Copenhagen & Stockholm

Copenhagen

Monday, July 29, 2019

Our flight from Bilbao, Spain to Copenhagen included a layover In Amsterdam. This just might be the reason why Liz has confused each of the two Scandinavian cities we visited with ‘Amsterdam’. Whether it be Copenhagen or Stockholm, Liz refers to them as ‘Amsterdam’ and it has now become a running joke between us whenever we can’t recall the name of a city or place or, for that matter, anything, we simply refer to it as ‘Amsterdam’.

Here’s a bit of trivia. What’s the difference between Scandinavia and Nordic countries? Answer: Scandinavia refers to Denmark, Norway and Sweden while Nordic includes these three countries plus Finland and Iceland. Who knew? Well, now you do.

Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark and its largest city with a population of 800,000 (greater metro area 2 million). Denmark is a small country (about the size of Maryland) connected to Germany to the south and rising northward as a peninsula with the North Sea to the west and the Baltic Sea to the east. Sweden’s southernmost city, Malmo, is connected to Copenhagen by a 7.5 mile bridge and tunnel that crosses the Strait of Øresund.

Our stay in Copenhagen (aka ‘Amsterdam’) will be brief – only three days – and we are staying at the Copenhagen Strand, a waterfront hotel (most of them are) in the heart of the city with easy access to almost everything. We arrive around 8:30pm, put our luggage in our room and head out for dinner.

Liz had made a reservation at a vegetarian restaurant that is a little over a mile away and this gives us the opportunity to walk through the King’s Garden and Nyhavn – the iconic adorable street on the water with brightly painted houses and restaurants that spill out into the pedestrian-only sidewalks. If you like to do puzzles, you probably have done one of Nyhavn.

Nyhavn Street

It is unseasonably hot in Copenhagen which is experiencing the heat wave that has afflicted other European cities. As our hotel is an of the older variety (hence they can use the term ‘Grand’), it doesn’t have any Grand air conditioning. Neither of us sleep well that night.

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

You may recall that while in San Sebastián (see previous post on Northern Spain), where it was also extremely hot, I had jumped in the ocean with my hearing aids on and one of them fell to the bottom of the sea and is gone forever while the other miraculously revived itself there days later. As it turns out, Denmark is home to Widex who happen to be the manufacturer of my particular brand of hearing devices. So, I looked up a Widex retailer in Copenhagen and, first thing this morning, we walk to their offices. Unfortunately, the place is closed as everyone is on vacation (it is July, after all). Nice try, better luck next time.

Denmark is known for its ultra-cool, sleek Scandinavian design and it has a Design Museum showcasing the history of Danish design in furniture, kitchen appliances and lots and lots of chairs. We spent an hour in the museum and it was well worth it.

Next, we walked to the Marble Church, formally known as Fredrik’s Church after King Fredrik V. The church has an interesting history. Construction began in 1740, but then came to a slow and then a grinding halt after the architect died in 1754 and the building was abandoned in 1770. Left for ruin for 150 years, it was revived in 1874 when it was sold to a real estate developer for next to nothing under the condition that he complete the building of the church and he could then develop the adjacent real estate for himself. It is called the ‘Marble Church’ because the original design was for a church made of marble. However, the real estate developer, due to the high cost of marble, built the church almost entirely out of limestone with some marble highlights and it was eventually completed in 1894. In spite of this sleight of hand by the developer, the Marble Church is beautiful and worth a visit.

The Marble Church

Next, we visited the Queen’s Palace more formally known as Amalienborg. This is a grand structure with a large open square in the middle. Since it was not as impressive as many of the other palaces we have visited in Europe, we chose to skip the tour and simply admire it from the outside.

From here we walked a mile or more along the waterfront until we arrived at the statue of The Little Mermaid. It is a rather small statue on the water’s edge and there are literally dozens of buses parked nearby with all of their passengers and their selfie sticks taking pictures. We snapped a few and then quickly resumed our walk returning to the King’s Garden for a more leisurely stroll through this large and beautiful park, eventually ending up at the Rosenborg Castle. Originally built in 1606 as a royal summerhouse, today the castle is open to the public (for a fee) where one can see the crown jewels, royal furnishings and the royal art collection. 

The Little Mermaid

Rosenborg Castle

Liz and I were famished by now, so we skipped the castle tour and headed to Torvehallerne – a fantastic food market contained within two glass enclosed buildings serving fresh produce and lots of ready-to-eat food items. We loved the place and returned again the next day.

