Prize Ceremonies

We didn't plan it this way, necessarily, but our trip to Sweden this past weekend had a lot to do with prizes and ceremonies.  We took the train from Copenhagen to Stockholm on Thursday and met up with one of Chuck's colleagues from graduate school at Stanford: Marty (Martha) Finnemore and her husband David.  We've been friends with them since we lived several blocks apart in San Francisco just after we got married.  Marty and David were there so she could receive the Skytte Prize, a prestigious honor awarded for most remarkable achievements within the field of Political Science.  We joined them for drinks and then a pleasant dinner that gave us the opportunity to get caught up with each others' lives.

The next day, Chuck and I took a guided tour of City Hall.  Even though visiting a City Hall doesn't sound very spectacular, it certainly was, partly because the grand Blue Room is the site every year of the grand banquet for royalty and winners of the Nobel Prizes for Medicine, Chemistry, Physics, and Literature (the ceremony for the Nobel Peace Prize takes place in Oslo, Norway).  By the way, it is called the Blue Room because the architect originally wanted it painted blue but changed his mind when he saw how nice the bricks looked. There is a very grand staircase that the prize winners get to gracefully glide down to greet their guests.

The Blue Room

There is a reception afterwards in the Golden Hall, which really is gold because it is made up of thousands of gold mosaic tiles. The figure at the end is the embodiment of Copenhagen, with the zodiac signs indicating when she was "born" with symbols of the east (on the right) and west (on the left) coming to visit her (if you look closely, you can see the American flag and the Eiffel Tower on the left side!).

The Golden Hall

Nobel Prize Museum in Stortorget in Stockholm

In the afternoon, we visited the Nobel Prize Museum in the wonderful old part of the city, Gamla Stan.  On the ceiling are hanging photos and profiles of every one of the 1000 prize winners in history. They are hanging on racks that are constantly and slowly moving so if you miss one, you can see it again after 6 hours!  There are also displays with objects that each winner is invited to donate. And each winner is asked to sign the bottom of a cafe chair.  We found Obama!

Later that day we took the train farther north to Uppsala, the old university town. On Saturday we were invited to see Marty receive the Skytte Prize. Students at the university serve as flag bearers for the pageantry.

We weren't originally invited to the banquet but got a last minute invitation to fill some empty seats (so Chuck scrambled to find a suit jacket at a thrift shop!).  It was a very grand affair in Uppsala Castle, starting with champagne, then dinner with multiple courses and multiple wines, then coffee and liqueurs, to be followed by dancing. Periodically, there were speeches as well as songs from a talented women's acapella group. And it turned out we should listen carefully because there was a riddle we needed to solve: each song started with a letter that was also a number and should be subtracted from the year to get the answer!!  What?!? It did prompt some interesting discussions at the tables. It was a great evening and we happily walked back to our hotel after midnight!