After the train passed the tenements
bedecked with fluttering laundry, I passed Kungsgatan St. From that vantage point you get a more
characteristic view of Stockholm and what big cities should look like: movie
theaters, big corporate offices like Casco, UR & Penn, and sidewalks full
of shoppers. In the background is PUB, a
plush department store where Greta Garbo once worked. Thankfully, the Swedes had a noticeable lack
of skyscrapers and have managed to keep Stockholm’s building humanely
proportional. Viewing through Goggle’s
Street Level, I’m shocked to see so many changes; so much new glass and steel
construction. I didn’t recognize the
train station, but it’s still fun to see where I’d been after more than 36
years.
Edvard Ohrström’s Crystal obelisk in the city’s big square
(Sergels Torg) is an example. It still
looks like a big ugly camshaft complete with carbon burns, but the
surroundings are now unrecognizable.
Where’s the Länssparbanken? So
much has changed and so have I; I could walk in the days – mile after mile and barely
feel it and the one time I did rest was in a cemetery with tombstones dating
from the 1600s. I’m glad I went in my
youth, but Stockholm has its marvelous subway system, with those one inch
square white tiles and clean as a whistle.
It’s also safe at night.
I went to the Maritime Museum and
took pictures along the waterfront and its placid marinas. I was lucky to get a few taken in the sunshine
because September in Stockholm goes very quickly. The Warship
Wasa which sank on its maiden voyage in 1628, was salvaged and made into a
museum east of the city, but I’m embarrassed to admit I missed it. There were the Ostermans Aero helicopter
tours and I missed them too, I’ve learned since that sometimes you have to
spend a little more to get a little more.
(I got hooked on that type of touring in Kauai as a passenger on a Navy
helicopter (mandatory hours flight) just like in the scenes from Jurassic Park.) I also include a shot of the Nordic Museum.