By a Nordic artist. You can tell by the dark, solemn colors and the sea. Below is a picture of the Death of Charles XII, the King of Sweden who invaded Norway, but almost lost Sweden in return.
Monday, July 4, 2011
The Gothenburg Art Museum
The next day, I went to the Gothenburg Art Museum before the conference started at 2:30 pm. I should note that the way you slip when its still light outside is you draw very heavy curtains over your window. But its still trippy for it to be so light. I think I typically ate supper at 9:30 to 10 pm and based on light, I would have thought it was 6 pm.
Outside the art museum.
Looking down from the steps of the art museum and up the Avenyn. Poseiden statue in the foreground.
Its too bad this is blurry.
A completely bizarre but colorful picture.
This kind of reminded me of the Apollo space craft for some reason.
By a Nordic artist. You can tell by the dark, solemn colors and the sea. Below is a picture of the Death of Charles XII, the King of Sweden who invaded Norway, but almost lost Sweden in return.
Van Gogh.
I took a picture of this mostly for JPD who objected to our considering having a shiny reflective globe in our yard as cheesy like a pink flamingo. I will point out to him that apparently its high art.
Rembrandt
By a Nordic artist. You can tell by the dark, solemn colors and the sea. Below is a picture of the Death of Charles XII, the King of Sweden who invaded Norway, but almost lost Sweden in return.
Trädgårdsföreningen (The Garden Society of Gothenburg)
After ending my water tour, I continued to wander the streets. I came to Tradgardsforeningen, paid my 20 SEK and walked into the park.
Statues lined the outer paths that ran by the canal.
This maypole was the center of the MidSommar celebration the night before. But I missed it all! I sat for about 20 minutes on a bench here and thought, you know, I don't get a lot of time just to sit and do nothing but mediate nowadays. Too much of a frantic life, not taking enough time to enjoy it. I'm am glad for this unfettered afternoon.
Flowers and Butterflies.
Can you see the bumblebee just leaving the flower/
I am a huge fan of these purple flowers. Ours back in Tennessee are much smaller.
This is Gothenburg's (sometimes referred to as Little London) version of the Crystal Palace. It is a hothouse (greenhouse) mostly containing tropical plants. Very important in a city that is winter 9 months of the year!
These lovely roses growing on the side of the Crystal Palace.
Inside the greenhouse.
I don't know what these are, but I thought they were the coolest flowers I had ever seen.
It occurred to me that I had very rarely actually seen lilypads shaped like perfect circles that one sees in fairytale books. But here were some perfect specimens!
Aren't bromelids lovely? If I weren't so good at killing them, I would get some for my office again.
Back outside. I was getting pretty tired by now, as I was running on probably 2 hours of sleep over a 36 hour period. I don't think I could ever make it as a medical resident.
I should note that although it was sunny and a bit warm, it was a pleasant warm, not at all unbearably hot like summer in Tennessee. I noticed when I got back to my hotel that I had a bit of a sunburn.
Gothenburg by Boat
Strolling up Avenyn, I came upon the Padden Boat tours, which promised a 50 minute tour of the cities waterways and under 20 bridges for 150 SEK. Disparing of seeing the city in any other fashion, I paid my money and hopped on the English/Swedish tour.
A majority of our boat was Swedish, but there were at least a few English speakers, so our tour guide gave each spiel once in Swedish and then in English. I had a hard time hearing her, so I got some but not all she said.
One the right is one of the many beautiful parks in Gothenburg, on the left is the canal wall. Gothenburg was built at the mouth of the Göta Älv. The first Gothenburg was invaded by the Danes, who forced the Swedes to buy it back at an outrageous ransom. So King Gustav decided to built a new Gothenburg on the other side of the river and make it the most defensible city in all of Europe. The canal is actually a moat built to defend the city against to invading Danes. The parks are areas that were left open to allow for the army to defend the outer city and then fall back across the bridges if necessary.
This section of the city is the Stone Area because all the buildings are made of stone. This is the only Jewish synagogue in the city (at least for many years.) In general, the Swedish state allowed other religions, but was officially Lutheran.
