27th - 30th Aug 2020
Left: A typical pavement bar on Storforget (Square). It is normally packed with tourists but not so many in evidence at the moment...which suits me fine!
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| The Vasa. An unfortunate 17th century Swedish warship. So much to see and do around this city. I started with a walk around the central island of Gamla Stan, the city's geographic and historic heart, with its old cobbled streets, souvenir shops, plus many bars and restaurants. |
Right: The Postmuseum on Storforget. I didn't go in. It features lots of stamps and old postal carriages apparently, but is an example of the many very impressive buildings around the city.
Left: Märten Trotzigs Gränd. Stockholms narrowest street. Obviously popular with graffiti artists.
On the north of the little island is the Kungliga Slottet, the Royal Palace. This pic (right) is just of the rear end of it. Built on the site of the burned down (in 1697) Kronor Castle, it took 57 years to complete and the first Royal Family moved in in 1754. With 608 rooms it is the world's largest royal palace still used for it's original purpose.
The interesting thing to note about this statue, and without exception all the statues I saw (and there were many) is that, unlike any other city I have been to, there were no pigeons sitting on them. There were pigeons elsewhere, but they didn't sit on the statues! Have the cunning Swedes discovered some effective anti-pigeon
coating for statues? If so our town in UK could do with some! Further investigation is required.
Wandering on just across a bridge north of Gamla Stan I passed the Riksdagshuset, the Swedish Parliament building (left). The frontage here conceals much more behind.
Right: A pit-stop at one of the many jolly bars along Strandväger, an elegant boulevard, towards the island of Djurgärdan on my way to the Vasa Museum. These Swedish street names and places are a bugger to spell and even more difficult to pronounce. I never got to grips with Swedish pronunciation except to say the word 'Hej' pronounced rather rudely and abruptly 'Hay' which means 'hello'.
Across another bridge to the island of Djurgården which is a beautiful park-like island, popular with walkers, joggers and picnickers, and features several very grand museums. The pedalos did not appear to have attracted too many pedallers.
It is all very well signposted. As said, there are more museums than you can shake a stick at here and it would take weeks to visit them all.
Left: The Nordiska Museet, which is Sweden's largest cultural-history museum. A vast edifice. No time for that.......
So on to the Vasamuseet, a must for any passing tourist. This houses the old Swedish warship, the Vasa, named after Gustav Eriksson Vasa, King Gustav 1, who freed Sweden from the clutches of the Danes in 1523. In 1626, Sweden was again at war, along with Estonia and Finland, against Poland (haven't a clue why...maybe they had undercut the building trade). Gustavus Adolphus, King Gustav 11, commissioned a brand new 'top of the range' warship to be the prestigious emblem of the Swedish fleet. It featured an extra deck of guns and expensive foreign craftsmen were employed to carve an elaborate and impressive back end (transom?) plus other vividly painted carved decorations. Construction, starting in 1626, took over two years and the resulting product was a fearsomely impressive looking vessel, 69 metres long and 49 metres high and a work of art. Gustav must have been very proud of the finished article.
The lighting in this museum was very dim, as I discovered is the case in many other museums. Why? I suppose to add to the 'atmosphere', but it made it difficult to take any worthwhile photos. The pic at the top was taken from a postcard!
Left: The elaborate and once brightly coloured 'transom'.
Right: ......and a model of the ship, which was at least well lit.
Anyway, on 10th August 1628, with great pomp and ceremony and an admiring audience the ship , pride of the Swedish Crown, set sail with a company of about 400 sailors and soldiers, on it's maiden voyage from Stockholm harbour. It had gone a mere 1,200 metres when they turned to starboard and the ship rolled over and sank. I can only imagine the reaction of the onlookers and Gustav 11. I suspect heads rolled.
The problem was that they had added an extra gun deck and heightened the back end but had foolishly not considered to widen the beam (width) of the ship to compensate. It was top heavy. Many perished. Oh dear! Back to the drawing board.
The ship lay at the bottom of the sea encased in mud for 333 years before, in 1961, it was raised in many bits and reconstructed. We were told that the resulting ship on display is 95% original. There are 4 floors to this museum dedicated to artefacts and videos relating to it's somewhat disappointing service life. "Yo ho ho and a bottle of schnapps" indeed.
Then on to the Viking Museum nearby. This was amusing, largely because a guide (free of charge) called Erik, gave a witty and informative tour to an informal group of us; me and four French youngsters. He was obviously a Viking enthusiast, very knowledgeable and had agreat sense of humour.
Left: Erik , on left, and a Viking farmer.
There were lots of Viking things and dioramas on display, including this rune-stone which depicted the Viking alphabet, in 'runes'. I forgot to add my name in 'runic' in chalk. Someone has at the bottom, above the 'bottom', which spells 'butt'.
The term Viking comes from their language where 'Vik' meant 'bay' or 'inlet' from which they sailed. Vikin is a specific bay. As you know they came from present day Scandinavia around the 8th to 11th centuries and were hairy, great travellers and rather pro-active tourists.
I was then given a 15 minute very high-tech underground 'buggy' ride through a Viking adventure journey with much realistic action scenery. Difficult to describe but impressive.
To note: entry to these museums, like much in Sweden, is not cheap! Vasa and Viking museums cost about £15 equivalent each, and that was with discount for being 'of a certain age'.
I am writing these posts back in (Covid-obsessed) UK, in retrospect, but have now at least managed to crack the Google difficulties; for the time being. Much more to follow when I get my arse in gear.
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