European Adventures - 19. Stockholm

19. Stockholm

Nice Area On the Way to the Ferry

We took the ferry from our Hotel to the Museum. To get to the ferry we needed to walk about 10 minutes to the ferry pier, a nice walk through an upscale residential area with posh ideas, fake canals and I bet, expensive real estate. Most housing in this section of Stockholm was apartments, not individual houses. The people we met on this walk reminded me of successful young business types. They came across as urban looking, sophisticated, fit, driven, healthy and self absorbed and conscious to ‘make’ it in this new world. Joggers passed us hooked up to an iPhone, mothers pushing the latest style baby carriages, shoppers with health food bags under their arms, the area we were in was expensive and it was there for all to see. 

SL Access Card????

We needed help at the ferry machine, I again put in my credit card, and again it listed all my options of where we could go in Swedish. We wanted a return ticket but how to you say that in Swedish? No, there was no translation available, no it was not intuitive. But, in this area everybody speaks English so we just asked anybody and someone did it for us. For them it was simple but then…they speak Swedish, too. After we were on the ferry we saw we could have bought a ticket on board, there was a lady selling ferry tickets, but the brochure we received at the registration desk pointed out that we should make sure to get a ticket before we enter the ferry, because being caught without a ticket would cost a lot of extra money. Well, you know by now, Sweden needs money, they have ferry inspectors, too. 

The Vasa

Scale Model of the Vasa

Our first goal for the day, this is Saturday, was the museum that holds the Vasa, the reason I came to Stockholm. The Vasa is a ship built in 1628 that sank on her maiden voyage, just 1000 meters from shore. Right after they pushed off from the pier, the ship went down. They could not do much about that in 1628 but in or around 1960 the technology had progressed enough to raise the lost ship. And because it was a one of a kind ship in fairly good condition, this museum was built to house it. The museum was erected in the Royal National City Park that also houses the Nordic museum. This section of town is a large Island. 

Stockholm is a city that is actually a series of Islands. Bridges, tunnels and ferries connect those Islands. The connections from one point to the next seemed like a maze, I gave up trying to figure out if there was a system to it. It was just too complicated for the 2 days that we were there.

Stern of the Scaled Model

We concentrated on the Vasa. It is no doubt, and I am sure it was more so when it was built, an impressive ship. I felt dwarfed standing at keel level, looking up. 

Stern of the Real Ship - From the SECOND FLOOR

The museum was designed and built around the ship. The ship is the absolute center of the exhibition and deservedly so. There were many side exhibitions however, that were interesting as well. I read about this ship years earlier and when I decided to visit Sweden, a county in Europe that I have never been to and the Vasa became my focal point. The builders, the people in 1628 knew this ship would not be ‘ship worthy’ that it was too top-heavy. Yet nobody dared to be outspoken enough and tell the King that he was pursuing a folly. The ship was all show without being properly balanced. We have not learned much since then, we still have that all over the place where people let the leaders dictate actions that are unbalanced.

 

You know what I mean; I do not have to name Presidents or Dictators or Chairmen, do I?

Details of Decorations at the Stern (1st Decorated Layer)

A blind man could see that the Vasa was too tall, too sleek, too angepatschket. (It’s a Yiddish word, which means added on, patched together without thought of ethics or looks).

After a good 2 hours looking at all the details of the Vasa we walked next door to visit the Nordic Museum, too. Well, we are here, so why not? We could have saved our entrance fee, I did not learn much on that walk. Yes, there was an exhibition of the Sami, and the discrimination those people face and have faced within Sweden, but coming from the U.S. that topic was nothing new to me.

 

Sami Display

After an hour of walking through the Nordic Museum we left the museum compound and had a cappuccino and a pastry each. We just sat on a bench under the overhang of a restaurant, watching people. A kind of ‘mist’ was in the air created by millions of seeds 

blowing in the wind; a kind of fluffy stuff that almost looked like a haze, settling down on the ground after a while, covering everything. 

We saw a young guy dressed in a Mickey Mouse costume on a cell phone, sitting on a bench near to us. After his call was finished he donned his ‘face’ like a hat and now was Mickey. He pushed himself next to people, had them take a photo as a souvenir of Stockholm, now with Mickey in it. And then he demanded payment for his pose. He became adamant to be paid. Mickey Mouse the Hustler!

Mickey Mouse Looking For a Handout

Stockholm is a tourist town; there were many, many tourists about. We walked alongside a pier with all kinds of stalls, all kinds of ships docked along the water edge, some ships turned into step on, sit down restaurants. People wandered around kind of aimlessly trying to take in the vibes of Stockholm. There were ferry terminals all around, each terminal a different shipping line, going to different spots in this maze of waterways. We aimed for ‘our’ ferry but before we got there sat on a bench and just watched people again. 

Walking Back to Our Ferry

We tried walking into a section of the ‘old town’ but these were just shopping streets, and by now all the stores had closed for the weekend. We felt kind of lost; we were in Stockholm but had nothing else to do, or places to go. 

We sat on a bench and talked to a young woman of Indian descent whose mother-in-law was visiting from India. The woman was trying to show her mother-in-law Sweden. The older women was in a wheel chair and felt lost, it was

We Had a Nice Visit Even if the M-in-Law Spoke No English

written all over her face. Without her daughter-in-law she would have been stuck. We had something in common with this older lady. To me, Stockholm is a city full of hype, full of action, full of a young atmosphere. 

We were sitting on a bench watching our surroundings and saw ahead of us a car exhibition where people could sign up to test drive a Lamborghini. People did come, and with the salesman sitting in the passenger seat, took those high powered, highly acclaimed cars for a spin around the block. 

I watched but could not identify with or relate to this. We are getting too old to be driving a Lamborghini; we are too old to be in this competitive race of living that so permeates Stockholm. 

Lamborghini

There is a time for everything in life. Stockholm does no longer fit my lifestyle.