October 2019 – A Traveling Fool

October 19, 2019

The Baltics: Stockholm

Once we disembarked from the overnight ferry from Helsinki, we set off to explore Stockholm. Sweden has been populated since about 12,000 BC with Stockholm showing evidence of people from roughly 8,000 BC on. The Viking Age included the Swedes, Norwegians and Danes from the 8^th to 11^th centuries. They were a busy bunch – exploring, raiding, settling – all over the place. The majority of the examples of Viking writing – Rune Stones – can be found in Sweden.

Although we drove all over town looking at everything, our first actual stop was City Hall. The building is not terribly old, having been built in 1907. However, its claim to fame is that the Nobel Prize banquet is held in the Golden Hall. Even though the photo I have included in this post is a tad fuzzy, it does show the extent of the gold mosaics the best of the photos I took while there.

Our next stop was to drop off anybody who wasn’t interested in seeing the Vasa Museum so they could roam around at leisure before rejoining the rest of the group after lunch for a walking tour of the Old Town. We arrived at Palace Square just in time to see the Changing of the Guard. I managed some decent video of it, but just one photo.

The Vasa Museum was amazing! I have mentioned in past posts that I love ships and have some ship captain ancestors. The Vasa is the most magnificent shipwreck I have ever seen. It is the only nearly intact 17^th century ship in the world. As a royal warship, it was extremely ornate and large. It seems that its size was its downfall.

It was built in 1628 and capsized, with all hands, on its maiden voyage, while still in the Stockholm harbor. Some of the crew managed to swim to shore, but about 30 didn’t. In the 1960s, the ship was discovered, raised, reassembled and put on display in a museum built especially for it.

Because the Baltic is cold, it doesn’t have as many of the little creatures that tend to destroy wood, clothing, and even human remains. So they found the ship very close to entirely intact. They also found lots of clothing, dishes, pots & pans, games, weapons, cannons, ammunition, sails, chests, barrels, and even some food and skeletons.

Very intricately carved, the ship would have been quite colorfully painted. They had a model on display, painted in the colors that they thought would have adorned the ship. But I liked looking at the real thing the best. There were several levels of walkways around the ship, so it could be seen from all angles. It was possible to see it from underneath as well.

I spent as much time as I could exploring the ship and its contents which were on display with it. I had lunch at a cafeteria within the museum (so I wouldn’t need to leave until I absolutely had to) and picked up a couple books about the ship before Andrej practically pried me away to rejoin the rest of the group at the Royal Palace.

Kronor Castle, which was built on the site in the 13^th century, burned down in 1697. The new palace was built in the Rococo style in the 1720s. We didn’t have time to take a guided tour of the palace before joining our local guide for our walking tour of the Old Town. Having to choose between the Vasa and the palace, the Vasa had won out for me.

The Old Town had medieval foundations from the 13^th century, but the majority of the town had burned down in the 17^th century and was rebuilt. They built upon the old foundations, so the town still had very narrow streets. The most narrow was a series of rather steep steps (included in a photo here).

We went inside of a very beautiful old church with lots of highly polished dark wood, gold gilding, and paintings. Along the street outside, were several buildings that managed to salvage their original medieval doors. Most of them were still private homes, but here and there was a pub or restaurant or antique shop (with weapons, chain mail, and helmets). What I thought was incredible though, was old cannons and rune stones at the corner of some of the buildings (a photo of one is included).

Before ending the tour, we had some cake and hot chocolate (or coffee or tea) at a restaurant in a medieval cellar. The building had begun as a monastery and later became a prison after the 16^th century dissolution of the monasteries.

The next day I flew home from Stockholm by way of Newark, New Jersey.

Next time —a wonderful 2013 tour of the Western US National Parks.

