gamla stan ‘the land between the bridges’, stockholm ‘venice of the north’

03Apr09

russell and i stood atop that regal iceberg in Stortorget, and delivered jewels of information about stockholm’s old city to our faithful student subjects down below.  it was a mildly intense feeling, giving a presentation about a place that we had modeled in detail and labored over for a week in studio – and now actually seeing it in person, standing in the middle of it, for the first time.

 

Stortorget ('large square' and the oldest one in stockholm) - see the little iceberg?

view of gamla stan from sodermalm, 'the southern isle' -- like venice?

laura, russell, steve, and i proudly display our gamla stan models on the day of review, week 2 of the semester

the fishermen’s alleyways, tyska brunnsplan, jarntorget, mårten trotzigs gränd [the narrowest alley at only 90 cm wide!] were almost exactly how i imagined them.  i was amazed at the topography of the island [being in flat denmark for 2 months has made every molehill into a huffing mountain] — how it made a huge impact on the way we walked up to the square, and the way we experienced discovering all of its narrow crannies appendaging from it.

martin trotzigs grand, the narrowest alleyway in all of stockholm

 

a part of me wished there was more…life?  and not just the touristy streets on västerlånggatan.  in fact, gamla stan really is all touristy =\

also, by poking my nose into an old swedish church, i got stuck inside during a sunday service and couldn’t leave.  i had to peer over at the boy sitting next to me constantly to see what song page we were on…and then sing accordingly in swedish.  being that i do not understand swedish, i wasn’t forced to listen to what was being preached at me, but only had to enjoy the space and the music.  it was wonderful!

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Tags: cities, scandinavia, studio, urbanism