Blog with photos (17-22 July)

The copper mare

(Monday 17th July) The first Gothenburg was founded by Karl IX in 1607 - and burned to the ground by the Danes in 1611. Three hundred years after the event, to commemorate the first foundation, a copper statue of the king, riding on a charger, was commissioned and unveiled. The statue is known in Gothenburg as Kopparmärra - The copper mare. This is one of those witticisms for which Gothenburgers are famous (at least in their own lunchtimes). The horse is obviously a stallion. Every so often a local newspaper will print a letter from a visitor or foreign resident who hasn't cottoned on, calling for the name to be changed. These letters are also considered a great joke.

Kopparmärra - The Copper Mare at Kungsportsplatsen

The Copper Mare - a detail. Just so there's no doubt!

Hasselblad
(Tuesday 18th July) Where was the first camera on the moon made? Correct! It was made in Gothenburg by Victor Hasselblad AB. But that was then. Hasselblad, who have been making cameras since 1941, made the mistake of not taking digital technology seriously. Believing their reputation for excellence was proof against any newfangled electronic claptrap, and the downturn they were experiencing was a temporary event, in 2004, they moved production from their old established quarter at Lilla Bommen to a new purpose built prestige site across the river. Almost immediately they found themselves teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. A couple of mergers and buy-outs down the line and they've given up their fine, new, very expensive building and have moved into an old warehouse. The prestige building is being converted to accommodate local TV and radio stations and the original building, Hasselbladska house, at Lilla Bommen is being converted into luxury apartments. On Klädpressaregatan the demolition is in full swing of the more modern accretions to the Hasselbladska house. I watched as a wrecking crane pulled down wall after wall and the builders sprayed water to damp down the dust which anyway swirled around.

The original Hasselblad head office at Lilla Bommen - soon to become 24 luxury appartments ... And below, Hasselblad house from behind.

Hasselbladska hus from behind, originally uploaded by Gothenburg Observer.

Supercargo
(Wednesday 19th July) This is the life! Coffee and croissants for breakfast on the balcony. Headline in today's paper "Celebration as Götheburg reaches the Pearl River". The "Götheburg" is the replica east-indiaman, built here and sailing to Canton to commemorate the Swedish East India Company and to promote Swedish-Chinese trade. On my list of people to research is Colin Campbell, one of the original founders of the Swedish East India Company and Supercargo on the first voyage to Canton in 1732 and 1733. Campbell kept a handwritten journal which surfaced in the sales catalogue of an antequarian bookseller in New York only in 1986. It had been carried away to Scotland from Sweden sometime in the 1760s by Campell's friend and fellow director, Charles Irvine and remained in the Irvine family archives in Drum Castle, Aberdeenshire for 200 years or so until being sold by Irvine's descendants. The original manuscript was bought by Gothenburg University library, and an annotated version of the journal was published in 1996. I must try to lay my hands on a copy.

Vasagatan
(Thursday 20th July) On Vasagatan, I passed a group of Americans. Even from a distance there was something unusual about them, though I couldn't put my finger on it. They were cheerful and all of them dressed for the summer - except the two young men. Dark suits, ties, badges. The penny dropped as I was passing them. Mormons. The two young men were missionaries ("elders" as they like to call themselves) and the the rest were their families come to cheer them along. Why do Mormon missionaries have to dress like they are FBI men from 1950s movies? The men, that is. Women missionaries (of whom there are few) seem required to look like housewives from the boondocks in the 1930s. Is the Mormon Church trapped in a time warp? I think we need to know.

The sun through an alley of trees on Vasagatan

Friday 21st
My public read the first draft of the first sectrion (completed today). One laugh. (Good!) One complement. (Very good!) One criticism. (Justified.) One suggestion: Get in some sex. Well, I suppose this is Sweden ...

Älvsborgsbron from Masthugget, originally uploaded by Gothenburg Observer.

Squawks-from-lampposts
(Saturday 22nd July) Late this evening, looking down from the balcony, we saw five seagulls walking about on the patch of grass under a streetlamp, pecking at the ground. It was dark and we saw them at first only because they were so white against the ground. We'd have taken them for pigeons, but even from directly overhead, a seagull doesn't look much like a pigeon. But there they were, silent, waddling about, pecking. This is very unusual behaviour. We decided that they were secretly trying out pigeon behaviour. Trying, perhaps, to see if they could find out whether pigeons know something seagulls don't, and doing it secretly so no other seagulls would see them and screech at them. We had just spent 4 hours watching Dances with Wolves on TV. Decided that if other seagulls saw them, they would have to live the rest of their seagull lives with names like "Pecks-with-pigeons" or "Waddles-on-grass" instead of brave seagull names like "Squawks-from-lampposts" or "Shits-on-cars".