Catching Up - Part 2

Once we returned to Sweden after our trip to the farm in Norway, we had only a few days to explore the other amazing things our friends in Uppsala wanted to share with us. First, we took a trip to see an old mine and ironworks at Österbybruk:

Can you imagine mining this pit with hand techniques? The entire thing was mined without modern machines! Unfortunately, my camera battery died before we reached the ironworks, so this picture of the old forge comes from the site http://www.svetur.se/sv/vallonbruken/products/105349/Osterbybruk/



The techniques for generating iron bars from ore were a specialty of the Walloon people of Belgium, so they had been enticed with good wages, housing and schooling for their children to come to Sweden and work at Österbybruk under significantly better conditions than the local Swedes who were doing the mining nearby.

The next day, we had a trip to the Uppsala University Museum of Evolution where we saw the holotypes of several dinosaur speciaes, and some amazing samples of others

They figure this fellow may once have survived the bite of a Megalodon on account of the holes in the lower jawbone that are not found on other samples. Not all the fossils were enormous, though. We also saw this beautifully preserved little specimen:

After that, we had to split up so we could see as many things as possible. Two of us travelled to Stockholm to see the Sami and textile exhibits at the Nordiska Museum and the Leaf Exhibition at Liljevalch's Art Gallery.

The embroidery above is a gorgeous sample of free-embroidery from the 1800s. The Leaf Exhibition is a result of 2000 artists interpreting the leaf shape they received from the museum, using an almost unbelievable range of handcrafts from carving to knitting, from embroidery to stained glass as well as anything else you might imagine. The project is in celebration of the100th anniversary of the
Handcraft Association (loose translation there, folks). The leaves were about the size and shape of a tennis racquet, and formed trees which filled three presentation halls! It was a truly impressive display!

The others stayed in Uppsala to visit the Gustavianum Museum where they saw the stunning Augsberg Art Cabinet, one of the worlds oldest operational anatomical theatres, many of the natural history collections of Carl Linneus and his followers, and some Ancient Egyptian sarcophagi.


Here is a small picture of the art cabinet from the museum website, as picturetaking is not encouraged inside the exhibit. In actuality, the cabinet stands close to ten feet/two metres high, and is filled with the most amazing collection of personal and natural history items. Last year, I saw a website that showed many of the items up close, but I'm afraid I can't find it for you anymore. The other impressive aspect of the cabinet is the extraordinarily fine workmanship displayed in the inlayed patterns of the cabinet, itself.


On our last day in Sweden (July 28th), we stopped in Stockholm for a quick tour of the old city, Gamla Stan, and a visit to the Middle Ages Museum before travelling on to Oslo, Norway. Many of the buildings in Gamla Stan are from the 1600s and 1700s, with intricate cobblestone streets in between them. Since we were there at midday, we also got to see the Royal Guard coming up the bridge to the Royal Palace for the changing of the guard.

The time at the Middle Ages Museum was fascinating. Since Stockholm started as an island city at a critical stratigic location, much of its history was marked by war and plague. The museum effectively presented a realistic impression of life in those times with life-sized models of people and buildings as well as pictures an sound effects. Thankfully, they left out the smells of the time! (They did describe them in detail for those who were willing to read about it, however.)