Day trip to Gävle

Reflections in the Plaza, originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

Gävle is about 100 miles north of Stockholm. I went there to visit a factory. However, I did have about a hour to walk around and take some photos (go to my Flickr page or click on the title under the photo above). Gävl is famous for two reasons (that I knnow of). First, it is the home of Gevalia coffee which is a global brand. The coffee itself is imported, of course, but the processing is done here, or used to be. I think the main Gevalia headquarters is still here.

The second reason for fame, at least within Sweden, is a tradition of building a large "Christmas goat" in town which every year gets burned down. The story says the police can't find the vandals even with video cameras except for one year an American thought he'd uphold the tradition of burning the goat. But being a "dumb American" stood around to watch it burn. He was caught and served some jail time. So goes the story.

Baptism

Gustaf Vasa Church Dome, originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

J and I went to a Swedish baptism this Saturday. The mother was from Maine and had married a Swede. She moved to Stockholm with him approximately two years ago and now speaks Swedish fluently. It helps to have a spouse to teach you the language.

Anyway, J represented the "American" side because her relatives couldn't fly out for the ceremony. J read two passages from the Bible in English. The rest of the ceremony was in Swedish. After the baptism, the proud parented treated us to a fine meal at a nearby restaurant. We all had a delicious meatball which was about the size of a grapefruit. It was made of a mixture of veal and venizon.

After the meal, we took the train to their apartment and had "fika," the traditional coffee and sweets in mid-afternoon. J and I had quite an adventure trying our limited Swedish on the grandparents, who spoke very little English. Most of the relatives on the Swedish father's side were from northern Sweden in a small mining town called Skellefteå. From their descriptions, it's a very picturesque seaside town of 35,000 people.

Me and my Stockholm Winter Commuter Bike

Me and my Stockholm Winter Commuter Bike, originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

Here I am with my winter commuter bike just coming home from work. Notice the saddle bags which contain my work clothes, some tools and two spare tubes. The handlebars sport a "Lights In Motion" halogen light and there are red flashers on the seat post. There's a bell on the front handle bars to alert pedestrians walking inthe bike path...

I'm wearing jeans over lycra insulated biking tights. The jeans are just to make me fit in with the crowds a little (reduce the nerdy edge). I'm wearing three thick jerseys and a hood to keep my head warm.

I'd prefer a mountain bike with front suspension but this hybrid bike seems to work just fine. I don't ride in the snow because I haven't purchased the steel studded tires that many folks use here.

The bike is an old 21 speed Trek 720 - not a racer but certainly well suited as a commuter.

And yes, I am 20 pounds (5 kgs) over weight! But I'm loosing....

Little man from Dala, some Swedish debate, and two pieces of chocolate

I had a business dinner at the restaurant DalaNisse's Wednesday evening. Nisse is a nickname for Nils but also means "little man." At Christams some of the kids dress up in a Santa Claus suit... They are called "Santa Nisses" (translated to English).

I was a quiet listener to the table talk, when not talking business. I had thought that all Swedes had basically the same political and social views. Yet I listened as two debated the merits and demerits of the state owned liquor monopoly System Bolaget. One felt that the buying power and the state regulated profit margins was good for the average guy but he allowed that for the discriminating drinker with money, the selection might be poor. The other argued that the choice in a free market was much better and that prices were approximately the same on the mass marketed brands due to competive pressures, which drive profit margins down.


Then they repeated the debate about the state owned monoploy Apoteket, the pharmacy. One felt that the high regulation prevents abuse, accidents, and victimization of people by the vicious advertizing and dubious claims of big pharma. The other thought it was awfully nice to be able to conviently buy ibuprofen in a grocery store.

Then the discussion took a turn when I was expressing some admiration for the single social security number, called personnummer, which accesses everything from library records to bank records to tax records to video rental to ... everything. This seemed to be a sore spot. Apparently there have been examples of government abuse in countries with a similar system. It wasn't quite sure whether there were abuses in Sweden or not. Perhaps one of my Swedish readers could comment....

Many of us at the dinner table ordered "Well hung steak" which I discovered doesn't refer to maleness of the bovine. It means the meat was air cured, which is supposed to tenderize it, by hanging from a hook. Yummee.

Ok, that's all about the restaurant DalaNisse. Fast forward to Saturday evening. We had some Swedish friends onver and they brought a box assorted chocolates by Maribu, called the Aladdin box. We were told that this is a standard gift brought to party hosts. These chocalates, made in Sweden, are very popular with Swedes. The box has two layers of assorted treats. However, most Swedes have a tradition that you can't select from the bottom layer until the first layer in empty. The first layer has two pieces that most people dislike: chocolate covered cherries in a liquor flavored syrup. This means that sometimes one must wait till someone finally braves it and picks the "undesirables."

One more fast forward to Sunday. We met some new friends through the American Women's Society that invited us to have coffee. Their flat was fantastic! It was probably the most stunning residence we've been in in Sweden...with nice views of Mälaren. The inside was expensively upscale. They had decorated with unique furniture, lights, and art.

In other news...we finally got some snow...