Copenhagen

May 9, 2009. Okay, Copenhagen, here is the impression: wild contrasts. From one street to another it can go from Cartier-Gucci-affluence-charm to nachos-urbanblight-seedy-pick-pockety-burgerking-shawarma-dangerous.

Our hotel, The Palace, has a very cool facade in a wavy, curvy, carved-stone and red-brick, Gaudi, art-noveau style. The interior has had a recent gut-renovation. It is no longer art-noveau. It is very W-Hotel-like. Groovy music plays in the lobby. Rooms have unusual fixtures that look ok, but fall off or come unmounted when touched or used, things like bathroom-sink-cup-holders, shower nozzles, etc. Our tub does not drain. It all, the decor, kind of looks ok on the surface, but it's not that great. And it fronts a kind of seedy plaza where crowds gather to watch little Peruvian guys play pretty two-chord tunes while American-Indian guys in full-feather garb dance, not indian dances, but like how Obama danced on the Ellen show.

We ate lunch at Cap Horn on a cafe-lined, cobble-stone street on a canal filled with all manner of parked boats (historic boats, sail, motor, row boats). The sun shined, gentle breezes wafted and many people were out strolling and sitting on the canal walls.

The buildings lining the canal are 3, 4 or 5 story 18th and 19th century town houses painted attractive shades of ochre, daffodil, terra cotta, jade and sky blue. That particular street and canal connect to broad circular plazas with grand opera, elegant hotel and government buildings, large decorative fountains, etc.

I spent the morning at the National Museum viewing Danish objects dated from 3000 b.c. to 1900 a.d. Wes and Roland bicycled for two hours along canals and characteristic neighborhoods. And Sam walked and photographed a morning bar room brawl: men clawing at each other, over turning tables, etc. A bouncer approached him and got rude. The police showed up, Sam thought, to rescue him, but instead they harassed him (Sam.) He did not get arrested, but maybe came close.

Our hotel is across the street from City Hall. There is a tower. It has a clock. The clock rings every 15 minutes. Loudly. From 7 a.m. through midnight it pratically shakes our room when it rings.

Today, Wes and Roland visited the shop where Roland's viola used to live. The shop is family run for the past five or so generations. It is closed this week because the owner/luthier is in Scottsdale, Arizona curating an exhibit of great Danish string instruments (that Roland's viola ought to have been included in) at an international violin maker's conference.  

In two hours we will have dinner at a canal-side restaurant.

Friday - Train to Copenhagen

Friday, May 8, 2009. Okay, it is our last morning, our last breakfast in the Grand Hotel. We have enjoyed the high-life breakfasting and cocktail-houring in The Grand with it's great view of the exceptionally beautiful city of Stockholm.

Now we are on a smooth fast train for a five-hour first-class cabin ride to Copenhagen.  For lunch, we spread a provençal-french table cover and spread it with breads, cheese, fruits, nuts, cucumber slices and chocolates....nice picnic....eaten while the train whizzed by large fields of daffodils.

Zip-zip-zip.....we are now in Copenhagen at the Palace Hotel. We had high hopes based on the great old (1908) facade of the building, but the interior has been stripped of every detail and made sleek like a W Hotel. We are directly across the street from the Tivoli Gardens where we see thrill seekers spinning in chairs on cables about 150 feet in the air. Too scary for me.

Roland's fine viola was made in the mid-1800's in Copenhagen. A shop around the corner did work on the viola. We are going to visit it.  

But first, we are going out now to eat and explore.  More later......

Stockholm

Thursday in Stockholm

Thursday, May 8, 2009, Stockholm. Glama Stan is a small island across from the hotel where the royal palace is located and is also the older part of the city. Sam and Wes spent the morning in a Gamla Stan shop specializing in maritime objects salvaged from old dismantled ships. The shop is like a museum and every inch is crammed with curious and interesting objects.

I spent the morning in the Nobel Museum one street uphill from them. When the Nobel Prize laureates come to Oslo to receive their awards they are brought to this museum to meet each other and to receive orientation on the many events they will participate in. Each laureate is able to invite 16 guests, all expenses paid, to come to Stockholm with them, attend the events and stay at the Grand Hotel, our hotel. The Nobel Museum a grand building situated in a hilltop plaza established around 1600 as the seat of government.  The museum is solemn in it's attempt to honor the hundreds of past laureates and their achievements which have improved the human condition in more ways than can be counted.

Roland spent the morning visiting the Vasa Museum and the Music Museum where he was given a special viewing of the worlds longest harpsichord. In mid-afternoon Roland visited with a former college colleague of ours, Georgia Mohammer Lind, who we last saw in 1975, the year she left Los Angeles for a flute position with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic.

