Finland/Sweden 3/18/2023

Saturday 3/18/2023 - Stockholm City Hall, Vasa Museum, St. Patrick's Day Celebration, Farewell Dinner

We woke up at 6 a.m., showered, and went down to breakfast shortly after 7 o'clock. The breakfast buffet was amazing. We had scrambled eggs, Swedish meatballs, cottage cheese, cinnamon cardamom buns, pastries, cheese, granola with fresh fruit, orange juice, coffee, and the best made-to-order waffles! They were crispy on the outside and soft inside, and we ate them with jam and whipped cream.

At 9 o'clock, we left for our bus tour with local guide Lisa. As we drove through town, Lisa pointed out the bank whose famous robbery added Stockholm Syndrome to the lexicon.

Our first stop was Stockholm City Hall, situated on the tip of Kungsholmen Island. It was built between 1911 and 1923, in the national romantic style, using a total of 8 million bricks. This is not your average civil building.In addition to being the seat of city government, it is also the site of the annual Nobel Prize Banquet.

According to Stockholm City Hall's website:

A country's own history was extremely important for the national romantic style. [Architect] Ragnar Östberg was inspired by several older buildings in Sweden; such as the Vasa castles that were built or modernised during the Swedish renaissance. Of these, Östberg was particularly inspired by the old royal castle Three Crowns (Tre Kronor), previously located in the Old Town in Stockholm before it burnt down in 1697. By using the same brick size and brickwork for the City Hall as the castle Three Crowns, Östberg gave the City Hall both historical significance and legitimacy.

We started our tour in the so-called "Blue Hall", though it is not blue at all. Covering the walls in blue tiles had been the original intent, but when the architect saw how stunning this inner courtyard looked in red brick, he decided not to tile it after all. This is where the Nobel Prize Banquet takes place. The staircase has shallow stairs, and was influenced by the architect's wife, who wanted women in full regalia to be able to ascend/descend the stairs gracefully. The pipe organ in this hall is the largest in Scandinavia, with 10,270 pipes.

Next we went up the grand staircase and entered the Council Chamber, the room where the city council meets. Each seat had a microphone, a name plate, and buttons for electronic voting. There were plans to create a standard ceiling in this room, but once the architect saw the way the ceiling beams looked (reminiscent of a Viking longhouse), they decided to keep it open, and painted it with celestial motifs.

Even more breathtaking than the massive, courtyard-like Blue Hall is the Golden Hall, where dancing takes place at the annual Nobel Prize Banquet. This impressive room has gold Byzantine-style mosaics that reminded us of Chora Church in Istanbul. But unlike Chora Church's mosaics, which accentuate certain areas of the marble walls, these mosaics covered the entirety of the wall space in the Golden Hall. Over 18 million tessera (tiles) were used in its construction, and the majority are gold. The tessera glittered in the subdued lighting of the ballroom.

The mosaics were not in the original plan, and the architecture project had run out of money by the time they got to the Golden Hall. The idea was hatched to decorate the walls with mosaics, and financial support was garnered from local businessmen with the promise of being part of history. They hired German workers to work day and night to finish it on time.

According to WatchingtheSwedes.com

Throughout the years, Stockholm has been given many nicknames: The Venice of the North, Beauty on Water, The Capital of Scandinavia, the Oak, Cissy swamp. Another old nickname for the city is the Queen of the Mälaren. Built on 14 islands between the Baltic Sea and the lake Mälaren, it’s not hard to see why Stockholm was given this majestic title.

Inspired by this nickname, a [mosaic] was created in the Gold Room of the City Hall. The [mosaic] depicts a giant woman, the Queen of the Mälaren, being honoured from the east and the west.

To her west are depicted western landmarks, such as the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty. To her east are depicted eastern landmarks, such as the Hagia Sophia. Other mosaics depicted scenes in Swedish history, including the Stockholm Bloodbath of 1520.

The sheer beauty of the Golden Hall was overwhelming. It is something that you would expect to see in an ancient church or an art museum, not a civic building.

Another feature of the building is a 106-meter tall tower which can be climbed to get views of the city. We did not have time, though with the overcast rainy weather, it would probably not have yielded a great view anyway.

We stopped at the rest rooms and then Lisa warned us not to look right or left as we exited the building to go back to the bus. Craig and I laughed when we realized that this was a tongue-in-cheek way of telling us that we don't have time to look around in the gift shop, we had a schedule to keep.

