29 Sep Siblings in Skansen 2013
Skansen Rose Garden ~ walking to King Oscar’s Terrace with its spectacular view
Skansen is the world’s first open air museum, a vision of what Sweden was like in centuries past. I wrote about the history of Skansen in 2011 and posted the photograph that had inspired my interest. On the back of the photograph my mother had written that it was at Skansen that our father proposed to her in 1944, right at the height of World War II.
When my son Johnny and I were in Stockholm in May 2012 we did not get to Skansen so I determined that this year when I returned with my sisters and brother that it would be one of our primary ventures. We went on our first full day.
Have I mentioned the weather? We knew we were headed for a glorious week when we saw the front page of the Swedish newspaper on our flight over. SUPER VÄRMEN. (Heat Wave!) We were not disappointed one time.
Leif in the Rose Garden examines our photograph
The island of Djurgården, where Skansen is located, was a nice walk from our hotel. Our parents could have walked from work (the American Legation at Strandvägen 7) or taken the tram. I posted a map here.
One of our first stops was the Rose Garden where I showed the landscaper Lief Strömwall my photograph of the garden in Skansen where our Dad had proposed. He didn’t recognize the spot and explained that in the 1960s many areas were redone. We saw benches that looked just like the ones in the photo but he said that was a common style of that era.
Leif pointed out a statue in the center of the plantings. I had never noticed it. He took the photo inside the main Skansen office and showed it around. No one recognized it but he made a copy and promised he would continue to investigate.
With Erik Sjöqvist, another new Swedish friend, inside a historic homestead
Skansen is like Colonial Williamsburg but smaller, more rustic, more “outdoorsy.” In early September, there were no crowds. We noticed what appeared to be a special tour for children and we acted like children when we saw the reindeer!
We imagined our parents walking down the same trails through the historic farmsteads while Hedy explained to Herman that this was much like where her parents grew up as Swedish Finns on the western coast of Finland, an area that once was part of Sweden.
By the time we left Skansen around lunchtime we decided that the garden we were looking for was, sixty-nine years later, unrecognizable but we knew that we had spent a beautiful morning in “their Skansen” even if we didn’t find the exact spot.
We were there!
(to be continued … the story’s not over!)
Related Posts
Siblings in Sweden
Skansen
Strandvägen 7
The Proposal Garden
Did You Say Bernadotte?
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