Stockholm

Hi Cameron and other grandkids or family

We woke up on Friday September 7 in our canopy bed and checked to see if our clothes were dry.  We had discovered that there were no laundromats in Sweden, so we had to wash our clothes in our sink and dry them in our shower with a fan that we borrowed from the hotel.  Now I had clean T-shirts and Grandma had clean jeans for our last days in Sweden.  We had another good breakfast at a window table overlooking the river and people riding their bikes to school and work. We packed our suitcase with our clean clothes and drove about an hour to Stockholm.  We were staying at the Scandic Continental hotel near the train station and we were turning in our rental car because we wouldn't need it while we were in Stockholm.  I dropped Grandma off with our one suitcase at our hotel and tried to follow the iPhone map to the rental car garage while I drove on the one-way streets, but I was soon totally lost and had to pull over and then circle around a few blocks and around a park until I finally spotted the sign and entrance to the parking garage down an alley.  I was only about 5 blocks from our hotel and soon I made it to our room on the 10th floor.  When I opened the electric window blinds I was very surprised to be looking across at a very tall church tower- just like in Uppsala- but this tower was right across the street and looked huge!  This church, Klara Kyrka was built in 1590 on the site of the Klara convent and the 380-ft high brick tower was added in 1880. We had arrived at our main destination- Stockholm- and we were settled in our room after a hectic morning. We would be staying for 5 nights because there were so many things to visit.  We had purchased 5-day Stockholm Passes for all of the museums, but we had ordered them earlier in the year and they were stolen with our luggage- so we walked to the visitors center to see if they could give us replacement passes.  They were able to see our order from April on their computer, but they wouldn't give us replacements because they couldn't cancel the stolen passes; so we bought new ones because we still planned to go to many museums and attractions.  We had lunch at a café in the Kungstradgarden park near the waterfront across from the Royal Palace. We decided to start our touring with a ride on the Hop-on Hop-off double deck bus, and we did see many buildings along the main streets of Stockholm, but it was crowded and a very slow ride in traffic.

Klara Kyrka church tower seen from our room

Train station across from our hotel

Jacobs Kyrka 1643

Lunch Café in Kungstradgarden park

Waterfront Hotels and Ferry Boats

After the bus ride we walked back to our hotel looking for a dinner spot.  As we were walking into the metro subway station at our hotel, Grandma stepped on a loose strap from a backpack that a woman was carrying like a suitcase. The strap pulled Grandma's sandal backwards as she was about to step forward and she tripped- she put her arms out as she fell but hit her forehead and landed on her glasses- her face hit the hard metal grill at the entrance door.  She was so surprised and didn't know what had happened. She had a cut above her eyebrow and her right eyeglass lens came out- the plastic strap broke.  As she lay on the concrete floor a few people who saw her fall stopped to ask if she was OK.  A security policeman came and checked on her condition and someone brought paper napkins because her cut was bleeding.  The policeman had an emergency pack and gave her a bandaid for the cut.  I found the eyeglass lens and we made it back to our room.  After resting for a while we went to a Pizza Hut restaurant across from out hotel- they had a salad bar and we had a fresh mushroom and chicken pizza.  We had seen on a poster at the church across from our hotel that they were having a worship concert for Compassion International.  So we went back to the church and listened to the concert with several different singers and then a talk in Swedish about sponsoring orphan children in African countries.  A woman who greeted us before the concert told us that this church is very active with several ways of helping people in the city and providing a place for worshiping God and following Jesus together.  Cameron- Our first day in Stockholm was very traumatic because of Grandma's fall and my getting lost trying to turn in the car, but we ended the day with beautiful music and worship of King Jesus in Klara Kyra.  Sometimes we have good things and bad things happen on the same day.  God is with us and loves us in good times and in sad times- Jesus says that He is always with us and will never leave us!

