Grand Hotel and Grand Hotel Rôyal not read over
Göta Canal 13 Aug. 19[26]
Honey dear:-
Again I'm several days back - but writing is well-night impossible at times. Yet we have not been awfully strenuous. I can't remember whether I wrote on Saturday or Sunday, but I have an idea it may have been Saturday, for we sort of took that day after the Congress to catch up.
Sunday we went to the modern Engelbreakt Church, most unusual and interesting in architecture, with arches egg shaped, and with much decoration. The organ was good but the choir was on a summer vacation. The preacher did a lot of intoning. In the afternoon we tried to go to Drottningholm and see the Royal Palace, but there came one of those deluging thunder storms so we stuck to the boat and were glad for shelter. The folks who got on at D - and they were many - looked like drowned rats, hair all in strings, clothes soaked, hats in newspapers &c. Before we got back to Stockholm it was sunny again.
Since then we've tried to see the sights of the town a bit - the Storkyrka where the coronations are and where there is a remarkable painted and gilded and wooden St. George, very old and amusing. There are also the gorgeous blue velvet seats with carved gilded canopies for king and queen. One of those appears in a big and impressive Coronation picture in the Royal Museum. That museum I yearned for more time in - it has many Dutch things, also French, for there was a strong French influence at one time as evidenced by tapestries, furniture &c in the Royal Palace, also in architecture unless I mistake. I wish to goodness I knew enough art to read the signs of the times in the way of architectural influence! A German church, built by Ger. merchants in the 16th cent. was very interesting, with a florid pulpit in ebony and alabaster, a guilded pen for royalty at one side of the altar, apprached by a flight of golden stairs, and a blue and gold pew for the German embassy at the other side of the altar. Altogether every old thing we have seen in Sweden is kept up. There is so much indication of the "ship-shape" ideal, from the peasant woman at Liksand, whose picture I took and who was sweeping her door-stone with a bunch of twigs, to the cathedrals which seem in entire repair. The whole place is neat and tidy, even the little alleys in old Stockholm. I've never seen anything like it. Also, the folks never ask for fees and they always say polite and apparently sincere "thank you's." This was not true in Norway. The Norwegian I met on the Svolvaer boat said they were fast being spoiled by the tourist trade, and I fear it is so. Yet they are models compared to France and Italy! At the Grand a large % was added for fees, from 20%-12% accoring to size of bill, but it is to be said that everything was included in this, telephone calls, boots, things like helping paste on refractory labels on trunks - we shipped our trunks to Southampton - and all in a pleasant spirit. We feed only 10% at meals and every waiter thanked us there too. The meals cost no more than anywhere after one got the ways of the place - "Business man's Quick Lunch["], &c. Stockholm isn't cheap, but it certainly is the most delightful city I ever struck. Climate perfect, as far as we saw it. I wore my blue woolen dress, the blouse one, and no coat most of the time. I'm so thankful to have avoided heat this summer.
Well, the National Museum has a great deal of interest from stone, iron, bronze ages - and I pine for a gold collar of those old designs - but I did not buy one! But I spent most time, as at Oslo, among the national paintings. And the contrast! I never saw so many sombre things as in the Oslo group, tremendous fjords, mostly in cloud and storm, tossing boats, sick folks in isolated hamlets or funerals ditto, only rarely a sunny fjord or dancing peasants. In Stockholm it's the reverse, sunny grain fields, mid-summer eve, all that side. Of course there are exceptions and there are Swedish pictures at Oslo and vice versa - but it's the art reflecting the country and the folks that I looked for. This I talked over with Dr. Sundquist, of whom more anon, and she says it's real, not my imagination. But even here Miss af Klintberg says it is hard for a man to get work, though the Swedes out-of-work keep clean and so don't show the real difficulty as do some others. Just one person has asked us for money on the street, and then Anne was counting out a trifling debt to me.
Miss af Klintberg took me to a wonderful experimental botanic garden, acres of flowers arranged by orders. I got a few more northern names from a rockery there. We walked maybe a half mile by a lake and sat down to eat gooseberries, huge sweet things, from a paper bag! She had picked them on their farm. There were paper napkins and two little paper bags, new ones, for "the shells," for apparently one doesn't eat the skins. Now that seemed a pleasant lunch to me. Then she took me to her apartment - and such lovely old furniture my eyes have seldom seen - carved, inlaid things. Strawberry juice and wafers there. But there were only a few minutes for we both had other things to do. Gustavus L was an ancestor. That woman is a dear - I hope I'll see her again.
Then the Mary Collett introductions were productive of delightful meetings with very interesting women. One, Dr. Naima Sahlbom (accent on the bomb) has played with Jane Addams in pacifist things. She's lively, spirited and interesting, very. She and her sister (quiet) took me to a high place over the harbor where we saw the city towers and water with a gorgeous sunset. Then we came back to a café and had tea and sandwiches along nine o'clock and also Dr. Eva Ramstedt joined us, the fine woman I saw in Paris in 1922 and liked so much. She was at Amsterdam, but I could not get at her the one time I saw her. We had a real talk about many things.
