Stockholm - the city with no flying children!!! (and pretty cool architecture)
There were 2 things that I knew about Stockholm before we went there:
1. It's full of left wing journalists, who, with the help of Goth hackers of the female persuasion bust massive government conspiracies. Every week. You can thank Steig Larsson for that one :)
2. Every child over the age of 7 has a little propeller on his/her back, and spends the days buzzing around Stockholm, getting up to mischief. See, in my mind a small ritual took place around the age of 7 for average Swedish youngster: a parcel from Ericsson corporation would arrive, containing:
1 x propeller with back attachment
1 x stomach button with velcro attachment - to activate the propeller
and from that point on, no babysitters of the family was safe.
From stockholm
So you can imagine my bitter disappointment when I didn't see any flying kids!!! Not one!!! I complained of my plight to a nice, random, elderly gentlemen we met at a bus stop. And this guy (who turned out to be ex-Ericsson!!!) told me I was not the first visitor to Sweden to ask about this. And in fact Ericsson have had a prototype working, for some time, in their top secret facility, but there were a few bugs yet to be ironed out. Primarily to do with sudden gusts of wind and brick walls. With my spirits thus lifted we concentrated on exploring the city.
Stockholm has to be one of the most picturesque cities in Europe. It is located on over 14 islands of the Swedish archipelago, connected by bridges and ferries, which in itself gives it a certain exotic feel. Many of the islands around it are dotted with summer cottages of the upper class - and present a lovely place to get away from it all, on your yacht or catamaran. :) Several of the suburbs around the centre of town were designed by various architects in preparation for the art and industry expo hosted in Stockholm in 1897. Each architect was obviously trying to outdo the other; as a result you can spend days, wondering through the streets looking at some quite surreal buildings of every colour and sometimes shape under the sun.
From stockholm
From stockholm
From stockholm
From stockholm
The City Hall plays host to the Nobel Prize Banquet in December every year. During every other month visitors are invited to poke their nose in for a look, as well as indulge their appetite over a menu from the banquets of the past years. The building itself is really quite funky and well worth a look. The food deserves a separate mention. The meals while not overly intricate - think 3 different types of salad, and a well prepared quarter of chicken or slice of pork, are actually very filling on a cold Swedish day (and they are all cold), as well as very reasonably priced by Scandinavian standards.
From stockholm
From stockholm
One other thing really worth visiting is the Vassa museum. Vassa was a war ship built in Sweden 1628. At the time, it was the biggest ship in the world, and was launched amid much fanfare and rejoicing of the locals and the royal family. Unfortunately due to some minor but as it turned out quite far reaching design faults, the ship sank about 20 minutes after it was launched. In 1961 (yep, 400 years later) the ship was salvaged, and is now on display in the museum. If you go there, you will be told about what went wrong: such as the body being slightly too narrow for the size of the masts on it, etc, etc. But I have a scoop for you - I know, why it went wrong :) According to an unnamed source - and thank you, you know who you are - it was on the king's orders, that the masts were redesigned at the last minute, with the fatal extra 2 meters added. But why??? Well, you see, several months earlier the Norwegians launched the world's biggest war ship, and there was no way king Gustavus Adolphus was going to be seen to launch something smaller then his nearest and dearest neighbour :) And they say big IT projects fail spectacularly :)
From stockholm
Penultimatly, I'd like to show you a photo taken on in the square, in front of the Royal Palace (coincidently an excellent place for fishing). This is me and our guide around the city (and possibly even my source from above paragraph, but you'll never know :)). The significance of this place is, this was where the Swedish Pirate Party took its last stand in defence of thepiratebay.org in 2009. As we all know, that particular cause failed spectacularly, and thepiratebay, as well as our rights to backup our rightfully purchased DVDs have now been relegated to the pages of history books. So take a minute now - as you read this - to remember those brave men and women who have given their time, skills and effort, to defend our freedoms, against the evil, overly greedy corporations, like the Recording Ass. of America and EMI (it's - now bankrupt - UK twin).
From stockholm
From stockholm
Lastly, the food. Look and salivate - that is all :)
From stockholm
One other thing. Part of the reason Susan and I get along so well together is our mutual hatred for seafood. Our view is, as land based mammals, humans have no business eating slimy, smelly, often downright bony aquatic creatures. I do however like to sample the local delicacies wherever we go - and often pay the price for my curiosity. In this case, while ordering from a menu in the hotel, I requested the most authentic sounding thing: "räkor på en pinne". I did ask the waitress to describe it, to which she made a vaguely clucking noise and said it comes on a stick. It turned out to be 2 skewered prawns. Their little black evil eyes daring me to eat them. How could I pass up a challenge like that! And oh boy did I pay for eating them. All of the next day, I couldn't eat a thing, and anytime I even looked at food, I could immediately taste those 2 little spawns of Satan (well ok, Neptune) in my mouth. Susan did take this opportunity to mock my adventurous spirit, but that's ok, because now I can categorically tell you: prawns in Sweden are just like every other country, shi...hmm... rubbish!
