Saltsjöbaden

J and I took a small outing today. After several gray rainy days, today was finally sunny so we took the green line to Slussen station. From Slussen we walked along Katarinavägan and Fjällgatan to get some views of Gamla Stan, Skeppholmen and the boats in the harbor. I stored 24 of the photo's here. Upon returning to Slussen we got on the train east to Saltsjöbaden, a place I remembered as picturesque from my visit in 2000. It had changed quite a bit. Half a dozen new apartment buildings we built right next to the train station - it used to look much more quaint.

It's still a beautiful place, though. It's a favorite place for boats because they are closer to the "big water." We had a light lunch, wandered around taking photos and admiring what "big money" can buy. There's 15 or so photo's here.

We also stumbled upon the coolest thing I've seen in a long time. We first saw 5 or 6 small wooden boats on the shore. There were people gathering around them. Every 5 or 10 minutes another car would drive up with one secured to it's roof. After awhile there were probably 10 to 15 of these boats. I asked a woman what all the bustle was about and learned it is a "society" that allows it's members (young people from 11 to 20-something) to build these boats.The organizer and founder of the society has an old Swedish Navy boat that is full of machine tools for steel and wood. The "members" build their boats on the Navy boat. Now when I say build a boat, I mean everything except a few fasteners and the sail fabric. They make the metal parts, build the boat, mast, the sail, everything.....It takes from 1000 to 2500 hours. These young people have been working weekends for at least a year. Now, today, they were taking their finished masterpieces out on a three week archipelago trip. The instructor and some others will escort the armada with cargo carrying boats and some other boats in case of emergencies. Check out my 44 pictures here.

This has to be an amazing experience for the young men and women. I know the parents were beaming with pride. In the US there are a thousand reasons this would never work and all of the thousand reasons boil down to lawyers. If a minor were to get hurt using one of the many tools needed to build a boat, or have a problem on the camping trip, or whatever, the parents, at the urging of a lawyer, would want somebody to pay and insurance companies wouldn't touch this....and so we don't have things like this and it is most unfortunate. Our young people that don't choose sports or heavy academics will be playing video games, since we've essentially outlawed work for minors, too......

Midsommar 2007

J and I are in an abandoned city today. June 21, midsommar (mid-summer) holiday is probably the most cherished Swedish holiday. The residents of Stockholm have all left for the countryside and the archipelago to celebrate the longest day of the year with traditional foods, drink, folk songs, and friends and family. Based on the number of cars around the apartment, I'd estimate that 80% of the residents are not in the city. It's practically a ghost town. J and I meandered to Odenplan this morning and found a coffee shop that was open - there's almost nothing else open - and had a couple of coffees and Swedish desserts as we watched even more Swedes leaving the city (we assume a rolling suitcase means leaving). Then we came back to the apartment and watched a movie or two, writing to this blog. We opened a bottle of Barbera d' Asti, a package of Färdiga skivor (excellent cheese), and a box of Breton original wheat crackers and did very little else. We probably should have gone to one of the many public celebrations but, honestly, we need some rest.

The weather today is overcast. We hope it will improve tomorrow because we've planned a party for my management staff. They've been fantastic in supporting the new guy: me. They represent the best of humanity to me. We have our disagreements but they are professional differences: as people they never cease to impress me.

D & J - a personal note

How are we doing? Truth is, we miss our kids. It is harder for J - she misses her job and all the fantastic folks she worked with. It is harder to break into society without a job and the interactions a job provides. I also miss my colleagues, but have met plenty of great people at the new office in Kista. J misses the jogs around Waneka lake and I miss the lunch time "pack" bike rides over Olde Stage road and Lee hill. J misses the pets and I miss my woodworking. We've discovered "Skype" - a low-cost way to communicate (although sometimes the connection quality is poor) with famiy and friends.

We've also found lots of good restaurants, but we don't go out very often. Prices are really high here in Stockholm...even most Swedes eat at home.

J is experiencing some career withdrawal pains. However, she's really learning to get about in the city and I'm not worried about her safety - Stockholm is a safe city. Swedish language classes at the Folk Univerity in Stockholm were full the last session: she'll probably take them in the fall. However, she's seriously considering attending Regis University online. This would be quite a boost to her career when we return to Colorado two or three years from now.



I'm extremely busy working. I feel I'm doing a pretty good job but I've made a few blatant mistakes. Live and learn. I wanted to start learning Swedish in a big way but I don't know where I'd find the time. I'm still working long hours and try to get in some exercise. After that, there's not much left. I do enjoy my bike commutes to work but I'm growing a little tired of the same old route every day. It's time to find some other routes. Plus, I still don't ride if it even looks like rain...and that's pretty often these days.

