2005/6/2 Stockholm

The city Hall is famous because every December 10th, a few lucky researchers will gather here and have dinner with the King and Queen of Sweden. Even though Oscar is its equivalent in film industry, Nobel prize ceremony has much less flair and fans. It is probably less understood by the general public. The ceremony is held in concert Hall in downtown, the dinner moves to this 19th century building.  A few days ago, we also had dinner in the city hall, one of many differences is that our honored guest is the Mayor of the Stockholm.

Like most monarchs in the world, Kings and Queens of Sweden are also fond of building palaces, status and expensive hats.  And we are on our way to one summer palace down stream this river.

The main building of the summer palace Drottningholm has three floors, with the first floor as the Queen's residence and the second floor as the King's.  Customarily at that time, The bedrooms were also used to receive guests, honored guests of course. The closest guests even helped King/Queen dress. The palace used to sell tickets to let general public watch the royalty having dinner.

There is a huge garden behind the palace and even a smaller China pavilion, secretly constructed as a birthday gift from a King to the Queen.

We took the boat back to the Royal Palace on the island of Gamla Stan. We then visited the Skattkammaren, the treasury, where royal crown are housed.  Unfortunately, most of these places do not allow cameras, so the only impression I recall after a few days was that they are big and expensive.

We are almost tired by now. Fortunately, the Nobel museum is nearby. In fact anyone would recognize this poster in the picture.

It is the first centennial of Einstein's 1905 "annus mirabilis", the miraculous year of achievement. So the museum is holding a special event celebrating the occasion. There is a staff on site explaining the work of this iconic figure of the 20th century physics. Working in a patent office, Einstein published three ground breaking papers in 1905: one on the Brownian motion, one on photoelectric effect and the other on the special relativity.  In retrospect, any of these papers would land anyone a Nobel prize. But people were not that far sighted. That much I knew already. However, this visit to the museum reveals a few more interest tidbits:  Wilhelm Ostwald, the 1909 Laureate in chemistry, first nominated Einstein for Nobel prize in 1910 and every year thereafter.  But the nomination was rejected year after year citing that the relativity is only a theory and not confirmed.  The other interesting story behind is that merely 10 years ago, Ostwald rejected Einstein's application to work in his lab after his graduation! In 1915, Einstein published the other paper on general relativity, though it is joked that only two and a half person in the world understood it then.  In 1921, Carl Wilhelm Oseen, a specialist on mathematical physics, understood the power struggle in the committee, and proposed to award Einstein on the photoelectrical effect.  That gets the wheel turning and results in Einstein's single physics prize.  When Einstein was informed of the decision, his comment was: Finally, I don't have to answer the question, when are you going to receive the Nobel prize.

Einstein's contribution is not limited to physics, he is also outspoken and forthright during the dark period of McCarthy, not to mention his stand on the banning of nuclear weapons.  His eloquent scientific exposition is also an inspiration to many including yours truly.  Pondering on the popularity of Einstein, it is interesting to observe that wealthy people, no matter what religion they hold, what color their skins are, what languages they speak, when and where they live, all like to build over-sized palaces, awesome tombs and expensive hats, some with their names or the names of their loved ones in an attempt for fame/eternity.  But it is safe to assume, that in a few tens of thousands of years, all artificial marks will disappear and even sooner, to be forgotten by most.  And with equal confidence, I can assure you that years after years, people over the world will study the history of science; more and more will understand the significance of relativity and how it changes our views on the space, time, the cosmos and our position in the grand scheme of the universe; some will even research and extend the theory; more articles on Einstein will be written; further centennial activities will be held to commemorate Einstein's achievements and celebrate human ingenuity.  I know Einstein may seem like a untouchable towering figure, and some may argue that it is the only thing they can do with the money, but Alfred Nobel begs to differ.

Now, coming back to us mere mortals, what will you do if you have money ?

I want his pen ....

A few other photos:

Taken outside the city hall.

In front of the summer palace Drottningholm, the first Swedish site to be included in UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1991. The China pavilion mentioned above is cited by UNESCO committee to be of particular importance.

Vasa museum, on the background of this photo, houses the only remaining, intact 17th century ship in the world: The Vasa ship. It was built at the Stockholm shipyard by the order of the King. When constructed, it was to be the mightiest warship in the world, armed with 64 guns on two gundecks.  In 1628 the ship was ready. However, to everyone's horror and disbief, Vasa sank on her maiden voyage 1000 yards away from the port  The wreckage was salvaged in 1961.

Grizzly bear living on the Skansen reminds everyone that this was bear country long time ago.