Cycle Time

Crocuses litter the landscape now

Finally, in the closing days of April, spring arrived in Stockholm. With temperatures peaking just above 50⁰ F, we again pulled out our bicycles for our first real cycling trip about Stockholm.  Earlier in April when we were visited by spring-like temperatures, the bikes were moved from the apartment’s cycle room to our spare bedroom where they were cleaned, brakes adjusted and tires inflated. We didn’t realize we still had a few more weeks of snow flurries and sweater weather before we would be pedaling down the avenues and streets of this bike-friendly town.

Still warmed by scarves and winter jackets, we found ourselves this weekend pedaling down the bike lanes on busy Götgatan on the island of Sodermalm, where we live, finally able to expand our exploration range.

Map of Stockholm

The bikes belong to our landlords. Monica and Per leased their apartment to us before they departed for a yearlong sailing trip in the Caribbean and included the use of their bikes in the leasing agreement.

We admit to being a bit tentative as we merged into the bustling bike lanes and started our journey. This first warm, sunny weekend of the year brought a multitude of walkers, bike riders and auto traffic to the roadways. People, cars and bikes flow here in an orderly and predictable way. Cars give right-of-way to pedestrians. We were now on our maiden voyage learning how to conduct ourselves in the moving masses of cars, walkers and fellow bikers.  

Local saxophone player

We started from the southern side of Södermalm and pedaled in designated bike lanes before mingling with extensive foot traffic in the northern section of Götgatan, which is a pedestrian walkway. The experience gave us insight into the Swedish skills learned over a lifetime of weaving about walkers, baby strollers, street performers and hand-in-hand lovers.

Interesting things to see in the woods

After accruing a bit more experience through Gamla Stan and Ostermalm riding bike lanes wherever they took us, we felt ready to set course to Kungliga Djurgården ("The Royal Game Park"). In contrast to the high density population of the other islands that make up Stockholm, Djurgården retains much of its late 1500’s feel of a hunting reserve for the king’s deer, reindeer, and elk. Park space and walkways dominate the island. 

Sharing a Djurgården road with horses

The Stockholm World's Fair of 1897 was held on Djurgården. The island today is home to Skansen, an open air cultural museum displaying over 100 houses preserving a wide swath of Swedish life over the centuries, and Gröna Lund, an amusement park. 

This bike ride was a journey of exploration. We wanted to acquire a sense of comfort with these new bikes and perform a personal calibration of our safety touring Stockholm on two wheels. We achieved those objectives and also came to realize how we can greatly expand our sightseeing reach.  We are in-town walkers. We typically use the subway and buses when time or rain make walking inconvenient. 

  

With willing weather and our fully inflated tires, we feel a new page in our Swedish adventure can now be written. Below is a 42 second video of our two and a half hour Saturday biking adventure.

Up with People

Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois

This week we gave life to Blanche DuBois’ memorable line from A Street Car Named Desire, “…I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.”  It just so happened this time that we were the strangers.

Our doors to two members of the cast of Up with People were flung open though the ever-fluid life encounters that frame our lives in Sweden. Upon our arrival in Sweden, we adopted with keen intent a vow to attend, visit and participate in as many events as we could manage to extend our roots here. We have remained true to that pledge.

Lorna from Ireland and Neoko from Japan

It was through Helen’s networking for her Dining for Women chapter that lead to a chance encounter with the advance team staff of Up with People charged with, among other things, finding host families for youthful cast members. For the past week we have been the host family for Naoko from Japan and Lorna from Ireland. They occupy our spare bedrooms, share meals and bring us back in touch with the twenty-something generation.

Up with People has been around since the halcyon days of the ‘60’s when it was primarily known for its musical productions and international tours. Today’s Up with People has an updated program with a global perspective focused on community service and educational programs along with its traditional musical program.  

The 120 members of the tour started in United States then travelled to Belgium, Norway and now Sweden.  Next is Finland and then on to Mexico. 

Long curls are part of Lorna's
costume for her Irish dancing 

Due to a business trip Jay could not attend the music performance on Wednesday.  Helen observes, “It was two-hours of high energy entertainment!”  The musical feast was a well-considered fare of current pop and old rock ‘n roll. Kids and host family moms and dads all had opportunities for toe-tapping and lip-synching fun.

