Stockholm I

Astrid Lindgren

On the morning of May 16, our group visited the Astrid Lindgren Museum in her former apartment in Stockholm. Any of her belongings had been collected and were on display in various rooms.

Astrid Lindgren published her most famous book Pippi Långstrump (Pippi Longstocking) 1945, and soon translations swamped the world. The German version came out in 1950, and my brother, much younger than me, swallowed the book.

The first German edition of 1950

Some educators threw up their hands in horror about the content. Astrid Lindgren once put it this way: "If Pippi had any function at all except to entertain, it was to show that you can have power and not abuse it - and that's probably the hardest thing there is in life."

The Wasa    

The rest of the morning, our group spent at the Wasa Museum.

A model of the Wasa

King Gustav Adolf decided in 1626 that his newly built ship, the Wasa, should be the most potent vessel spreading terror in the Baltic Sea. When he learned that his great rival, King Christian IV of Denmark, was planning an even mightier ship, he ordered his Dutch shipbuilders to add a second gun deck to the Wasa. 

The experienced engineers tried to compensate for this increased top-heaviness of the vessel by increasing the stone ballast in the Wasa's bilge. However, the ship's hull plunged deep into the Baltic water with the additional weight.

As the Wasa slid out of the harbor on her maiden voyage, a light breeze caused the ship to heel so that water penetrated the lower gun deck, increasing the inclination. The rest is history.

I had to recover from the shock and had a kanelbullar (Swedish cinnamon roll) with a pot of coffee.

Red Baron had seen the Wasa in 1978 when he was in Stockholm at an IAEA Conference on Neutron Dosimetry. I remember the wreck was still dripping from being sprayed with a water polyethylene glycol mixture for conservation.

Now the wooden structure is stabilized and appears in all its beauty. Texts in italics are explanations in English as copied from the object descriptions.  

The rich carving on the mirror stern was initially colorfully painted
as shown on the model of the Wasa.

Some individual figures demonstrating the invincibility of the Wasa were brought to their former glory.

Enemies fear mighty Hercules, who has the Lernaean Hydra
 around his neck and the Erymanthian Boar at his feet.

King David's sculpture was meant to show that King Gustaf Adolf
also had God on his side and that he commanded the same power
and wisdom as King David.

The man under the bench is a caricature of a humiliated Polish nobleman.
According to a Polish tradition, a slanderer was forced to crawl on the bench,
bark like a dog three times, and beg for mercy.
The sculpture was meant to remind the crew how they should think of the enemy.

At the bow of the Wasa:
 The big-headed lion lunges forward with the code of arms
of the royal house of Wasa between his paws.
The lion is a symbol of courage, strength, and royal power.

Good Bye, Wasa

Drottningholm Castle 

The Queen Island Castle outside Stockholm was originally a royal pleasure palace on Lovön Island in Mälaren in the municipality of Ekerö. It is now the private residence of the Swedish Bernadotte royal family, currently King Carl XVI Gustaf and his wife Silvia, who moved into the south wing as their principal residence in 1982. The royal couple has since used the Stockholm castle only as their official residence and for representational purposes.

The north wing of Drottningholm Castle is open to the public as a museum.

Approaching the site

Before entering the castle, we visited the Slottsteater, a historical opera house on the palace grounds. 

 In 1766, the "new" Court Theater was inaugurated, where a French ensemble and members of the Court performed.

After the death of the Theater King Gustav  III in 1792, activities practically stopped, and so things remained for the whole of the 19th century.

At the beginning of the 1920s, a new era began when the theater was put in order, primarily for public viewing*. Since 1946, the theater has been open every summer,  mainly for opera performances. It is also open for guided tours during the summer months.

*It seems that the Swedes practice the same "wrong" translation as the Germans

An impressive view of the stage

The Slottsteater is one of the few 18th-century theatres in Europe that is still played using the original stage machinery.

The royal couple at Drottningholm is well protected.

King Gustav III took over the palace in 1777 and chose to use the bedroom in the French style introducing le lever; a reception held the room as he went about his morning toilet.

The great French role model Louis XVI
on a man-sized painting at Drottningholm Castle.

The palace library

*