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

Friday, September 7, 2018 (continued)
After lunch on the Viking Star, we took advantage of the shuttle bus to return to the city center. However, there was a delay because the second shuttle bus was late, and the first shuttle bus driver was due for a break. The first driver was almost willing to take us, but it was the second driver who was adamant that, heaven forbid, no labor laws were broken!

Katarinahissen/Katarina Elevator (1939) is a shortcut from
the waterfront up to the heights of Södermalm Island

Statue (1796, by Pierre l'Archevêque) of
Gustav II Adolf, 17C king of Sweden when it was
a military power and defender of Protestantism

Kungliga Operan/Royal Opera (1892-1899, by Axel Johan Anderberg),
on the site of an earlier opera house where Gustav III was assassinated at
a masquerade, inspiring the opera Un ballo in maschera by Giuseppe Verdi

First we had to walk a short block to exchange our vouchers for 48-hour Stockholm Cards. Then we could head over to Gamla Stan/Old Town.

Riksdagshuset/Parliament (1897-1905,
by Aron Johansson in Neo-Classical style)

Gustav III's Antique Museum wing of the Royal Palace

East side of the Kungliga slottet/Royal Palace
(1697-1754, by Nicodemus Tessin the Younger in Baroque style)

Armory Museum wing of the Royal Palace

Statue (1808, by Johan Tobias Sergel) of Gustav III,
who was the first neutral head of state to recognize
the United States of America, in 1782

View across to the National Museum (1844-1866, by
Friedrich August Stüler in north Italian Renaissance style), now closed

View across to the af Chapman (1888 as the Dunboyne in England,
obtained by the Swedish Navy in 1923 as a training ship, saved
in 1947 by the City Museum, and since 1949 has been a youth hostel)

View of the af Chapman (7/21/1982)

Tessinska palatset/Tessin Palace (1694-1700, by
Nicodemus Tessin the Younger), has been
the residence of the city governor since 1773,
then county governor since 1968

Southern façade of the Royal Palace, which is the official
residence of the King of Sweden; however, the present king
has chosen to live in the official palace of the Queen, Drottningholm

Swedish Royal Guard (KSS)

We used our Stockholm Cards for admission to the Royal Palace Apartments and the Royal Treasury.

Order of Seraphim Collar with Cross displayed
in the Apartments of Orders of Chivalry (KSS)

Portrait of the current king, Carl XVI Gustav,
wearing the collars of the Vasa, Polar Star,
Sword, and Seraphim Orders (KSS)

Western Staircase of Swedish marble and porphyry

It was dark in most of the Royal Palace. First the Bernadotte Apartments, which were the royal apartments from 1754-1907.

Victoria Drawing Room (1860s, by Fredrik Wilhelm Scholander)

West Octagonal Cabinet (1730s) with a ceiling painting
by Guillaume-Thomas-Raphael Taraval

Oskar II's Drawing Room or Writing Room

Carl XVI Gustav's Jubilee Room (1995-2001, by Åke Axelsson)
for the event of the king's 25th anniversary of his reign

Portraits of King Carl XVI Gustav and Queen Silvia

There was the story of how Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark met his future wife at a bar during the 2000 Olympic Summer Games in Sydney. Now we have Carl Gustav meeting Silvia at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, where she was working as a hostess and interpreter. Just as interesting, their daughter, Crown Princess Victoria, married her personal trainer.

Queen Ulrika's Audience Chamber and
her 1750 coronation throne

Clock and cabinet in Queen
Ulrika's Audience Chamber (KSS)

Pillared Hall

Now to the State Apartments.

Gustav III's State Bedchamber where he died after the gunshot
wound he received at the masquerade at the Royal Opera

Karl XI's Gallery, inspired by the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles;
the Nobel Laureates have dinner here the day after the banquet at City Hall

The gallery was blocked, so we missed half of the State Apartments, and backtracked to the exit. We were sent out the back of the palace, and had to walk around to the front to re-enter to see the Royal Chapel.

Guard distraction?

Slottskyrkan/Royal Chapel (1754,
by Carl Harleman in Baroque style)

Royal Chapel pulpit (by Jacques-Philippe Bouchardon)

We also visited the Skattkammaren/Royal Treasury, where no photos were allowed. On display were all the Swedish state regalia for coronations, weddings, christenings, and funerals. There has not been a coronation since that of Oskar II's in 1873. His son Gustav V and grandson Carl XVI Gustav have chosen to be enthroned rather than crowned.

