The Swedish Post Museum

Address: Lilla Nygatan 6
Phone: 08-781 17 55
Opening hours, admission, etc: www.posten.se/museum/
Little Post Office: Saturday-Sunday and holidays
Subway station: Gamla Stan

A post museum may conjure up images of dusty old stamps in your mind, but believe me, the Swedish Post Museum in Stockholm covers much more than stamp collecting. This museum tells the story of how the postal system developed over the centuries. You can see how people used to get their mail. You get to go into a postal railway car and see how Carl Anton Nygren sorted mail as the train rolled through the Swedish countryside. You can even read a letter that was sent to a soldier years ago by his sweetheart.

Of the two permanent exhibitions, I like the one called “Letters—a trip through time” most, but even the stamp displays are interesting. If you or your brothers and sisters get tired of the exhibitions, go to the ground floor.

On the weekends and during school holidays you’ll find a children’s workshop, “The Little Post Office,” in operation. Here you can find out what it was like to work at a post office in the olden days. You might try working as a cashier or postal clerk, for instance, selling stamps, postmarking letters or sorting them. Or you might see what it was like to be a mailman, driving a package truck or delivering the mail. You can also write—or draw—letters of your own here. They have secret packages at the Little Post Office too. You’re not allowed to open them, but you can stick in your hand to see if you can figure out the contents by sense of touch.