Stockholm – waters city…
In town with André for a series of meetings on strategic issues organised by CISAC, and for a one-on-one with the local society. (Sylvia is accompanying André; I am not that lucky: Cynthia had to stay home - work demands it!)
In town with André for a series of meetings on strategic issues organised by CISAC, and for a one-on-one with the local society. (Sylvia is accompanying André; I am not that lucky: Cynthia had to stay home - work demands it!)
It will sound obvious to the well-travelled, but it is worth saying: Stockholm is a waters city, a discovery for me. It is in fact built on 14 islands, five of which - the core of the city - I know, that is I walked and lived in for a week. And clean waters, enough to see people fishing in them. This is where the Baltic meets fresh waters: the dividing line is at the lock in the middle of the city, between 2 islands: on the East side is the Baltic; on the West side, and a couple of feet higher, is the lake Riddar. Land of water, islands, and bridges – 57 of them!
When I think of Sweden, the first thing that comes to mind is its politics. The Swedish Model, as we called it in the 60’s and 70’s. High income tax, an advanced public social support system, and high economic development – the social and economic nirvana envied by the rest of the western world! That has changed and I don’t think it is the credo of any society any more. One must admit though that, at least to the eyes of the casual visitor, the results are there: it’s still an enviable society, where people seem to be happy to live in. But it is subjected to the same predicaments of many other western societies, and has lost much of its past appeal. High cost of living, immigration problems, rising crime, economic dislocation, social division. I was reading a review of a recent book, Fishing in Utopia – Sweden and the Future that Disappeared, that goes very much in that direction in its analysis of modern Sweden. A more soothing reading is this local classic, The Summer Book, a novel by the celebrated Tove Jansson...
This is also the land of the Midnight Sun. It’s mid-July and still dusk at 11pm. And light at 2:30am. That dictates the order of your day, with a nap in late afternoon if you are jetlagged, as it is in my case. It happens also to be sunny and 65 degrees.
It’s also a royal city, a monumental city, with palaces and state-built dwellings: the Royal Palace to start with, but also the National Museum, the National Theatre; the National Opera, and so on. Also a very bourgeois city, with rich apartment buildings, splendidly lined up for instance along the Strandvägen quays (we are told that Björn Borg, the tennis champion, has an apartment there, and so has Tiger Woods, on account of his Swedish wife…)
Surprised at the small population of Stockholm: only three quarter of a million, intra muros; add another million or so to take into account the surrounding population. Total for the country is a mere 9M (18 people per square kilometer we are told). They also have 96,000 lakes; that makes a lake for roughly 100 people! A beautiful race, these Swedish people are. Blond, tall, fit. Running on path along the waters. I always thought of the Swedes as a fit and healthy people; an outdoor people, enjoying thoroughly their short but ardent summer and their long winter – there is a saying here that there is no bad weather, only bad clothes!
And the Swedes are also cultured, at least judging by the number of museums: 71 ones in the city! I saw a few; the obvious: the National Museum (http://www.nationalmuseum.se/) – an exhibition entitled “Queer” tracing the influence of homosexuality in painting, particularly in turn-of-the-century Swedish painting; the Nordiska Museum (http://www.nordiskamuseet.se/); the Vasa Museum (http://www.vasamuseet.se/) – a fascinating story and quite an attraction this 17th century ship which capsized (not enough ballast) and sank in the port 20 minutes into its maiden voyage, refloated 333 years after, and reconstituted in its entirety over more than 25 years, now exhibited in full in this built-on-measure museum since 1989. Visited also the less obvious museums such as the Etnografiska (Ethnography) Museum, with a small exhibition of Peking at the outset of the Cultural Revolution in 1966 – Chinese propaganda posters, and the most interesting part, a series of color pictures taken by Solange Brand, a young secretary working at the French Embassy at the time. All that against the sound of revolutionary anthems of the day and speeches of Lin Biao and, yes, Chou En Lai. http://www.etnografiska.se/smvk/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=1657&a=12124&l=en_US . There is also the Nobel Museum in the old town, and the Moderna Museet (Museum of Modern Art), recently renovated on Skeppsholmen – a design by Spanish architect Rafael Moneo – which unfortunately I don’t have the time to visit.
