Occasionally Interesting, often not

I wanted to add that we had two amazing people to help us during Nobel Week. Dad had two people to help him during the week: Lena, for driving him around, and Eva, to help organize everything. We found out some interesting professional info about Dad's driver for the Nobel Week, Lena, when we had the opportunity to socialize a bit with her and Eva when we had dinner with Minister Lee, on the evening before the Big Day. The restaurant the Minister's people had picked was, of course, a chinese restaurant. It wasn't too far, but more on the outskirts of the city. We drove in the limo, with the others in taxis that had been arranged to pick everyone up from the Nordic Museum after the reception there (all thanks to Lena's organization). Because it was outside of town, mum felt like we shouldn't make Lena and Eva hang around and wait for us, so she invited them. Minister Lee was quite happy to have them included, and in fact, his driver sat at our table too, sitting next...

The Swedish Embassy in Washington DC invited dad to be at their Nobel Day, held the week before the Stockholm week. The exact day wasn't known until the visit to the White House cleared; it turned out to be Dec 2, 2009. We flew off on the Monday, and got a taxi to the hotel. We stayed at the Four Seasons, in Georgetown, apparantly, the best hotel in the city. Slept well but had to be up early for the bus to the embassy. The program for the day was: a symposium featuring all the American Nobel winners talking a bit about their work, and taking questions, followed by a light lunch, followed by a visit to the White House, followed in the evening by a black tie dinner hosted by the Swedish ambassador. Breakfast at the hotel was very nice, but also very expensive. Can you say $60? But dad ate ok, and that's the important part. On the bus by 8am-ish. Drove to the Swedish embassy where we hob-nobbed a bit before the symposium. I had talked to Alan Leshner on the phone beforehand to fi...

Thursday December 10th is the big day. It's the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death. We had the morning free, and did a boat tour of Stockholm. We had meant to catch the 10:30am tour, but due to lateness getting up, and needing to eat breakfast, we ended up on the 11:30. This was to have repercussions later, in terms of time to get ready. After the boat docked, we went into Gamla Stan again, to pay a short visit to the Nobel Museum. They had tuxedo'd guides that day, and we looked around a bit more and bought some souvenirs. Then we thought we'd get some hot chocolate at a place just on the square, that the guidebooks raved about. Time was running short, so we got take-out sandwiches and hot chocolate. The hot chocolate was very good. Not as sweet as US style hot chocolate, and more chocolatey. By the time we got back to the hotel room, we had less than an hour to get ready, and we barely made it, being the last ones on the 2nd bus. Everyone looked good in their finery ...

Packing up now to go home. But to continue the travelogue, the last post only got up to Sunday afternoon. In fact, the whole week was still ahead! Sunday dinner was at a restaurant on Gamla Stan called Martin Trotzig. The limo drove us out there, and the driver helped us find the restaurant, just a few steps away from where the car parked. We found out later that during those couple of minutes, someone stole the "Nobel Prize" livery that was magnetically stuck to the limo for the week. Dinner wasn't bad, but not the best of the week, but I did learn how to pronounce the word for "cloudberry", which is spelled as "hjortron" and pronounced "your-tron" accent on the 2nd syllable. While we're at it, the other words learned during the stay were very simple: hej (pronounced "hey") for hello, and "hej do" (pronounced "hey door") for goodbye, and "tack" (prounounced with more of a short "ar" sound...

After the Nobel Museum visit, we got back into the limo. At the Swedish Embassy in Washington DC's Nobel Day on Dec 1, one of the after dinner speakers was Steve Chu, the Energy Secretary, a prior Nobel winner. He regaled us with various funny tales, among which was a story about a Nobel winner who went home, needed to go somewhere, and got in the back of his car. Having a driver and car at one's beck and call (but we only took it twice non-officially, once to dinner and once to tennis) is quite the luxury. I'm not sure I'd mistake my car for a limo though. Anyway, we got driven back to the hotel from the museum (a 5 minute walk otherwise), but ended up back in the area slightly later (walking there minus dad) because in the square outside the museum, there is a Christmas market ... a bunch of little stalls selling various holiday related merchandise and consumables. First though, was lunch. We went to a place called the Livingroom, and had Swedish meatballs (yes, again...

Getting to the end of our time here in Stockholm for Nobel Week 2009 honoring my father and the other 2009 Laureates, most of whom I met. I arrived here with dad on Friday afternoon. We had flown out of Washington DC, and had had a long-ish layover at LHR, time enough to pass through immigration and visit mum's sisters for a quick lunch. It was good to see them after a number of years. Then it was off to Stockholm. On arrival, we were met by the Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy of Science, Gunnar Oquist, and our Nobel attendant (attache) for the week, Eva Wiback. They met us right outside the airplane door, and we walked down the stairs to the tarmac, to get into a limo that drove us to the VIP arrival lounge. There, we chatted a bit while immigration and baggage collection were done for us by others. And then we were whisked into the city, and the Grand Hotel. We arrived a day earlier than most, but the press and autograph seekers met us at the hotel. We got out of the c...

Here's a quick thumbs-up to a new-ish restaurant in Stockholm (Sweden) called "Rue du Pont Nouveau" (www.pontnouveau.se) It's bookable online at http://www.bookatable.com/se/109289/rue-du-pont-nouveau/index.en-US.aspx. Went on a Saturday evening at 8pm. This is relatively prime-time eating, but there were a number of tables available. The restaurant is an offshoot of a patisserie/bakery, to which it adjoins. It's done up in pretty modern decor, with glass-topped tables and lucite chairs, but still subdued in the Swedish way. The tables are actually quite clever: there's a glass top over a sort of cabinet, so that one can see the menu displayed underneath. A good way to keep the menu on the table without using up tablespace. Anyway, more importantly, the food. Very nicely done. Excellent taste, and playful presentation. Had in particular, a liver pate to start, a halibut and a lamb dish. Both came with seasonal vegetables. The former paired with a crayfish riso...