Out of the Jurisdiction: Stockholm

You've got to admire the Swedes' ability to turn lemons into lemonade. In 1628 the King commissioned a new battle ship, the Vasa.  It was top-heavy and designed by someone who had never designed a ship before.  On its maiden voyage it sailed for 15 minutes, capsized and sank.  350 years later, the Vasa was found, salvaged and preserved.  It is now Stockholm's #1 tourist attraction.

Why do the bad boys always get the girl?

King (cough) sits astride a horse in front of (cough).

I might have reached the part of the trip when I can't remember which king is where.

This is another waterfront building and statue.  I can't remember what and who they are, either.

I got a good laugh out of these guys.  Let's pretend you are a Stockholm building owner.  

What would lead you to commission this group for your building?

Out of the Jurisdiction: Helsinki

Helsinki is pretty flat, so I joined a group biking around the city during my ship's nine hour visit to Helsinki.  That made taking photographs pretty tough.  Below are a statue of gold medal winner Paavo Nurmi outside the Olympic Stadium, a Lutheran church, Tsar Alexander enduring

decades of humiliation at the hands of sea gulls, and two concert halls near the train station.

Out of the Jurisdiction: Grand Cascade, Peterhof

An admirer of France and Versailles, Peter the Great ordered his architects and artists to create a palace and grand cascade of fountains even greater, on the Gulf of Finland outside St. Petersburg.

Just enjoy it.  If you want some facts, you can google Peterhof.

Out of the Jurisdiction: St. Petersburg

 How do I pick just a few from everything St. Petersburg offers?  I will go with two.  Two pix each.

The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood attracts most St. Petersburg visitors (and a healthy share of the city's pickpockets).  It was built on the site where Emperor Alexander II was

murdered in 1881. 

Peter and Paul Fortress was built at the direction of Peter the Great from 1712 through 1733. 

In the fortress' cathedral, the body of Peter the Great is interred, along with 

most of the other Romanovs. 

Out of the Jurisdiction: Tallinn

Tallinn, Estonia, has a fine medieval Old Town, with a walled Upper Town with many government buildings and embassies, and a charming Lower Town with churches, residences and squares.

The Lower Town is viewed from an outlook of the walled Upper Town.  St. Olaf's church is
from 1267, when it was the tallest building in the world.  Now it is the tallest in Tallinn.



Can anyone help me take down the marvelous gates to the Tallinn government building's courtyard
and ship them back to the States?



There was a fine mist on the day I visited Tallinn, the first day that was not sunny
in the first eleven days in Scandinavia.  It added atmosphere.  A square in the Lower Town.



A gull posed insistently at the Upper Town overlook to the Lower Town.
I didn't have a choice.  So, "click."

Out of the Jurisdiction: Faces in the Crowd in Gdansk

About 20 Dutch men sang their hearts out on the patio of a bar.

This very interesting looking woman modeled some of the amber necklaces she sells.

The body of an 18-year old girl killed in a 1949 demonstration against the Communists was found two years ago.  A church service honored her.  Afterwards, thousands marched through 

the streets in a flag-waving demonstration against the old regime.

Children played with big bubbles.  This baby wanted to join the fun.

A photographer posed them.  I don't know if they are a couple or models.

A sidewalk artist painted a temporary tattoo on the young man's shaved dome.

Library

The tour of Scandinavia is interrupted for the City Daily Photo monthly theme day.

Hartford Public Library.

From a stairwell.

And reflecting a wall-sized photomural off a glass-top library table.

Click here for other interpretations of "library."