Wednesday, May 3, 2017

New Things to See in Stockholm and Our First Full 2017 Practice with the Wäsby Warriors


Tuesday, 2 May, 2017:

What an incredibly beautiful day in Scandinavia!

Spring is definitely here, so what better thing to do than go for a stroll both in Uplands-Väsby and Stockholm?

A school teaching both furniture
making and repair

Kids at play during a P.E. class
at our nearby school

After the usual bus ride and train ride into Stockholm's Central Station, I headed to the Stockholm Centralan subway station foe our first destination of the day.

This was not it but it was close

This was the subway stop in the deepest part of the Stockholm Centralan network of criss-crossing subway lines.

My guide today

I bought this tome at a travel store in Pasadena, California a few months ago. It caught my attention because it lists, as the title clearly implies, 111 unusual, off beat sights to see that most tourist would never even know about.

My guess is that several Swedes have never heard of some of them either.

Having seen most of Stockholm's major sights while coaching our beloved Wäsby Warriors for two months last Spring, this sounded like a good new guide book to me.

Book in hand, I set out to see my first two quirky Stockholm places that I just could not miss.

Marks the spot of . . .

#105 The Tunnelbana
Station Kungsträdgården

 It was an artsy station
to be sure

 Colorful ceiling too

Well, I had to say,
that IS quirky

 Is that a green-violet
vegetal layer?

 Why, yes it is!

Artist Ulrik Samuelson's goal was to create a subterranean art oriented garden that formed one entity with its surroundings.

After this station was built in 1977, a unique ecosystem materialized within the art. The pillow moss growing here has only been found to thrive in hothouses in Stockholm since the 1930s and otherwise only flourish on the Swedish islands of Öland and Gotland.

Also a two millimeter dwarf spider has settled down in this station in this unique environment. This little rascal normally is found only in the covers, pits and catacombs in southern Europe. Experts guess that these spiders must have hitched a ride on one of the construction machines used to build this station 40 years ago.

I didn't see any spiders, dwarf or otherwise.

Let's take a look at some of Samuelson's art concepts in the station.

 What are you looking at?

Oh?

YIKES. get a room!

Strewn artwork

The station was indeed interesting, glad I went.

Now it was time to enjoy the sunshine as I walked along Stockholm's beautiful waterfront.

Water everywhere

That means lots of boats too

Like this one and . . .

. . . this colorful one

Museum across the water

Grand buildings too

Of course the King's Guards
did an impromptu walk-by

The Grand Hotel

It really is grand! 

The KAK building is also
pleasing to the eye
  
 Swedes enjoying the Sun
during their lunch breaks

 What a wonderful city!

The four elements

Up next, boarding the #69 bus for a short drive to the day's second stop.

 What is this place?
Why it's . . .

#85 The Sports Museum

A tribute to all Swedish
sports endeavors

FANTASTIC hockey uniform

Horse riding is big in Sweden

National Sports Uniform
of some kind

 In case any former
University of Washington
wrestlers read this blog

 VIKING PRIDE!

 HEY, that's an American
football helmet!

I could have done a little
rock climbing if I'd wanted

I didn't want to.

At the UofW,
I took a gymnastics class

I quickly learned that the rings in particular, and gymnastics in general, were not designed with fat kids in mind.

There were lots of good interactive stations in this museum.

As for these rings, I didn't want to.

 A chance to test if I still possessed
my old 4.47 40 yard dash speed

Wait, maybe that was 6.47 now that I think about it.

And, come to think of it, it might have been 20 yards not 40.

 Sprinting into that crash pad
sounded just spiffy!

I didn't want to.

 This part of the museum
looked safer to me

The Olympics were highlighted

 Art Deco 1912 Stockholm
Olympics poster

Same 1912 Stockholm Olympics
with a cyrillic alphabet poster
  
 1932 Los Angeles Olympics poster

There was no 1984 Los Angeles Olympics poster on display. Laurie and I attended several events at the 1984 Olympiad.

Olympic Gold Medals

From top to bottom:
1908 London Olympics
1912 Stockholm Olympics
1912 Stockholm Olympics
1920 Antwerp Olympics

From the 1980 Moscow Olympics

If you recall, the USA boycotted these Games.

Olympic Games Torches
from 2004 Athens, 2008 Peking
and 2012 London

 Swede Ingemar Johansson defeating
Floyd Patterson on June 26, 1959
for the World Heavyweight Championship

I distinctly remember being at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum watching the Los Angeles Dodgers play the Pittsburgh Pirates when it was announced that Johansson had won in what was considered a stunning upset.

 Sports Shoes

Aim Small, Miss Small

A crew shell is a natural with
all of Stockholm's waterways

Swedish National Sports Federation
was also highlighted

There is ours!
The Swedish American
Football Federation

Founded in 1984, SAFF joined the Swedish National Sports Federation in 1991.

Lastly, I liked some quotations scattered throughout the museum such as . . .

No kidding

 I'm addicted

 EuroBall
LOTS of practice time
before any kind of game

 The Ethnography Museum

Not today, it was . . .

 . . . FIKA TIME!

I don't think it floats anymore

I was back in Upplands-Väsby after two worthwhile places visited that my new book suggested.

Only 109 more to see!

In the evening it was . . . 
TIME FOR WARRIORS FOOTBALL!

Last year, the three Warrior teams practiced on either different days or at staggered times.

Not this year on our new field turf practice facility complete with storage at the Södervikskolan school site. All teams start their Tuesday and Thursday practices at 6:30 p.m.

Our U11s only practice for an hour while our U13s and U15s end our workouts at 8:00 p.m.

Remember, this is the off-season for our clubs and we are now sharing the field as we practice with some of the local youth soccer clubs.

It is darn near a three ring circus at our Södervikskolan facility!

U11s in pre-practice meetings

This group plays 7-man football. We field three teams at this level known as the Vikings, Packers and Steelers in order to get maximum playing time for the kids.

Coach Dan Pettersson heads up our U11 program.

Our one U13 team
during team time

Our U13s play 9-man football. We only field one team at this level.

Coach Johan Lundqvist heads up our U13 program.

A U13 running back
with a sartorial flare

U15 Agility Drill

Football 101

Our U15s play 11-man football. We only field one team at this level.

Coach Jimmy Pluto Alonso heads up our U13 program.

It was organized chaos tonight but a lot was accomplished.

We also have a long way to go before we can be considered to be a well oiled machine.

" Red sky in the morning,
sailor take warning.
Red sky at night, sailor's delight."

I guess Wednesday will be beautiful too.

 After practice, I met Aiki and Janne
at a local bar/restaurant where
Janne does part-time work

A HUGE chicken-curry pasta hit the spot for dinner as did a beer or two after a long hot day.

The Irish coffee to end the night was good too after watching Ronaldo put up a Hat Trick on Atlético Madrid during a UEFA Champions League Semi-Final match. Ronaldo's Real Madrid club won 3-0.

Another good day
of exercise too!

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