Viking Homelands: Stockholm I (9/7/2018)

Friday, September 7, 2018

View from the stateroom

We were up early to attend the Sail-in Commentary as we traveled through the Stockholm Archipelago. There are so many islands, it takes four hours to get through them to reach Stockholm. So we have already been through a couple hours worth. But it is foggy.

Fortification on Rindö Island

Summer homes on Tynningö Island

"Guano Island"

God our Father on the Rainbow (1949-1995)
was designed by Carl Milles for the United Nations
in Manhattan, New York, but the project was cancelled;
Marshall Fredericks created the fountain on Nacka
Island, where God is hanging stars in the sky

Approaching Stockholm with the arched Svindersvik Bridge, which
crosses the outlet where winds tend to funnel through; the theory is that
when the famous Vasa ship set out on her maiden voyage coming
out of the harbor on the right, the wind coming from the left hit
her broadside while being in full sail, knocking over the Vasa,
which then sank because all the cannon ports were open

Tip of Djurgården Island

Danvikshem, home for the elderly (1902-1915, by Aron Johansson)

Archipelago ferry

Crane painted to look like a giraffe

Gröna Lund (founded 1883 by James Schultheiss),
 an amusement park on Djurgården Island

This cruise ship had to use tenders to take the passengers to land

The Viking Star docked right next to the Fotografiska/Museum
of Photography in a former customs house (1906, by Ferdinand Boberg) 

Our included shore excursion, Panoramic Stockholm, took us by motor coach on a far-reaching tour.

We passed Heleneborg, the childhood home of Alfred Nobel

Photo stop at the Stockholms stadshus/Stockholm City Hall (1911-1923, by Ragnar Östberg in National Romantic style), which is constructed using eight million bricks. The city council members all have day jobs, so they meet in the evenings. City Hall is known for hosting the prestigious Nobel banquet and reception each year. Nobel Prize laureates dine in the Blåhallen/Blue Hall (which was originally meant to be covered with glazed blue tiles) and then proceed to the Gyllene salen/Golden Hall for the formal ball.

City Hall tower and garden

(I was in Stockholm in 1982 on a Scandinavian Eurail trip.)

City Hall tower (7/21/1982)

Posing with Sången/Song (by Carl Eldh) (KSS)

Gilded Viking ship in the mini-turret

Monument Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson (1932, by
Christian Eriksson) to the rebellion leader who freed
Sweden from the rule of Erik of Pomerania in 1434

Maned lion sculpture (KSS)

View across Lake Mälaren of Gamla Stan/Old Town

Sarcophagus for Birger Jarls, considered the
founder of Stockholm; but he is not in it

City Hall outdoor courtyard, which mirrors
the indoor courtyard of the Blue Hall

City Hall courtyard from the tower (7/21/1982)

Bust (1998) of Swedish writer Per Anders Fogelström

Statue of St Clare as the Queen of Lake Mälaren,
holding a crown, a symbol of Stockholm

The story is that the crown held by St Clare was financed by a 100-kroner contribution of a young girl, who wanted to know for exactly what her money paid.

The Civic Oak Tree was planted in 1923

Bust (1970, by Erik Rafael-Rådberg) of Gustav
Sandberg, sculptor of the roofline figures on City Hall

Relief medallions of famous Stockholmians: Carl Michael Bellman
(musician, composer, and songwriter), Franz Berwald (composer),
Jenny Lind (opera singer known as the "Swedish Nightingale"),
Hugo Alfvén (violinist, conductor, and composer), and
Wilhelm Stenhammar (pianist, conductor, and composer) (KSS)

More memorials at City Hall, for Per Henrik Ling (practitioner of
gymnastics who determined four categories of exercise: 1) pedagogical,
2) medical, 3) military, and 4) aesthetic, and who primarily advocated
exercise for health in early 19C), Artur Hazelius (educator and folklorist who
founded of the Nordic Museum and Skansen, the open-air museum),
Alfred Nobel, and the fateful hot-air balloon journey of August Andrée,
Nils Strindberg, and Knut Frænkel trying to reach the North Pole in 1897

Knowing that droves of Mainland Chinese tourists will visit City Hall,
members of the Falun Gong (Chinese spiritual practice) maintain
an information board to promote awareness of the Communist
government's treatment of members of the movement
that the government views as a threat

Public WC

Back in the motor coach.

Klara Hotell och Konferens/Waterfront Hotel and Congress Center
managed by Radisson Blu (2008-2011, by White Arkitekter)

Mr Walker (2014, by Jan Håfström)

Free shuttle bus to IKEA (which appears
to be 6-7 miles from the city center)!

Decorated Malmskillnadsgatan
overpass over Kungsgatan

Eldhs Fontän/Carl Eldh's Fountain (1921, by Carl Eldh)
has figures representing Morning, Day, and Night with
children between them; however, the fountain was
controversial because of its "phallic character"
which was not intended; fortunately they got over it! 

Kungliga Dramatiska Teatern/Dramaten/Royal Dramatic Theater
(1902-1906, by Fredrik Lilljekvist in Art Nouveau style)

Strandvagen, the most prestigious address to have in Stockholm,
with a treed esplanade and buildings from the 1880s-1890s

We crossed over to Djurgården Island, once the royal hunting grounds.

Entrance to Lusthusportens Park on Djurgården

The ABBA Museum (2013) is more an interactive exhibition than
a museum, with things like a piano which is linked to
Benny's own piano in his home, so it plays when he does (KSS)

Bågskytten/Archer (1919, by Carl Milles)
at the Liljevalchs Museum

After Djurgården Island we drove through the diplomatic quarter, passing the United States Ambassador's House, which is empty because Trump still has not appointed one. Also the United States Embassy that looked like a prison surrounded by double fences topped with rolled barbed wire.

The rear of the British Residence

The motor coach ended up across from the island of Gamla Stan/Old Town, and we could either get off the bus to explore on our own and catch a Viking shuttle bus later, or we could stay on and return to the Viking Star. We opted to return to the Viking Star for lunch.
Next: Stockholm II.