Friday 21 september 2018
Stockholm

Again, here’s a mix of topics, with the reminder that if you expected coherence, completeness, and accuracy . . . you’re in the wrong place.

We begin with yet another impressive City Hall, this time including a tower climb. You may know that the Nobel prizes are awarded here (except for the Peace Prize, awarded in Oslo). The winners come across the balcony and down into this room
where 1700 people enjoy a banquet. Must be noisy, but I could live with that, given the event. The after-party is held in a similarly huge room whose walls are covered in gold and glass mosaics. This is Stockholm herself, reigning over it all:

and here’s one of the many illustrations of events in Sweden’s history:

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The city council meets here:

under this vault-to-the-sky ceiling:

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As is our custom, we climbed the tower, seen here:

and we saw the sights from above, like this view:

which gives your an idea of all the canals and islands that make up the city. (And the cruise ships in the distance really are that big.)

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Some cities have really interesting manhole covers. Here are three additions to my collection of Manhole Cover Photos, all from Stockholm, without comment, because none is needed:

and another

and another

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And this next one is really just a path marker, not a manhole cover, at a museum in a small city where we visited friends. It’s in the pavement so I’m making it a member of the collection.

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Finally, we felt followed from Oslo by the spirit of the big blobby plastic bag. It tried to catch us in the street
but we escaped un-blobbed.