More Sodertajle

It's been a few posts between Sodertalje snow & forest pictures but they are back... I can't really say by popular demand but back they are:

The Church of St. Ragnhild (ca.1200):

These shots are taken near the Sodertalje Canal, which connects Lake Malaren with the Baltic Sea. 

It's 5.2 km long with the largest lock in Scandinavia, at 135m long & 17m wide. 

The water here also services Stockholm:

Sodertalje has a humid continental climate with 4 distinct seasons.

Due to the city's high northerly latitude, daylight varies between over 18hrs in midsummer to around 6hrs in midwinter. 

The days are finally gradually becoming longer, this day was surprisingly light at 5pm:

Museum Week

CITY HALL

This is the room where the Municipal Council for the City of Stockholm sits:

You can get married at City Hall for free. On the Wednesday afternoon I visited, there were 40 couples due to tie the knot here that evening. 

There are 2 ceremonial options: the short - 30-60 seconds; or the long - 2 minutes. 

The room is a bit blah but you get to walk the same grand stairs that the Nobel Prize laureates use when they enter the banquet. 

A hall next door. I thought this was the wedding room. It should be:

NORDIC MUSEUM

Sweden's largest museum on cultural history is housed in another amazing building, completed in 1907.

Located on Djurgarden island:

Sculpture of King Gustav Vasa (1496-1560), "father of the nation":

"Furniture of the Year" some year this Millenium:

An 1870's "cooking room" of about 20sqm with the cooker built into the tiled heating stove:

Roast swan anyone? 

Festive dinner from the late 17th century, second course.

The plumage of the swan is used over & over, with a new roast placed in it:

This is a fabulous image from the exhibition, Men in Bathing Suits:

"Perhaps men in bathing suits will be back.

Perhaps women in swim trucks will be trendy."

MODERN MUSEUM

On Skeppsholmen island.

On its inauguration in 1958, the whole building was wrapped in Andy Warhol's cow wallpaper.

Unfortunately, this has since been moved inside:

A scene from Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" (1927).

Can't wait to watch the whole movie:

ARCHITECT MUSEUM

It's sometimes too cold to grow vegetables outside.

Windowfarm is a vertical hydroponic framing system for year-round indoor vegetable growing inside windows.

 Almost anything can be grown, as long as it's not a root vegetable (eg. carrots, radishes).

 I've also visited the Natural History museum & Cosmonova - a huge 760sqm dome-shaped IMAX screen, the largest in Scandinavia. Watched a documentary on the Hubble Telescope, so it was an even more impressive experience.

No camera that day :-(

High Tea

Continuing on the Nobel theme, this week we visited the Grand Hotel (1874), which was where the first Nobel banquets were held between 1901-1930, before moving to City Hall:

Here we enjoyed a fabulous afternoon tea at the Cadier Bar:

SANDWICHES

- shrimps in dill mayonnaise

- smoked ham w/ tomato chutney

- smoked salmon w/ lemon & chives

- cepes creme w/ cucumber

SCONES

Macadamia & white chocolate

Tradition w/ brown sugar

served with:

- calamondin curd

- blueberry & blackberry preserve flavoured w/ lime

- stirred butter

- whipped cream

PASTRIES

- amaerettii w/ grandmarnier truffle

- poppy see & lemon sponge cake w/ icing

- rasberry & litchi mousse w/ a pistachio macaroon

- tonka pannacotta w/ a chocolate sandwich

Little food never seems filling but I was so stuffed after the first layer of sandwiches.

Took a good (somewhat uncomfortable at times) few hours to get through it all:

Nice toilets too :-)

Nobel

Alfred Nobel (1833-1896) was the inventor of dynamite.

In his time, Nobel was one of the wealthiest individuals in the world. 

He was also unmarried, and so decided to leave his fortune to the establishment of an annual prize honouring achievements in chemistry, physics, medicine & physiology, literature & peace. 

A later category in Economic Science was added in 1969. 

This is his famous will:

Nobel laureates are awarded a gold medal, diploma & 10 million kronor by the King of Sweden, in a ceremony at the Concert Hall, on the 10th of December (the date Nobel died). 

The diplomas are designed by a different artist each year but the medals remain the same:

The Nobel Museum is located in the old Stock Exchange building:

After the award ceremony, a banquet is held at City Hall, attended by the Swedish Royal family & over 1,000 guests. Here is an example of the table setting:

The banquet is held in the Blue Hall:

After the banquet, the party moves to the Golden Hall for drinks, dancing & entertainment: 

All the costs associated - such as the prize money & banquet - come from the interest from Alfred Nobel's trust fund of approximately 34 billion kronor (3.4 billion Euro).

City Hall is a remarkable building, built between 1911-1923. 

I love the architecture, a mix of national romanticism & Italian renaissance.

Nearly 8 million bricks were used in its construction.

It stands on the tip of Kungsholmen Island.

Just Rubbish

Doing the washing around here involves a few more steps than I've been used to lately. A washing machine for one, but more on that later. First you have to go down underground & check a notice board on availability & sign up. Here's a photo of the creepy basement:

Swedish washing machines are nothing fancy but they do have amazing heating machines to dry your clothes. 60 minutes @ 60 degrees. Check it out!

Another initiative I like here is the recycling collection. You take your rubbish out to a big separate shd & sort them into separate bins. The categories are: metal, dark glass, white glass, hard paper, soft paper, hard plastic, soft plastic, batteries/bulbs/etc, organic waste, miscellaneous/other crap.

Weekly Food Review

Yesterday was an huge food day with a good ol' Mexican slap-up & a tapas smorgasbord.

So sad I forgot the camera for the day, but it inspired me to do another food re-cap:

Baked salmon, rice, fresh pesto, beetroot & carrot salad 

Before: Here are the zucchini's "sweating" as they say in Swinglish! 

Sprinkling some salt over them removes excess water

After: Zucchini & mozzarella lasagna

Lamb mixed with lots of wonderful spices

Saffron (for the couscous)

The world's most expensive spice: it cost 42,500 kronor a kilo - that's 4,2500 Euro!

This is 0.05 grams - budget cooking :-)

Pre-dinner Caipiroska cocktails: vodka, sugar, lime, crushed ice

Moroccan lamb souvlaki, couscous with almonds & raisins, salsa sauce

Chocolate truffle cake, kiwi, vanilla ice-cream

Baked chicken & roast potatoes

Dark chocolate mousse w/ passionfruit

Chocolate chip cookies

Malai Kofta: potato & cottage cheese dumplings, yoghurt & tomato curry, raisins & cashews

Salmon burger (home-made bun)