Day 2 in Sweden - 10th September
Well today’s been a great day. Totally makes all the trouble yesterday worth it! Man, Stockholm is such an amazing city – I just wish I had more time to see it all!!
I left at about 9.15am after checking out of the hotel. I took a subway train to the station, and walked around there for a bit. Went to a nearby church as well which was quite nice. Then I caught the bus to go to Skansen, which was to be one of my main stops for the day. Skansen is the world’s biggest open air museum. Its sort of along the vein of Den Gamle By which I’d visited in Arhus – it was originally meant to recreate life as it was a couple of hundred years ago in Sweden. But its grown to be much bigger than that. Now just a part of it is “Old Sweden”. Apart from that there’s an aquarium – more about that shortly – then sort of a zoo with lots of Scandinavian animals, some places for kids, and next door is a theme park as well. So its one of the most popular places in Stockholm to visit, and tourists flock there in huge numbers.
I got there around 10.20 or so, and walked around for a bit. Lot of greenery, with all these places sort of interspersed in the forest. I first ended up actually going to the aquarium, which is more than an aquarium, really. They have the usual fish and all, but also have displays with monkeys, lemurs, baboons, and so on – and the cool thing about these is that some of these displays are actually not with the animals caged, but pretty much in the open. So they’ll have this huge enclosure, with trees and all, and the lemurs would be running around there – and you pretty much walk through it. So at one point, for example, there was this lemur sitting right in front of me, on my path. And not at all scared, he just sat there and stared! Was too cute. I quite liked this way of organizing things – makes for a much more involved experience. Of course the more dangerous animals were caged – like the baboons – and u had to view them beyond enclosures. They even had a couple of koalas, which are just the most adorable beings on this planet, I think – though pandas could give them serious competition. Unfortunately these too were beyond enclosures – for obvious reasons!
In the main aquarium part – which was not all that huge – they had some interesting stuff – sharks, some weird looking turtle kinda thing, crocodiles – which were THAT close to you, you could touch them through the glass.
They also had varieties of snakes – an anaconda, a green boa which looked very cool, cobras, rattlers, a cool looking chameleon….And a section where there was a python which was kept out there for one to touch! Felt kinda weird….slimy, smooth, wobbly…..:) ok, I wont gross out all the people reading this…..
Then I walked thru some of the old sections of Skansen – the ones really representing old Sweden. This was similar to den gamle by, but I didn’t see too much of it, as I wanted to leave soon – and go other places too! But they have some interesting craftsmen doing demonstrations – the most interesting one was a glassblower, who went thru the entire process of making a glass vase! Very interesting!!
After walking thru some of these places, I hit the zoo area where one could see a lot of typical Scandinavian animals…mountain goats, moose – which is REALLY huge; I never thought they were that huge – brown bears, wolves, wolverines…..they also ahd peacocks randomly walking around…..
Apart from that they have some daily special shows…like today there was a pony show – so I went there for a bit! Quite interesting, and a lot of people had shown up to display their ponies!!!
I also saw an old church from 1600 or so, which was reconstructed there. Very interesting – even the pews were kind of different!
Anyway, I left soon after that, even though there was so much more to see and I would have loved to stay longer…But I wanted to get back into Gamla Stan, to the royal palace, where at 1.15 they had the changing of the guard. This happens every day! And its quite a sight. So I took the bus back into town, then walked to the palace. On the way I stopped at one of the big churches in town, which is actually the only remaining abbey in Stockholm. This church has a lot of the kings and queens of Sweden buried here. Also, the royal house of Sweden has something known as the Order of the Seraphim, which it bestows on heads of state and leaders of other countries, as well as sweden – its like the highest honor bestowed by the nation. And for everyone person honored with one, they’ve put up a panel with a crest representing that person. Some familiar names amongst those – napoleon, Mountbatten, Chiang-Kai Shek, Charles deGaulle……
I also went to the largest cathedral in the city, right next to the palace, which is absolutely magnificent. Huge, amazing carvings, high ceilings with paintings along it….very impressive….