Overall, Sweden in general, and Stockholm in particular are well worth a visit. It is like a Scandinavian jewel, hidden beneath the snow and bad weather. And while you are there, grab me jar of lingonberry jam, could you :)
1. It's full of left wing journalists, who, with the help of Goth hackers of the female persuasion bust massive government conspiracies. Every week. You can thank Steig Larsson for that one :)
2. Every child over the age of 7 has a little propeller on his/her back, and spends the days buzzing around Stockholm, getting up to mischief. See, in my mind a small ritual took place around the age of 7 for average Swedish youngster: a parcel from Ericsson corporation would arrive, containing:
1 x propeller with back attachment
1 x stomach button with velcro attachment - to activate the propeller
and from that point on, no babysitters of the family was safe.
From stockholm
So you can imagine my bitter disappointment when I didn't see any flying kids!!! Not one!!! I complained of my plight to a nice, random, elderly gentlemen we met at a bus stop. And this guy (who turned out to be ex-Ericsson!!!) told me I was not the first visitor to Sweden to ask about this. And in fact Ericsson have had a prototype working, for some time, in their top secret facility, but there were a few bugs yet to be ironed out. Primarily to do with sudden gusts of wind and brick walls. With my spirits thus lifted we concentrated on exploring the city.
Stockholm has to be one of the most picturesque cities in Europe. It is located on over 14 islands of the Swedish archipelago, connected by bridges and ferries, which in itself gives it a certain exotic feel. Many of the islands around it are dotted with summer cottages of the upper class - and present a lovely place to get away from it all, on your yacht or catamaran. :) Several of the suburbs around the centre of town were designed by various architects in preparation for the art and industry expo hosted in Stockholm in 1897. Each architect was obviously trying to outdo the other; as a result you can spend days, wondering through the streets looking at some quite surreal buildings of every colour and sometimes shape under the sun.
From stockholm
From stockholm
From stockholm
From stockholm
The City Hall plays host to the Nobel Prize Banquet in December every year. During every other month visitors are invited to poke their nose in for a look, as well as indulge their appetite over a menu from the banquets of the past years. The building itself is really quite funky and well worth a look. The food deserves a separate mention. The meals while not overly intricate - think 3 different types of salad, and a well prepared quarter of chicken or slice of pork, are actually very filling on a cold Swedish day (and they are all cold), as well as very reasonably priced by Scandinavian standards.
From stockholm
From stockholm
One other thing really worth visiting is the Vassa museum. Vassa was a war ship built in Sweden 1628. At the time, it was the biggest ship in the world, and was launched amid much fanfare and rejoicing of the locals and the royal family. Unfortunately due to some minor but as it turned out quite far reaching design faults, the ship sank about 20 minutes after it was launched. In 1961 (yep, 400 years later) the ship was salvaged, and is now on display in the museum. If you go there, you will be told about what went wrong: such as the body being slightly too narrow for the size of the masts on it, etc, etc. But I have a scoop for you - I know, why it went wrong :) According to an unnamed source - and thank you, you know who you are - it was on the king's orders, that the masts were redesigned at the last minute, with the fatal extra 2 meters added. But why??? Well, you see, several months earlier the Norwegians launched the world's biggest war ship, and there was no way king Gustavus Adolphus was going to be seen to launch something smaller then his nearest and dearest neighbour :) And they say big IT projects fail spectacularly :)
From stockholm
Penultimatly, I'd like to show you a photo taken on in the square, in front of the Royal Palace (coincidently an excellent place for fishing). This is me and our guide around the city (and possibly even my source from above paragraph, but you'll never know :)). The significance of this place is, this was where the Swedish Pirate Party took its last stand in defence of thepiratebay.org in 2009. As we all know, that particular cause failed spectacularly, and thepiratebay, as well as our rights to backup our rightfully purchased DVDs have now been relegated to the pages of history books. So take a minute now - as you read this - to remember those brave men and women who have given their time, skills and effort, to defend our freedoms, against the evil, overly greedy corporations, like the Recording Ass. of America and EMI (it's - now bankrupt - UK twin).
From stockholm
From stockholm
Lastly, the food. Look and salivate - that is all :)
From stockholm
One other thing. Part of the reason Susan and I get along so well together is our mutual hatred for seafood. Our view is, as land based mammals, humans have no business eating slimy, smelly, often downright bony aquatic creatures. I do however like to sample the local delicacies wherever we go - and often pay the price for my curiosity. In this case, while ordering from a menu in the hotel, I requested the most authentic sounding thing: "räkor på en pinne". I did ask the waitress to describe it, to which she made a vaguely clucking noise and said it comes on a stick. It turned out to be 2 skewered prawns. Their little black evil eyes daring me to eat them. How could I pass up a challenge like that! And oh boy did I pay for eating them. All of the next day, I couldn't eat a thing, and anytime I even looked at food, I could immediately taste those 2 little spawns of Satan (well ok, Neptune) in my mouth. Susan did take this opportunity to mock my adventurous spirit, but that's ok, because now I can categorically tell you: prawns in Sweden are just like every other country, shi...hmm... rubbish!
Overall, Sweden in general, and Stockholm in particular are well worth a visit. It is like a Scandinavian jewel, hidden beneath the snow and bad weather. And while you are there, grab me jar of lingonberry jam, could you :)