Dr. Alma Sundquist, energetic and I should judge socially successful physician, former pres. of their
A.A. U. W. made a dinner party for us! Now this was a real event just for us if you please - a party of 6 at her apartment and perfect. Maid the efficient silent kind, everything right! Dr. Ramstedt was there, too. also two younger women. They all spoke English all the time - most courteous. We had (1) 3 "sandwiches", cheese, smoked salmon, and I forget the meat one, with radishes, (2) a bird, duck, or "black cock" I think, with potato and other things, (3) artichokes, (4) the most beautiful mold of ice cream I ever saw - a big pear all blushing pink on one side, really vanilla cream, with green spun sugar below, little wafers, and raspberries about it. Gosh! Coffee and cigarettes in the parlor. Pilsner, Vichy, Santerne and Port to drink. Many "skols." Not only do you lift your glass and say "skol" to some friend, but you nod and smile after the drink! It's a real ceremony. I hope we committed no serious social errors, though I fear we left too early - but we had to pack. Our trunks went to England next day.The Northern Museum is the most remarkable collection of things pertaining to the life of all classes - kings to peasants - that I ever saw. We stayed such a short time, too. Museums need to be lived with, not seen just an hour! I'm just looking forward to those in Londone because they'll be a little familiar.
There were trips around the "Ringlinie" cars, and a lovely boat trip to Vaxholm - oh, we just began to play in Stockholm! The Benedicts stayed until Tuesday and the Lees outstayed us - very pleasant hotel contacts and breakfasts. That Grand Hotel dining room is so lovely. I thought Dr. Benedict was sort of daft when he talked about seeing "little white boats" come in as a source of joy, but you've no idea how fascinating that place is! Everybody thinks the same as far as I know. We met some more people yesterday and they said it, too. You just wait until I expound my postcards!
Yesterday, Aug. 12, we left this beautiful place on a nice little boat for the Göta Canal and reached here, Vadstena, this afternoon. Our stateroom was small but comfortable, and the meals excellent. I had a chance to try crayfish, the delicacy of Aug. & Sept. The shops just are full of napkins, place-cards, all sorts of little red crayfishes - and I saw a whole market of them, alive of course! They cook them with a few sprigs of - caraway - I judge. It was sold with them and also served with them. They're like delicate crabs but no joke to shell out - special little knives for them. All styles of raw salted herring and anchovies are my delight now - I'll really miss these things. Anne still turns up her nose at the delicatessen shops, but I do like 'em.
The Göta Canal takes me, surprisingly, through a stretch of Lake Mälar, then down the eastern archipelago for the better part of the day. So many islands! But we got an hour of the open Baltic and it was windy, too. We met a man & wife from Wisconsin, Swedes, who wouldn't stay here for anything, and a wealthy (?) Dr. & wife from Washington, all pleasant folks. This morning I rose early to see the locks, many, and more of the narrow canal, where the boat had no extra room. Such pretty scenery, gentle and attractive. You couldn't think of a greater contrast to Norwegian fjords. It's absolutely different, but very charming, likewise restful. We had a good night in spite of the many locks we went through. After a while this morning we came to a place where as we left a lake a young American boy announced in great excitement, "We're going through a tunnel and five slushes!" They call locks, "slüssen". These locks went up the steep hill just like steps, very interesting. Several of us got out and walked to the next town, Motala, maybe a couple miles. There was ample time, for 5 slussen = 1/2 hour at the least and the canal is so narrow that the steering is no joke, therefore slow speed.
Vastena is a nice little place, but there's no use in taking Anne to the country. She just doesn't belong there, nor see anything to look at when not in motion. However, we have only one extra day while we sort of wait for a motor trip and I guess she'll stand it. She has adored Stockholm. There is here an old and interesting church of St. Birgitta (= Bridget) who seems to have belonged here more than elsewhere. It's very quaint, though in excellent condition. Tomorrow we see her bones in a hospital now on the site of an old convent and also go to the castle which has the best moat I have ever seen, real lovely water, a part of Lake Vettern on which we are. This afternoon we struck an interesting tavern, not old I think, but like them in carved wood, beams and painted decorations. We ordered milk and Wiener brod, got a quart of milk, approximately, and 2 Weiner brods and 8 cakes. This all cost 90 øre! We had a half a "melloon" with us and ate that, too. Nobody objects to such little things - they let you do what you want to most perfectly and say "Var so god" - (= thank you). It's most soothing.
Tomorrow we shall probably proceed by rail and bus to Gremia, said to be sweet country. I want to get a coutry walk if possible, but we may go on to Jönköping at once - I don't know.
Here are a few prints I had made for you. [Unfortunately, they are not still with the letter.] I think you'll enjoy looking at the little pictures in general. This camera surely has a better lens than any I ever played with. The one of Anne in the cart was taken in that deep Flaam valley on a cloudy day, but it's good. See the bundle of hay under the cart. This was after the little beast's lunch - part of it was in him. The Polcirkeln we enjoy greatly, the little station by the R. R. at the Arctic Circle. The child's short sleeves tell you the temperature. The Lofotens were more peaked in many places, but these tops were out for a bit though you can see it's a cloudy sky. There was pretty big surf on the rocks - they're farther away than you think.
But I must go to bed. Much love to you. I'd like to know what you're about. I hope you've had as lovely a day as we have.
Much love -
Abby