Back in Sweden

 We have spent the last few days back in Sweden before we leave tomorrow on a ferry bound for Finland. More about that later.

Today was all about a trip to our third Scandinavian capital city, Stockholm. What can I say about Stockholm, well it has it all. Loads and loads of people on plinths. I have had to restrict the pictures I have posted but believe me I have a good number of other people who might feel they were equally deserving. Here are a selection

Frederika Bremer - pioneering author and leader of womens rights. Actually born in Turku Finland where we are headed next.
I chose this next one because it really had multiple people on multipole plinths. The guy on the top is clearly the most important because he has the top plinth but although you can only see two he is actually supported on the four corners by four ladies sitting on sub-plinths. Each of the ladies is semi naked so he must have been a popular guy. The name is simply Linné
Here’s the Linnémonumentet (“Linnaeus Monument”) in Humlegården, a celebrated statue of Carl von Linné, better known internationally as Linnaeus.

We had travelled into Stockholm from nearby Åkersberga by the local narrow gauge railway line and walked down through the park where we found the aforedescribed statues. Once in town we spotted this ginormous Magnum ice lolly on the wall of this building. It looked really delicious but that was the closest I came to enjoying one.

We stumbled upon a lovely big sunken square where there were all kinds of things to keep the locals amused. There were multiple people playing speed chess on multiple big boards and I was particularly taken by the couple playing table football. It was easily big enough to play five aside. I think that would be an amazing team sport

No post is complete without a big churchy affair and so here it is. It was really beautiful but it was not possible to get a really good picture. It is surrounded by modern tall buildings and there is no angle from which to capture the true majesty.

Now when it comes to plinths this one I believe is the daddy of them all. Look at the plinth this guy is on. It is the parliament building and on the very top is a guy (actually a lady) looking pretty important.
At the very top of the Riksdagshuset (Parliament House) in Stockholm stands a grand allegorical figure: Moder Svea ("Mother Sweden")—the national personification of Sweden—flanked by statues symbolizing the Four Estates

Another POHOP for you. There were several persons on horses on plinths but I thought that this one was best.
Our travels took us into the old town where we found the Nobel Prize Museum. No open wallet surgery was performed as we enjoyed a seat in the sunshine and imagined the exhibitions that might be inside. We might get the Nobel Prize for thrift on this trip!
Nobel Prize Museum
I thought this person on a plinth was rather interesting in that he was striking a rather interesting pose. I thought he was maybe pointing in the direction of some rogue or vagabond who had just feloniously appropriated his wallet and was telling the local constabulary, "he went thataway". I overheard a young boy telling whoever he was with that the King is pointing towards Russia because he was enegaged in some war or other at the time.
In Kungsträdgården (“King’s Garden”) in central Stockholm, you’ll find the iconic statue of King Charles XII (Karl XII), carved by Johan Peter Molin and inaugurated in 1868, marking the 150th anniversary of his death. Charles XII is depicted in full military uniform—saber at his side—with his left arm dramatically outstretched, finger pointing east, symbolizing his campaigns against Russia during the Great Northern War


I think that it is fair to say that Stockholm was by far the most attractive of the Scandinavian capitals we have visited so far. Maybe Helsinki will outshine them all who knows. We will hopefully find out next week. Here is a final big churchy affair we spotted on our way back to the train.



Remember that you can see everywhere we have been on this link
We have now arrived at Kapellskär ready to board the ferry to Finland tomorrow. It is an eight hour crossing and there are apparently over 40,000 (yes 40 thousand) islands or islets off the Finland coast so I hope the captain and the navigators of the boat know where they going! This is when modern technology is absolutley amazing.

See you lot in Finland.
D, S and MJ













Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Arjuzanx and other places and more wetness!!!

Image
Ok apologies for the radio silence for a few days. Some of us have to work you know. Let's get you caught up without any further ado. I promised you pictures of Arjuzanx and I am going to have to modify that slightly to say picture, singular. I only took one of the war memorial. It is not the best picture of what I thought was one of the nicest war memorial's I have seen. The guy on the top was all painted beautifully and it was really striking. We stayed a couple of nights in Arjuzanx but the weather was awful. I was working and Sheila was confined to book reading and cooking. I must say the food on this trip has been pretty awesome. We often think let's eat out and so we go to the local restaurant. We look at the menu and the prices and think, sod it, we're not paying that. Sheila makes something ten times better for a tenth of the price. It is a no brainer really. Pork teryaki (or however you spell it) tonight. Might just open a bottle of my favourite 2 euro a bottle...
Read more

The leaning tower of .....

Image
Zaragoza of course, the leaning tower of Zaragoza. I have to confess that in the photos it does not look like it is leaning that much but it is enough to notice. This image is taken from the end of the magnificent square, well rectangle really outside of the big fancy church place. There is a fairly modern water feature in the front and then the tower in the back OK it's time to admit it, you thought that the leaning tower was the one on the extreme left. No. That apparent lean of that one is an optical illusion caused by the angle of the picture. The actual leaning tower is the one in distance in the middle of the picture. It is called the  Church of San Juan de los Panetes  How Much Does It Lean? It's not dramatic, but definitely visible — locals joke that the tower is "slightly tipsy" 🍷. Fun Fact There’s a popular myth in Zaragoza that the tower leans because the monks who built it drank too much wine while laying the foundations. 😄 Remember I mentioned a big fan...
Read more

Fenny Compton or bust

Image
  After a few days of "radio silence" we are back. I had a very busy few days of work there and we were camped by the side of a fishing lake although there was not much actual fishing going on and we never saw any fish getting caught so maybe we should just call it a lake. Oh and on that front I guess it was really pretty small so maybe a pond would be better so all in all I think Seighford Fishing Lakes might be better to be called Seighford Ponds. Mind you it did have quite a selection of birds including a fine flock of Canada Geese. A tad noisy but otherwise they were good neighbours. It was, as previously indicated, a busy work spell and so we did not manage to do that much except work but it was notable that our journey from Banbury to Stafford took us (deliberately) through Fenny Compton. Now here is a test for you, where do you know that name from. Fenny Compton. It is a tiny village in the middle of England with not much happening. I can hear you know thinking, I know...
Read more