• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Second rate reporter says what?

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

“That’s what the insurrection act is for!”

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

Thanks for reminding me that Van Jones needs to be slapped.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Mobile Menu

  • Winnable VA House Races
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • War in Ukraine
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • 2021-22 Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Photo Blogging / On The Road / On The Road – Gin & Tonic – Stockholm #1

On The Road – Gin & Tonic – Stockholm #1

by WaterGirl|  February 16, 20215:00 am| 16 Comments

This post is in: On The Road, Photo Blogging

FacebookTweetEmail

On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.

From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.

Submit Your Photos

Gin & Tonic

Some pics from our visit to Stockholm in the spring a couple of years ago. This was the first few days of 2+ weeks in Sweden and Norway, so I’ll probably add more.

On The Road - Gin & Tonic - Stockholm #1 7
Stockholm

Shot all sorts of spires and ornamental architecture – this was on the old City Hall; I like the Viking ship.

On The Road - Gin & Tonic - Stockholm #1 6
Stockholm

The Riddarsholmkyrkan (Riddarsholm Church) is the burial place of almost all of Sweden’s monarchs, and one of the oldest buildings in Stockholm. This is one of the Gustavs – don’t ask me which one.

On The Road - Gin & Tonic - Stockholm #1 5
Stockholm

The original spire of the Riddarsholmkyrkan was struck by lightning and destroyed in 1835, so it was replaced by one of cast iron.

On The Road - Gin & Tonic - Stockholm #1 4
Stockholm

Grab shot, walking through Gamla Stan (old town) where we ducked into an antiquarian shop and my dear wife purely by chance found a long out-of-print copy of an American book I’d been looking for on and off for some time. Serendipity.

On The Road - Gin & Tonic - Stockholm #1 3
Stockholm

One for some of the old geezers here. There’s a subculture in Sweden and Norway that loves, loves, loves the old Detroit iron.

On The Road - Gin & Tonic - Stockholm #1 2
Stockholm

If there is one absolute must-see here, it’s the Vasa Museum. This is from the outside (obvs.)

On The Road - Gin & Tonic - Stockholm #1 1
Stockholm

You can get a snack before going in.

On The Road - Gin & Tonic - Stockholm #1
Stockholm

The Vasa was the epitome of the shipbuilding art in 17th Century Sweden. Unfortunately, it was poorly designed, and on its maiden voyage it foundered and sank about a kilometer out in the harbor. It lay there in the mud for over 300 years, well-preserved by the cold water, until it was re-discovered in the late 1950’s and a project was undertaken to raise it. This took place from 1959 to 1961. Over the next two decades it was restored, and in the late 1980’s the museum was built. Photographs do not do this justice – it is a spectacular sight, and an absolutely monumental project to think about.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Late Night Open Thread: Too Soon for A Denny Hastert Reference?
Next Post: COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday/Tuesday, Feb. 15-16 »

Reader Interactions

16Comments

  1. 1.

    raven

    February 16, 2021 at 5:39 am

    I can’t say what grandma Ingeborg would say about the Svenskas!

  2. 2.

    satby

    February 16, 2021 at 6:47 am

    Stockholm, on the bucket list!

  3. 3.

    Laura Too

    February 16, 2021 at 6:57 am

    Very cool, thanks!

  4. 4.

    pb3550

    February 16, 2021 at 6:58 am

    Loved that I had to scroll down the pics.  The iron spire on the church was stunning against the sky, & then anchored in the brick of the building.  Loved the Vasa, and, scrolling down, the person at the bottom showed how huge it was.  Thanks.

  5. 5.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    February 16, 2021 at 9:04 am

    I was in Sweden in the summer of 2019. Toured the Stockholm town hall which, honestly, is more spectacular than the US Capital building, even before the recent damage. Our itinerary didn’t make a ton of sense mostly because we were trying to hook up with my uncle on my dad’s side for part of the trip, and he is, to put it mildly, unreliable when it comes to sticking to schedules. Anyway, after we all booked our flights into Stockholm he decided  to alter his schedule and fly in a week later than us. So for the first week we went up to Lake Siljan (stayed in Mora but toured other towns – Ratvik and Leksand – for a few days.

    Then we drove down the Frikkan lakes to Rotneros and then to the little town of Bengstfors. The reason we wound up there is my dad is in the Swedish American Heritage Society and one of his friends in his “pod” knew someone who owned a cabin in the woods near Bengstfors, so we organized our itinerary so we could rent the place out for a couple days. No regrets, it’s a scenic area, but I got the impression that it’s not an area that draws many international tourists.  We ran into a guy on our last day there who saw my Grand Teton NP ballcap and said he’d been there so we got to talking and he was like “how the heck did you guys wind up in this little corner of Sweden?”

    Anyway, from there we drove down to Lidkoping and stayed there for a couple days and saw Lako Slatt, the local castle. Then it was back to Stockholm to meet my uncle. We stayed there a week. It’s a great city, spectacularly beautiful, clean, safe, with great sites to see. After that for the last couple days we headed back to the Vadstena, which is a small town on the second largest lake in Sweden, to decompress and relax. Very scenic too. Everywhere we went except Stockholm and Bengstfors – Lidkoping, Vadstena, Lake Siljan area – we saw a classic car gatherings featuring mostly immaculately restored American cars. The Pontiac Bonneville from the late 50s or early 60s seems particularly popular there but there were plenty of others, mostly from that era, all over Sweden.

  6. 6.

    WaterGirl

    February 16, 2021 at 9:51 am

    Love the first pic with the viking ship.  And the car!  How things change…

    I see that no one has mentioned the hot dog.  That’s all I will say.

