30 May 2017
For a visitor to Stockholm, one of the best things to do on days with bad weather would be to visit one or two of the many excellent museums located in town.
Many of these museums offer free entry! Some impose entrance fees on most days but are free to enter at specific day and time only. For example, the Nobel Museum has free admission on Tuesdays, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and the Nordic Museum (Nordiska Museet) has free entry on Wednesday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. except June to August.
On this rainy day, we decided to visit the Swedish History Museum (Historiska Museet) in the afternoon. We took the subway to the Karlaplan Station and walked the short distance to the museum in light rain.
Like most museums in Stockholm, there is free lockers to deposit our backpacks containing our wet raingear at the Swedish History Museum.
There are free daily guided tours, conducted in English and Swedish, but we missed them.
The Swedish History Museum is one of the biggest museums in Sweden. In particular, I wanted to see one of the world’s largest Viking exhibits.
The Viking age from AD 800 to AD 1050 is a short one, compared to the length of Swedish history. We already had a sneak peek of this period in Swedish history during our visit to Sigtuna, Sweden’s first town where we learned about the runic stones and saw some ruins of medieval churches. Here, more runic stones could be seen.
There were also displays of the Norse mythology and their belief in life and beyond.
One could spend many hours reading the information (in English and Swedish) next to the displays.
What really fascinated me was the 1:30 scale model representing the Viking age town Birka, in the Björkö island. I had contemplated making a boat trip to visit the island located in the middle of lake Mälaren in Stockholm when planning my itinerary. I was glad I did not make the trip. I think there is more to see and learn about Birka at this exhibit than at Björkö island. I may be wrong.
The model shows how the town probably looked like in AD800. There is the main street, running parallel to the shore, and 40 buildings separated by fencing and complete with watch towers. Some Viking boats were moored at the pier.
A good way to end the visit was to have something to eat and drink at the fantastic cafe before heading out to the Nobel Museum that has free admission on Tuesdays, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Else, the entry fee is 120 SEK per adult.
The Nobel Museum is located at Stortorget, a small public square in the middle of Gamla Stan. It was still raining slightly when we arrived and the museum was pretty crowded on this Tuesday evening. The Nobel Museum offers daily guided tours in English every day but we chose to wander around freely by ourselves.
The Nobel Museum would allow visitors to learn more about the Nobel Prize, its founder Alfred Nobel, as well as the Nobel Laureates and their creative endeavours. Being an engineer by training, I found some familiar names like Albert Einstein, Neils Bohr, Heisenberg, Röntgen, Marie Curie but struggled to remember the Physics I learnt in school so many years ago.
There were displays of a range of experiments from throughout Nobel history for us to read and in some cases even try our hands on. On this day, the museum was too crowded for me to spend time on these displays.
Instead, I learnt about the life of Alfred Nobel (1833–1896). He is the person who experimented with nitro-glycerine and invented the dynamite although his brother and some others died in explosions during the process. He made a fortune with his invention and also other works.
On display in the museum are excerpts of his famous and controversial will. Alfred Nobel wrote in his will that physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace would each year receive a part of the revenues of his fortune. It was not surprisingly that his family opposed the establishment of the Nobel Prize. Also, some of the prize awarders he named refused to do what he had requested in his will!
The Nobel Prize was finally started 5 years later in 1901 and since then, prizes had been given to “those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind."
Noble Prize Medal in the form of a gold coin.
Another Noble Prize Medal in the form of a gold coin.
The Nobel prize ceremonies take place annually in the Stockholm City Hall, Sweden (with the exception of the peace prize, which is held in Oslo, Norway). Each recipient, or laureate, receives a gold medal, a diploma, and a sum of money that has been decided by the Nobel Foundation.
Overall, we had an interesting day at both the Swedish History Museum and Nobel Museum.
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