Cindy and I did, however, look to our left, and saw a display of Dala horse earrings. Cindy has friends who are horse people, and my late mother had a small Dala horse collection, so we were each interested in these earrings. But, not wanting to slow down the group, we dutifully passed them on our way out to the bus.

We exited the building and it was raining quite steadily, so we were glad that we were on a bus tour rather than a walking tour this morning. When we got back to the bus and everyone was settled, we realized that we were missing a person. About 10 minutes later she emerged, shopping bag in hand, showing everyone on the bus the cute little Dala horse earrings she had purchased. She had not heard Lisa's prohibition of the gift shop, and she, like us, had been drawn to the earrings. Cindy and I were miffed that we had missed out by following the rules, and vowed that we would find Dala horse earrings somewhere before our stay in Stockholm was over!

The bus brought us to Djurgården, the island which houses many of the museums in Stockholm. We passed the ABBA Museum and Cirkus, the venue where Tom Waits has played concerts in the past.

Then the bus let us off at the Vasa Museum. The Vasa is the world's only preserved 17th century ship, which was raised from the seafloor of Stockholm Harbor in 1961, 333 years after she sank. The museum was built as a drydock for this massive ship. Because of the original height of the masts (150 feet), the tops had been removed in order to fit inside the building. But the rigging remained.

As soon as we entered the building, we could smell a distinctive smell, perhaps a combination of the old wood itself and the chemicals used in the ship's preservation. The sheer scale of the ship was stunning, and I immediately rushed to start taking photos.

Gosia and Lisa led us past the ship and into the museum cafe for a fika (Swedish coffee break). We would assume that most Swedes who enjoy regular fikas do not generally have stomachs which are stuffed full of high-end hotel buffet breakfast fare. We felt like we had just eaten breakfast. But we enjoyed a cup of coffee and a cinnamon/cardamom roll while chatting with members of our group.

Once everyone was done with our fika, we headed back out to the main area of the museum to get a good look at the ship. The Vasa was commissioned by King Gustav II Adolf, and sank on her maiden voyage after sailing just a kilometer on August 10, 1628. She had a topheavy design. The shipbuilder had never built anything at that scale (150 feet long), and he hadn't designed a ship with two rows of cannons. He didn't get it right. When the ship listed due to a light breeze hitting the sails, water came rushing in through the cannon holes. She sank just 120 meters from land, and the tops of the masts were still visible above the water.

The building of the ship employed over 300 people. The boat could carry 150 crew and 300 soldiers, with 800 square meters of deck space. At the time of her sinking, there were only mariners and their families onboard. They were on their way to pick up the military and then sail to Poland to meet the king.

In the 1660's, they recovered 55 of the ship's 64 cannons. 48 were bronze, firing 10 kg iron shot, and there were 16 lighter guns on the upper decks. Three of the large cannons are now on display in the Vasa museum.

The brackish conditions where she sank meant that destructive organisms did not eat the oak she was made of, and therefore she is extremely well preserved. After 333 years, she was discovered on the sea floor. They raised her and kept the wood wet (with water and polyethylene glycol) for 17 years while restoration took place. At first, the hull was strengthened with over 5000 steel bolts, but these soon started to corrode and pose a threat to the integrity of the wood, so they were replaced with stainless steel bolts, which caused the ship to lose 8 tons of weight. The museum is kept at a constant 18.5 degrees C and 53% humidity in order to aid in its preservation.

The ship is massive, and it has over 700 elaborate carvings throughout. They know that it used to be painted vibrant colors because they found traces of pigment in the wood. A scale model of the ship on display in the museum has been painted to depict what it would have looked like. 98% of the ship we saw today is original. Any parts which were lost and needed to be recreated are obviously made of newer wood, as proper historical restoration requires a layman to be able to tell the difference between original vs recreated elements.

It was humbling to be dwarfed by this massive ship. The original statues are incorporated back into the ship's design, but replicas of them appear elsewhere in the museum, painted what are believed to be the original colors.

We went upstairs to balconies which could give us a different perspective on the ship. From the main floor, you were looking up at the ship, but on the upper balconies, you could look down on it from above. From this vantagepoint, you could see what looked like a small wooden wastebasket. This was actually the onboard toilet.

