Something to Declare

Stockholm Syndrome, Day 3

Sunday, June 22, 2025

CORRECTION: In the post of June 18, I said that the Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen was the residence of King Christian X.

Wrongo! My friend Joanne pointed out that Christian X died in 1947, and that the current King of Denmark is Frederik X. She also added some juicy gossip: There’s a minor scandal at the moment regarding Frederik X’s conduct of an extramarital affair, and relations between him and Queen Mary are described as being on the “cool” side. (Well, okay then.)

But I digress.

It’s been something of a trial to visit places that were closed for Midsommar, or because of the usual Sunday/Monday museum closures. This morning, we headed out to the nearby island of Skeppsholmen, the home of the Museum of Architecture and Design (ArkDes) and the Museum of Modern Art (Moderna Museet).

It was a pretty walk along the Skeppsholmen waterfront to the museums.

We’d really enjoyed the Design Museum in Copenhagen. The one in Stockholm was a bit less impressive, being devoted (to a great extent) to exhibits of architectural drawings. There was a special (somewhat creepy) exhibit, however, of design related to motherhood. This included displays of items relating to birthing, midwifery, nursing, contraception, and related subjects, including menstrual cups, breast pumps, cervical dilators, forceps, do-it-yourself abortion kits, a bit much!

Right next door to the ArkDes is The Moderna. There were exhibits of Calder-like metal sculpture; and surrealism, featuring a pool of bubbling mud (actually besonite clay, controlled by a sound system and air pressure) by Robert Rauschenberg; and a collection of modernist paintings, including some by Edvard Munch (famous for “The Scream“):

The Moderna has a unique way of displaying its collection. Instead of galleries through which visitors walk and see the works, you go into a “study gallery” where you select, from a computer screen, the art that piques your interest; then, you watch your chosen selection descend from the ceiling, thanks to a staff person operating the controls.

Like the array of Edvard Munch paintings I wanted to see:

When you’re done, the machine lifts the board and returns it to the rack in the ceiling. Stef and I agree that we prefer the usual walking-through-the-galleries system. It seemed like technology for the sake of technology.

We then walked to the waterfront, where we took the city ferry, with a view of the amusement park rides at Skansen…

…around the southern tip of Skeppsholmen to the dock (Slussen) on the island of cobblestoned Gamla Stan, which is the Old Town of Stockholm. Until the 1600s, all of Stockholm fit into Gamla Stan. Here we viewed the statue of St. George slaying the dragon; the Nobel Prize Museum at the Swedish Academy; and Stortorget Square, famous for its colorful old buildings topped with gables. The Square was the site of the Stockholm Bloodbath of 1520: many Stockholm leaders who had challenged Danish rule were rounded up and brought here, and beheaded, creating rivers of blood….well, enough about this!

We continued on to the Kungliga Slottet (Royal Palace), where Stef peeked into the Royal Chapel. The Stor Kyrkan (Cathedral) was nearby.

Tomorrow is our last day in Stockholm: the ABBA Museum and the exhibit of the warship Vasa. Mamma mia!