We have not, however, had many opportunities to spend time with Naoko and Lorna. The day after her arrival, Naoko got on a plane for a trip to the island of Gotland off the coast of southern Sweden to spend her 26th birthday with friends. Lorna has been ill and in need of rest. 

Buffet line Saturday night

Their schedules are really packed with planned activities by the Up with People staff. As one staff member shared with Helen at the host family dinner Saturday night, “Gone are the days when community service was singing for one hour at an old folks home.” Naoko, for example, spent a day at a local homeless shelter planting flowers and meeting the people there.

We are heartened to see young people globally collected and brought together in common community and purpose. We are becoming a more populated planet.  We are happy to see there is a generation of new leaders who will not let our six degrees of separation from one another suffer in the process.

A Riotous Score

SCORE!!!!!

A standard comic caricature of a soccer announcer includes an exaggerated pronunciation of, “SCORE!”  Our American roots, however, simply don’t allow us to tap into this worldwide enthusiasm for people running around in short pants kicking a black and white ball.  What’s all the fuss about?

Rioters right behind our apt.

We were equally confused this evening when we heard hoots, yells and jeers from the courtyard and park adjacent to our apartment. Jay quickly grabbed his camera. Two groups of young men, each numbering in the 50+ range, converged in a headlong Braveheart-like rush and began beating one another senselessly.  What’s this all about?

Soccer Fans and Police Face Off 

The police quickly arrived and with professional precision separated the warring factions.  The surge subsided only to re-emerge on the same field of battle 20 minutes later.  The police arrived again but were now better equipped with horse mounted officers, flash grenades, pepper spray and an ambulance, just in case.

After the second and final battle was quelled, Jay went outside and spoke with a knot of officers.  He learned the melee was among rival soccer fans.   Evidently such outbreaks regularly occur with the opening of the soccer season.

We returned to our humdrum activities in the apartment.  Jay downloaded video and still images he took of the event to his computer to assemble a short video.  The quiet was again broken by a knock on our apartment door.

Two police officers stood in the doorway.   As through ripped from a script from Law & Order, one officer flashed his badge and asked if we had witnessed or had any images of the riot.  We invited them in to see the high definition video and images that Jay had loaded on his MacBook.  In their excited response they failed to perform the normally quick translation of the English j sound and replied simply on their native Swedish pronunciation, “Yackpot!”

In the viewing of images, particular attention was paid to isolating an individual whose participation in the riot had resulted in his arrest. “He’s wearing purple pants.”  Dressed in something that made him so easily identifiable, we suspect hooligans, regardless of nationality, are not the sharpest tools in the shed. 

The police requested and received copies of the still and video images.

The experience provided us a unique opportunity to glimpse a few layers deeper into Swedish life.   Clearly there are complexities and textures to any society.   So the next time we take our number at the deli counter and wait our turn to participate in the seemingly never-ending orderly Swedish society, we will know that we are only on the edge of our cultural appreciation of our European home.

Below is a short video of the rioting fans.

Easter Weekend in Göteborg

King Gustaf II Adolf

We took our first inner Sweden trip this weekend to the country’s second largest city, Göteborg (pronunciation link). Gothenburg is the English name for the city.

The King of Swat

Located on the western shores of Sweden, Göteborg has a rich history of seafaring trade. The official founding of the city is anchored in the 1621 declaration by King Gustaf II Adolf that, “The town shall be here.” A statue of a pointing king commemorating this declaration is reminiscent of our own King of Swat, Babe Ruth, declaring the placement of his next home run in the 1932’s World Series.  We, however, had far less certainty of what to expect when we arrived on the train from Stockholm.   

The Viking

We wandered city streets and the pedestrian walkways and were delighted to discover that not everything was closed. Dinner that evening was on a 1906-built four-masted sailing ship that once ferried Australian wheat to market and was now converted to a hotel / restaurant. 

 mounted whale w/seating inside 

The next morning we headed to Slottsskogen, an expansive park, to visit the Natural History Museum.  Our first pleasant surprise was to learn that our 40 crown each ($6) entrance fee included admission to four other museums, as well!  The Natural History Museum is a gem, offering exhibits on fish, mammals, birds, human evolution and a “bucket list” qualifying exhibit of the world’s only stuffed blue whale. Benches along the interior of the whale attest that Jonah-like visits were once encouraged.  