Shopping at the largest local department store, NK – think of Bloomingdales! And across the street at very Swedish, sporty Helly Hansen. That’s in the bustling city center neighborhood of Norrmalm. http://www.nk.se/templates/default.aspx?id=7895 ; http://www.hellyhansen.com/sport/
Cruise (http://www.strommakanalbolaget.se/) in the archipelago, where very quickly you are in the country side, in the cottage country – in some cases more like country estates. Right up to the Vaxholm Island. Some 24,000 islands we are told – only 1000 are inhabited – as we float toward the open Baltic Sea. Fascinating again with its chalets in the traditional and Swedish-unique “red Falun” color, scattered along the shores of these islands. You would think that you are in the Muskoka region, or along Georgian Bay, north of Toronto! This is what they call their “urban wilderness” where Stockholmers and others are escaping for a short while in the short summer months.
When I think of Sweden, the first thing that comes to mind is its politics. The Swedish Model, as we called it in the 60’s and 70’s. High income tax, an advanced public social support system, and high economic development – the social and economic nirvana envied by the rest of the western world! That has changed and I don’t think it is the credo of any society any more. One must admit though that, at least to the eyes of the casual visitor, the results are there: it’s still an enviable society, where people seem to be happy to live in. But it is subjected to the same predicaments of many other western societies, and has lost much of its past appeal. High cost of living, immigration problems, rising crime, economic dislocation, social division. I was reading a review of a recent book, Fishing in Utopia – Sweden and the Future that Disappeared, that goes very much in that direction in its analysis of modern Sweden. A more soothing reading is this local classic, The Summer Book, a novel by the celebrated Tove Jansson...
This is also the land of the Midnight Sun. It’s mid-July and still dusk at 11pm. And light at 2:30am. That dictates the order of your day, with a nap in late afternoon if you are jetlagged, as it is in my case. It happens also to be sunny and 65 degrees.
It’s also a royal city, a monumental city, with palaces and state-built dwellings: the Royal Palace to start with, but also the National Museum, the National Theatre; the National Opera, and so on. Also a very bourgeois city, with rich apartment buildings, splendidly lined up for instance along the Strandvägen quays (we are told that Björn Borg, the tennis champion, has an apartment there, and so has Tiger Woods, on account of his Swedish wife…)
Surprised at the small population of Stockholm: only three quarter of a million, intra muros; add another million or so to take into account the surrounding population. Total for the country is a mere 9M (18 people per square kilometer we are told). They also have 96,000 lakes; that makes a lake for roughly 100 people! A beautiful race, these Swedish people are. Blond, tall, fit. Running on path along the waters. I always thought of the Swedes as a fit and healthy people; an outdoor people, enjoying thoroughly their short but ardent summer and their long winter – there is a saying here that there is no bad weather, only bad clothes!
And the Swedes are also cultured, at least judging by the number of museums: 71 ones in the city! I saw a few; the obvious: the National Museum (http://www.nationalmuseum.se/) – an exhibition entitled “Queer” tracing the influence of homosexuality in painting, particularly in turn-of-the-century Swedish painting; the Nordiska Museum (http://www.nordiskamuseet.se/); the Vasa Museum (http://www.vasamuseet.se/) – a fascinating story and quite an attraction this 17th century ship which capsized (not enough ballast) and sank in the port 20 minutes into its maiden voyage, refloated 333 years after, and reconstituted in its entirety over more than 25 years, now exhibited in full in this built-on-measure museum since 1989. Visited also the less obvious museums such as the Etnografiska (Ethnography) Museum, with a small exhibition of Peking at the outset of the Cultural Revolution in 1966 – Chinese propaganda posters, and the most interesting part, a series of color pictures taken by Solange Brand, a young secretary working at the French Embassy at the time. All that against the sound of revolutionary anthems of the day and speeches of Lin Biao and, yes, Chou En Lai. http://www.etnografiska.se/smvk/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=1657&a=12124&l=en_US . There is also the Nobel Museum in the old town, and the Moderna Museet (Museum of Modern Art), recently renovated on Skeppsholmen – a design by Spanish architect Rafael Moneo – which unfortunately I don’t have the time to visit.
Shopping at the largest local department store, NK – think of Bloomingdales! And across the street at very Swedish, sporty Helly Hansen. That’s in the bustling city center neighborhood of Norrmalm. http://www.nk.se/templates/default.aspx?id=7895 ; http://www.hellyhansen.com/sport/
Cruise (http://www.strommakanalbolaget.se/) in the archipelago, where very quickly you are in the country side, in the cottage country – in some cases more like country estates. Right up to the Vaxholm Island. Some 24,000 islands we are told – only 1000 are inhabited – as we float toward the open Baltic Sea. Fascinating again with its chalets in the traditional and Swedish-unique “red Falun” color, scattered along the shores of these islands. You would think that you are in the Muskoka region, or along Georgian Bay, north of Toronto! This is what they call their “urban wilderness” where Stockholmers and others are escaping for a short while in the short summer months.
