Traveling with Grace: Continuing in Sweden

This week, Grace continues through Sweden. Next week – on to Denmark! Special thanks go to JMM volunteer Harold Toppall for his transcriptions of Grace’s travel diary.

To read more of Grace’s travels, click here. 


July 19, 1950

Visby

Vintage postcard, Swedish cruise ship in Visby Harbor, 1951, Gotland Island. Via.

Got off the boat at 8:30 this morning. Gorgeous day. This town on the island of Gothland is the prettiest place we have seen yet. It reminds me a little of Rothenberg on the Tauber. Roses, roses, everywhere & the quaintest of diminutive houses spotlessly clean. The whole place is punctuated with little parks sparkling with gorgeous blooms of all kinds. The streets are crooked, narrow, hilly & cobbled & the ancient wall with its crenulated watch towers at regular intervals is almost perfectly intact. 5,000 people live within the walls.

Vintage travel poster, Visby: The Town of Ruins and Roses. Via.

We got a guide at the travel bureau – after breakfasting at the Stadshotel Pensionat – who showed us all the points of interest & sketched in some historical background. The island of Gothland once belonged to the Danes. There is a legend that the king of Denmark once made love to a woman of Visby who helped him enter the city with his army thru the wall. He promised to marry her & take her back to Denmark as his queen, but instead deserted her, where upon the townspeople seized & burned her to death. (We saw a picture of this yesterday in the museum in Stockholm.) There are many ruined churches from the 11th & 12th centuries, & an old gallows up on a hill overlooking the Baltic. Artists with their easels & sketch books are everywhere & this is truly an artist’s paradise.

Visby Cathedral, Saint Mary. Photo by Carl Curman, 1893. Courtesy of the Swedish National Heritage Board.

This afternoon we walked around the town & sat in one of the pretty parks. Also rode halfway out on the island (about 80 x 40 miles) where there are many small farms & some lovely villas. There is also a fine Cathedral (Domkirke) in Visby.

Ruin of St. Nicolai church. Photo by Carl Curman, 1890s. Courtesy of the Swedish National Heritage Board.

Tonight, we attended the first presentation of the season of the Ruinspielen or mystery play “St. Petrus de Dacia” given in the ruins of the lovely old St. Nicholas Church. On the stage at the altar end is a large reredos acting as backdrop. On one side fastened to a heavy stone pillar is an image of the Virgin set in a wreath of roses. By the door stands a man in the white robe of a monk. The sunset sky shines thru the painless gothic windows. The play itself is more impressive. The voices of the 2 monks & the sick lady & Christina (the 4 principal characters) were splendid. The lighting was supplied by 12 tall tapers on the reredos & torches held by the monks & nuns in procession. The choral singing was good & the whole performance pervaded by a reverential feeling. At 11 we returned to the boat & tonight’s trip is much smoother than last.


July 20, 1950

En route to Vastervik

The Town Hall and the Grand Hotel at Tyska torget (the German Square) in Norrköping. Photo by Fredrik Bruno, 1947. Courtesy of the Swedish National Heritage Board.

Arrived back in Nynashamm at 7 A.M. Had breakfast at the pretty Hotel Nynashamm across from the dock. Then started on the trip in lovely weather thru very pretty country. We had to go back to the outskirts of Stockholm & covered some of the same territory as before. Had lunch in Norrkoping at the same hotel but this time we ate in the pretty flower garden with birds singing in the sunshine. Then on thru Valdemarsvik & Vastervik where we spent the night at Stadshotellet.


July 21, 1950

En route to Karlskroma

Kalmar Castle by Kalmar Sound in the Baltic Sea, c.1880s. The castle was originally built at the end of the 13th century. Courtesy of the Swedish National Heritage Board.

Left Vastervik at 10. Rode thru some very quaint & picturesque village, lovely homes & gardens. This part of the country – south Sweden, [is] flat & more closely populated. They are beginning to harvest the crops but the fruit is still quite green on the trees. Went thru the towns of Verkeback, Oskarshamm, lunched in Kalmar a most attractive town where we saw the old Slott with its moat & portcullis, a pretty park & rose garden. Arrived in Karlskrona about 5.

After dinner took a walk up the main street some pretty shops particularly furniture & lighting fixtures, a pretty park. This is the Annapolis of Sweden & the streets are full of very good-looking naval cadets.


July 22, 1950

Karlskrona, Parti av Salto, 1950. Via.

Rested & sat on the porch with a good view of the main street. This hotel has a beautiful ballroom & patio full of flowers & a little foundation-boy with fishes. Watched dancing after dinner animated crowd of young people.


July 23, 1950

En route to Copenhagen

Lund Cathedral, c.1880s. Courtesy of the Swedish National Heritage Board.

Left Karlskrona at 9:30. Went thru a little town called Solverborg where the streets were so narrow that they placed a big mirror at the main intersection so you can see what is coming from the opposite direction, then thru Kristianstat Horby, Lund, where we saw the oldest cathedral in Scandinavia 10th century with mechanical clock (figures come out at noon & walk around bowing before the Christ) then to Malmo-3rd Swedish city-where we lunched at the swanky Savoy Hotel.

Malmo Castle. Photo by Falk2, Jule 16, 2013. Via.

Then visited Malmo Castle & museum, very interesting collections of pictures, sculpture, furniture, costumes, silver, porcelains, a very fine chapel collections of fauna, etc. Rode around city, prettiest apt. & residential section we have yet seen in Scandinavia, carillon with music notes for ornament, flowers everywhere & shopping section so pretty (saw a wild pheasant cross the street slowly like any tame hen) the city hall renaissance with much carving, medallions, mythological figures etc. lovely schools a lending library run on the same principle as ours, fine business houses, a very prosperous, progressive looking city.

View of Copenhagen harbor. Photo by Berit Wallenberg, July 26, 1930. Courtesy of the Swedish National Heritage Board.

Got on the ferry at 5:30 (train from Germany goes on tracks into ferry) arriving in Copenhagen looking older by far than either Stockholm or Oslo at 8, hotel Anglerre where we had a lovely dinner served in our room bright with red & white carnations from Anne’s family in our room. Rainy evening.


Thanks for reading “Traveling with Grace,” a series where we’re sharing (and annotating) posts from the travel diaries of Grace Amelia Hecht, native Baltimorean, b. 1897 and d. 1955. As mentioned in my introductory post transcription errors sometimes occur and I’ve made my best guesses where possible, denoted by [brackets]. – Rachel Kassman, marketing manager


 

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