Three Days in Sweden

29 March 1986

Dear ones,

Norway goes on Daylight Saving time tonight so we will be 8 hours ahead of Minn. Time until you go on Daylight time. Think Vince and Jene are getting their extra hour of sleep this morning. I decided to make my coffee and get started on the day.

We got back last night from 3 days in Sweden. It was fun and we packed in a lot of sight seeing. One thing begins to look like another after awhile. We buy little souvenir books at some of the places; but we should study them before we see the place. All we find out when we read them is what we missed seeing. We got to Mariefred, a small town outside of Stockholm, (there is an old castle there) mid afternoon on Wednesday. We had about an hour to go through it before it closed – it was 3 floors and 50 rooms. So we didn’t have a whole lot of time to dawdle. There 3000 portraits hanging in the rooms, hallways, etc. of kings and queens and other important persons – we saw one of Martin Luther, one of Calvin, of Thomas Jefferson. One of the kings had built himself a theater in one of the towers – that was quite neat. Out in front just before you crossed the moat was 2 runestones – we’ve seen several of those. They are from Viking times and I guess someone is able to decipher them. To us it just looks like picture language. Hope I’ve kept good enough record of our slides so we will remember where we took which pictures. After that we went over to the little town and walked thru some of the shops. The stores in Sweden seem to stay open till six, though a lot of them close over the noon hour. (Here they stay open during lunch hour but close at 5. The majority of the shops close at 1 on Saturday p.m. excepting the food stores which re probably open till 4. Very few if any stores are open on Sunday – some gas stations and sometimes they will have some grocery items, etc.) Jene is going to try to add to her shoe collection so she was looking for a shoe made in Sweden. She finally lucked out – a wooden clog; we found it in a little shop called Sussi’s and as we were walking around looking at things, a lady (clerk) walked up and said, “It’s good to hear my native tongue.” It turned out she was she was ‘Susie’ the shop owner, from England. She said we were a little ahead of the tourist season. She talked and talked. She has a retired gentleman make these wooden clogs for her, then she wood burns a design and paints them. So ‘Sweden’ as well as her name is on the bottom. She’s lived in Sweden 17 years, married a Swede. That was interesting!

From there we drove to the outskirts of Stockholm, got a hotel room, and settled in. We ate our supper there at the hotel. After breakfast the next morning we took a bus to the subway stop. We were having a time finding the correct bus, we asked to(?) of the drivers – neither one spoke English. We finally asked a fellow who was waiting for the bus – he spoke English. When we got off the bus we weren’t sure where to find the subway – the fellow we talked to came to our aid and told us to look for the T for tunnel (in DC it is M for Metro, right?) We bought a 24-hour ticket which got us on subways or busses without further cost for the rest of the day – it was quite a savings. So we headed for Old Town and the Palace and an old church, a large cathedral type. On the way to the Palace we walked by an old church – it was open, so we decided to go in, too. It turned out to be a Stockholm Cathedral. Big, ostentatious, gaudy – places (boxes) for the royalty to sit. It was built in the 1200’s, added to, remodeled, etc. and of course, before the Reformation was Roman. It had small chapels around the outside of the main nave; people of importance buried in the floor in these chapels. There was a big sculpture of St. George slaying the Dragon. Descriptions can’t begin to do it justice. From there we headed to the Palace – people were standing waiting so we figured something must be about to happen so we joined the crowd. It was about a 15-minute wait before they had the changing of the Guard. These were more like Swedish militia than like the English palace guards. After that we went into the Treasury to see the Crown jewels. They were about 2 floors below ground level. It’s difficult to imagine the wealth of the monarchs – one crown had hundreds of diamonds; some of the others had many kinds of gems. There was even a silver baptismal font.

After that we went to find the other old cathedral, but it was closed for construction work of some kind – so that was that. We stopped for a smorbrod (sandwich) at a bakery near the T, then rode to another stop, transferred to a bus and went to the Wasa museum. Here we saw the restoring, still in process of the old Swedish man-of-war ship. It overturned on its maiden voyage and sunk while it was still in the Stockholm harbor in 1628. In 1956 it was located, finally raised to the surface in 1961. It was in amazing condition considering the length of time it had been under water. They have been working at preserving and restoring it ever since. It was interesting – we had a guided tour, first in Swedish, then in English. By now it was 5 o’clock and we had seen enough for one day, so it was the bus back to the T back to the bus to the hotel. We decided to stay over another night. Holy Thursday is not a national holiday in Sweden like it is in Norway, but Good Friday is; we weren’t sure how much would be open anywhere.

So Friday morning we checked out, and drove up to Uppsala – it is a University town and the see of the Swedish bishop, so it has a huge cathedral, with chapels all around the outer aisle, and many people buried there. It was large and beautiful. They were having a Good Friday worship service at 11:00, so we waited and went to it. Vince even understood some of the sermon. The cathedral was filled, and a lot of visitors and tourists. Then we drove to Old Uppsala where the earlier cathedral had been. Part of it remains and it is still used as a place of worship. Quite close by are 3 huge mounds, royal burial grounds. From excavations done, they are believed to be from the 5 or 600 A.D. time period. And are thought to be of 3 kings told about in the sagas. Now that’s old! There was a little eating place open there, so we had smorbrod og kaffe before heading back to Oslo. It was at least a 6 or 7 hour drive, so it ws close to 10 before we got home. Luckily, I have bought some books which tell about these places – after awhile they all run together in your mind. We never did get to the newer part of Stockholm, nor did we attempt to visit the grave of Oluf Palme. I guess Swedes are still stopping and throwing flowers both at his grave and at the place where he was shot.

Last Sunday we went to Hobol to an old church. Oddvar met us and went, too. Did I write this before? We went to his house for dinner and an afternoon of visiting. It was fun again and they are nice.

Guess I’d better shampoo so my hair will get dry. We are invited for cheese and crackers at 7 to Hanna & Rolf Koppang’s. There is services at the churches tonight – Vince sings with the choir at Osteras. It is a 11 o’clock Easter Eve watch. They also have a worship service at 11 a.m. on Monday (second day Easter) besides the service tomorrow.

Don’t know when this will get out – P.O. closed from Thurs. thru Monday. But will drop it in the box anyway.

Love, Verla and Vince

I don’t do any fancy cooking for us here, so none of us are gaining weight! Don’t worry, Mom!