After the Free Walking Tour of Gamla Stan

The Grand Hotel, viewed from Gamla Stan

After the free walking tour of Gamla Stan, I scurried back to my side of town for "Fika," the Swedish term for afternoon coffee break. Yes, of course I had a kardemommebullar.

I walked past this very communist looking memorial en route to my fika. 

I thought the guy in the middle looked vaguely like Joe Stalin. It's not. It's the Brantingmomumentet, The Branting Monument, a monument to Hjallmar Branting, the first Social Democrat prime minister of Sweden. He had three stretches as prime minister between 1920 and 1925. He is depicted addressing a crowd of workers at a May Day rally, a communist holiday, so it's no accident it looked vaguely communist.

Warmed up from the strongest cup of black coffee I've had in Stockholm so far -- the tour guide on the walking tour said Sweden is the world's second largest consumer of coffee per capita -- second only to Finland -- who apparently drinks an outrageously larger amount of coffee per capita -- 3.7 cups per day per every person in children including babies, tea drinkers, and Mormons compared to 3.2 cups a day for runner-up Sweden -- time to scurry back to Gamla Stan.

Destination: the Cathedral: Storkyrkan:

It's not a "real" cathedral, of course. It's Lutheran! It's not in communion with Rome. But it does have the original of the monumental sculpture of St. George slaying the Dragon who is totally symbolic of the then-hated Danes.

It is even more impressive than the outdoor bronze:

Here I am, looking like a tourist taking a selfie in front of the St. George slaying the Dragon statue/sculpture:

The cathedral is quite ornate for being Lutheran. Usually the Lutheran churches in northern Europe are quite spartan.

And it has a giant church bell down on the ground.

It has tombs, just not the actual royalty. They're buried in a different church in Gamla Stan.

The altar is quite ornate.

And this is the view of St. George and that Dragon as seen from standing at the altar.

Again, quite ornate for Protestantism. I don't want to get into a theology discussion about the merits of various churches, but you have to admit the Catholic churches are consistently more beautiful and ornate than their Protestant kin. I think it was one of the beefs the early Protestants had with Roman Catholicism.

The last stop of the Gamla Stan portion of the day was the Nobel Prize Museum. It was quite small.

One of the highlights of the museum are the banners depicting a hundred-plus years of Nobel laureates, being whisked through the one-floor museum, looking like championship banners in a sports arena. Which, in a way, they are.

The museum is bigger on video screens than it is on memorabilia. Here is a video display that is two touches from the main screen, describing the massive scandal over awarding the first Nobel Prize to now-forgotten French poet Sully Prudhomme over the great and still-relevant Leo Tolstoy. Kind of a whiff on the part of the Nobel selection committee right out of the box. 

Here is the display on Calvin Coolidge's Vice President Charles Gates Dawes, winner of the 1925 Nobel Peace Prize.

Believe it or not, he did not win for writing the classic pop song "It's All in the Game". It was for the "Dawes Plan," a U.S.-funded effort to revive the moribund German economy post-WWI before something catastrophic happened. (Spoiler alert: it was too late.)

Then there is the display for all the Nobel laureates in physics in the decade of the 1920's.

Every one a giant then and still a giant today. Einstein won in 1921. Weirdly enough, it was NOT for the theory of relativity. It was too "out there" for way back then. It's still kind of "out there" today. Einstein won for this theory on the photo-electric effect.

The number of Nobel laureates over the years is huge. So huge that not all the banners can circulate at the same time. Most of them are parked on the ceiling, waiting to be whisked about the room, stacked up like planes over Lake Mead waiting to land at McCarran.

And here is Mr. Nobel himself, in medal form (metal too), on the floor of his prize's museum.

The afternoon had gotten sunny on the Stortorget outside the museum. Again: oldest square in Stockholm.

I think this is a water fountain.

By this time of day, the crowds were long gone from the ceremony at the Royal Palace.

Only a lone guard left.

Time to head back to Norrmalm for some supper.

And where for supper? Why there's a Jensen's Bøfhus just a block from my hotel!

Jensen's Bøfhus is a Danish "casual dining" steakhouse chain. Think: Outback of Denmark. I was given massive quantities of grief by friends in Denmark when I ate at one my first night in Copenhagen several years ago. And now I get to eat at one in Stockholm.

I had the pork tenderloin. The meat was very good: flavorful and tender. The potatoes were so-so. I washed it down with a Danish beer, Carlsberg on tap.

