Djurgården, Stockholm

Djurgården (The Animal Garden) is a recreational isle in the middle Stockholm.

This is the site of the Wasa Museet, the museum of the old ship the Wasa. And also the Gröna Lund, the amusement park can be found here.

But the main part of the isle is just a quiet park in which you don't have a clue that you are even in a city. Only the sporadic horn of a big ship will let you remember that you are in the city.

This little boat will take you to and back to the island "Djurgarden". It's not a long trip, but shows you some of the nices part of Stockholm, from the sea. The trip itself takes 15-30 minutes, and the boat goes around the islands, and make some stops now and then. Make sure you get off at the right place.

Costs 30 SEK for a trip, which is cheap thinking that a trip with the metro costs 45 SEK...

The boat leaves "Slussen" (the same name of the subway station) every 20 minutes if I don't remember wrong.

At the Djurgarden island you'll find the Vasa museum, the Skansen and the zoo, the amusment park Grona Lund and the water aquariam and much more.

As the AIK-supporters also Djurgården’s supporters had a very bad reputation during the 1990-ties. The supporter club Blue Saints had big problems with troublemakers and the worst thing was probably when a guy, nicknamed “Terror-Tommy” ran onto the pitch and kicked down referee Anders Frisk from behind in the autumn 1995.
They had also, in 1992, destroyed big parts of the seating-section at IFK Göteborg’s stadium, Gamla Ullevi, when their team got destroyed on the pitch.
Djurgården was penalized for the referee-incident, although very easy seeing it was a Stockholm-club (hrm…), and the supporters finally decided it was time to do something.
They started a new supporter-club, Järnkaminerna, and the older hooligans instead was integrated as stewards, to keep the calm during the games.
This worked out really well, and even if there still are fights now and then involving Djurgården-supporters, their reputation has grown much better the last 7-8 years.

Djurgårdens IF had for a long time been a team in the bottom of the table, going up and down between the first and second division in Sweden. But in the beginning of the 2000-ties, the board and the club decided that it was time for changes.
Manager-team Sören Åkeby and Zoran Lukic were hired, and the team started to play with a fast 4-3-3-system. Wellborn supporters, with millions and other millions of euro in the bank, got in and started an investment-company, that made sure that Djurgården easier could buy big name-players.
It went well immediately, the first year the club won the second division, and the second year (2002) they won the Swedish league. With new stars Kim Källström, Johan Elmander and goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson (bought from Juventus) the club was ready for Europe.
It didn’t go that easy though, as Partizan Belgrade was too tough in the qualification for the Champions League.
They won the league again though, and had another chance this summer (2004). Key-players as Källström, Isaksson and Elmander were now gone to other clubs in Europe though, and even if the club did two great games against Juventus they lost in the qualification round again. They then also lost against Dutch side Utrecht in the Uefa cup.

That may have been the last thing Europe have seen of Djurgården for a while, although they will still play in the Uefa cup next season, thanks to the victory in the Swedish Cup. But they ended just in fourth place in Allsvenskan, and the big stars aren’t playing for the club anymore.

If you will have a chance of a nice weather, you can spent some time in Djurgarden and let your body feel free..

In djurgarden there is a park where you can walk, rest and spent some time and also the Nordic Museum.

There is a ferry crossing from Gamla stan to the island of Djurgarden and it operates in every 20 minutes. The cost for person is around 2,- USD.

Go to Djurgardsbron to 'Skepp&Hoj'.
Here you can rent:all kinds of boats (such as kayaks, kanoes and rowing boats), bikes and in-line skates.
It's a wonderful, green area!
Djurgarden has a wonderful park to skate. And is great to go with your boat. You can also stop over for a pcknick at the water side.

Home of various must-see Sights such as
Vasamuseet the Wasa Museum, Gröna Lund the amusement park, which is also host of numerous concerts, Liljewalchs Konsthall the Liljewalch art hall, open air museum and zoological park of Skansen.

Take a bus or walk to Djurgarden and visit The garden of Rosendal.
They have deliscios pasterys, salads and sandwishes. If it's raining/snowing you can sit in the greenhouse-if not - sit in the garden. They also sell marmelade, lemonade on bottles, honey and more...
It's very popular, among all ages- especially in the weekends.

The perimeter boat cruise of Djurgaden. Skaansen itself and the Zoo
The zoo is open, many animals are caged but there is an area where they are not, and the lemurs were incredible, as well as small monkeys which appearred very tame and were 12 inches away...no cages! This little guy is about five inches long excluding tail and the species is the smallest in the world.
Skaansen is a fantactic outdoor museum, but there would have been more actiivity after April (in the summer)

On Djurgården you can find lots of outdoor activities.

'Gröna Lund' is the place for you if you want to have some fun. Amusementpark with some scaring attractions. If you're afraid of heights (like I am), don't even think about riding 'Fritt fall' (in english free falling), 80 metres of pure fear. But they also have a 6 metres 'Fritt fall' for children - more my kind of ride.

Vasa museum - take a look at the warship that sank on its maiden voyage in 1628.

Rosendals Gardens and Castle - stroll in the beautiful garden and have a 'fika' at the outdoor-café. Yummy sandwiches and lovely flowers.

There are many more museums at Djurgården - Nordic Museum, Junibacken (Astrid Lindgren's world), Aquaria-Water museum etc.