Stockholm Harbor
Stockholm
City Hall
The Golden Hall
Royal Palace
Changing of the Guard
The Vasa
The bow and bowsprit
The forecastle
Starboard
The gun ports
Port
Stern
Looking up at the masts
Some contents with ship in the background
Old Town with Church Steeple
Interior of church
Medieval street
More of the Old Town
Old cannon and rune stone

October 15, 2019

Baltics 2012: Finland

The country we now know as Finland has been inhabited since the end of the last Ice Age, which was about 9000 BC. The 12^th and 13^th centuries saw a lot of crusades by the Danes, Swedes and Norwegians to the various “pagan” tribes that lived in Finland. Ultimately it was the Swedes that conquered and colonized the region. Finland became part of Sweden. In the 18^th century, due to wars between Sweden and Russia (with Finland lying between them), Finland ended up as part of Russia. They didn’t become independent until during World War I.

The northernmost province of Finland is called Lapland. Most of the population there consists of the Sami People, who inhabit large areas of northern Norway, Sweden and a Russian peninsula as well. In addition to fur trading, coastal fishing, and sheep herding, a major profession of the Sami is reindeer herding (which is legally reserved exclusively for them in most regions of the four countries they inhabit).

Helsinki was founded by King Gustav I of Sweden as a trading town in 1550. During the plague of 1710, the vast majority of the population died. It wasn’t until Finland became part of the Russian Empire and Helsinki was made the capitol of Finland, that the city began to thrive again.

After driving past the harbor, our first stop was at the Olympic Stadium from the 1952 Summer Olympics. Next, we visited the Sibelius Memorial. Jean Sibelius was a composer most famous for his seven symphonies and a piece titled “Finlandia”. I thought his memorial was very pretty. The wind also blew through the pipes of the memorial and so created some lovely music of its own.

Temple Church was chiseled out of stone and is partially underground. Someone was playing the organ when we arrived and the place was filled with music.

Senate Square included the Finnish Parliament, the President’s Residence, Helsinki Cathedral, and a statue of Alexander II. He was the Russian Czar who was blown to bits in St Petersburg. We had our group photo taken in front of the statue (I’m just behind the lady in the red jacket on the front row). During our free time, Heike had other plans, so Debbie and I toured the interior of the Lutheran Cathedral.

We also joined up with a British couple, Linda and Nigel, and took a harbor tour by boat. Every house we saw had a sauna house down by the water. Some of the saunas were small and simple; others were quite elaborate. The photo I included here, is of a middle class sauna.

There were several tall-masted schooners in the harbor. One had a pirate theme and was apparently being used as a party vessel. I caught a pretty decent photo of Uspenski Cathedral, which is a Cathedral of the Orthodox Church of Finland, from the tour boat.

Back at the harbor, Debbie and I had reindeer sausages. Mine is on the right with lingonberries, ketchup, mustard and onions.

We rejoined the rest of the group at 3:45pm to board the overnight ferry to Stockholm. After leaving the port, Heike and I explored the ship and had a pint in the pub. Debbie was my roommate for the ferry. Heike was rooming with two women. The cabins were really tiny.

Debbie, Heike and I had dinner together at the 8pm buffet. Although the other two made an occasional venture to some of the other areas, after getting some shrimp salad in the Salad Market, I pretty much stayed in the Seafood Market, dining on salmon mousse, caviar (two kinds), smoked salmon, and herring. I did get some chocolate mousse for dessert in the Dessert Market. They had all the wine you could drink too.

The weather began to act up as we were having dinner and the crossing ended up being pretty darn rough. Andrej said it was the worst of the 35 times he has done it. The seas were choppy with lots of wind and rain. We were tossed around in our beds during the night, making it somewhat difficult to sleep.

Maybe it was the seafood, but Debbie, Heike and I seemed to be among the few who weren’t seasick the next morning at breakfast. After breakfast, Andrej had us all meet him in a special spot with our cases and he led us to where we were the first people to get off the ship. We thought that was a pretty good perk.

Next time – Stockholm, Sweden.