It was a rainy day and the museum was crowded, so it was a bit hard to get to see everything in the time allotted. We were following Lisa around as she gave us an overview of everything. It was hard for me to keep up and still get all of the photos that I wanted.

Lisa said that we were hurrying because at noon, there was an English-language movie about the Vasa playing in the museum's theater that we should really see. She assured us that we would meet back up and there would be more time to explore the museum (even seeing a preserved pair of women's shoes which were recovered from the shipwreck, that likely belonged to a mariner's wife who was onboard at the time of the sinking) after the movie.

We entered the movie theater just before noon. There were many people in there, and not many seats together. Craig and I had to go down to the front to find a place to sit. The movie was just 17 minutes long, and was informative. We were glad that we saw it. It took us a while to file out of the theater, since the exits were in the back.

We exited at the same time as Rick and Molly. We didn't immediately see the group, so we assumed that they were just exploring the museum on their own. We started to do the same, and I took more photos. But it soon became apparent that the rest of the group was nowhere to be found. Rick tried to text Gosia to see where they were, but got no response. Where was everyone? He then called Gosia, and she answered, saying that they were all on the bus.

What happened to having extra time to continue our exploration of the museum? And why had they all left without the four of us? Gosia re-entered the museum to come get us. She said that she had assumed that we had gone to the gift shop. No, we had waited for the group outside of the theater, as we had been instructed. We were disappointed that we didn't have additional time to take more photos and learn more. I had already missed out on some shopping at the City Hall; I wasn't about to miss out on some here. But not wanting to hold up the group, I ran into the gift shop while Craig used the restroom. I bought a thorough but inexpensive book on the history of the ship and its restoration.

Looking back, had we known the limited time available to us, we would have skipped the fika in order to get more time in the museum itself. This was one pitfall of group travel; you are at the mercy of other people's schedules. Private trips, which we tend to prefer, give you more flexibility.

We got back onto the bus and were driven to Östermalms Saluhall market hall, which dates back to 1888. There were a lot of stalls offering interesting foods, but we really felt like we had been eating all day so far, so we really didn't have an appetite. Another reason we should have skipped that fika. Some people had specific food items that they were looking to sample or take home with them, but we weren't interested in that. We wandered around and took a few photos before heading back to the bus.

We drove back across the bridge to Djurgården, and Lisa pointed out some interesting sights along the way, including Picasso's outdoor installation "Luncheon on the Grass" at Moderna Museet, and Benny Andersson from ABBA's RMV Recording Studio. However, because it was raining, any photos I took from on the bus didn't come out well due to the raindrops on the bus windows.

We got back to the hotel at 1:30 p.m., and had the rest of the day at leisure. We were scheduled to be back at 2 p.m., so we really could have had more time at the Vasa Museum. Bummer!

This afternoon, I wanted to buy some souvenirs, and I was determined to find the Dala horse earrings for Cindy and myself. We knew that there were plenty of souvenir shops in Gamla Stan, and we briefly contemplated going back there for the third time. But Craig suggested going back to City Hall. We knew that they had the earrings there. He knew how to get there and it would mean that we got to see a different area of the city on foot.

As we walked past Gustav Adolfs torg (square), we noticed chanting and someone beating a bass drum in front of the statue of Gustav II Adolf, Swedish King from 1611 to 1632. People were lighting off smoke flares that were red, green, and white. We asked a couple of friendly police officers what was going on, and they told us that people were protesting the treatment of the Iranian woman who was punished for not wearing a hijab.

We passed a craft gift shop and stopped in. My late mother had a small collection of Dala horses. She had red ones, blue ones, and white ones. I wanted something different, so I chose a yellow one with blue detailing. I also bought a Christmas ornament and a refrigerator magnet.

According to theswedishwoodenhorse.com

The image of the horse goes back thousands of years. The magic and mystique surrounding the horse inspired people to recreate their image in cave and rock paintings. Horses were highly valued and became a symbol of strength and courage. They arrived in Sweden 4000 years ago and were tamed and domesticated around that time.

In the 17th century little wooden horses were sold at markets in small towns and villages in Dalarna, in central Sweden. A hundred years later wooden horses were carved by men working in the forests during long winter evenings and brought back to the village for the children to play with. This is how the little wooden horse from Dalarna became a treasured object. These simple wooden horses were later painted in bright colours inspired by the flower patterns painted on furniture and walls in the region.