By then it was time for the change of the guard, so I went to the palace courtyard to join the hundreds of other tourists there – it was quite a gathering! After a while we could hear the band playing as the young guys came marching. On this particular day the soldiers coming in were from the Swedish marines, who were undergoing training. This is a pretty big occasion for even these kids, as they get a chance to march down the capital city, show off, and participate in this ceremony – so everyone has a good time! So they came marching down, and then there was the ceremony. The band kept breaking into song, and they were pretty good! So that was fun.
The ceremony actually goes on for a while, so after a bit I decided to head off. I went into the royal palace, and saw quite a bit there. There are only 3 words to describe it – magnificent beyond belief! It was easily the most impressive, elegant and exquisite palace I’ve ever seen. First I went to the treasury, where they actually have crowns and swords belonging to kings and queens in sweden’s history. They were all pretty extravagant – lots of engravings, bejeweled with many stunning stones…..very impressive. And the lighting there was very dim – and most of the light in fact came from reflections off the gems! Really added to the effect.
After that I walked through a multitude of chambers, each very different, each very elaborate and yet very elegant, not gaudy. The king and queen currently don’t reside here – they stay in Drottingholm palace outside the city – but use this palace for work, official engagements and so on. Everything is beautifully furnished, lots of antiquities, ceiling to floor tapestries, beautifully woven carpets, impressive paintings…..There was also one room where some of the gowns worn by the queen, and her jewelry were showcased – amazing to say the least…..each one of those gowns was quite exquisite!
Anyway, I spent a fair amount of time there, after which I walked around a bit more, and then went to the city hall. The city hall is pretty impressive, and the main central courtyard, unlike the ones I’ve seen so far, is actually open – so it appears even huger. The other side of the courtyard opens out onto the water, and you get a great view of the island on the other side. It was a pretty warm day, and there were quite a few people out there sunbathing…
After that I decided to take the canal tour, but unfortunately the tour at 3.30 was fully booked – so got a ticket on the 4.30 on. So I had an hour to kill – so went into the national museum of fine art which is right across the street from the harbor. Its an ok museum – nothing spectacular, mostly Scandinavian artists, though they do have some works by more famous painters such as monet, Gauguin, Rembrandt, Renoir….. I continue to be totally taken in by Impressionism – I just find it so amazing, the way seemingly random brush strokes at the micro level can make so much sense, and fit so cohesively together when viewed as a whole from afar. It’s a source of singular amazement to me, as to how artists can visualize all this so well when working at the canvas.
Anyway, I was mostly killing time, so walked all over fairly quickly. Then I went on the 4.30 canal tour, which was great. They had recorded commentaries in some 8 languages, and u could just plug into the one u wanted. This tour mostly took one around Djurgarden, the greenest island of the ones making up Stockholm, and the island where Skansen is. It was pretty beautiful, and got to learn some interesting facts about the city. Stockholm city is basically made up of some 14 islands, which are all well connected – there are some 53 bridges! But the Stockholm archipelago is actually composed of about 24000 islands, varying in size, vegetation, and habitation. Many are now used as picnic spots and all….
By the end of the tour it was about 5.45, and couldn’t really visit much else as all museums etc were closed by then. So I went back to Gamla Stan, the old town, and just walked around there. I also found this vegetarian restaurant there – completely veg, would u believe it! – and had my full, proper, non-breakfast, veg meal in days!! Otherwise mostly been surviving on bakery products, sandwiches, pizza and the like…but this place was good….
While I was eating, this girl walked in, who was actually one of the people from SF that i’d met in Bergen in Norway, Catherine!! She had come to Stockholm too, but it was still quite a coincidence that we ran into each other again…anyway, we chatted over dinner and then walked around gamla stan for a bit. We also went and checked out the statue of the Iron Boy – which is the smallest of over 600 statues scattered around Stockholm – but somehow one of the most famous! Its really small – about slightly larger than your hand, maybe, and shows this faceless boy sitting on a small bench. Supposedly it’s a tribute to orphans who used to work at the shipyard years ago…..Apparently old ladies knit caps for his head in the winter so he wont get cold! Very cute indeed…kinda sad too
Anyway, after a while Catherine went back to her hotel, while I continued roaming around, and then finally went back to the station to catch my train…now waiting for the train which will take me to lund by tomorrow morning….