Helsinki Harbor
Olympic Stadium
Sibelius Memorial
Temple Church
Interior of Temple Church
Helsinki Cathedral & Statue of Alexander II
Our Tour Group
A Harbor Tour Boat
A Private Sauna
A Two-Masted Schooner
Uspenski Cathedral
Harbor Food
Reindeer Sausage with Lingonberries
Our Overnight Ferry to Sweden
Onboard Our Ferry
Looking from the Ship down to the Helsinki Port
Slipping out of the Harbor
Caviar & Other Seafood

October 6, 2019

The Baltics 2012: Saint Petersburg, Part 2

After lunch during our full day in Saint Petersburg, we paid a visit to the Hermitage Museum. The museum was founded by Catherine the Great in 1764 and was opened to the public in 1852.

The main building in which the museum now resides began life as the Winter Palace – the official residence of the Russian Emperors (Czars or Tsars) from 1732 to 1917. The original Hermitage was built to the side of the palace and was expanded to include the palace after the Russian Revolution. It now encompasses six buildings. Although the second largest museum in the world (the largest being the Louvre in Paris), only a fraction of the entire collection is on permanent display.

The entrance was through the Winter Palace. Several of the State Rooms of the palace were incorporated into the museum pretty much intact from when they were being used as State Rooms. After entering the palace portion of the museum, we encountered the Grand Staircase, a room with large papier mache chandeliers, the Small Throne Room and the Armorial Hall (aka the Gold Room). The Gold Room was gilded in real gold.

By the time we got to the 1812 Gallery (a hall dedicated to the War of 1812) the building gradually became less of a palace and more of a museum. I have included here more of the photos that I took of the expanse of rooms instead of photos of specific pieces of art. Some of the most famous paintings, such as the two by Leonardo da Vinci, were behind glass, making them difficult to photograph decently. They had loads of paintings by Rembrandt and Rubens as well as the Italian Renaissance artists.

There were rooms with tapestries and beautiful furniture and sculptures. There were a lot of items made from malachite (a green mineral that looks kind of like green marble), which is prevalent in Russia. On the third floor they had room after room of paintings by French Impressionists such as Pissarro, Monet, Sisley, Degas, Renoir, etc. Then there were the Egyptian and Classical antiquities, prehistoric art, jewelry and decorative arts (including a platter with a real snake incorporated into the design), a Knights’ Hall full of armor, German, Swiss, British and French fine art, Russian art, and on and on – even some modern art.

After exploring the heck out of this museum, we went outside and sat by the river to recover before heading back to the hotel to get ready for that evening’s entertainment. We were going to dinner and a show at the Nikoleavsky Palace. The palace was built in the early 1800s for the Grand Duke Nicholas (son of Czar Nicholas I). The Grand Duke was neither especially handsome nor particularly bright. He ended up squandering his money on mistresses and mortgaged the palace. He then went mad from cancer that had spread to his brain. His former palace was gorgeous, however, and the show was of Russian folk dancing. The food was served buffet style.

The next day we explored some more of the city. Along the Fontanki River, we saw (and I photographed) some soldiers. If the country had still been the Soviet Union, I wouldn’t have dared taken that photo.

Along the Nevsky Prospect, the main street of St Petersburg, we saw a statue of Catherine the Great with the Alexandrinsky Theatre behind her. The theatre was opened in 1832 for dramatic, ballet and opera performances. Also in the area were St Catherine’s Church, the Kazan Cathedral, and Stroganov Palace.

We took one last drive along the Neva River to say goodbye to the Winter Palace & the Hermitage, the Marble Palace (which was built by Count Grigory Orlov, a favorite of Catherine the Great, in 1768), the Saviour Transfiguration Cathedral, and a statue of a Roman Soldier before heading for the part of the city that was developed when it was known as Petrograd on our way out of St Petersburg.

After a drive in the Russian countryside, we left Russia (which was much, much easier than entering it had been) and crossed over into Finland.

Next time – Helsinki, Finland and the overnight ferry to Sweden.