After lunch, we walked the length of Copenhagen’s main shopping street – Strøget – which runs for over a kilometer. Having lost my suitcase the week before, I was in need of a few items, so Liz helped me in re-building my summer wardrobe. The first key purchase was a hiking rain jacket as the weather was beginning to turn in Copenhagen. Generally, I don’t care for shopping, but Strøget, another pedestrian-only street, is lined with interesting shops and interesting people. We didn’t actually do that much shopping, but the walk was totally worth it.

We returned to our hotel late in the afternoon exhausted after walking nine miles, took a quick nap, changed clothes and then went out for dinner on Nyhavn Street. When in Copenhagen, this is a must do. The place is a bit crazy and buzzing with activity. We selected a restaurant, sat down and waited and waited for service. Liz then stood up, announced we are leaving, and we walked 30 meters down to another restaurant where we were served right away and enjoyed a good meal. Nice work Liz!

Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Today, we headed to the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek museum. This is a fantastic museum with an art collection featuring Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cézanne and Van Gogh, among others, and one of the largest collections of Rodin sculptures in the world. In addition, room-after-room of ancient sculptures from Egypt, Rome and Greece. It was a little like combining Musée d'Orsay in Paris, with the Musée Rodin (also in Paris) and topping it off with the British Museum in London. We were completely blown away by the quality, quantity and variety of the art and artifacts. 

Rodin's The Dancer, The Kiss and The Thinker

Rodin's The Dancers

van Gogh and Monet

And where did all of this stuff come from? Most of it was from the private collection of Carl Jacobsen, the son of the founder of Carlsberg Breweries, headquartered in Copenhagen. Unbelievable! Who knew there was so much money in beer, and, frankly, not very good beer at that? We loved this museum. It is in a beautiful new building and easily worth spending 2-3 hours in, as we did. 

Aphrodite, Arisrtotle and Hercules

We returned to our new favorite lunch place, Torvehallerne, walked around some more and then back to our hotel as a light rain began to fall. That night we went to Tivoli Gardens which opened in 1847. Tivoli is a combination of an amusement park, actual gardens, outdoor theatre venue and restaurants – all inside the heart of the city. We were there to have dinner at Nimb Gemyse specializing in fresh, organic menu items. It was delicious.

And that completes our all too brief visit to Copenhagen. While we never actually got out of the city, we completely enjoyed our time there and happy that it was on our agenda. It’s a beautiful city, surrounded by water, with plenty to do.

Tomorrow we are off to Munich for a couple of days before we are joined by my son, Gareth, his wife, Sarah, and their three kids to explore southeastern Germany and parts of nearby Austria. But before I cover these exploits and adventures, I am going to fast forward by two weeks to Stockholm because, after all, it is the other ‘Amsterdam’. 

Stockholm 

Thursday, August 15, 2019 

We flew from Stuttgart to Stockholm late in the afternoon eventually arriving at our hotel – the Hotel At Six – at around 9:30pm due to a 1-hour delay in our plane’s departure. Our hotel was relatively new, centrally located (a 10-minute walk to the Royal Palace and Old Town) and it had air conditioning although that was barely needed as the weather was nearly perfect during our time in Stockholm. We ate a late and light dinner at the bar in the hotel before heading off to bed.

Stockholm is the capital of Sweden and the largest city in the Nordics with a population of 1 million (2.4 million in the greater metro region). The city is situated on the east coast of Sweden about one-third up this long and narrow country that stretches into the Artic Circle. Stockholm is surrounded by water on all sides with the Baltic Sea to the east and is comprised of 14 islands. It has been inhabited since the Stone Age (6th millennium BC) and was founded as a city in 1252.

Friday, August 16, 2019 

Our first order of business today was to find Liz a hair stylist. We had been on the road for 16 weeks by then and Liz felt her hair needed attending to. The folks at the front desk of our hotel gave us a glowing recommendation – “we send all of our wedding parties there” – so we walked over and made an appointment for the next morning.

With that important task complete, we then walked to see the Royal Palace which is situated on the small island of Gamla Stan, the original city also commonly referred to as ‘Old Town’. The architecture of the Royal Palace is similar to the one we saw in Copenhagen. Large, impressive buildings, but far less interesting than some of the other royal palaces we have seen in Europe. Like in Copenhagen, we skipped the tour and simply admired the building from the outside. From here, we walked through Old Town with its narrow winding streets, almost all of which are pedestrian-only. It’s the middle of August and a beautiful day, so Old Town is crowded with visitors, but in a polite way as if each person is happy to see the next. 

The Royal Palace

In the middle of Old Town is the Nobel Prize Museum which we stopped in to visit. The museum’s intentions are to be a “reflecting and forward-looking and spirited memory of Nobel laureates and their achievements, as well as of the Nobel Prize and Alfred Nobel.”