More beautiful views of canal-side parks.
Bikes, bikes, everywhere!!!!
The old Swedish East India Company building, now the Gothenburg City Museum. More about that later. The Swedish East India Company sailed the ship Gothenburg to China and made a fortunate for about a decade. The building was primarily its warehouse, along with offices.
We passed under at least 20 bridges. This bridge right before going out into the harbor was so low that everybody had to kneel down on the floor beneath their seats to avoid hitting their heads. You can see the people in the back who are still under the bridge.
Out in Gothenburg harbor. Gothenburg is one of Sweden's biggest harbors and traditionally where many Swedish immigrants to the US left from.
A retired Swedish naval vessel. Sweden remained neutral during the World Wars. Although it imported iron to Nazi Germany, it also helped sheltered thousands of Jews who fled from Norway when the Nazis invaded.
The Gothenburg Ferris Wheel is on the left, and the Gothenburg Opera House on the Right. The Opera house is intended to look like a ship.
The Viking. One of the largest sailing ships in the world, but it can't leave the harbor anymore because one of the bridges was built too low to let it pass out. So it serves as a floating hotel.
This dry dock is large enough to float the Titanic. Gothenburg had four ship building centers during the 70s, but a downturn in the need for sailing ship has reduced it to a single active one.
The "Fish Church". The women who sorted the fish demanded a indoor facility and as a joke, the Fish Hall was built in the form of a church. One couple was married here.
Later in the week, I had a delicious fish fry here.
Gothenburg's bikeshare bikes all have distinctive blue fenders.
A majority of our boat was Swedish, but there were at least a few English speakers, so our tour guide gave each spiel once in Swedish and then in English. I had a hard time hearing her, so I got some but not all she said.
The Gothenburg Ferris Wheel is on the left, and the Gothenburg Opera House on the Right. The Opera house is intended to look like a ship.
Later in the week, I had a delicious fish fry here.
Flight to Sweden
The beauty of a flight to Europe is that somewhere in the scheduling of three separate flight legs, there is going to be a connection that seems suspiciously too short to actually make. I had originally hoped to exchange my US dollars for Swedish Kronars in the Atlanta airport, but realized that the 45 minute connection time was probably too short to do that, since international flights start boarding 45 minutes prior to departure time. As it was, my plane landed about 20 minutes late and at the opposite end of the airport. So I made it on my plane as the last person to board.
A BLESSING IN DISGUISE
As I was hustling down to the gate, the gate agent told me my seat had been changed. I'm thinking, oh great, does that mean I won't have an aisle seat? It turns out I was sitting in a bulkhead seat, which really threw me for a loop. I had planned on working on my laptop at least some of the flight and of course, but there is not seat in front to store my backpack with the laptop underneath, so I had to place it in the overhead. This kind of upset me. It is only later, much later, when I start to think about it, that I realize that a bulkhead seat is a prized possession for those flying in cattle class as it is one of the few seats that has full leg room. Believe me, on my return trip, I was sorely missing that leg room. So I got to watch a bunch of movies and use my iTouch and sleep a few minutes. If my stomach had not been in full scale revolt for the full eight hours, due to something I ate, it might have even been pleasant. I left Tennessee at around 12 noon and we landed in Amsterdam at about 5 am European time (10 pm Tennessee time).
MY BRIEF STAY IN AMSTERDAM (AIRPORT)
I then had enough time to stroll leisurely through the huge airport with its duty free shopping mall, pass through interminably long passport control lines and make it to my flight to Gothenburg.
IMHO, the Dutch do a poor job of line control for passports. In most US airports, the lines would be controlled by the typical post and retractable bands for however long the lines extend, and typically well passed this distance, so that it is clear that you are standing in the right line and what your place is in the line. In the Amsterdam airport the posts only extend a few feet and the EU passport and All Nations passport lines were running alternatively, so that that you had huge crowds sort of merging from all sides and people cutting in from everywhere and no one really sure if they were surging for an EU queue or an All Nations passport queue. What a mess and not very efficient.
