Afternoon tea at Drottningholm palace

The view through the bus window on the way to Drottningholm. Great isn't it?

The front of the palace is lined with statues of heroic men. No women?

The rear of the palace with the parterre garden in view.

Nice bottom.

There are some seriously old trees in the palace gardens.

A good resting place.

Chinese pavilion.

Everybody knows about the impending royal wedding of Princess Victoria and Daniel Westling in Stockholm on June 19^th. The media have been covering it in Sweden everyday for months, so the country will be in a frenzy by the wedding day. Their pictures are everywhere including on the boxes of chocolates we've been stuffing our faces with. I'm always faintly amused by Daniel Westling who looks so uncomfortable in a suit and tie. The stylists have done him up to within an inch of his life. I hope this former gym owner likes life in a suit and tie. To continue the royal fever we took a trip to Drottningholm on Sunday which is the location of the royal palace on the island of Lovön. It's 40 minutes by bus though on the return trip home we decided to take the 1 hour long ferry because of the superb weather and I'd never done it. Though the captain took a wrong turn he made up for lost time as we chugged a little faster than normal. It was just beautiful.

Drottningholm Slott (palace 17^th C) is still home to the swedish royals too. They're safely tucked away from prying eyes though at the west end. It's a superb palace decorated inside in a combination of baroque, classical and rococo styles. It's a mish mash inside basically which I suppose is normal for building projects that take over hundred years to complete. There's some lovely rooms but the Queen Hedvigs Eleonora's room isn't one of them. It's so dark and suffocating because of all the wall hangings and drapery. Tessin the elder designed the building which was completed by his son and in my opinion he has a lovely light architectural style. It has interesting baroque gardens, chinese pavilion, the oldest operating theatre in the world and huge English style park area. Mozarts '1a finta giardiniera' is playing at the theatre this week. Dogs were allowed to run free in one of the parks so there were plenty of dogs and dog people socialising happily as we all were on this beautiful Sunday in May.

Beautiful mute swan.

On the wayward ferry.

Sailing on Lake Mälaren

Glorious sunshine greeted us one fine Stockholm day so we took the train to the outer suburb of Skärholmen to visit Lake Mälaren. It surrounds Stockholm from the west and also supplies the tap water. Very generous of it. And it's great tap water. You don't need your bought bottles of spring water here. Though I didn't try drinking it as it's not purified until it gets to dinner tables. Again I was impressed by the town planning here, as everyone gets to sample the beauties of nature. It's only a short walking distance to high density housing though you wouldn't know it.

Gothenburg 2: Revenge of the Goths

Brilliant greens of the forests in Sweden.

A lot of housing is in wood rather than brick.

Do you know where you're going?

Lounging about in the park.

We tried to get to the botanical gardens in Gothenburg (Botaniska Trädgården) taking advantage of the sun and took the tram out.
However if you ever want to go to the Botaniska Trädgården in Gothenburg make sure you go to the right park entrance which we didn’t. We went to the park over the road and missed the best (supposedly) botanical garden in the Scandinavian countries. But the gardens over the road featured gorgeous open parks and a zoo (penguins was a surprise) so it was a great way to spend a sunny afternoon. At the moment the landscape everywhere is the most brilliant colour green I’ve ever seen, probably because there are so many different types of green in the landscape (unlike Australia) that they all unite as one brilliant luminous colour.

Penguins looking extremely bored.

Luminous greens.

Open parkland is everywhere in Gothenburg.

Church like a hand pointing to the sky.

The parks are a combination of formality and naturalness.

Beautiful blossom.

Gothenburg’s another town that has maintained its old buildings in immaculate condition and any development that’s gone on has been designed to fit in with them. The Swedes seem to design their buildings with fantastic tact and sensitivity to the environment. And even the cheaper buildings are built with such awareness of people’s actual living needs, ie. they’re not paper thin walls so you can hear everyone else’s business like in the land of Oz.

In the city, Gothenburg.