Born in Stockholm in 1833, Alfred Nobel was an engineer and inventor best known for inventing explosives, primarily dynamite, the detonator and the safe manufacture and handling of nitro-glycerin. When his brother died, one French newspaper – believing it was Alfred and not his brother – declared “the merchant of death is dead”. His decision to posthumously donate the majority of his wealth to found the Nobel Prize has been credited, at least in part, to him wanting to leave behind a better legacy.

Originally, there were five Nobel Prizes for Chemistry, Literature, Peace, Physics and Medicine. In 1968, a sixth prize was added – Economics. Nominations are solicited annually by separate committees for each prize resulting in about 300 nominations in total. Nominees are not publicly named nor are they told about their nomination. Each prize has its own review committee all of which are in Sweden except for the Peace Prize where the committee is in Norway. Only individuals are eligible to receive prizes, except for the Peace Prize that can be awarded to an institution.

Again, except for the Peace Prize, the Nobel Prizes are presented in Stockholm, at the annual Prize Award Ceremony on December 10th, the anniversary of Nobel's death. The Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway on the same day. In addition to the lovely gold medal that each recipient receives, there is also a cash award of approximately $1 million each.

The museum contains information about each recipient over the years along with specific exhibits highlighting certain recipients in each prize category. For several years, Liz has been a member of a women-only organization, the Nobel Women’s Initiative (NWI), that supports the women winners of the Nobel Peace Prize. These past-laureates use their notoriety to support other female defenders all over the globe in their efforts to bring peace, often in the most troubled areas in the world. There are six Nobel laureates that are part of NWI – Mairead Maguire (Ireland), Rigoberta Menchu Tum (Guatemala), Jody Williams (US), Shirin Ebadi (Iran), Tawakkol Karmon (Yemen) and Leymah Gbowee (Liberia). It was exciting for us to peruse the museum and find write-ups for each of them and why they were awarded the Peace Prize.

The museum also dedicates its main exhibition space to a single laureate. During the time of our visit, we were fortunate that the exhibit was about the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr. who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 at the age of 35, four years before his assassination. It was thrilling to relive the incredible work to combat racial and social injustice and the fight for basic human rights for all through nonviolence.

In announcing the opening of this exhibit in 2018 on the 70th anniversary of the passage of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations, the Museum stated, “Of all the Nobel Laureates, Martin Luther King, Jr. recipient of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, is the most sought after by online visitors. As such, we are positive that this exhibition will appeal to visitors from around the world. We also hope that it will inspire young people to follow in his footsteps.”

We loved it and we loved the museum. When in Stockholm, pay a visit. You won’t be disappointed.

Noble Prize Museum

After the museum, we walked through the rest of Old Town. 

Old Town

After lunch, we headed out for a walk around ‘museum island’, better known as Skeppsholmen Island. On the way, we passed by St. Jacobs Church and decided to take a peek inside. There was a concert going on including organ, piano and violins. I am always amazed at how perfect the music sounds in a cathedral. We stayed for a few pieces, then continued our walk to museum island (we call it that because, while it is quite small, it has a number of museums on it). We walked the entire circumference of Skeppsholmen including the small bit at the end which contains Stockholm Castle. While we didn’t actually go inside any of the museums, we enjoyed viewing them from the outside on this beautiful day in Stockholm. 

St. Jacob's Church

Saturday, August 17, 2019

This morning started out with Liz getting her hair done while I blogged away. Today, we will head to Drottningholm Palace, the private residence of the Swedish Royal family. It is located in Drottningholm on the island of Lovön – a one-hour ride by boat from Stockholm.

While we waited for our ferry, we strolled through the nearby city hall which is nothing like your typical city hall. Mostly, this place, which sits right on the water, is a tourist destination with beautiful grounds, a lovely building with a wide-open courtyard and surrounding gardens. It is also where the annual Nobel Peace Prize dinner occurs celebrating all of the new recipients of their respective prizes. We then caught the ferry for the one-hour ride to the palace. 

City Hall

As it was Saturday, the palace was packed with tourists, although not a problem as the grounds are immense. First constructed in the late 16th century, the palace burnt to the ground and was rebuilt in the late 17th century. As king and queens came and went, some used the palace extensively, while others rarely used it. For a period of 25 years in the 19th century, the palace was abandoned and its furnishings auctioned off. Renovations were also a consistent theme including a period where the façade was modernized during the late 19th century. When Gustav V became king in 1907, he renovated the palace back to its 18th century style, which is the condition of the palace as it now stands. 