It wasn’t until the World Exhibition in New York in 1939 that the Dala wooden horse became famous around the world. A giant painted Dala horse was placed outside the Swedish pavilion and caused a sensation among the visitors. During the year after the exhibition 20,000 Dala horses were shipped over to New York and so the Swedish Dala horse became a symbol for Sweden.

There were no Dala horse earrings here, though, so we continued our walk to the City Hall. When we arrived, we learned that City Hall was actually closed for a private event (a company's 175th birthday party). Thankfully, the gift shop was still open. I made a beeline for the Dala horse earrings and picked up some for myself and some for Cindy.

Then we walked around the outdoor courtyards, taking pictures of the statuary. Today was Saturday afternoon, when weddings at City Hall are free. We saw many brides and grooms taking photos in various areas of the courtyard. It was too bad for them that the weather was rainy and brisk. It was certainly a picturesque place for a wedding, but it seemed rather assembly line-esque, as each couple searched for a private spot for photos.

It started to rain harder as we walked back in the direction of the hotel. We walked past Central Station (which had a little place next to it called "Born in Boston"). We later learned that Humberto and Max took the subway around the city, and the subway stations are gorgeous! If we return to the city, we will definitely have to check out the subway.

We passed the picturesque St. Clara's Church and took some photos from the exterior, but we were unable to enter. We passed the Kulturhuset museum, which was having an exhibit of David Bowie photographs by Sukita. We entertained the idea of going in, but neither of us really felt in the mood for an art museum. A tram passed us, and on the side of it was an advertisement for one of the Scandinavian noir authors that I like: Jo Nesbo. We passed the massive NK (Nordiska Kompaniet) department store, which apparently receives 12 million visitors per year. We also passed the world's only urban IKEA store. But we weren't in the mood to shop, either.

We decided to walk through Kungsträdgården park, which would ultimately lead us back to the hotel. We heard what sounded like live Irish music, and followed the sound to a full-on stage where the Blarney Pilgrims were playing a set. We found ourselves smack-dab in the middle of a St. Patrick’s Day celebration sponsored by the Swedish-Irish Society. People were gathered around, wearing various St. Patrick's Day hats and accessories. A large screen depicted images from the Irish tourism board.

The Blarney Pilgrims were great! They were soon joined by a singer/guitar player called Maya Kristina. Then they left the stage and she played a solo set. This was followed by a troupe of Irish step dancers. There was a beer tent and we went in so that Craig could get a Guinness. We stood at a table outside of the crowded tent. I could smell sausages cooking about 20 feet from us and they smelled delicious. We had skipped lunch, so we were finally starting to feel hungry after our morning breakfast and fika. The sausages were the size of a hot dog, and we both had room for that, so we each enjoyed one while listening to the music. The rain stopped while we were there. The whole thing was a nice, unexpected surprise and a nice way to cap off St. Patrick’s Day weekend in Stockholm.

We left the celebration at 4:30. When we got back to the hotel, we crossed the street so that we could see the swans in the harbor. Then we went back to our room and I wrote up some posts for Facebook/Instagram while Craig packed a little.

We went downstairs to the restaurant at 6:30 for our farewell dinner with the group. We sat with Cindy, Kevin, Susan, and Adrian. The hotel had sent Gosia the menu three days before and we had to make our choices then. I checked the photo of the menu on my phone so that I could remember what we had ordered. The appetizer was low baked char with horseradish, kohlrabi, and walnuts. The main course was potato dumplings stuffed with kale and carrot with blue cheese sauce. We had red wine to drink and creme brulee for dessert. Everything was absolutely delicious and artfully plated.

It was bittersweet to say goodbye to Gosia and our new friends. This has been a group of very well-traveled and interesting folks, and we had many good conversations and a lot of laughs. Many people had early morning flights and decided to turn in early, so we didn't all get to say a proper goodbye; the gathering just broke up rather suddenly. But just as we were about to head back to the room, we saw a fireworks display over the harbor through the restaurant windows. We all joked with Gosia that she had arranged it for us as a farewell treat.

When we got back to the room, I tried to check in for our flight tomorrow , but Lufthansa's site was down. Kevin had told us that he had had similar troubles this afternoon. We just had to trust that we would be able to check in at the airport tomorrow. We packed everything except our last-minute items and went to bed.

Stockholm City Hall

Vasa Museum