suggests that Birka was abandoned, and that people moved elsewhere, possibly to the town of Sigtuna which was founded by Erik Segersäll in AD 970. One reason for the move can have been the increasing difficulty in reaching Birka. Isostatic uplift (rising land levels after the ice-age) led to shallowing of the Södertälje water route. Furthermore, progress began to favour larger ships.

Skansen

Founded in 1891, Skansen is Stocholm's largest and most popular outing destination. The Zoo has Scandinavian animals such as elk, wolves and bear, while exotic snakes and monkeys can be seen at Skansen-Akvariet. Skansen has buildings from old Sweden, festivals, music, and offers plentiful opportunities for shopping such things as cloth products, modern design products, specialist literature, folk music CDs, glassware and pottery of its own making.

There are approximately 500 Nordic animals among them most of the endangered species. This is the largest bird retreat in Sweden. There is a children's zoo where they may pet the animals. Close by there is a possibility for camping.

Vasa museum

The great prize of a maritime museum is a historic ship or a replica, but most maritime museums must settle for a figurehead or a cannon and some ship models. Not the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, Sweden, opened in 1990. Here, one of the newest maritime museums in the world houses one of the oldest vessels in the world. One thought to be the mightiest, at that, and sunk in the mud for 333 years!

Even from the outside, its mainmast bursting from the roof of the museum, the Vasa is unlike anything you have ever imagined. She is hardly a sleek sailing ship but a magnificent warship, built in Stockholm by Dutch shipbuilding masters for the empire-aspiring Gustavus II Adolphus, called the Lion of the North, in the early 17^th century -- a time when ship ornamentation had reached its acme and when Sweden was still a sparsely populated and little known nation with large dreams.

Ultimately, the Vasa was an emblem of power and its twin, glory. Such is the nature of power and glory that it is ephemeral. Yet here, at the edge of Stockholm, where the Vasa Museum sits, the resurrected ship looks out at a startlingly beautiful city, a realized dream, and Gustavus Adolphus’ Vasa is a piece of it.

Gröna Lund Tivoli

Gröna Lund is the funniest place in Stockholm! Gröna Lund has been the tivoli of Stockholm since 1883. Experience the thrills of the highest Free Fall in Europe, the view from 80 meters is breathtaking! Don´t miss the thrilling Roller-coaster and the Catapult. Gröna Lund has exciting attractions, first-class shows and beautiful views. Experience the thrills of Europe's highest Free Fall, a roller-coaster, Haunted House, Crazy House and 20 other fun attractions. Also Gröna Lund has restaurants and cafés.

Cosmonova

Cosmonova is an IMAX theater that shows films in the world's largest film format. The screen is enormous and dome-shaped - 760 square meters in area, 11 meters high, and 23 meters in diameter. The experience, which feels like you are sitting in the midst of events surrounded by sound and images, is so intense that no one is left unmoved.

Cosmonova is Sweden's first and only IMAX-cinema showing films in the world's largest film format. It is also a state-of-the-art planetarium - one of the most modern in the world. Cosmonova offers a blend of science and entertainment.