Back in 2000, when I lived in Stockholm I dwelt on the differences between Swedes and Americans. This time I tend to see more similarities. I am seeing many preconceptions some Americans have about Swedes to be wrong and vice versa. There is usually an element of truth in stereotypes but often it's greatly exaggerated. There's also a matter of scale. Sweden is approximately 9 million people so comparisons should be made with 9 million people in the US, not to 350 million. Similary Swedes (and others) sometimes extrapolate attributes of one small group of Americans or one city (especially New York city) to all Americans. I'm learning to let first impressions simmer awhile and they will almost always soften.



We've got several Swedish freinds that make the Swedish experience so much richer. We also got some other American friends also on assignment that enrich the sojirun. Several folks in our apartment building have become our friends, too. They are from all over Europe. Of course, we still communicate with all our friends in the STates through this blog, email, and the good old telephone.

You can learn a lot from trains

Trains are an apt metaphor for many things in life. I'll spare you the obvious ones.

I was at the Helenelund train station today watching trains go by and was noticing how the wire that contacts the pantograph goes left to right and right to left from pole to pole. As I mentioned in the "pantograph" post, this is so that the contacts wear evenly and last longer. But the analogy with politics came to mind. It seems we need to wave left to right and right to left to prevent wear patterns and preserve the contact with the government.

There's more. The insulators that separate deadly amperage from the ground are made of polished and glazed ceramic. The smooth surface is chosen to prevent dirt, grime, and dust from clinging to it, especially when it's wet. I don't know what happens when it's raining and the whole thing is wet. I suppose the electrical shorts arc and cause it to dry until it gets wet enough to cause the next short? If you look at the insulators, they look like stacked bowls with about an inch of air between each one. This is to increase the distance the arc would have to go since the current flows on the surface of the insulator (easily explained with Maxwell's equations). My colleague R. told me all this and pointed out that it takes about 100,000 volts to arc one centimeter so when you see static sparks from carpet, there's a lot of volts involved. But volts don't kill. Amps kill; amps= current. So the insulators for the trains must have a heck of a lot of current. So what metaphor could one derive from this?

Here's the thing. I probably wouldn't have noticed the structure of the insulators or even wonder had R. not pointed it out. Yet they are so common. We see similar familiar things in people but often stop to understand why they are the way they are. It makes since when all the facts are out.

The train station was pretty quiet today because most Swedes had left the city as part of the Mid-Summer tradition. This triggered a little melancholy which reminded me of Bob Dylan's classic song "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry".


Well, I ride on a mail train, babe
Can't buy a thrill
Well, I've been up all night
Leanin' on the window sill
Well, if I die
On top of the hill
And if I don't make it
You know my baby will.

Don't the moon look good, mama
Shinin' through the trees ?
Don't the brakeman look good, mama
Ragging down the "Double E" ?
Don't the sun look good
Goin' down over the sea ?
Don't my gal look fine
When she's comin' after me ?

Now the wintertime is coming
The windows are filled with frost
I went to tell everybody
But I could not get across
Well, I wanna be your lover, baby
I don't wanna be your boss
Don't say I never warned you
When your train gets lost.


I suspect he'd have sang something about pantographs and insulators except he mostly saw diesel power or coal powered trains that had lonesome whistles that make you want to cry. Funny thing, though, after reading this over, it makes me laugh so maybe Bob was wrong, it doesn't take a lot to laugh.

Astrid Lindgren Jubilee - Sunday June 17, 2007

Not only was today Father's Day in America (Sweden also celebrates Mother's Day and Father's Day but on different days), but it was also the day we chose to visit the Astrid Lindgren exhibit at the Kulturhuset (Culture House) downtown Stockholm. This exhibit was very moving especially to J as she remembers reading these books in America as a child.

Astrid Lindren is the beloved children's literature writer born on her family's Näs farm, near Vimmerby in Småland. 2007 is declared an Astrid Lindgren jubilee year to celebrate Astrid (in Sweden and all over the world) as she would be 100 years old this year on November 14. She died at the age of 94. She is the most successful author of children's books in the world. Her books, toy characters and Pippi dolls are seen all over Sweden.

There are plenty of nice websites for information and pictures from her own collection and the Astrid Lindgren celebrations and about her in general.

Beginning with Pippi Longstocking, her works are among the most read and translated (about 85 languages) children's books over the world. The characters and places are drawn from her own childhood:
The Children From the Noisy Village, Emil in Lonneberga, Bullerbyn, and, of course, the Pippi series. The display included many photographs and collections from Astrid's own private collection. The most striking thing to me was how Astrid herself had a playful side and a twinkle in her eye that looked as if the child in her spied the child in you. And then she would bring out that part of a person....the fun loving playful side.