Drottningholm Palace

We totally enjoyed the tour of the palace, particularly the outside with its beautiful grounds, gardens and lakes. The building is also quite beautiful although the tour of the inside was not nearly so interesting as walking the outside. Definitely worth a visit. 

Drottningholm Palace

We boarded a late afternoon ferry back to Stockholm, changed our clothes and headed out to dinner, then back to our hotel and early to bed.

Sunday, August 18, 2019 

This morning, I blogged away while Liz got her mani/pedi-cure, then we were off to Fotografiska Museum, a center for contemporary photography in the Södermalm district of Stockholm. This is an excellent museum and the photographs were absolutely stunning, breathtaking and horrifying including an entire exhibit of emergency medical treatment during the Vietnam War. But the exhibit that most captured my attention was James Nachtwey’s Memoria. Born in Syracuse, NY in 1948, Nachtwey has spent nearly 40 years as a photo-journalist covering war, famine and natural disasters across the globe. He has won numerous prestigious awards for his work and a documentary film, War Photographer, about his life was nominated for an Academy Award.

Here’s a quote from Nachtwey as part of the exhibit-

“Each photograph in this exhibit is a fragment of memory, captured within the continuum of the history I experienced. Each image was intended to reach a mass audience at the time the events were taking place, as a way of raising public consciousness; one element among many in the process of change. Now, as that same continuum moves relentlessly forward, and the events themselves recede in time, I hope these pictures will stand as a remembrance of the people in them, of the conditions they endured and how those conditions came to be. As we share these memories, we bear witness together. Let us not forget.” 

James Nachtwey - Palenstine

James Nachtwey -Kabul, Afghanistan

James Nachtwey - Rwanda

After the museum, we walked to the reported new and trendy neighborhood district of Södermalm called Mariatorget where we found a lovely pedestrian-only shopping district with an open market, numerous cafes and lovely gardens. While walking down the middle of this street, I glanced up, and to my surprise, the name of the street was Swedenborgsgatan which means Swedenborg’s Garden. Now that might not mean anything to most of you, but to a person who grew up in Bryn Athyn, PA, a small town 20-miles north of Philadelphia, it means a lot.

Bryn Athyn is the episcopal seat to a small Christian religion based upon the revelations, provided by God, to Emanuel Swedenborg. I was born in Bryn Athyn, attended the church schools from pre-K, through high school and even one semester of college. My first wife, Wendy (now deceased), also grew up in this church and all of our five children also attended these same schools. If you grew up in Bryn Athyn, Swedenborg is a very big deal, and now, quite by accident, I find myself in Stockholm – Swedenborg’s ancestral home – walking along a street named after him. This was surreal, to say the least.

As we walked further along, we came across a garden and Liz spotted a statue which was the bust of Swedenborg (1688-1772). So, now my curiosity was in high gear. I recalled from my school years, that Swedenborg had a small summer house near Stockholm in which he did a lot of his writing. After a quick Google search, I learned that the cottage used to be right where I stood in this garden, but had been relocated to the open-air park and museum known as Skansen on Djurgården Island along with many other artifacts documenting Swedish history and the lives of its people. We resolved to visit Skansen the next day. 

Swedenborg Statue in Södermalm, Stockholm

Monday, August 19, 2019 

This morning we bought tickets for the Hop-on, Hop-off boat tour of Stockholm and when we arrived at Djurgården Island we got off the boat and walked up to the Nordiska Museum. This is a beautiful building and a museum showcasing the Nordic lifestyle. We didn’t go inside preferring instead to wander through the beautiful gardens surrounding the museum.

Nordisk Museum

From here, we headed for Skansen. After entering the park and walking only a short distance, one of the first things we came across was Swedenborg’s summer house. I recall being told many years ago that the house was small, but this diminutive house even surpassed my expectations. 

Swedenborg's Summerhouse

The sign next to the house reads, “This summerhouse was built in the 1740s for the famous scientist, author and thinker, Emmanuel Swedenborg, and it stood in his garden in Hornsgatan, in the Södermalm district of Stockholm. Swedenborg’s religious thinking has done a great deal to influence literature and thinking, especially in the English-speaking countries. Tradition has it that the summerhouse played a vital part in his spiritual life. Many of his visions and conversations with spirits are supposed to have taken place here.” 

Swedenborg's Summerhouse and Gardens

From here, we walked through the rest of Skansen and its zoo until we eventually ended up at the ABBA Museum. If you live in Sweden, apparently you place the band, ABBA, on the same level of music’s hierarchy as the Beatles. This museum is quite large and is one of Stockholm’s most visited tourist attractions. We skipped the museum and headed for the port where we got back on our Hop-on, Hop-off boat where we rode it back to the Östermalm district.

