Starting with the palatial Nordiska Museet or Nordic Museum GanMay & SeptDec MonThurs 10am4pm, Tues until 8pm, Sat & Sun noon5pm; June Aug MonFri 10am4pm, Tues until 8pm, Sat & Sun noon5pm; 30kr, students 20kr) is the best idea, if only because the same cultural themes pop up repeatedly throughout the rest of the park's exhibits. The displays are a decent attempt to represent Swedish cultural history in an accessible fashion, and the Same section is particularly good. On the ground floor of the cathedrallike interior is Carl Milles' phenomenal stahie of Gustav Vasa, the sixteenth4;entury king who drove out the Danes, and an inspirational figure who wrought the best from the sculptor (for more of whom, see p.387). It's for Skansen, QanApril & SeptDec daily 9am5pm; MayAug daily 9am 10pm; 40kr, 30kr in winter) though, that most people come: a great openair museum with 150 reconstructed buildings, from a whole town to windmills farms laid out on a regionbyregion basis, with each section boasting its о daily activities traditional handicrafts, games and displays that anyone can jo in. Best of the buildings are the small Same dwellings, warm and functional, the craftsmen's workshops in the old town quarter. You can also potter aroun mall ZOO and a bizarre aquarium (30kr), fish cheek by jowl with crocodiles, ® onkeys and snakes. Partly because of the attention paid to accuracy, partly due Г the admirable lack of commercialism, Skansen manages to avoid the tackiness ssociated with similar ventures elsewhere. Even the snack bars dole out traditional foods and, in winter, great bowls of warming soup. Immediately opposite Skansen's main gates, Grona Lund Tivoli (May to mid Sept MonSat Ipmmidnight, Sun 1lOpm; restricted hours in winter; 40kr) is not a patch on its more famous namesake in Copenhagen, though it's decidedly cleaner and less seedy. Definitely, it's more of a place to stroll than indulge in rides (none included in the entrance fee), which are frankly tame. At night the emphasis shifts as the park becomes the stomping ground of Stockholm's youth, with disco music, cafes and some enterprising chatup lines. The Vasa Museum In a brand new building, close to the Nordiska Museet, the Vasa Museum (mid June to midAug daily 9.30am7pm; rest of the year daily 10am5pm, Wed until 8pm; 30kr, children lOkr) is, without question, head and shoulders above anything else that Stockholm has to offer in the way of museums. Built on the orders of King Gustav II Adolf, the Vasa warship sank in Stockholm harbour on her maiden voyage in 1628. Preserved in mud for over 3(Ю years, the ship was raised along with 12,000 objects in 1961 and, after display in a temporary museum for the last few years, now forms the centrepiece of a startling, purposebuilt hall on the waters's edge. The museum itself is built over a part of the old naval dockyard, and was designed to give the impression of a large, soft copper tent, the materials used supposed to relate to navy colours and designs: stone and ochre, tarred and black beams mixed with whites, reds and the green of Djurgirden.