Out and About

Back from the country to the bustle of Stockholm. Yet this unique city of 7 or so islands is hardly downtown New York. The water and parks and pedestrian malls make it, like San Francisco and Salzburg, a beautiful blend of the natural world and the urban. We boated to the parks of Djurgarden, walked over bridges to Gamla Stan and bussed back to Ostermalm where we’re staying. Whizzing by were bicyclists and the growing population of electric scooters, the Hop on-Hop off buses and fellow tourists/ inhabitants enjoying the perfect 70 degree temperature. A short evening organ concert in an old church, thrilled to hear Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, my old friend that I used to play on my high school pipe organ and again in college. Except for playing a bit by memory at my recent high school reunion, haven’t played the organ, my first instruments, for some 45 years. Suddenly I miss it.

One of the highlights of the time visiting friends in the countryside was meeting 14-month-old Caspian. We played a game of taking onions out of a bowl and putting them back in again. I taught him to try to guess which hand the garlic was in. He enjoyed my recorder music and we sang the Itsy Bitsy Spider.  So yesterday, I pulled out my Bulgarian bagpipe, just so I could say I played it in Sweden. And here was his reaction. Add your own caption.

Today is the last day in Stockholm and tomorrow back to my teaching life as I fly to Nova Scotia. Another sunny day awaits me and my agenda is simply to wander the streets yet again, sit under a tree with my journal, sit in a café with my book, pass by the museums and not go in unless one calls to me. Maybe I should try a scooter!

We’ll see what the day brings.