One photograph showed her climbing a tree at the age of 75ish. The caption quoted her as saying "The Ten Commandments do NOT say an old lady can NOT climb a tree!!!!"

In an episode in one of the Pippi books, the kids put a message in a bottle that read "We can't survive much longer on the island without more snuff." Astrid says in a television interview that that story was based on a true story about some kids she'd known while growing up. In real life, the message was "Bring liquor and snuff, we can't survive on the island much longer without." The kids got in trouble when an uncle found the bottle floating near shore in the weeds. In the book, Astrid removed the reference to liquor to avoid a public outcry.

Recently, it was discovered that there were thousands of her books in a warehouse in Turkey. They had decided not to distribute them (for reasons I can guess). Too bad they don't view her as the global treasure she is and was.

In one film of the exhibit, Astrid tells how vivid life is to children. ..yet she reminds us that child is always alive in each of us. She spoke fondly of the wooded meadows and farmland she played with her many friends and siblings, the animals, the barns, the houses, the smells of the earth and trees. She states that every rock and tree was a living being to them. Astrid cared deeply about animals, nature, peace and children's rights.

Although she acquired fame and fortune, she stayed the same. Many have told me that she was seen shopping and living life normally around Sweden. She lived in a modest apartment above a restaurant for some 40 years before she died. Visitors commented on how someone so famous would live so modestly. The world is certainly a much better place since Astrid was here!

Picnic & Kayak & Stockholm Marathon & Sushi

Saturday was a busy day. J and I walked 2.5 miles to Brunnsviken kanotklubb to meet M and J and their kids for a picnic and kayak rental. That we did and it was nice. We spread out blankets on the lawn of the club and watched the kayak crowd hustle and bustle around.


We left to go home and decided to explore Fredhelmsplan. Then we happened upon the Stockholm marathon which has around 17,000 runners. We wandered around and finally got back to our neighborhood where we found a nice little sushi restaurant. We'll be returning there sometime soon.

The Pantograph

The pendeltåg gets it's power from overhead wires. The apparatus that facilitates electrical contact to the wires is called a pantograph. There's a lot of science that goes into these things. First they are places on the train to minimize the effects of air turbulence. The actual contacts are aerodynamically designed and the spacing is such that the bouncing and loss of contact is minimized. The wires above actually zigzag from pole to pole to get even wear across the pantograph contact pieces.

Some trains have two engines and multiple pantographs. One of the pantographs is used to power the engine, the other for the cooling equipment which runs even when the engines are off to keep debris out.

Koelreuteria Paniculata, and I mean it.

The Golden Raintree, Koelreuteria Paniculata, is also known as the Chinese Flame tree. As you can see in the photos here, it has nic yellow flowers. They smell good, too.an excellent tree and unrivaled for late yellow flowers. In th fall, the Golden Raintrees display contrasts 2 inch golden seed pods against a dark green-leafed background. The seed pods look like tiny Chinese lanterns. It has rounded outline, spreading and ascending branches, open, reddish copper-colored foliage in the spring. It is a tough and an adaptable tree used for many landscaping applications. They are very tolerant of polluted air environments.

Multi-Cultural Apartment Grill-Out on National Day

According to Po Tidholm and Agneta Lilja in ther small book Celebrating the Swedish Way, Sweden has celebrated their "National" day on June 6 since 1983. They say: "This is the date on which Gustav Vasa was crowned ling in 1523 and on which a new constitution was adopted in 1809. The original idea came from Artur Hazelius, who founded the Skansen open-air museum in Stockholm and held a national day celebration there on June 6 as early as the 1890's." They go on to state: "In 1916, Hazelius's idea was officially adopted and June 6 became Swedish flag day. The name celebrated the fact that Sweden had acquired its own flag following the dissolution of the union with Norway."

So this year, J thought it would be a perfect opportunity to meet the neighbors in the apartment building by inviting them all to a bar-b-cue in the back yard. So we did. It was one of the most fun times since we've been in Sweden. There was a German man who works for the Swedish power company, a Norwegian woman who works for the transportation department, another Norwegian woman who is a writer for a large multi-national company, her Swedish husband who is a writer for a prestigious financial news organization, a Canadian woman on a 2 year assignment much like me who manages projects and has many other interests, and her Swedish friend who is retired but runs his own consulting company. Everyone brought meat to grille and a dish to share. The food was excellent but the conversation was more so. We all had a blast critiquing each other's culture. They all have lived in the United States plus other countries. J and I are plain ol' monolingual people who've only lived in one country (although some would argue that Texas is another country!). Nevertheless, our brief stay in Sweden and our few European vacations give us just enough perspective to identify with and see the humor in all that was said.


