Thursday, June 1, 2017

Laurie's First Full Day in Sweden


Thursday, 1 June, 2017:

After a good night's sleep that helped Laurie deal with her possible Jet Lag issues, we were off on a day of discovery for her as I led her expedition to see some of the many wonders of Upplands-Väsby and Stockholm.

We started off with a walk
in the woods into town

Lots of new growth evident
on the fir trees

Rune stone #9

There are 76 of these ancient rune stones dating from 800-1050 A.D. that tell the story of the local Viking families and their deeds.

Our walk, of course, would take us through the Väsby Centrum shopping mall so that Laurie could see where she would be spending most of her money during the next four weeks.

By the Upplands-Väsby train station

We were off the Stockholm for the early afternoon.

Klara Kyrka Church

Just a few blocks from Stockholm Central train station.

 Klara Kyrka's tribute to
Carl Michael Bellman

 Stockholm's City Hall
in the background

It is also the venue for the annual Nobel Prize banquet held the 10th of December every year.

We were headed toward the island of Gamla Stan, the oldest part of the city.

 Senior ladies protesting at the
foot of the Royal Palace

They were demanding higher pensions for Senior Citizens and I had to back them in this particular demonstration.

Besides, I liked their red hats and organized chants.

 Typical Gamla Stan street scene

Round One
Ingemar Johansson
vs. Floyd Patterson

I like the spectators faces.

The Swedish born Johansson beat Patterson in 1959 to become the Heavyweight Champion of the World.

Yes she bought a few things

Lunch at one of my favorite
Gamla Stan cafés on a side street

These may have influenced my
decision to eat here

Old idea but still effective
if followed through

Biking Viking?

A six day Music Festival
started today, we need to
hit at least one performance

Giddy Up

Gamla Stan's narrowest lane

My morbid fear of getting stuck kept me from walking down the one block to a main street.

Carl Larsson
local artist

From the Slussen docks at the base of Gamla Stan, we used our Access travel cards to take the boat ride to the island of Djurgården.

Djurgården is the home of
many museums and some
beautiful parkland

We hopped aboard the #7 tram to go from Djurgården to Kungsträdgården park in the center of the city.

As always, this park was teeming with activity.

Today was the first day of the six day A Taste of Stockholm festival.

We explored.

 Look . . .

. . . but do not touch or eat

For no apparent reason, we were strong.

Lots of booths set up by local
restaurants and an
army of food trucks

 Laurie liked the looks of this one

They even had live music on stage

 Laurie liked this display too

Ice cream bubbies from Hawaii

I liked this food truck that sold
grilled cheese sandwiches with all
sorts of interesting additions

We each did have a glass
of California wine

We kept it simple today as I did not want to overwhelm Laurie on her first full day on the Continent. 

We headed home as I still had a U15 Wäsby Warriors practice to conduct.

I welcomed having added coaching help tonight with the U15s as Jesper Douhan and Greg Stark both volunteered to lend a hand.

AWESOME!

Unfortunately, while the U11s and the U13s both had good turnouts, only nine U15 Warriors were dressed out.

I believe that the lack of U15 scrimmages with other clubs this Spring as opposed to last year has been a big factor in the deteriorating practice numbers. There is no sense of urgency this Spring with this group.

Meanwhile our U11s and U13s are having multiple scrimmages. We will, of course, be supporting them as the U11s scrimmage the Sollentuna Stars on Sunday while the U13s are in a big tournament in Stockholm on Tuesday which is a National Holiday.
  
Due to lack of numbers, instead of
7-on-7, we did half field 5-on-4

In EuroBall, one must improvise.

With only nine players, it was an offense consisting of a Center, a QB and three WRs vs. a defense made up of a CB, a SS, an OLB and a FS.

Individual improvement was the key tonight.

 One-on-One Coverage

Transitioning of the CB's hips

I can not fault the effort of our nine Warriors, they worked hard.

I can fault the dedication of the missing Warriors, team progress is difficult under these circumstances.

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