Dinner tonight was taken in the ground level, windowed dining room of Ulla Windbladh located in a lovely leafy green park. The food, while tasty, was not my favorite and the ambiance, while it had potential, was a bit boisterous and disorganized. I give it no thumbs down and no thumbs up.

We leave tomorrow by train for Copenhagen.

Time for bed, good night.  

Stockholm - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

Wednesday, May 6, 2009, 10:00 a.m., Stockholm. We are currently on the upper enclosed deck of a small steam boat that departed from Stockholm's City Hall and is taking us to Drottningholm, one of the estates of the Swedish royal family and the site of a theater, built in 1766, made famous by Ingmar Bergman's film, "The Magic Flute". The boat is moving at a leisurely pace among forested islands and will arrive in one hour.

When I last wrote, two days ago, we were on a train from Oslo to Stockholm. I will now write a bit about arriving in Stockholm. Norway and Sweden until 1905 were united. Together they occupy somewhat of a peninsula. Norway occupies the entire west and north coasts. Sweden occupies the entire western coast. Norway is cold, snowy, icy, fjords, fishermen, oilmen, craggy, frontier. Sweden is green pastures, forests, sunshine, blond hair, blue eyes. So when the train driver announced that we had reached the border, it was already apparent as the landscape was very un-Norwegian-icy-fjord-like.

From the train station we took a cab to The Grand Hotel. At the front entrance we were met by several polite, helpful, impeccably groomed, attractive porters in formal uniforms. Their outstanding service made clear that we had arrived at a special place.

After checking in and settling into our rooms we went for a short walk around the exterior of the Royal Palace which is the summer home of the Royal Family and a short walk across the bridge from the hotel. The Palace guards wear bright blue uniforms, shiny silver helmets and carry 19th-Century bayonets with gleaming pointed blades. They are constantly marching from one place to another, in and out of various entrances and they all appear to in their early-twenties.

Later we met in the hotel bar. It occupies much of the second floor in the front of the hotel. It's wall of windows overlook the waterfront, the Royal Palace and the Opera House. It's a great place to hang out. Overall, the hotel and the neighborhood have a palpable sense of affluence.

For dinner we walked across the street to the Royal Opera House and ate in the lesser of their three restaurants which was still opulent and elegant.

TUESDAY, May 5, 2009. We visited the Vasa Museum, dropped our laundry off at a fluff and fold, greeted Roland Kato on his arrival to Stockholm and and finished the day with dinner at Den Gyldene Freden. Here are a few details about the above.

The Vasa Museum houses a gigantic, four-masted, elaborately carved wooden war ship that was first launched from the Royal Palace in 1628 in a grand ceremony attended by the king. When the first wind hit the sails the ship tilted perilously. When the second wind hit the sails the ship tilted more and tipped over. It sank only twenty minutes after setting sail. It sat unseen, underwater, in the harbor mud from 1628 until 1961 when it was raised, restored and the museum was built around it. It is in spectacular condition and is decorated with 700 beautifully carved wooden statues. There is a somber and respectful exhibit of some of the unidentified skeletons of twenty or so crew members who died in the sinking.

Our restaurant for dinner was built in 1720 and is currently owned by the Nobel Institute who, it is said, meets downstairs in the cavern (where we sat) to discuss candidates for the Nobel prizes.

WEDNESDAY, May 6, 2009. Okay, now that I have brought us up to date I will return to our boat ride to Drottningholm.

We have arrived at the Drottningholm Palace situated directly on the river bank. We are here not to see the palace or the Chinese pavilion or the gardens, but to see the Court Theater. It was built in 1766. In 1850 or so after the King died--he loved theater and had a relentless schedule of performances staged for his pleasure--it was closed for about 120 years of mourning. Around 1930 it was visited by a theater scholar who is responsible for putting it back in service. Because of it's long closure, it is in a remarkable state of preservation. Almost everything--the paint, the wall paper, the chandeliers, the mechanical scenery (which you can witness on youtube.com), the floorboards--is original back to 1766. It was a special experience sitting in the dimly lit theater appreciating the antique patina of the theater and imagining the sounds and site of performances past.

We returned to Stockholm and took the City Hall tour conveniently located at the boat dock. The interiors are beyond opulent. One banquet room, the ceiling maybe 40 feet high, is entirely covered in 23.5 karat gold mosaic tiles laid by craftsmen from Ravenna. In that room, the Nobel Laureates dance after being celebrated and fed with 1200 others in an adjacent room that while not gold is in it's way just as beautiful. It is difficult to describe these sites without using lots of superlatives, but there are so many exceptionally beautiful sites.

Dinner on this night was comparable to last night in it's ambiance, but the food (apricot-glazed duck, herring in lingonberries, etc.) was even better.

And then......to bed.

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Boat to Drottingholm

We're off to Drottingholm - a one hour boat trip outside of Stockholm.
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Tuesday in Stockholm

The Vasa Museum! and Roland arrives.