Sista Stunder i Stockholm

Spot the cameraman!

So I am here in Germany, trying to update my blog on a very slow computer and with much better things to do, so things are now a bit out of order. But here we go anyway.


Trendy new apartments in what would have been the Stockholm Olympic Village.

The Nordiska Museet and Vasa Museum

Trendy Östermalm

Södermalm

Even though I’m in Germany now, I still have some unfinished bloggness, so lets go back now to the start of July, when I went to Stockholm, again, for 10 days.
The first week of July was the International Vacuum Conference in Stockholm, a combination of 7 different conferences relating to vacuum-, surface-, and nano-science. I spent most of the time in the hotel room working on my presentation so didn’t see alot of it. What I can say though is that it is a snåla conference indeed that saves money by not providing lunch or even biscuits with the coffee...

We had a welcoming reception in the City Hall (Stadshuset) where the Nobel Prize dinner and ceremony is held every year, perhaps to inspire us to work harder.

The downstairs hall is where the dinner is held. Unlike the very formal Nobel dinner, we were left standing for the buffet. It was a bit of a scramble for the food, without much orderly lining up, which i found all very un-Swedish. Damn foreigners! I was suggesting that a food fight should break out – I mean it was probably the only time most of us scientists would ever actually be invited in here, so why not do something...memorable. But I wasn’t brave enough to actually start the fight. I did try insulting the French about the wine we were drinking but it didn’t work. One cool thing though was a plastic clip which you can stick to the plate to hold your wineglass while you eat. Nifty.

The room upstairs is where the dance is held after the dinner, and the walls and ceilings lined with mosaics in gold leaf.

After the conference Christina came to join me and due to the rain, any major outdoor plans were cancelled and it was a Stockholm Card inspired museum tour that we embarked upon. The SC is a pass that gives you free travel and entry to most of the museums. Interestingly our salesperson really tried to disuade us from buying the card unless we planned to visit enough museums (about 5) to make economical use of it.

Christina hadn’t spent much time in Stockholm before, so it was time to (re)do some of the classics. The Vasa museum, of the boat that sank 400m into its maiden voyage.




Changing of the guard at the palace in Gamla stan. After last winter’s disappointment when I was in Stockholm with Boo I didn’t recommend it to Christina, thinking it wasn’t much. But we happened across it and waited, and it was a lot more interesting in the summer. There was a band, and much more ceremony.

Junibacken was Christina’s must do – the Astrid Lindberg ‘museum’, celebrating all her characters such as Pippi Longstocking and Emil and so on. She was definitely the biggest kid there.

Karlsson på taket.

Riding Pippi’s horse. She didn’t want to get off. Not because it was so much fun, but because she split her pants!




Skansen. A marimba (large wooden glockenspiel) duo played in the church, which was really cool.

Lemurs

Lynx

Wild boar-lets

Moose. I think they are ugly and ungainly animals.


Molting reindeer

Hasse and Ida. He now working in Stockholm, and she visting, cooking all his meals, ironing all his shirts etc.

My friend Jenny Best, from Aus. No, actually, a canadian goose. But had I remembered to transfer the pictures of Jenny, here would she be. One of my first contacts in Lulea, she is now down in the big smoke becoming a real Stockholmer, with an uber-expensive apartment and everything.

Fjäderholmen. This is the closest set of islands to Stockholm city, a precursor to the archipelago.We just didn’t have time to go out 2 hours to the archipelago so we got a bit of a taste here. The whole island can be walked around in 5 mins, 10 if you take your time. And being so close to the city, it gets a whole lot of tourists. 6000 a day! Unbelievable. Lucky we went on an early morning cruise out there before the hordes descended.

Stockholm from Katrina elevator. Dinner was up here at Eriks grill, with... dum, da dum dum: Christinas family. Thez came to Sweden for a holiday and for help with the return voyage. More pics of them later.