I left at about 9.15am after checking out of the hotel. I took a subway train to the station, and walked around there for a bit. Went to a nearby church as well which was quite nice. Then I caught the bus to go to Skansen, which was to be one of my main stops for the day. Skansen is the world’s biggest open air museum. Its sort of along the vein of Den Gamle By which I’d visited in Arhus – it was originally meant to recreate life as it was a couple of hundred years ago in Sweden. But its grown to be much bigger than that. Now just a part of it is “Old Sweden”. Apart from that there’s an aquarium – more about that shortly – then sort of a zoo with lots of Scandinavian animals, some places for kids, and next door is a theme park as well. So its one of the most popular places in Stockholm to visit, and tourists flock there in huge numbers.
I got there around 10.20 or so, and walked around for a bit. Lot of greenery, with all these places sort of interspersed in the forest. I first ended up actually going to the aquarium, which is more than an aquarium, really. They have the usual fish and all, but also have displays with monkeys, lemurs, baboons, and so on – and the cool thing about these is that some of these displays are actually not with the animals caged, but pretty much in the open. So they’ll have this huge enclosure, with trees and all, and the lemurs would be running around there – and you pretty much walk through it. So at one point, for example, there was this lemur sitting right in front of me, on my path. And not at all scared, he just sat there and stared! Was too cute. I quite liked this way of organizing things – makes for a much more involved experience. Of course the more dangerous animals were caged – like the baboons – and u had to view them beyond enclosures. They even had a couple of koalas, which are just the most adorable beings on this planet, I think – though pandas could give them serious competition. Unfortunately these too were beyond enclosures – for obvious reasons!
In the main aquarium part – which was not all that huge – they had some interesting stuff – sharks, some weird looking turtle kinda thing, crocodiles – which were THAT close to you, you could touch them through the glass.
They also had varieties of snakes – an anaconda, a green boa which looked very cool, cobras, rattlers, a cool looking chameleon….And a section where there was a python which was kept out there for one to touch! Felt kinda weird….slimy, smooth, wobbly…..:) ok, I wont gross out all the people reading this…..
Then I walked thru some of the old sections of Skansen – the ones really representing old Sweden. This was similar to den gamle by, but I didn’t see too much of it, as I wanted to leave soon – and go other places too! But they have some interesting craftsmen doing demonstrations – the most interesting one was a glassblower, who went thru the entire process of making a glass vase! Very interesting!!
After walking thru some of these places, I hit the zoo area where one could see a lot of typical Scandinavian animals…mountain goats, moose – which is REALLY huge; I never thought they were that huge – brown bears, wolves, wolverines…..they also ahd peacocks randomly walking around…..
Apart from that they have some daily special shows…like today there was a pony show – so I went there for a bit! Quite interesting, and a lot of people had shown up to display their ponies!!!
I also saw an old church from 1600 or so, which was reconstructed there. Very interesting – even the pews were kind of different!
Anyway, I left soon after that, even though there was so much more to see and I would have loved to stay longer…But I wanted to get back into Gamla Stan, to the royal palace, where at 1.15 they had the changing of the guard. This happens every day! And its quite a sight. So I took the bus back into town, then walked to the palace. On the way I stopped at one of the big churches in town, which is actually the only remaining abbey in Stockholm. This church has a lot of the kings and queens of Sweden buried here. Also, the royal house of Sweden has something known as the Order of the Seraphim, which it bestows on heads of state and leaders of other countries, as well as sweden – its like the highest honor bestowed by the nation. And for everyone person honored with one, they’ve put up a panel with a crest representing that person. Some familiar names amongst those – napoleon, Mountbatten, Chiang-Kai Shek, Charles deGaulle……
I also went to the largest cathedral in the city, right next to the palace, which is absolutely magnificent. Huge, amazing carvings, high ceilings with paintings along it….very impressive….