On Saturday morning we had a good breakfast in the large breakfast room of the hotel- this was the largest hotel we had stayed at with a large crowd of people.  We bought our 3-day travel cards at the metro station and rode the trolley to Skansen- the outdoor living history museum with farms and other buildings from many districts in Sweden.  The museum was started in 1891 as a way to preserve the cultural heritage and building styles of Sweden.  There is a small village and many different farms and rural buildings with a couple of manor houses typical of wealthy landowners or merchants.  We always enjoy seeing the historical buildings and the furniture and decorations inside.  Many of the houses and farm buildings had people dressed in historical outfits- answering questions and demonstrating various crafts and activities from the rural areas of Sweden.  We walked along the paths from one building to another and thought this was a great way to tour all of Sweden in one day.

One unusual building was a "mission church" that was built by people from a town where they could read the Bible and worship God in their own ways and hear talks (sermons) from independent pastors and travelling preachers.  Most churches in Sweden were built and controlled by the official Swedish Lutheran church that was a blend of teaching, worship services, weddings and funerals, and local government functions.  Many people from 1825-1925 wanted more independence from the official Swedish Lutheran Church, and this led to the building of mission churches and was also a reason that many families decided to leave Sweden and immigrate to America. This was the main reason that Grandma's great grandparents, August and Brita Eriksson, came to America with their three children in 1880.  And this was one of the reasons that my grandfather, Eskil Karlsson, came to America in 1920 with a friend. He met my grandmother Elsie who was born in America, but her parents had come from Sweden with Elsie's brother and sister in 1893.

Another unusual building was a "temperance hall" that was built by people from a town as a gathering place to combat drinking alcohol and gambling in taverns.  Life was hard and farm workers had very little money- so it was a great tragedy for men to waste their money on alcohol and gambling instead of providing food and clothes for their families  The temperance (no alcohol) hall provided a place for community activities, reading books together, learning crafts, art, music, dance and drama presentations- and in later years this was where you could go to see movies.  As a young man in the army my grandfather had a drinking problem; he heard a traveling preacher tell about God's love for him and how Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty (of death) for his sins- and he decided to believe that Jesus was his Savior.  God took away his desire to drink alcohol and he came to America looking for a new start- free from alcohol.  The temperance movement and temperance halls were a social movement not based on religion, but alcohol was a big problem in Sweden and many people were helped by having a place to have contact with other people away from the influence of alcohol and gambling.

Mission Church

We bought our lunch at booths that sold Swedish food- we had paper cones filled with mashed potatoes with reindeer meat and gravy.  I had lingonberry juice to drink and we had a bag of almonds with sugar/spice roasted in a copper kettle- very tasty. We ate at an outdoor table and listened to a folk band play with a few children dancing to the music.  It was a beautiful sunny day for being at Skansen.  We had seen most of the buildings and so we rode the trolley back towards downtown to see the Nordic Museum.  This museum opened in 1907 to showcase the collection of Nordic furniture and household items and decorative arts from the Swedish farm culture.  This collection of Swedish household items was started by the same man who started Skansen.  The museum displays many furnished rooms from Swedish houses from 1520 to modern times- with some paintings and many examples of Swedish decorative arts- wood carvings and clothing.  We rode the trolley back to our hotel and decided to have dinner again across the street at Pizza Hut.  We had a great day exploring the history and colorful culture of Sweden at Skansen and the Nordic Museum- what a good idea to preserve these buildings and household furnishings from long ago.

Nordic Museum

Cameron- what buildings do you and your family use?  We all spend a lot of time in many different buildings.  You don't live on a farm but you do live in a house with a kitchen for cooking and preparing meals and bathrooms for taking baths and bedrooms for sleeping.  You don't have to pump water from a well into a bucket because you have water faucets in your kitchen and bathrooms.  You don't have a barn for the animals, but you do have a garage for your Dad's boat and dirt bikes and tools with a workbench for projects.  Your sisters go to their school buildings, and you will go to a preschool classroom next year. The school house we saw at Skansen had just one classroom with all the children sitting together and learning the same lessons- and the school teacher lived in the same building- there was a small kitchen with a dining table and a sitting room and a bedroom.  Many people had to work hard to build their own log houses and barns.  I am glad that your mom and dad didn't have to build their own log cabin for your family to live in- that would have been crowded.  Cameron- God wants us to be thankful for all of the buildings and many other things that He provides for us to use.  God wants us to appreciate the gifts and blessings we have from Him and to look for ways to help other people who do not have as much as we do.

Love, Grandpa and Grandma