Östermalm is yet another very cool part of Stockholm with pedestrian-only streets, shops, open markets and cafes that spill out into the streets. We walked and walked, visited three different churches before making our way back to our hotel.

Hevig Eleanora Church

This was our last full day in Stockholm. Tomorrow morning, we have an early flight out to Berlin where we will catch up with my sister, Gail, and her husband, Edwin. 

But before we get on to covering those shenanigans, both Liz and I loved Stockholm. After each place we visit, we try to rank them compared to other places. As cities go, Barcelona has held the top spot for almost nine weeks, but we each agreed that Stockholm is now our favorite city. The combination of size (population of only 1 million), water properties (it is comprised of 14 islands), cleanliness, food (we ate well), walkability (we averaged over 8 miles per day), friendliness, things to do, etc. all came together for a very special experience for us. We would recommend Stockholm to anyone and everyone. But make sure you go in the summer when days are long (over 16 hours of daylight). We have been told that the cold, dark winter days can wreak havoc with your psyche. 

Max & Liz - We Love Stockholm

Musings… 

As you can see, we’re a bit behind on the blogging. We’re actually in Italy now, but writing about Copenhagen and Stockholm which was five weeks ago (or so). Crazy as it seems it’s hard to keep track of all of these places. Thankfully, I write down what we’ve done each day, but sometimes I can’t remember even though I’m reading my own writing. And this is not to illicit any sympathy - trust me, no one needs to feel bad for us;).

As Malcolm described, I am geographically challenged when it comes to the Scandinavian countries. Maybe I missed that day in 4th grade Geography. But for the life of me, I still get confused on which city belongs to what country - so I just now refer to all of them as 'Amsterdam' (even though that’s not even part of Scandinavia, hopeless!).

Copenhagen is a wonderful city - although we did have some rain, it was much better than the original forecast. Loved seeing all the people on bikes - they’re everywhere (but no helmets). It’s such a way of life in these parts and I wonder why it never made it over the pond. It’s obviously an incredibly safe city as most of the bikes didn’t seem to be locked. Great vibe, lots of young people, everyone spoke English so very easy to get the lay of the land. We didn’t do much planning other than what Annika (Alan & Karen Farkas’ friend) had suggested to us and it worked out perfect. Saw the “must sees” and then just cruised the city and enjoyed people watching. Food was delicious and the Mercado was great - we went back a second time to enjoy the array of offerings. I think all these open food markets (mix of farmer’s markets and upscale food courts) are the absolute best way to get a flavor for the varieties of foods each country has to offer - I’m a big fan. Also a big fan of pedestrian only streets (San Francisco has really missed the boat on that one). And the Glyptoteket Museum was gorgeous, great exhibits and the building itself was just as interesting.

Stockholm is my favorite of all places (so far)! I could live here easily - just loved everything about it. Only down side to staying too long would be the winter darkness - it’s only light 6 hours per day in winter so maybe just June through September is best. Water everywhere you look, which makes the city magical as the sun rises and sets on all the beautiful architectural monuments. As in Copenhagen, everyone spoke English. So, very easy to ask questions on the fly and just head out to discover the hidden gems. And, as in most of the places we’ve visited throughout Europe, there was construction going on all over the city (hoping that means improving economies for these countries or at least rising employment rates). There was a large summer festival going on during our visit so music, etc. was playing all around us - very cool atmosphere. And, thankfully, I found a wonderful stylist to touch up the hair:). 

One of the stops, as Malcolm mentioned, was the Nobel Museum where we learned about the history of the prizes and also got to see my heroes that formed the Nobel Women’s Initiative, a group I have been involved with for the last few years. Very cool. The photo museum, Fotografiska, was incredible - sobering to the point of tears, but still incredible. Although we passed on the ABBA Museum - we did have a drink in the hotel they own. Couple of noticeable differences here; very few, if any, restaurants or shops accept cash at all - only credit/debit cards and very few smokers here, as compared to most other European cities we’ve visited (both positives in my book). And one of Malcolm’s favorites, not to be missed when you visit, is kanelbullar (cinnamon buns).

By this point in our journey we have stayed in over 30 different places - that is a lot of packing and unpacking and I am so totally over the clothes I brought with me;). I’m pretty much over luggage actually. Some days I secretly wish that they had never found my luggage, but I know I can’t put that out in the universe or….who knows what could happen. As Malcolm can continually attest to on any given day, I’m ready to cry “uncle” - but I persevere (and I’m still not looking for sympathy) as we head to the next discovery on our journey and meet up with friends and family.

Caio!