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Published: December 28th 2015
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View of Stockholm
Picture taken from Fotografiska, the museum of photography. In the first week of September our Swedish colleagues invited me to Stockholm to speak at their client event and to give a workshop at their internal knowledge sharing event on the subsequent day. The client event was an afternoon one, so it would not start until 4 pm on Thursday 3rd September. I flew into Stockholm on Wednesday night because I wanted to take the opportunity to meet up with my Swedish colleague Mats and discuss some business on Thursday morning. We met in
Fotografiska, the museum of photography in Stockholm. I won’t bore you with the details of our business talk, but after our meeting we took some time to walk through the museum. Currently there was an exhibition by
Nick Brandt, a wildlife photographer who takes very intimate photos of African wildlife. He does not use a telephoto lens. Rather, he gets very close to the beasts he wants to take pictures of and stays with them for some time so that they get used to him. And then he takes most amazing pictures. This reminded me of what Annie Leibovitz did with celebrities: stayed with them for some time so that they almost forgot she was there and
Getting ready for the boat trip
My wonderful colleagues from Sweden and the UK. then took pictures. I had seen some of her photographs in an exhibition in Singapore.
In the afternoon the client event took place and afterwards we had dinner with some of our Swedish, Norwegian, Irish, and British colleagues. The next day was a full day knowledge sharing workshop, followed by another dinner in a traditional Swedish restaurant. Our hotel was in a nice spot just around the corner from the Swedish office so that I could go for runs along the water, which I really enjoyed.
What we did the next morning was spectacular: Jakob and Henric, our Swedish colleagues, had rented two speed boats and captains. These boats can go really fast, up to 40 knots, which is around 80 km/h! They had already told us in advance that this was not for people with back problems or for pregnant women. And soon we learned why – a ride on them is quite adventurous. Before boarding the boats we put on red overalls and then cruised out of the harbour slowly. It was nice to get a view of Stockholm, which is a huge archipelago, from the boat. Then the boats sped up and we went past
On the boat I
My colleagues Richard and Sara on their speed boat. islands and other boats. The speed was amazing, the airstream in our hair and face was very strong. We were lucky that the day was beautiful and that the water was calm. Whenever the boats hit waves it was as if we hit concrete. We were not sitting in the boats, but rather standing up on high seats. Our first stop over was Vaxholm Castle, a fortress a few kilometres from the city centre, which one has a nice view of from the water. From there we continued past very scenic islands with beautiful colourful wooden houses that looked like taken from a picture book, and then stopped on a quiet and calm island about 40 km out of Stockholm. There we sat in the sun and had
“Fika” , which basically means something like “having coffee”. We had coffee and a kind of cinnamon buns that reminded me of the traditional pastries called “Franzbrötchen” that we have in Hamburg. After the Fika we sped back into the city centre of Stockholm.
After a quick lunch by the water my colleagues Richard, Suzanne, Simon, Howard, and I went to
ABBA Museum, a must do in Stockholm. The museum is super cool.
On the boat II
My colleagues David and Suzanne sitting in front of me on the speed boat. Of course there is a lot of information on the four band members’ lives – Agneta, Björn, Benny, and Anni-Frid. However, the coolest features are all the interactive elements. Visitors can mix songs so that they sound like the original ABBA songs. They can sing Karaoke in small booths, they can perform ABBA songs on a stage, and they can dance with ABBA songs. And by using the bar code on the ticket they can record everything and download it later on. There are all the famous ABBA songs playing in different parts of the museum, and the whole place is just so much fun. We really enjoyed it. In the afternoon Richard and I had to rush off to the airport to catch our flight back to Hamburg. What a great day in Stockholm – I will definitely come back to see more of the city! Thank you Jakob and Henric for the marvelous speed boat trip, and thank you Richard, Suzanne, Simon, and Howard for a fun afternoon in ABBA Museum.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Wind in your hair again
You keep finding ways to get that exhilarating feel. You are born for the wind.