Feb. 24, 2007
Best time To Go
If you want sunshine, visit between late May and late July, bearing in mind that August can be both hot and wet. Many youth hostels, camping grounds and attractions open only in summer, from late June to mid-August. Swedes are big on holidays, and even Stockholm shuts down for two or three days around Christmas and midsummer, so plan accordingly. Most Swedes take their vacations from late June to mid-August, so hostels are crowded, but this is also when most hotels offer discounts of up to 50%.
Travel in winter is somewhat restricted and requires some planning as well as serious winter clothing, but there are good opportunities for activities like skiing, dogsledding and snowmobiling. The big cities are in full swing all year, but the smaller towns almost go into hibernation when the temperatures begin to drop (the notable exceptions being popular ski resort towns like Åre, and Jukkasjärvi, home to the Ice Hotel).
Sweden >Transportation:
Transportation: Railways: total: 11,481 km (2002). Highways: total: 210,402 km; paved: 166,523 km (including 1,499 km of expressways);
unpaved: 45,879 km (2000).
Waterways: 2,052 km navigable for small steamers and barges. Ports and harbors: Gavle, Goteborg, Halmstad, Helsingborg, Hudiksvall, Kalmar, Karlshamn, Malmo, Solvesborg, Stockholm, Sundsvall.
Airports: 245 (2002).
Sweden History
History
The earliest historical mention of Sweden
is found in Tacitus's Germania, where reference is made to the powerful king and strong fleet of the Sviones. In the 11th century, Olaf Sköttkonung became the first Swedish king to be baptized as a Christian. Around 1400, an attempt was made to unite Sweden, Norway, and Denmark into one kingdom, but this led to bitter strife between the Danes and the Swedes. In 1520, the Danish king Christian II conquered Sweden and in the “Stockholm Bloodbath” put leading Swedish personages to death. Gustavus Vasa (1523–1560) broke away from Denmark and fashioned the modern Swedish state. He also confiscated property from the Roman Catholic Church in Sweden to pay Sweden's war debts. The king justified his actions on the basis of Martin Luther's doctrines, which were being accepted nationwide with royal encouragement. The Lutheran Swedish church was eventually adopted as the state church.
Sweden
played a leading role in the second phase (1630–1635) of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). By the Treaty of Westphalia (1648), Sweden obtained western Pomerania and some neighboring territory on the Baltic. In 1700, a coalition of Russia, Poland, and Denmark united against Sweden and by the Peace of Nystad (1721) forced it to relinquish Livonia, Ingria, Estonia, and parts of Finland. Sweden emerged from the Napoleonic Wars with the acquisition of Norway from Denmark and with a new royal dynasty stemming from Marshal Jean Bernadotte of France, who became King Charles XIV (1818–1844). The artificial union between Sweden and Norway led to an uneasy relationship, and the union was finally dissolved in 1905. Sweden maintained a position of neutrality in both world wars.
An elaborate structure of welfare legislation, imitated by many larger nations, began with the establishment of old-age pensions in 1911. Economic prosperity based on its neutralist policy enabled Sweden, together with Norway, to pioneer in public health, housing, and job security programs. Forty-four years of Socialist government ended in 1976 with the election of a Conservative coalition headed by Thorbjörn Fälldin. The Socialists were returned to power in the election of 1982, but Prime Minister Olof Palme, a Socialist, was assassinated by a gunman on Feb. 28, 1986, leaving Sweden stunned. Palme's Socialist domestic policies were carried out by his successor, Ingvar Carlsson. Elections in Sept. 1991 ousted the Social Democrats (Socialists) from power. The new coalition of four conservative parties pledged to reduce taxes and the welfare state but not alter Sweden's traditional neutrality. In Sept. 1994 the Social Democrats emerged again after three years as the opposition party.
In a 1994
referendum voters approved joining the European Union. Although supportive of a European monetary union, Sweden decided not to adopt the euro when it debuted in 1999 and rejected it again overwhelmingly in a referendum in Sept. 2003.
The Social Democrat
Party and its leader, Prime Minister Göran Persson, easily won reelection in Sept. 2002. The center-left Social Democrats had run the government for six out of the last seven decades. That changed when a center-right alliance led by conservative Fredrik Reinfeldt, leader of the Moderate Party, won the election in Sept. 2006.
Sweden Geography
The Kingdom of Sweden
is in northern Europe, located in the Scandinavian Peninsula, between Finland and Norway. Sweden's sea borders are with the Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Bothnia, Kattegat and Skagerrak. Sweden has many islands; the largest is Gotland. The Oresund Fixed Link connects Sweden with Denmark.
Stockholm is the capital city and a major port. Gothenburg, Sweden's second city is also a port. Other ports and harbours are Gavle, Halmstad, Helsingborg, Hudiksvall, Kalmar, Karlshamn, Malmo, Solvesborg and Sundsvall.
Sweden is divided into twenty-one counties: Blekinge, Dalarnas, Gavleborgs, Gotlands, Hallands, Jamtlands, Jonkopings, Kalmar, Kronobergs, Norrbottens, Orebro, Skane, Ostergotlands, Sodermanlands, Stockholms, Uppsala, Varmlands, Vasterbottens, Vasternorrlands, Vastmanlands and Vastra Gotalands.
The Kolen mountain range forms a natural boundary between Sweden and Norway. There are central lowlands and a southern plain.
The climate is temperate in the south and sub-arctic in the north.
Sweden Architecture
The World Heritage site of Visby, on the island of Gotland, is an example of a fortified commercial city. During the twelfth to fourteenth centuries, Visby was the centre of the Hanseatic League in the Baltic.
The Royal Domain of Drottningholm, on an island in Lake Malar outside Stockholm, is another World Heritage site. Built in the eighteenth century, the residence was constructed on the site of a former royal palace.
One of Sweden's most famous architects was Erick Asplund. His works included the Stockholm Library and the layout for the Stockholm Exhibition in 1930.
Today, Sweden is a leading country in the development of the hi-tech "House of the Future" featuring the Electrolux Screenfridge in the kitchen. The Screenfridge has a touch sensitive screen on its door which is a control panel for electronic devices throughout the house; it also stores data such as shopping lists and refrigerator contents. Entrance is gained to the house through the use of fingerprint scanners.
Sweden Languages
Swedish is spoken
and many Swedes speak English. There are Lapp and Finnish speaking minorities.