 City Museum next to Canal

Exhibits inside City Museum

The City Museum was another gem.  Jay, a history buff on early European spice trading, was humbled to discover that the museum building was once the headquarters of the Swedish East Indian Company.  Who knew the Swedes had an Indian trading company? There were excellent exhibits on Göteborg’s history, artifacts and old photos, all in a magnificent building. Late in the afternoon we stopped at a grocery store then retired to the Royal Hotel for wine, cheese, crusty bread, salad and a movie. 

Flowers made of tiny shells

Our final day included a long walk along the 19^th century constructed Göta Canal and a visit to the Maritime Museum and Aquarium. We skipped the aquarium, but were again impressed with the museum’s displays. Insights on boat building, harbor construction and hundreds of models from 400 year old sailing vessels to modern seagoing luxury and cargo ships filled the exhibit space. Boats in bottles and other seamen handicraft also shared space with a model of the MS Stockholm that has a place in history for colliding with and sinking the Andrea Doria in 1956. Large pictorial exhibits told the story of Swedish emigrants  awaiting passage to America. They were the travelers with true adventure stories to share.

Water bus in foreground

We ended the day with a short ride on one of the “water buses” that ply the canal with predictable regularity.  Back on the train by 3:45, we felt our own weekend adventure had been filled with home runs.

Spring Fallen Back

Neighbor's tree on Spring Ridge Drive

Following our quick trip back to Atlanta in early March we reset our internal seasonal clocks to “springtime mode.”  With forsythias, azaleas and pear trees in full, colorful bloom, we dutifully reset our clocks on 11-Mar to spring forward one hour to Day Light Savings Time.  These are well-worn seasonal rhythms.

Back home in Stockholm by mid-March, we were greeted with temperatures of 12⁰ C (low 50’s Fahrenheit), which continued our acceptance of springtime mode.   We even pulled out our bicycles and took a quick spin around the neighborhood. 

Not everything, however, went according to plan.  We awoke on Monday morning 26-Mar to a sun-filled sky and simply took this morning light to be part of the Swedish journey to endless daylight that will soon be with us. Oops…Sweden springs forward another hour on 25-Mar. Helen missed half of her gym class.  Jay showed up late at the office. Our Stockholm clocks are now synchronized with Swedish rhythms.  Another springtime custom to incorporate into our Nordic adventure.

0 degrees Celsius

So you can imagine our confusion when it snowed yesterday.

Temperatures are again hugging 0⁰ C.   Our scarves and gloves are back in service.  The bicycles sit idle.  We are sure that this too shall pass and suspect we are becoming more Swedish than Southern with our anxious wait for blooms and blossoms.

House in Tanto Norra with "ingrown" tree

We have also discovered a section on our island home of Södermalm where Swedes fully engage in springtime with small gardens of vegetables and flowers. Tucked up against the rocky island outcroppings are the small cottages (10 sq meters – about 107 sq ft) of Tanto Norra with large garden plots of rich soil just waiting for seed, water and sunshine.

Edged bed plots

This tradition of garden plots extends deep into Stockholm history. Although neutral, World War I brought food shortages to Stockholm. City officials authorized the use of front yards and allocated garden plots in Tanto Norra for the growing of potatoes. This increased the food supply and also gave rise to a “potato war” with neighborly raids and counter-raids. Egad!

All yards and houses are fenced

Life may be more settled now, but in land-scarce Stockholm the demand for a plot allotment traces an arc of desire similar to the hunger for European potatoes seen in the opening of the last century.  Over 200 people pay a yearly fee of SEK 100 ($15) to be on the “interest list” for an allotment.  Swedes are patient and orderly.

Tiny Houses at Tanto Norra

For the wait, as the literature says, one can enjoy the pleasure of a small piece for earth beneath one’s feet and the experience of a “warm summer evening with tack herring in a divine sour cream sauce with chopped chives and the aroma of dill boiled potatoes mixed with meatballs filling the honeysuckle scented air.  One can only sigh that a summer in Tanto beats everything.” Another custom learned in our Nordic wanderings.