Skansen

It's sort of like a Scandinavian theme park? Zoo? Design haven?

Enter under the gates and you can spend the afternoon wandering the old town shops--little buildings have been moved here from throughout Sweden, so the bakery will have traditional pastries for purchase, the woodcarver will be making reproduction chairs, the glass blowing shop turns out all sorts of lovely goods (I especially like the tiny chips of multi-colored glass on the ground outside the shop). The craftsmen are all friendly and willing to tell you something about their skills or the history behind their project. It's all terribly charming.

Should you find that the pastries don't quite hit the spot, there's also at least one restaurant on the premises, with a lovely view of Stockholm harbor that you'd think was reserved for someplace decidedly higher brow.

And not to be forgotten, there's also sort of a zoo of Swedish animals, including wolves and badgers and who knows what.

Do not miss a stop into the Skansen store on the way out. It's the perfect place to pick up awesome Swedish design at practically IKEA prices--especially on sale. I wanted about every third thing, but got a table runner and a Christmas angel chime (which was later mistaken for a throwing star in my carry-on, but that's another story....)