Uppsala, Birka, Gripsholm and a football match

Saturday, July 21st, 2007. Friends from Ottawa - Ben and Amelie are up visiting us.

Gripsholms Slott is located in Mariefred on Lake Mälaren, about 60 kms west of Stockholm. It was first built in the 1500's by King Gustav Vasa (on the site of a fortress from the 1300's with which he used as building materials) and later expanded in the 17oo's by King Gustav III. With almost 100 rooms that you can walk through in the castle that contain original furniture and decor, it was one of the most amazing things I (Robin) have seen! It even has a dungeon. Unfortunately you are not allowed to take pictures inside the castle, but some pics are here of the outside.

At 6pm, Djurgården vs Elfsborg football match started at Stockholm Olympic stadium. Djurgården had a thrilling come from behind win. I own a Djurgården jersey and looked like one of their biggest fans! I also tried to sing along with all the songs too. It was fun! There was a lot of energy in this crowd of 12,000.





July 16-19th, 2007: On Monday, my sister Maryrose and her husband Mauro arrived in Stockholm off the heels of their France trip. They saw the sights in Stockholm, and being inspired from their travels in France they cooked up a delicious 'coq au vin' one evening. Maryrose and Mauro were tired of palaces and opted for the unique viking experience of Birka, possibly the oldest town in Sweden. We had a great tour of the island and the grave mounds. There are something like 3000 grave mounds on this little island. I was a bit unprepared and didn't charge my batteries for the camera, and it died mid trip, as a result I didn't take that many pictures. What pictures I took are here.

July 14th, 2007. A forty minute commuter train from Stockholm and you are in Uppsala. This was a Saturday destination for us. Uppsala is a quaint little university town, with a canal that cuts through it. Ok, it isn't that small it's the fourth largest city in Sweden and home of some famous people. Most notable are, Carl Linnaeus and Anders Celsius, not to mention there is a Slott's factory (they make mustard) here as well. Speaking of slotts (i.e. castles), Uppsala has a fairly nice one, with a fantastic garden around the corner. Interestingly enough, the King of that castle had some canons pointed at the Domkyrka (Scandinavia's largest church) as he didn't trust powerful bishops of the time. It was a religious, economic and political centre. When I say religion I mean Norse paganism, human sacrifice, the worship of gods like Thor, Odin and Freyr. Just outside of town is Gamla Uppsala, or old Uppsala in English. It is here you can find the site of the Royal burial mound from the 5th and 6th century. Historians believe that this site may have been used as early as the 3rd century. We closed this day with a nice dinner at a restaurant down by the canal, see pics here.

Gotland - Visby

Gotland, the largest island in the Baltic Sea and home to Visby the city of "roses and ruins", was our destination for Canada Day. While there was a lack of partying Canadians, there was no shortage of partying Swedes. Visby is probably the best preserved medieval town in Scandinavia, and a vacation destination for many Swedes during July and August.

Our mini vacation, one night in Visby started on Saturday at 04:30am, good thing the sun was up. We headed to the central station to catch our bus to Nynäshamn where we caught the first departing ferry for Visby. The bus ride was about an hour long, and the ferry three. The weather was crappy, it was overcast and about to rain. Sure enough, it started to rain while we made our crossing. We arrived in Visby, the rain stopped, the clouds break, and the remainder of the weekend was fantastic.

Gamla Wisby, or old Visby has a ringwall built around it that began in the 13th century. It was a flourishing city in that time thanks to to membership in the Hanseatic League between the 13th and 17th century. This town is rich with history, and abandoned churches. We spent a large part of our Saturday strolling along the wall and checking out the churches and other points of interest. We capped the day off with a great dinner at some restaurant with a fantastic view of the sea and the old city streets. This gave us the perfect opportunity to witness all the young (and some not so young) people coming out to party it up in the many bars and restaurants in the city core. Image a pub or club in a building that is perhaps 700 years olds, welcome to Visby.

Day two, Canada Day, we rented a pair of bikes and headed south along the coast to Högklint. We arrived to tremendous views atop of a cliff. We soaked in the views, the sun, and some hairy perches atop of a rock about 150M over the sea. We enjoyed a saffron pancake at a small cafe by the sea before heading back to town. When we return we strolled through town, had a drink and a bite to eat before hopped aboard the last ferry out. Little did we know, pug lady (a woman whose face reminded us of a pug), took the same trip from Stockholm and back. we saw her everywhere in the ferry terminal on the way out, at our hotel, and again on the ferry ride back, and again in Stockholm!

For more crazy and fun pictures check this out

Midsommarafton

Midsommarafton (Midsummer night) was believed to be a time of powerful and secret forces. Everything was animated: the dew, the flowers, the twigs of the trees and the water in the wells. People also claimed that if a young woman placed a bouquet of seven or nine different flowers under her pillow that night she would dream of her future love. She must remain alone while picking the flowers and observe total silence. A flower from the churchyard increased the magical powers of the bouquet, as did picking flowers from the banks of three different roads at a crossroads.

Today Midsummer is a national holiday in Sweden. Families and friends meet and eat pickled herring and new potatoes washed down with schnapps and beer. Camping is a popular activity as numerous people flee the cities for their summer cottages. And flee the city they do, I’ve never seen Stockholm so void of people. It feels like Robin and I (and a bag of tourists) are the only people in the city.