  7. 7.

    arrieve

    February 16, 2021 at 10:15 am

    Stockholm! One of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever seen. Someday I want to see more of Sweden, maybe stay on one of the little islands in the archipelago….

    If we’re doing Scandinavia theme, I did a cruise of the fjords several years ago — finally crossed that one off the bucket list.

  8. 8.

    Old School

    February 16, 2021 at 10:29 am

    @WaterGirl: I was wondering what made it French.

  9. 9.

    JanieM

    February 16, 2021 at 11:27 am

    They’re all beautiful and enticing, but I especially love the cast iron spire and the blue spire-like thingie in the first picture. The Vasa story sounds a bit Titanic-ish, or maybe I should say vice versa. Another place on the “someday, if only….” list.

  10. 10.

    Origuy

    February 16, 2021 at 12:17 pm

    I was in Sweden in 1984 or 85. I was there in Uppsala for business but my co-workers and I had a lot of free time. We saw the Vasa before the museum was built, still in the location where they where doing the restoration. Saw quite a bit of the old town; we had a Swedish support analyst as our guide. Uppsala is a nice place to see, too. We saw a performance of the Messiah in the 13th century cathedral.

    I made the mistake of putting my prints in an album with those awful magnetic pages that cause the prints to fade. Anyone know how to recover those?

  11. 11.

    way2blue

    February 16, 2021 at 12:37 pm

    Thanks for the glimpse of Stockholm—looking forward to more.  We were to visit Stockholm last May (my husband’s Mormor is from Stockholm), then head to one of the islands in the archipelago.  Postponed for now…  I did visit Malmö with my son a few years ago—day trip by train from Copenhagen.  But that barely counts.  Although when the train stopped at the border, border control came on and escorted a Mediterranean-looking family (no papers?) off the train.  So that was a shock—the beginning of the end of Schengen open borders.

  12. 12.

    Yutsano

    February 16, 2021 at 1:06 pm

    HEJA SVERIGE!!!

  13. 13.

    daverave

    February 16, 2021 at 1:28 pm

    The missus and I spent several days in Stockholm five years ago on a Sweden/Norway adventure. We loved the city and it felt like we walked ALL of the streets and saw all of the spires. As an architect, I particularly enjoyed looking at the City Hall as it is one of those transitional buildings in architectural history bridging into the modern. Took many photos. We also took a tour boat out into the archipelago.

    From there we flew up north for some backpacking in Abisko National Park and the Arctic Circle latitudes. Needless to say it was frigid but the autumnal tundra color was breathtaking. Then we rented a car and headed out to Norway’s Lofoten Islands… spectacular, and had a few nights of aurora borealis sightings. The most amazing thing was how quickly day light was lost from the middle of September to the middle of October at those latitudes. I think we lost about four hours of daylight while we were there.

  14. 14.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    February 16, 2021 at 3:14 pm

    @daverave:  We were there in early to mid July and it seemed like it never got truly dark, even down in Stockholm.

  15. 15.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    February 16, 2021 at 3:22 pm

    The thing that struck me most about the place though was the complete lack of any signs of abject poverty whatsoever, or even signs of people struggling to make ends meet in any way. Aside from the immaculately restored classic American automobiles, all the cars on the road were in great condition – not a hint of rust, not a broken down jalopy in sight. The housing stock was in equally good repair. We didn’t see any people that looked homeless except in one park in Stockholm and they didn’t really look full on homeless, just guys who spend their days getting buzzed in a park but had a place to lay their heads at night. Quite frankly, based on that experience, the ills of socialism are greatly exaggerated.

    We even had a run in with the socialized medical system – my mom fell on the front steps of the cabin we rented in Bengstfors and cut her head (lots of blood! but no serious damage it turned out) – we took her to the local health clinic, were in and out in 20 minutes, the health care provider spoke perfect, though accented, English, and it cost $100 even though we weren’t covered by the system. Get a wound cleaned and closed anywhere in the States with insurance it it’s likely to be that much out of pocket. They chose the dumbass approach to dealing with Covid, and honestly I will never cease to be amazed that a country so functional would make such a dumb decision, but aside from that (and the weather other than summertime) it’s a wonderful place to be.

  16. 16.

    daverave

    February 16, 2021 at 8:20 pm

    We did see some down and out looking women with kids half-heartedly asking for money at the entrances to grocery stores in the city we flew into up around the Arctic Circle, a place called Kiruna. They appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent. Sweden does take in their fair share of refugees from what I recall.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

VA Purple House Delegates

Donate

Political Action

Postcard Writing Information

Recent Comments

  • bbleh on Gloating is So Unattractive Open Thread (Oct 2, 2023 @ 8:19pm)
  • Nukular Biskits on Monday Evening Open Thread: Tragedy Tomorrow — Comedy Tonight! (Oct 2, 2023 @ 8:19pm)
  • Nukular Biskits on Monday Evening Open Thread: Tragedy Tomorrow — Comedy Tonight! (Oct 2, 2023 @ 8:18pm)
  • Brachiator on Gloating is So Unattractive Open Thread (Oct 2, 2023 @ 8:18pm)
  • WaterGirl on Gloating is So Unattractive Open Thread (Oct 2, 2023 @ 8:17pm)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
We All Need A Little Kindness
What Has Biden Done for You Lately?

Balloon Juice Meetups!

All Meetups
Talk of Meetups – Meetup Planning

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
TaMara
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Join the Fight!

Join the Fight Signup Form
All Join the Fight Posts

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Cole & Friends Learn Español

Introductory Post
Cole & Friends Learn Español

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!