Stockholm, Day 1: Great Designs and Others Not So Much

What can one say about a trip that lasts for 24-26 hours, takes three airplanes, involves three countries in addition to yours, and ends with 5 passengers, 10 pieces of luggage, a random child’s car seat, and a seemingly suicidal jihadi Stockholm cab driver dodging Stockholm marathon runners on the way to your hotel?

What you say about that trip is that you’re glad it’s over. And what you do after that trip is get out of your sweaty clothes, take a long shower, and have a cold Swedish beer.

And that’s how we got to Stockholm. 

We’re staying in the Hobo Hotel in central Stockholm. It’s in a great location, close to pretty much of all we want to see and do during the three days in nights we’re here. The hotel itself is uber-hip. ­In the hotel’s own words:

“At Hobo we are uniting the hyper urban brutalism of Brunerbergstorg with a feeling of freedom and easiness like traveling throughout continents in a vintage VW camper  and preparing food at a campfire.  Award-winning Berlin based designer Werner Aisslinger has created the looks and feels of a hotel for guests who love the adventure of travelling experiencing pure materials, nature, community, music and good talks.”   

I’d say that pretty much sums the place up. That, and the pegboards on the walls.

The Hobo was good for dinner, a great night’s sleep, and an awesome breakfast this morning. At least it was for most of our group.

Four of us met at breakfast at 9:00; me, Diana, John and Debbie. We had a relaxing time, and at 10:00 when we had planned on leaving for the day, still no Marty. At 10:30 John called Marty’s room and woke him up.

It turns out Marty had trouble sleeping and took an Ambien. Then, hours later, when he still , couldn’t sleep, he took another. At that point, he suffered one of the more common side effects of Ambien; he fell asleep. And slept. And slept.  Rosanne Barr should have been so lucky. 

So, while Marty got his day started, the rest of us walked the streets of Stockholm, up the hill past the 18^th century Stockholm Observatory, and on to the Stockholm Public Library.

The Stockholm Public Library building was built in the 1920’s by well known architect Gunnar Asplund. In particular, the reading room in the Library is a design that, according to John, every architect and every architect student knows about. It’s an impressive space, that, according to John, “celebrates” books. It would have taken me some time to articulate that’s what I was seeing, but I surely agree.

It’s a design that really works.

Shortly after, Marty caught up with us, and we walked on to Djurgarden, one of Stockholm’s islands, and the home of the Vasa Museum.

As opposed to the Stockholm Public Library reading room, the Vasa is a story of a design that did not work out so well. Not nearly.

When it was ordered to be built by Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus in 1626, the Vasa was to be a state of the art warship, the pride of the King’s fleet. The ship would require 150 sailors, and would hold an additional 300 soldiers.  As ordered by the King, the Vasa was to have two gun decks, heavy guns, a high stern to afford better firing angles and boarding of other ships, and other new naval designs, most of which had never been done before. And it was to be long and relatively narrow to allow close quarters fighting. 

And the King demanded this ship be on the water in two years. Oh, and the ship was to be splashed with over 500 detailed wooden sculptures and bright paint.

New, untried designs. An aggressive schedule. Lots of resource spent on appearances.  A customer, King Gustavus Adolphus, who has the ability to separate your head from your body if you don’t meet his needs. Any of you with experience in project management can probably see what’s coming.

The Stockholm shipyard began work, and as the work continued, rumors started to go around that the new Vasa might be a little unstable. Those rumors never made it to the King, of course

.

In 1628, with the ship well along, the Captain responsible for construction was ordered to demonstrate the ships stability to his Vice Admiral. He did so by having 30 sailors on the top deck run simultaneously from one side of the ship to the other. After three times back and forth, the captain ordered the demonstration stopped for fear that the rocking ship would capsize.

But work continued, the King demanding that his dates be met.

And, on August 10, 1628, the Vasa set sail on her maiden voyage with a full crew on board. It was a calm sunny day as the ship left port. Sails were set, and the ship headed east.

Shortly, as the Vasa encountered a breeze, it listed sharply to port. It recovered and went on. Then a stronger breeze came along, the ship again listed sharply to port, the open gun ports began taking on water, and the Vasa foundered and sank.  Thirty sailors perished, and the new, unfortunately top heavy, gunship lay on the sea floor.

The ensuing King’s council was unable to lay blame on anyone. This is a little surprising since the naval designer had recently passed away and was the obvious scapegoat. And it would be hundreds of years before Youtube would come along and provide videomakers to take the blame for government failures.

The Vasa laid there for three hundred years until beginning in the late 50’s work began to bring it to the surface. This too was a major effort, with new technologies to raise and preserve the ship. But this effort and the effort to preserve and restore it was successful. It’s all now in the Vasa museum and is a must see in Stockholm.