The True Spirit of Scandinavia - An Elderhostel Trip

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Day 13- June 13, 2009
After breakfast we made our way up the hill to hear a lecture entitled, "A general look at Sweden today." Our site coordinator, Paul Reichberg is a retired professor at the school. He actually lives in Uppsala which is a two hour train ride each way and he has been teaching at the school for 29 years! He told us his father was Jewish and living in Vienna when the Anschluss happened in 1938 and the Nazis took over Austria. His father was age 25 and was able to escape to Finland. He met a non Jewish woman and married. Paul was born in Finland in 1940. His father had tried to get into Sweden in 1938 and subsequently every year but was refused until 1944 when Sweden had a change of heart and began accepting Jews. Sweden was neutral during WWII. And unlike Norway, Sweden has never been occupied.
Paul visited the U.S. in 1968 and went to Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco and he was influenced by all of that hippie culture. He saw the play, "Hair" in NYC which also was a big influence on him. He spent a year at Stanford as a visiting scholar in 1976 á year after the Vietnam War ended. In 1986 he took his wife to the U.S. and they traveled to many states as tourists. They even visited Graceland in Memphis because he loved Elvis Presley! He's taught social studies, history and economics at the folk school. The Tollare folkhögskola started in 1952 for students age 18 or over. It provides a year of study and then some of the students go on to the University and others get jobs.
The city of Stockholm is located on an island. It was first mentioned in a document in 1252. One of the first large buildings, The Great Church, was begun in 1279. The island that became Stockholm was in a strategic spot between Lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea. All the goods that were being traded such as iron, copper, tar and fur had to be transfered and reloaded tin Stockholm. In 1436 a Privilege Letter gave Stocklholm the duty and the right to protect the center part of Sweden from attacks from the east. There was no Russia yet but there were barbaric tribes there. Gradually the city expanded beyond its central island to the surrounding land.
After lunch we had a field trip to the Stockholm City Hall which we were told is the most famous and beautiful building in Sweden. Its monumental tower 106 metres high is topped in gold with the Swedish symbol of three golden crowns. The Nobel Prizes are awarded at Stockholm's nearby Concert Hall (except for the Peace Prize which is awarded in Oslo, Norway.) The banquet is held at the Stockholm City Hall in the Blue Hall a large reception area on the first floor designed to give the feeling of being outdoors. After dinner and the speeches by the Nobel Lauretes, the guests walk up the marble steps to the second floor ball room which is magnificent with walls of glass tile infused with gold!
We had free time in downtown Stockholm after our tour of the City Hall. Gene and I walked down the crowded sidewalks and into one of the large department stores. There was a crowded coffee shop on the 4th floor and a restaurant on the 5th floor. We saw a special area of books for sale in English in their book department. Most of the prices we checked seemed to be quite expensive.
We walked further down the street to a large square and found a seat by the window upstairs in the Cultural Center coffee shop. We drank hot chocolate trying to stay away from caffiene in the afternoon. We haven't found any brewed decaf since we left the folkschool in Norway.
We returned to the folk school and dinner and a talk afterwards on Swedish history.

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