We discussed views on customer service in each country, views on nudity and especially the nude beaches in Germany, places to travel to and special tourist destinations, transportation methods, languages and especially Swedish dialects, winter sports, and about food in each culture, especially holiday food.

Near the end of the evening Janis spotted a tiny baby bird that had fallen from it's nest. So we decided to return it. However, the nest was behind a grate in the building about 10 feet (3 meters) above the ground. Plus we knew we couldn't touch the baby because the mother would kill it because of the wrong smell. So using a paper plate and the balancing skills of the tall German, we managed to save a bird. Not a bad way, at least symbolically, to end a multi-cultural grill-out.

Kayaking Brunnsviken

What A beautiful day to Kayak. Last weekend I kayaked for 3 hours (resulting in 3 ibuprofen every four hours for 2 days). I rented from Point 65 North kayaks at the Pampas Marina. The weekend before that both J and I rented from Svima Sports, not far from Point 65 North. Both of those trips were on Lake Mälaren. So today we thought we'd try kayaking in the Baltic. (You really can't tell much difference.)

Last weekend, I saw several topless gals out sunning. Today, I suppose because my wife was present, we saw two completely naked old guys. It reinforces my feeling that nobody over 40 should ever be seen naked.

The real memory of this little 2 hour jaunt was us coming back through a little channel. Going through the first time we followed several other motor boats. Coming back we waited for it to be clear and we just started paddling through. Then two large boats started approaching - coming at us head on. The channel was narrow and J scraped one of the boats which caused her to veer into the path of the second boat. The second boat, although only going maybe 5 kph, slowed even more and the driver said something rather loudly to us in Swedish. We apologized in English and he said, we were supposed to wait on a green light. "Where's the light?" I said. "Over the sign." he said. Then we saw it: traffic lights, just like at an intersection.



After the kayaking we rested in the sun and people watched. Two young guys rented kayaks and it was obvious they'd never kayaked before. They took their boats to the dock and set them in the water. One of them took a phone call on the dock. The other, apparently remembering his phone upon seeing his buddy with his, got his phone out of the waterproof kayak compartment and put it in his jeans pocket. Then he stepped into his boat. In an instant he was in the water and the bottom of the boat was getting some sun. There was some thrashing around for a few seconds before he was able to pull himself up and get back on the dock.

Once out, he pulls out his cell phone and is trying to sling the water off. We left maybe 45 minutes later and he was still trying to dry it out. My guess is it won't be receiving any calls for a long time.

The rental guy switched the two kayaks for a single wide canoe.

The walk to the kayak club, Brunnsviken Kanotklubb, was about 2 miles (3.3 kilometers). So we decided to take the T-Bana back. To do that we walked to the Stockholm University campus where there was a music festival going on. It was free so we sat in the grass and listened to music for a little while.

A good day. You can see some photos on flickr by clicking here.

Some Famous Swedes' Quotes and Proverbs

"Living in Africa had made me a better European. From a distance, I could see the cracks (in Europe) more clearly." - Henning Mankell, best selling Swedish author, qoute taken from Scanorama magazine, March 2007.

“Success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get." - Ingrid Bergman

“I hope I never get so old I get religious.” - Ingmar Bergman, movie director

“What makes loneliness an anguish is not that I have no one to share my burden, but this: I have only my own burden to bear.” - Dag Hammarskjold, Swedish statesman

"Fear less, hope more; eat less, chew more; whine less, breathe more; talk less, say more; hate less, love more; and all good things are yours." - Swedish proverb

"What breaks in a moment may take years to mend." - Swedish proverb

"Shared joy is double joy. Shared sorrow is half sorrow." - Swedish proverb

"Those who wish to sing, always find a song." - Swedish proverb

"My greatest point is my persistence. I never give up in a match. However down I am, I fight until the last ball. My list of matches shows that I have turned a great many so-called irretrievable defeats into victories." - Bjorn Borg, one of the World's greatest tennis players, some say the best ever.

"If I have a thousand ideas and only one turns out to be good, I am satisfied." - Alfred Nobel, inventor of synomite and the Nobel prizes

"Our idea is to serve everybody, including people with little money." - Ingvar Kamprad, founder of IKEA, and source of the first two letters in IKEA.

"We have to still develop the Ikea group. We need many billions of Swiss francs to take on China or Russia." - Ingvar Kamprad

"If a tree dies, plant another in its place." - Carolus Linnaeus

"I don't sleep with happily married men." - Britt Ekland, Swedish porn star