Stockholm, Sweden
Our day started early with a gentle Zodiac glide along the Kings Canal that runs alongside Djurgården Island. A tiny pink custom’s house, now abandoned, sits at the entrance to the canal. The canal winds its way past the lush green hunting park of kings, a boat club, museums, and a statue of Jenny Lind. Near the entrance, we passed under a low footbridge and were pleasantly surprised to see Willy, our gracious Hotel Manager, and Marek, our bartender, waiting for us with a lovely snack of Danish pastry and hot chocolate which, for those who so wished, was laced with a tot of fortifying beverage for medicinal reasons.
The weather was cloudy but quite warm and the air was still. At that time in the morning only ourselves and some joggers were out and about. About half way the canal widened and we came upon the ornate facades of typical Scandinavian buildings, created for the 1898 World’s Fair. After the fair, the Swedes decided they facades were too beautiful to take down so they simply added whole buildings behind them and they now make up an elegant upscale neighborhood along the strand.
After breakfast, we all piled into buses and went to the Wasa Museum where we were astonished at the perfectly preserved 3-masted warship, the Wasa, which keeled over and sank just as it was leaving the dockyards on its maiden voyage on 10th of August 1628. It was a sunny day but there seems to have been a design flaw which is attributed to the personal intervention of the king who could be refused nothing. Rediscovered and raised in the 1950’s it took 17 years of complete preservation, and the Wasa now rests in its custom made museum in all silent majesty almost as if it were a living thing.
Stockholm is a gem of history, pride and modernism a city relatively free of poverty and a country which has not been at war once in the last 200 years. Nothing demonstrated this as vividly as a visit to the Italianate Town Hall, designed by an Italian architect in the style of the early Renaissance reminiscent of the Signoria of Florence, Italy. It is here, in the Blue Room (which is not blue but faced in red brick) where the Nobel banquets are presided over by the popular and handsome King and Queen of Sweden.
Not far from there we passed the gilded theater where Ingmar Bergman staged many of his famous plays and presented such stunning actresses as Greta Garbo, Ingrid Bergman, and Liv Ullman.
A walk through the Old City took us along cobbled narrow streets lined with interesting antique shops, into the somber Cathedral, and some opted for an additional visit inside the National Palace, decorated in Baroque and Rococo style. One ornate hall was lit by spectacular crystal chandeliers, which weigh 500 kilos and have a special mechanism whereby only one candle needed to be lit and the others were somehow lit from that one automatically – a testament to the Swedish love of preservation and innovation.
Our day started early with a gentle Zodiac glide along the Kings Canal that runs alongside Djurgården Island. A tiny pink custom’s house, now abandoned, sits at the entrance to the canal. The canal winds its way past the lush green hunting park of kings, a boat club, museums, and a statue of Jenny Lind. Near the entrance, we passed under a low footbridge and were pleasantly surprised to see Willy, our gracious Hotel Manager, and Marek, our bartender, waiting for us with a lovely snack of Danish pastry and hot chocolate which, for those who so wished, was laced with a tot of fortifying beverage for medicinal reasons.
The weather was cloudy but quite warm and the air was still. At that time in the morning only ourselves and some joggers were out and about. About half way the canal widened and we came upon the ornate facades of typical Scandinavian buildings, created for the 1898 World’s Fair. After the fair, the Swedes decided they facades were too beautiful to take down so they simply added whole buildings behind them and they now make up an elegant upscale neighborhood along the strand.
After breakfast, we all piled into buses and went to the Wasa Museum where we were astonished at the perfectly preserved 3-masted warship, the Wasa, which keeled over and sank just as it was leaving the dockyards on its maiden voyage on 10th of August 1628. It was a sunny day but there seems to have been a design flaw which is attributed to the personal intervention of the king who could be refused nothing. Rediscovered and raised in the 1950’s it took 17 years of complete preservation, and the Wasa now rests in its custom made museum in all silent majesty almost as if it were a living thing.
Stockholm is a gem of history, pride and modernism a city relatively free of poverty and a country which has not been at war once in the last 200 years. Nothing demonstrated this as vividly as a visit to the Italianate Town Hall, designed by an Italian architect in the style of the early Renaissance reminiscent of the Signoria of Florence, Italy. It is here, in the Blue Room (which is not blue but faced in red brick) where the Nobel banquets are presided over by the popular and handsome King and Queen of Sweden.
Not far from there we passed the gilded theater where Ingmar Bergman staged many of his famous plays and presented such stunning actresses as Greta Garbo, Ingrid Bergman, and Liv Ullman.
A walk through the Old City took us along cobbled narrow streets lined with interesting antique shops, into the somber Cathedral, and some opted for an additional visit inside the National Palace, decorated in Baroque and Rococo style. One ornate hall was lit by spectacular crystal chandeliers, which weigh 500 kilos and have a special mechanism whereby only one candle needed to be lit and the others were somehow lit from that one automatically – a testament to the Swedish love of preservation and innovation.