And that ends my first full day in Stockholm.

Walking Tour of the Old Town

Main Square Gamla Stan: the oldest city square in the Old Town of Stockholm

What was on the agenda for today? A free walking tour of Gamla Stan, the Old Town section of the City of Stockholm. "Gamla Stan" is Swedish for "Old Town" and it is the name of this part of town, which is a small island in the archipelago of Stockholm.

The tour was meeting at Gustav Adolphs Torg, Gustavus Adolphus Square, which was not too much of a walk from my hotel. I had a little time so I detoured to take in this sculpture en route:

Orfeusgruppen. By noted Swedish sculptor Carl Milles. He lived from 1875 to 1955. His "thing" was sculpting figures who look like they are going to float up into the heavens. Except they can't. Because they're sculpted metal and, being heavier than air, gravity keeps them grounded. Even though they look they could defy gravity if they wanted. 

First stop on the tour was the Parliament building. Crossing the first bridge into Gamla Stan, look to the right and there was the City Hall. Look to the left and there is the Royal Opera House.

Also known as: Kungliga Operan. The tour met in front of said opera house.

I like these free walking tours. Number one: they're free. Number two, as if you need a number two after that number one, the guides are usually very knowledgeable of local and national history. This is the now-sealed-tight entrance into the Parliament building, or the Riksdagshuset.

Angels on the roof of the Parliament building. The Parliament, technically, is not in Gamla Stan. It's on its own island, Helgeandshomen, just north of Gamla Stan. 

Which means a short bridge from the Parliament building into Gamla Stan proper.

Stallbron.

And a look right, to the west, provides another view of City Hall.

And with that we are in Gamla Stan proper. First stop: dormitories:

But dormitories for who? There is no university nearby. These are the dormitories for members of the Parliament. The rent is cheap: 400 euros a month for a room in the expensive capital city in Europe.

I believe this is the Riddarholmen Church straight ahead. It has a lattice-like iron roof.

If that indeed is the Riddarholmen Church, and I have no reason to doubt my internet sleuthing on the identity of said church, that would be where lots of Swedish royalty is buried. Except for their only Catholic queen. Who is buried in St. Peter's in Vatican City. Which, in my opinion, when it comes to burial places, is a much fancier zip code for spending eternity.

Is this a water fountain? I am guessing that, at least at one time, it was. It has that look.

Next was a walk down the narrowest street in all of Gamla Stan.

Not for the wide-bodies. Not ADA accessible. Old World Europe can be so non-compliant.

This is a wide boulevard by comparison:

Which leads to a statue of a boy and a horse.

This is Tyska stallplan. "Stall" means "stable." I think this is the locale where Alfred Nobel stabled his horses. You know, the Nobel of the Nobel Prize and all that, but I could be imaging things. 

And that leads to a replica of the statue of St. George slaying the dragon. Sankt Göran och draken.

 

It's a replica. The original is in the Cathedral. And it is fraught with symbolism. Dragons, in European culture, symbolize demons and evil. This was sculpted during the Kalmar union period of 1397 to 1523, when the three kingdoms of Sweden, Norway and Denmark were ruled under the domination of the Danes. Sweden was chafing under the Danish yoke. And the dragon symbolized the evil ... of Denmark?

And speaking of statuary fraught with symbolism:

The smallest statue in Stockholm: Järnpojken: the Iron Boy, Pojke som tittar på månen: the Boy who stares at the moon. Let's go in for a closer look.

Finally, the tour ends at the Royal Palace.

Today is the 77th birthday of the King of Sweden: Carl XVI Gustaf.

This is a different King Carl, Carl XIV Johans, On horseback, overlooking a harbor. 

That's the National Museum in the distance, across the water.

The ceremony was to feature the Royal Orchestra riding in on horseback. No royal orchestra on horseback. But here are members of the Royal Orchestra traveling by bus.

By the way, King Carl XVI Gustaf is married to Queen Silvia. You know Sweden's Queen Silvia, even if you think you don't. She is the famous Dancing Queen of Abba fame.

And here are members of the Royal Orchestra ready to march in, assembling under the Gustav III obelisk.

But, alas, we did not see them enter the Royal Palace complex on horseback. Maybe some other King Carl XVI Gustaf birthday.

And that is the end of the Free Walking Tour.

Time to rest my feet. No dancing with the Dancing Queen of Sweden for me today. (The second embedded link is the Swedish Royal Military Orchesta playing Abba's only U.S. number one hit.)