Down by the docks, Gothenburg.

Most of the streets are cobblestoned. Except this one!

Gothenburg University

Multi-coloured balconies.

17th century buildings, Gothenburg. Many of the early inhabitants came from Amsterdam.

Decorative door.

The plush part of town, Gothenburg.

Public water tap. One angry fish.

Trams hurtle around so watch your step.

Gothenberg is not only visually different from Stockholm because of the more maritime style and lighter colour of the buildings but emotionally different too, though it’s hard to explain exactly how. There’s the constant sound of the sea gull’s screetching in the salty sea air plus there’s trams everywhere which reminded me of Melbourne. I got a case of déjà vu a couple of times because of those trams. It’s actually a gorgeous town but it’s got an edge, unlike Stockholm. There was kind of anger in the air which was noticeable as soon as we got off the train at central station which was dirty and noisy with the throngs of black clothed teenagers rampaging around. I thought there must’ve been some concert on but didn’t find out. We walked into a demonstration straight away in the main square and then 2 days later another demo. The accent people speak in is louder and faster and for such a small place (500,000 people) it seems to have a real creative intensity. You get the impression that the people are proud of being a bit different to the rest of Sweden and a bit more ‘contemporary’. But I love Stockholm for it’s old fashioned qualities.

Again the public transport here as in Stockholm is mostly incredibly reliable and frequent (except coming home there was an 2 hour's delay because of computer malfunction supposedly but travelling on the fast trains made up for the annoyance as it's so comfortable and a good way to see the countryside, admittedly at a brisk pace) and in my opinion it's a great way to travel.

All these photos below are taken from the train. It's a good way to see the country.

Barn painted in the quintessential swedish colour.

The lakes are pretty clean I've heard and good for fishing. Stockholm's water supply comes from Lake Malaren and it's the best water you've ever tasted that comes out of a tap.

Young birch forest. You see a lot of logged forests.

Read more about Gothenburg: Gothenburg 1 The Poseidon Adventure

Gothenburg 1-The Poseidon Adventure

Carl Milles' statue 'Poseidon' (1923)-the god of the sea, in Götaplatsen announces his presence.

      Fountain in Drottningtorget.

Gustav II Adolf statue (1854) by Erland Fogelberg in Gustav Adolf's Torg, Gothenburg.

Relaxing in the sun with one of the many public statues around town.

The neo-gothic Oscar Fredrik Church (1893) in the distance.

I found the church a bit depressing. It's the difference between real gothic and neo-gothic. Neo-gothic does not get the lightness of spirit of real gothic in my opinion though it's still impressive. You feel weighed down by all the masonry and bricks rather than uplifted.

This caught my eye hanging in a local cafe.

Rose window at the Oscar Fredriks church (1893). 

Gothenburg's a lovely city to walk around if you're into the water and all it's paraphenalia. One of the 17th C canals.

View from inside the Eriksbergshallen where the exhibition 'And there was Light' was held. I was captivated by the light in the room.

It was a beautiful day for a bike ride in downtown Gothenburg.

Fountain outside one of the churches. Fancy kissing a fish!

This if for my friend John.

One of the demostrations that punctuated the weekend.

The Hasselblad Centre is part of the Konstmuseet (Art Gallery) but we didn't get time to have a look so we'll have to go back again cos the photos looked fantastic.

Sweden’s pretty flat from what I’ve seen so far. In fact dead flat, though I haven’t been north yet but Gothenburg’s surrounded by these small pine covered hills which makes it quite picturesque. It's on the west coast of Sweden and is still Sweden's most important port.

Ferry travelling to one of the many islands.

The Barken Viking (1906) on the left is permanently moored. It sailed the wheat route to Australia. Today it's a hotel. 

Ships ahoy!

 

One rainy day we visited the maritime museum. It's cram packed with historical artifacts from Sweden's maritime history. Interesting but I enjoyed the aquarium more which is in the same building.

One of the 17th C bridges in Gothenburg.