Rear of Storkyrkan/Great Church/Stockholm Cathedral (1279,
in Swedish Gothic style) is the oldest church in Gamla Stan (KSS)

Statue (1898, by Theodor Lundberg) of Olaus Petri,
clergyman and writer who studied at the University of
Wittenberg in 1518, and was influenced by
Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon; he in turn
used his influence on the leader of the fledgling
Sweden to make it a Lutheran nation

A temporary mini-me obelisk in place of a
memorial concerning the 1788-1790 war against Russia

Finska kyrkan/Finnish Church (1648-1653 as the
Lilla bollhuset/Small Ball House, 1725 was given to the Finns),
since Finland was part of Sweden until 1809

Boy Looking at the Moon (1954, by Liss Eriksson,
erected 1967), also known as Järnpojke/Iron Boy,
is the tiniest statue (15 cm/5.9') in Stockholm; it
commemorates the orphans who had to transfer cargo
to/from lake ships and sea ships before there were locks

St George Slaying the Dragon (1912, by Otto Meyer, based on the
1489 wooden sculpture by Bernt Notke in Storkyrkan), where
St George represents Sweden and the dragon is Denmark

The Princess who is being saved by St George (1913)

Köpmangatan, one of the oldest and most traditional
cobblestone streets in Stockholm

Virginia konfektyr/Confectionery window

Stockholms Stadsmission/Stockholm City Mission
with the Grillska Huset/café and bakery

Well (1773, by Erik Palmstedt) in Stortorget/
Main Square, the oldest square in Stockholm

The Main Square was the site of the Swedish Bloodbath in 1520, where after the Swedes challenged Danish rule, King Christian II had 94 men beheaded, including the father of Gustav Vasa, who managed to escape the same fate. Gustav Vasa traveled north recruiting the peasantry to support his revolt against the Danish king, and by 1523 he had liberated Sweden and was elected the king. It was on Midsummer's Eve when he marched into Stockholm in triumph. Gustav Vasa expelled the archbishop who was allied with the Danish king. When the Pope demanded the archbishop be reinstated, Vasa, already influenced by Olaus Petri, instead appointed the brother of Olaus as archbishop, and thus Sweden became Lutheran. Gustav Vasa was then head of both the state and the church.

On the left is Schantzska Huset/House (1650 in Nordic
Renaissance style), rumored to have 94 white stones
in the façade to commemorate those killed
in the Swedish Bloodbath, and on the right is
Seyfridtzska Huset/House (1520s, renovated 1650s)

Börshuset/Stock Exchange (1773-1778, by Erik Palmstedt) is
now home to the Swedish Academy and the Nobel Museum

First we checked the chairs in the Nobel Bistro

When Nobel Laureates come to visit, they are
asked to sign beneath the chair in which they sat

A conveyor belt runs through the museum holding pictures of
every Nobel Laureate (approximately 700)

Touchscreens allow you to access information,
there are videos of acceptance speeches, and
films on creative milieus and paths to success

In the floor is an enlarged model of the Nobel Prize gold medal

Death mask of Alfred Nobel

Alfred Nobel was a Swedish chemist, inventor, and entrepreneur, who is most known for developing dynamite. He held 355 patents, but it was his investment in his brothers' oilfields and his own armament factories that resulted in his wealth. When his brother died in 1888, a newspaper mistakenly published an obituary for Alfred, claiming he became rich by inventing ways to kill more people faster. Alfred Nobel wanted to leave a better legacy, and wrote his will to leave 94% of his estate to establish the Nobel Prizes.

Display of the table setting used in the Nobel banquet

The Nobel Museum coatroom has lockable hangars

Swedish restaurant highchairs

We took a break at the Nobel Bistro;
a Swedish Gotlands Bryggeri Sleepy Bulldog

The thing to order is the Nobel ice cream: vanilla ice cream covered
with a thin candy shell, on which sits a ring of raspberry sorbet
topped with lemon foam, with a dark chocolate "gold medal" on the side

The dessert is different every year at the annual Nobel banquet, so this is not necessarily what the Nobel Laureates receive to eat, unless they visit the museum Bistro and end up signing their chair!
Next: Stockholm III.