To celebrate Midsommarafton Robin and I headed to Skansen, the place to go for traditional Swedish events in Stockholm. If you recall this is the same place I went for Valborgsmässoafton. We wandered around the park for a bit, watched some people in traditional clothing raise a maypole. Maypoles are believed to be part of an old fertility rite, the pole being a phallus that "impregnates" Mother Nature. It was hoped that properly celebrating this rite would help to give a good harvest in the autumn. Once the pole was raised it was time to dance around it. For example there is an apparently famous 'frog dance' (små grodorna). After the pole was raised, and we had our fill of dancing, Robin and I built a crown made out of sticks and leaves. Don’t ask me what the significance of this is, it seemed like the thing to do. We put daisy’s in Robin, and my crown resembled a bush on my head. To see more fantastic pictures go here.

By the way, today the official sunrise was 3:29 and the sunset is 22:10, that’s nearly 20hrs of daylight. But the sun really never goes down, as there is always a bright glow to the west. Here is a picture from my back deck pointing east at 11:29pm (left side), and another shot pointing west 11:26pm (right side).

Valborgsmässoafton

It's the evening of April 30th, for most people in North America this is just another night. In Sweden it's a reason to light a fire. Valborgsmässoafton, which has been celebrated in Sweden since the Middle Ages, is one of two Swedish holidays which still resemble their pre-Christian merrymaking. The other is Midsummer.

The guys at work suggested I head to Skansen, to check out the bonfire. This fire did not disappoint. When I arrived, there was still plenty of daylight, and already there was a large crowd gathering. I stood around, listened to Mikaeli Chamber Choir, and made sure I found a prime location to catch the lighting of the fire. Around 9pm a parade of people showed up with torches, shortly afterwards they lit the fire. It was big fire and hot fire. So hot, at one point I had to step back for fear of my coat melting. You can find more pictures here.

The view of the city from Skansen was just great.

Spring in Stockholm

I can tell it's spring here. There seems to be more energy in the city, more people out. I believe a favorite activity for people is to sit in the sun. Anything that you can sit on, and is in the sun will have people on it. I went to this park, there was a circle of benches around a monument, but only the benches that were in the sunlight had people on them, the others had no one.

The church around the corner from where I live has flowers that are beginning to emerge. I noticed them the other day on my walk to work. I have no idea what they are, purple, white, and yellow flowers? I image that they will get mowed off once the grass is long enough. Not sure if these things are planted in the grass or if they are wild?

On another note, I wanted to get my hair cut on Saturday. As it turns out, most hair places close at 3pm on Saturdays. This makes getting your hair cut at 3:30, a bit tricky. Yet another lesson learned. I purchased a blender today at Åhléns City, I feel domestic.

Copperfield's pub

A few weeks back I found http://www.canclub.org/, which is the website for The Canadian Club of Sweden which is for Canadians and all others who have a connection or interest in Canada and Canadians. Basically a social club. As it happens they were having a pub night at Copperfield´s Pub St.Eriksgatan 36 on Friday March 23. I decided I was going to join these people since we all had one thing in common, Canada.

That night I get home from work, make my dinner, and prepare to head out. I finally get out the door at 10:30ish, the other Canadians had planned to be there by 07:00pm. I finally build up the nerve to meet a bunch of strangers in a strange bar, in a foreign county, I pay my 20SEk to check my coat and I'm in. I head straight to the bar, and order a Carlsberg. I quickly scan the pub for a collection of people perhaps wearing toques or something distinctively Canadian. Nope. I spot a group of people, then realize they are communicating in sign language. Nope not them either. I ask the bar tender if he knows anything about a group of Canadian at this bar. He has no idea what I'm talking about. I then realize that the two guys beside are speaking in a familiar North American accent. I ask then were they are from, hoping they would say Newfoundland, Toronto, or something like that. Nope, they were from Seattle. They invite me to join them, and I ended up talking to these guys for the rest of the night. Ends up Daniel, and Jeremiah have lived in Sweden for 6 and 9 years respectively. They were giving me the low down on life in Sweden, and the reason they found their way here, and why they stayed. Americans are interesting people...

In short my mission to find Canadians failed, but the mission was interesting non the less. Maybe I'll find them next month.

Södermalm tour

I wanted to tour around Södermalm today, but when i woke up it was raining and about 6 degrees. Around 13:00, the weather cooperated and cleared up so I took the tunnelbana to the Slussen station.

My journey stated more-or-less in the same place as yesterday, at the Katarina Elevator (Katarinahissen). A couple blocks away is this great church the Katarina Kyrka (see picture). It's a replica of a the 17-century original which burnt down in 1990. Not too far from the church is a great cliff top viewpoint and a place called Ersta Diakonimuseet, with a hotel and cafe and an inter interesting Chapel (Kapell) in an octagonal shape and a pointed roof. Continuing on with my walk I came across a square named in Greta Garbo's honour. This square is home to a sculpture of three pink elephants frolicing. To be honest I've seen a lot of interesting street art. On the way back to the tunnelbana station, I came across some kids holding some sort of urban snowboard competition. Where they got he snow I have no idea.