But I had two hours and a half hours to make the connection so I did eventually get my passport stamped (only my second visa stamp, so still pretty exciting to me!) And I had some time to stroll thru the shops and think about about exchanging my money, but decided against it as it appeared that all the exchanges were for euros rather than Swedish Kronars. Sweden is part of the EU, and officially it has agreed to eventually convert to the Euro, but since its citizens keep voting down this conversion in referendums, it seems unlikely that will happen anytime soon.
I had a window seat for the relatively short flight to Gothenburg, so I got a spectacular view of the canals and windmills as we flew out of Amsterdam. I was not really clear if "electronic devices" included cameras, so I didn't take any pictures. Flying into Sweden was also very pretty, we passed over Malmo, with its train tracks that run out into the sea, over lakes and wooded areas, and it was just beautiful.
GOTHENBURG
I landed in Gothenburg, which turns out to be a pretty tiny airport. I thought that I would have to pass through passport control, but I guess since we were coming from an EU country to an EU country, this was not necessary. So I strolled out, picked up my bag and milled around until I found a place to exchange my money and then found the bus stop.
BUS RIDE
I had already bought my bus ticket online (ah the beauty of the internet), so I got on the bus, found a seat and pretended I knew what I was doing. I did a lot of this on the trip. Although just about everyone in Sweden can speak English, and there are often signs in English at museums and hotels and such, its the little things that kind of trip you up. More about that later. In this case, I knew that I wanted to get off at the Korsvagen stop, which according to the website was the first stop, but the little lighted sign at the front had some other word that I had no idea what it meant, and when the driver made his announcement as we were getting into town, he spoke so softly and the guy in the seat behind was jabbering so loudly, that I had no idea what was said. Fortunately as we pulled off the freeway, I recognized the area from the website pictures (again the beauty of the internet) so I figured I was at Korsvagen and it turned out the the bus shelter said this, so I hopped off.
A PEDESTRIAN IN SWEDEN
It took a few minutes to get oriented and start off down the road to my hotel. My printed Google Map had its usual cryptic," there may not be sidewalks" message, so I was slightly worried about whether there would be sidewalks all the way to my hotel. Oh how foolish this worry was. There could not be a more pedestrian and bicycling friendly city in the world than Gothenburg. There are wide sidewalk boulevards and either shared bike paths, bike lanes, or bike roads everywhere, as well as courteous drivers who yield (as required by law) to pedestrians. Amazing.
THE PROBLEM WITH MIDSOMMAR
So I was very excited that my first day in Sweden was Midsommar because I thought that would mean I would get to see some great local culture. However, it turns out that most of the city celebrations on are Midsommar Eve, which was the night before (if you can call it night when there is still some light at midnight) and then everybody stays home or goes to the countryside for Midsommar, so that all the museums and such were closed. Major bummer! The city was pretty much deserted! Since none of the museums were opened I strolled up Avenyn, one of the main boulevards, looking for something to tour. By this time, it was 4 am Tennessee time, 11 am Swedish time and I needed to stay awake for another 9 to 10 hours. It was my only full day to see the sights and I was kind of disappointed that it looked like I wouldn't be able to see anything.
A BLESSING IN DISGUISE
As I was hustling down to the gate, the gate agent told me my seat had been changed. I'm thinking, oh great, does that mean I won't have an aisle seat? It turns out I was sitting in a bulkhead seat, which really threw me for a loop. I had planned on working on my laptop at least some of the flight and of course, but there is not seat in front to store my backpack with the laptop underneath, so I had to place it in the overhead. This kind of upset me. It is only later, much later, when I start to think about it, that I realize that a bulkhead seat is a prized possession for those flying in cattle class as it is one of the few seats that has full leg room. Believe me, on my return trip, I was sorely missing that leg room. So I got to watch a bunch of movies and use my iTouch and sleep a few minutes. If my stomach had not been in full scale revolt for the full eight hours, due to something I ate, it might have even been pleasant. I left Tennessee at around 12 noon and we landed in Amsterdam at about 5 am European time (10 pm Tennessee time).