By then it was time for the change of the guard, so I went to the palace courtyard to join the hundreds of other tourists there – it was quite a gathering! After a while we could hear the band playing as the young guys came marching. On this particular day the soldiers coming in were from the Swedish marines, who were undergoing training. This is a pretty big occasion for even these kids, as they get a chance to march down the capital city, show off, and participate in this ceremony – so everyone has a good time! So they came marching down, and then there was the ceremony. The band kept breaking into song, and they were pretty good! So that was fun.
The ceremony actually goes on for a while, so after a bit I decided to head off. I went into the royal palace, and saw quite a bit there. There are only 3 words to describe it – magnificent beyond belief! It was easily the most impressive, elegant and exquisite palace I’ve ever seen. First I went to the treasury, where they actually have crowns and swords belonging to kings and queens in sweden’s history. They were all pretty extravagant – lots of engravings, bejeweled with many stunning stones…..very impressive. And the lighting there was very dim – and most of the light in fact came from reflections off the gems! Really added to the effect.
After that I walked through a multitude of chambers, each very different, each very elaborate and yet very elegant, not gaudy. The king and queen currently don’t reside here – they stay in Drottingholm palace outside the city – but use this palace for work, official engagements and so on. Everything is beautifully furnished, lots of antiquities, ceiling to floor tapestries, beautifully woven carpets, impressive paintings…..There was also one room where some of the gowns worn by the queen, and her jewelry were showcased – amazing to say the least…..each one of those gowns was quite exquisite!
Anyway, I spent a fair amount of time there, after which I walked around a bit more, and then went to the city hall. The city hall is pretty impressive, and the main central courtyard, unlike the ones I’ve seen so far, is actually open – so it appears even huger. The other side of the courtyard opens out onto the water, and you get a great view of the island on the other side. It was a pretty warm day, and there were quite a few people out there sunbathing…
After that I decided to take the canal tour, but unfortunately the tour at 3.30 was fully booked – so got a ticket on the 4.30 on. So I had an hour to kill – so went into the national museum of fine art which is right across the street from the harbor. Its an ok museum – nothing spectacular, mostly Scandinavian artists, though they do have some works by more famous painters such as monet, Gauguin, Rembrandt, Renoir….. I continue to be totally taken in by Impressionism – I just find it so amazing, the way seemingly random brush strokes at the micro level can make so much sense, and fit so cohesively together when viewed as a whole from afar. It’s a source of singular amazement to me, as to how artists can visualize all this so well when working at the canvas.
Anyway, I was mostly killing time, so walked all over fairly quickly. Then I went on the 4.30 canal tour, which was great. They had recorded commentaries in some 8 languages, and u could just plug into the one u wanted. This tour mostly took one around Djurgarden, the greenest island of the ones making up Stockholm, and the island where Skansen is. It was pretty beautiful, and got to learn some interesting facts about the city. Stockholm city is basically made up of some 14 islands, which are all well connected – there are some 53 bridges! But the Stockholm archipelago is actually composed of about 24000 islands, varying in size, vegetation, and habitation. Many are now used as picnic spots and all….
By the end of the tour it was about 5.45, and couldn’t really visit much else as all museums etc were closed by then. So I went back to Gamla Stan, the old town, and just walked around there. I also found this vegetarian restaurant there – completely veg, would u believe it! – and had my full, proper, non-breakfast, veg meal in days!! Otherwise mostly been surviving on bakery products, sandwiches, pizza and the like…but this place was good….
While I was eating, this girl walked in, who was actually one of the people from SF that i’d met in Bergen in Norway, Catherine!! She had come to Stockholm too, but it was still quite a coincidence that we ran into each other again…anyway, we chatted over dinner and then walked around gamla stan for a bit. We also went and checked out the statue of the Iron Boy – which is the smallest of over 600 statues scattered around Stockholm – but somehow one of the most famous! Its really small – about slightly larger than your hand, maybe, and shows this faceless boy sitting on a small bench. Supposedly it’s a tribute to orphans who used to work at the shipyard years ago…..Apparently old ladies knit caps for his head in the winter so he wont get cold! Very cute indeed…kinda sad too
Anyway, after a while Catherine went back to her hotel, while I continued roaming around, and then finally went back to the station to catch my train…now waiting for the train which will take me to lund by tomorrow morning….
posted by Nikhil | 8:22 AM
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