I'm always a sucker for a brightly coloured fish.  At Gothenburg's aquarium.

 Gothenburg is also the place where ‘La Bella Principessa’- the only recently discovered Leonardo of the last century- can be seen and that's why I really wanted to go.

After I saw the Leonardo’s at the Louvre I’ve become more of a fan as they were so much better than I'd thought. You really have to see paintings in real life to appreciate them properly as the colour and tone is frequently altered in books. I used to think Leonardo’s paintings were kind of dark and murky and ugly but seeing the real thing they are truly mysterious. No form has a real edge in his pictures. Everything just merges into everything in the most controlled, subtle way. The technique is remarkable. And they glow.

Close up of Leonardo da Vinci's 'Virgin on the Rocks' (1483)

Leonardo's Mona Lisa still amused behind bullet proof glass.

The Leonardo was part of a show called the ‘:And there was Light’ which was showing at the Eriksbergenhallen, a converted warehouse along the water’s edge in Gothenburg.

Eriksbergenhallen, Gothenburg

In front of the Eriksberghallen.

The exhibition was pretty good but I think children and young people would probably enjoy it more because of all the technology used to bring the work and period to life. The whole show was in darkness except for the room with the life size copy of Michelangelo’s David’ and a giant slab of imitation marble, so you basically wander around squinting in the dark. What stood out to me was the Michelangelo drawings mainly of engineering and architectural ideas as they’re so intense and emotional, much more than his paintings which leave me cold. You can really feel his personality through the marks and messiness of the technique. His drawing is the opposite of Leonardo’s which are so controlled and careful like a students.

'La Bella Principessa' (c1480-90) by Leonardo da Vinci.

Michelangelo drawing.

From there we wandered through the crowds in the spring sunlight to visit the Gothenburg Art Gallery which is part of the brilliantly designed Götaplatsen - the centre of the arts in the city.

Gothenburg's neo-classical Art Gallery (1925) looming over the tents.

Everyone was out in the sunshine having an ice-cream. People cycle everywhere because the city's so flat and there's few cars.

The water runs in the fountains here unlike in Australia where they're all turned off because of drought which is kind of necessary but sad.

Mallard duck with her babies enjoying the sun as well.

Street in Gothenburg.

The Swedes really like their Neo-Classicism architecture that's for sure. But the severity was tempered by heaps of people licking icecreams and hanging in the cafes everywhere. It’s amazing what the sun can do. The previous day the streets were deserted then the sun comes out and it’s like a different place. The carnival like atmosphere was added to by the rainbow flags hanging everywhere even on the trams, testifying to Gothenburg’s support of the gay community. Gothenburg’s a very gay friendly city.

Götaplatsen.

The Konsthallen shows temporary exhibitions.

Inside the Art Gallery.

The Gothenburg Gallery is actually fantastic, so light and airy and full of really interesting work from all periods. In the Nordic section there were a number of artists who were really influenced by Fauvism and I liked them better than the French varieties-even Matisse. Can’t remember any names though. You just don’t hear about them in any of the art books on the 20c in english so I’m going to have to find out some more.


The sculpture gallery is brilliant to wander through with the ubiquitous Carl Milles in evidence, inside and out. An exhibition called Renässanser was on which had some classic etchings by Durer, and the Mannerist Hendrik Goltzius- a great drawer of men with bulging muscles. My favourite at the gallery was the brilliant Rembrandt ‘Knight with a Falcon’ (1666) that was recently cleaned at the Getty museum. His incredible perceptiveness into character and unflinching honesty is beautiful and moving. The colours glow now, which they must as no-one has ever painted so many browns and dark, dull colours.

Rembrandt's 'Knight with a Falcon' (1660) A great painting.

Carl Milles' Poseidon (1925)

Carl Milles' Twisting Man (1927) in the sculpture gallery.

Angel in the stairwell.

Is this portrait a lost Leonardo?

Read more about: Gothenburg 2: Revenge of the Goths