MY BRIEF STAY IN AMSTERDAM (AIRPORT)
I then had enough time to stroll leisurely through the huge airport with its duty free shopping mall, pass through interminably long passport control lines and make it to my flight to Gothenburg.
IMHO, the Dutch do a poor job of line control for passports. In most US airports, the lines would be controlled by the typical post and retractable bands for however long the lines extend, and typically well passed this distance, so that it is clear that you are standing in the right line and what your place is in the line. In the Amsterdam airport the posts only extend a few feet and the EU passport and All Nations passport lines were running alternatively, so that that you had huge crowds sort of merging from all sides and people cutting in from everywhere and no one really sure if they were surging for an EU queue or an All Nations passport queue. What a mess and not very efficient.
But I had two hours and a half hours to make the connection so I did eventually get my passport stamped (only my second visa stamp, so still pretty exciting to me!) And I had some time to stroll thru the shops and think about about exchanging my money, but decided against it as it appeared that all the exchanges were for euros rather than Swedish Kronars. Sweden is part of the EU, and officially it has agreed to eventually convert to the Euro, but since its citizens keep voting down this conversion in referendums, it seems unlikely that will happen anytime soon.
I had a window seat for the relatively short flight to Gothenburg, so I got a spectacular view of the canals and windmills as we flew out of Amsterdam. I was not really clear if "electronic devices" included cameras, so I didn't take any pictures. Flying into Sweden was also very pretty, we passed over Malmo, with its train tracks that run out into the sea, over lakes and wooded areas, and it was just beautiful.
GOTHENBURG
I landed in Gothenburg, which turns out to be a pretty tiny airport. I thought that I would have to pass through passport control, but I guess since we were coming from an EU country to an EU country, this was not necessary. So I strolled out, picked up my bag and milled around until I found a place to exchange my money and then found the bus stop.
BUS RIDE
I had already bought my bus ticket online (ah the beauty of the internet), so I got on the bus, found a seat and pretended I knew what I was doing. I did a lot of this on the trip. Although just about everyone in Sweden can speak English, and there are often signs in English at museums and hotels and such, its the little things that kind of trip you up. More about that later. In this case, I knew that I wanted to get off at the Korsvagen stop, which according to the website was the first stop, but the little lighted sign at the front had some other word that I had no idea what it meant, and when the driver made his announcement as we were getting into town, he spoke so softly and the guy in the seat behind was jabbering so loudly, that I had no idea what was said. Fortunately as we pulled off the freeway, I recognized the area from the website pictures (again the beauty of the internet) so I figured I was at Korsvagen and it turned out the the bus shelter said this, so I hopped off.
A PEDESTRIAN IN SWEDEN
It took a few minutes to get oriented and start off down the road to my hotel. My printed Google Map had its usual cryptic," there may not be sidewalks" message, so I was slightly worried about whether there would be sidewalks all the way to my hotel. Oh how foolish this worry was. There could not be a more pedestrian and bicycling friendly city in the world than Gothenburg. There are wide sidewalk boulevards and either shared bike paths, bike lanes, or bike roads everywhere, as well as courteous drivers who yield (as required by law) to pedestrians. Amazing.
THE PROBLEM WITH MIDSOMMAR
So I was very excited that my first day in Sweden was Midsommar because I thought that would mean I would get to see some great local culture. However, it turns out that most of the city celebrations on are Midsommar Eve, which was the night before (if you can call it night when there is still some light at midnight) and then everybody stays home or goes to the countryside for Midsommar, so that all the museums and such were closed. Major bummer! The city was pretty much deserted! Since none of the museums were opened I strolled up Avenyn, one of the main boulevards, looking for something to tour. By this time, it was 4 am Tennessee time, 11 am Swedish time and I needed to stay awake for another 9 to 10 hours. It was my only full day to see the sights and I was kind of disappointed that it looked like I wouldn't be able to see anything.