Vinayak Hegde

After visiting Stockholm the next destination in my journey was Turku in Finland. I crossed over to Turku Finland overnight by the Galaxy Ship owned by the Silja Line. Sale of alcohol is tightly controlled in Sweden. SystemBolaget is a government owned monopoly and you can only buy alcohol from it’s retails stores. Alcohol is taxed heavily. But it is possible to get cheap booze on the ferry ships that ply between Sweden and Finland, even though both are a part of the EU (which has strict VAT rules). This is made possible as ferries which stop at the Åland Islands (part of Finland) are exempt from taxes. Hence most ferries stop at Mariehamm to avail of this benefit. More at Åland Islands The huge ferry ships are like mini – Las Vegas on water with several restaurants shopping malls and several floors of cabins for overnight stays. During the weekend and especially on Friday nights, there is a large contingent of party revelers on this ship. The ferry tickets are also pricier on Fridays and weekends. I traveled on a Friday so could see this firsthand.

Turku is a city in southwest finland. It was the capital of Finland from 1300s till 1812, when the Russians moved the capital to Helsinki. Today Turku (pop 175 000) is the third largest city in Finland after Helsinki and Tampere. Before independence in 1917, Finland was a part of the Swedish empire (from the 12th -19th Century) and thereafter the Russian Empire (1809 onwards). The traces of this can be seen in the culture in many places. From the stark and cold Russian statues in some of the parks to Swedish being the second official language of Finland. Government officials are expected to answers queries in Swedish and it is a requirement that they know the language. As Turku is close to the Sweden, there is a significant minority of Swedes living in Turku. [ Linus Torvalds was also from this minority community though he was born in Helsinki ]. I was staying with a Couchsurfing (CS) friend TS at Turku.

I found Turku to a very interesting and quirky city dominated by the Aura River which runs through the city centre and it’s medieval past symbolized by the majestic Turku cathedral and Castle. Some of the quirky things that I saw

Fibonacci sequence on Chimney of Turku Energia

If you look carefully at the picture below [Larger version with complete building] , there is a fibonacci sequence (1,1,2,3,5,11,.. – The next number is the sequence is generated by adding the last two numbers in the sequence) in neon signs on the Chimney of the Turku Energia building. I was not able to find out why.

Chilli Sauces

Saw this in the supermarket. Read from left to right – Original Death, Mega Death, Pure Death and Sudden Death. [Larger Version]. On the Cover it says “Feel Alive” and “World famous dangling skull included in box”

The Mermaid’s tail

There was this beautiful mermaid’s tail in the Aura river near the shipbuilding yard. Must have a story to it.

Hearts in the Aura

There were bright-red Hearts scattered in the Aura river.

There are many palaces around Stockholm – Sweden historically being one of the powerful states in Scandinavia. I just blogged about Drottninghom palace where the royal family currently stays. The Royal Palace (Kungliga Slottet) is the official residence of the royal family and the changing of the royal guards takes place here. From June to August the changing of the Royal Guards with a military band takes pace in the outer courtyard of the Palace at 12:15 hours. Right at the stroke of 12 at noon, the guards who are positioned at the gates and the entrances come together and stand in the formation. The only exception to these are the guards to the entrances where the guards can rest and change.

There is an announcer who explains the significance of the ceremony and narrates the history of the royal guards which is one of the oldest regiments of the Swedish Army. Then the guards who are going to replace the current bunch march to the palace and then salute them. Both of them then stand side by side as one by one the guards in earlier duty are relieved as new guards replace them.

Meanwhile the military band enters the scene from one of the side entrance to the palace and this is the high point of the ceremony as the military band plays traditional Swedish music, classical music from masters such as Mozart and Vivaldi and even popular music from bands such as ABBA and musicals. It is a precision display and very well liked by the crowd as can be seen from the cheering that follows every song. For me, it was one of the high-points of visiting Stockholm. Best of all it is free, though they charge you to see the palace museums (There are three museums in the palace complex).

Back of the IETF 75 T-shirt featuring the Vasa (Parody of the ISO Model)

The Vasamuseet (“Vasa Museum”) is a maritime museum located on the island of Djurgården which displays the only almost fully intact 17th century ship that has ever been salvaged. The Vasa sank on her maiden voyage in 1628, just like the Titanic. The difference was that Vasa sank even before it could leave the Stockholm harbour.

Political decision leads to Engineering failure

The Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus ordered the construction of the Vasa and was impatient to see the completion of the ship so that it could join the Thirty years war with Poland. In doing so, several poor engineering decisions were made to satisfy the king as no one wanted to incur his ire by pointing out the several design blunders. The 64-gun upper deck of the Vasa was not offset by the ballast and it made the ship unstable as it was top-heavy. The Vasa was initially designed to have only one gundeck but it ended up with two adding to further instability of the ship (feature creep existed in the middle ages ). Also there was no way to estimate scientifically the stability of the ship and it all depended on the experience of the shipbuilder leading to the sinking of many ships and wasted effort (Software estimation still isn’t good enough – We are stuck in the middle ages of software development ).

The Catastrophic Maiden Voyage

On 10 August 1628, the Vasa to set sail on her maiden voyage to the naval station at Älvsnabben. It was a bright calm sunny day. There was only a light breeze blowing across the sea. At the first hint of the gust the Vasa swerved but was stabilized by the sailors aboard. Soon another gust of wind followed but this was fatal as the tilting of the ship caused the water to rush through the open lower gun ports which added to the instability of the ship and the eventual sinking of the Vasa. As the Vasa was an extraordinary ship, there were thousands of people who were present to witness the maiden voyage including ambassadors of different countries. The Vasa sank ingloriously in front of the gathered crowd.

The bronze cannons of the ship were salvaged in the 17th Century but the Vasa was forgotten till the 1960s when the ship was salvaged from the bottom of the sea in a major operation.

The Drottningholm Palace is the first World Heritage Site that I visited on this trip. The Royal Domain of Drottningholm was the first Swedish location to be placed on the World Heritage List. Other than the palace the place consists of the Chinese Pavilion and the Drottningholm Royal Theater which is one of the best preserved 18th century theaters in the world. It also has vast gardens with small ponds and lakes which were once used for receiving royal guest and special celebrations. You can reach Drottningholm by taking a boat from the quay outside the City Hall.

The Drottningholm Palace is the residence of the Swedish royal family. It is located in Drottningholm (“Queen’s Islet” in Swedish), built on the island Lovön. The building of the palace began in 1662, after the first palace on the site was burned to the ground. The palace is beautifully decorated in french rococo style and was inspired by the palace in Versailles. Unfortunately you are not allowed to take any photographs inside the palace or inside the theater.

The Drottningholm Slottsteater (Palace Theater) was built in 1766 and is very unique. It’s summer opera festivals are very popular and the theater is still in use. The stage has hand-painted decorations that can change instantly with stage machinery made of wood and operated by hand. I got a chance to look at the 200-year old theater equipment which is still used today to recreate natural scenes such as thunder and lightning. There were several chambers inside the theatre for dressing/makeup. One the rooms was unique and hidden from normal view as it was used to drink coffee. The person who built the theater died in penury as he had to pay for it for building it himself as the king refused to pay him for building the theater.

Apparently, during medieval ages in Sweden, drinking coffee was illegal and looked down up but it was okay to drink alcohol (even for children).

The unique Kina Slott (Chinese Pavilion) was built by the King Adolf Frederik for Queen Lovisa Ulrika’s Birthday in the 1750′s. The Chinese Pavilions had one of Europe’s best examples of rococo furnishings with chinoserie demonstrating the relations between Europe and Asia 300 years ago.

The King of Diamonds and the Queen of Hearts

Skansen is Sweden’s first open-air museum (also the world’s oldest) and is located on the island Djurgården in Stockholm. Skansen means ‘Fortifications’ or ‘Fort’ in Swedish. Skansen was opened in 1891 and features about 150 cultural historical building from all over Sweden. It includes a zoo with Nordic animals and is the venue for annual festivities, folk dance displays and several other events such as concerts and plays. It also features an aquarium and arboretum which features several animals from all over the world. Skansen is located beside Gröna Lund which is Sweden’s oldest amusement park. The picture above was taken at the entrance of Gröna Lund.

Green Tree Python	Lion Tamarin
Ring-Tailed Lemur	Snowy Owl

Skansen has several building from all over Sweden (some of them more than 100 years old). Almost all of these buildings are original and were dismantled, shipped piece-by-piece and reassembled at Skansen. From the northern end of Skansen, there are some fantastic views of Stockholm. It is also serviced by the Funicular railway (Skansens Bergbana) which takes you up/down from the hill towards the northern exit of Skansen.

The Windmill	The Hallestad Belfry
Kaknas Tower seen from Skansen	The funicular railway

The complete set of images for Skansen on Flickr