Tripping Again...

With winter sliding slowly away towards spring we have decided to get away for a few days to Nelson at the top of the South Island. The last time we visited Nelson was March 2021, but the deciding factor for visiting was not only the length of time between visits, but also that my last long service recognition trip (from my airline service) expires in December so it needed to be used and Nelson being a single sector destination so it is easy to get to.

An 8:00AM arrival combined with a 3:00PM motel check-in meant that we needed to fill some time. So we drove to Blenhiem, some 65 km to the east. A visit to a store for her indoors was followed by a pub lunch then a visit to the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre. This place has superb displays of WWI and WWII aircraft. The WWI section is hugely influenced by Peter Jackson who has a passion for the era and contributed heavily.

Clearing the Red Baron's crash

A difficult landing...

 

The WWII section has a smaller number of aircraft, but is just as impressive.

We had been here before, some five years ago, but it was well worth a return visit.

A Visit to the Swedish Army Museum

I am in the northern hemisphere on business at the moment. I left Auckland on Tuesday night for the first leg, an 11 hour haul, to Los Angeles. The flight was pleasant enough and I got some sleep thanks to a sleeping pill. I was quite shocked though when about 45 minutes out from LAX I could see a vast amount of debris in the water. It extended as far as I could see out of my little porthole and it took us about fifteen minutes to clear it, so it must have extended somewhere between 75 and 100 kilometres wide. This was the debris from the Japanese Tsunami still drifting around the  Pacific Ocean and seeing it is rather sobering.

After a two hour transit in LAX it is back on the plane for London and another nine and a half hour sector, made more tolerable by a business class upgrade. No sleeping pill this time, so a chance for a couple of pinot noirs with dinner, finished off with a matching pair of cognacs to follow. I much enjoyed watching Barry Linden again. I also spent some time more productively by proofing the draft of my Spichern/Froeschweiller book.

I had another transit in London of about four hours amid the cellphone obsessed hordes (is their life really that vital) before I embarked on my final sector to Stockholm where I spend two nights before I head off to Toulouse for four nights.

Unbeknown to me, Thursday is a public holiday, so I ended up with an unintended day at my leisure. My hotel is fairly central which meant that within easy walking distance were the key sights of city centre, the old town, the Royal Palace, the Parliament buildings, the Nobel Museum, the Opera House, Gustavus Adolphus Square, the King’s Garden, several stunning cathedrals, the waterfront, and much more. I captured most of these in a walk of just over a few kilometres from the hotel, but the most important spot for me was the Military Museum.

 

Now you need to understand that I have been developing an interest in the Great Northern War so here was an opportunity not to be missed. It is a great museum. There are many superb exhibits of flags, weapons uniforms and equipment, and highly recommended to any visitor to Stockholm.

Below, the museum building from the road

Outside the entrance to the building is a row of gun barrels, bronze guns to the left and iron to the right. 

Below, the bronze barrels drifting off into the distance

There were lost of manequins and life sized dioramas

Below, these three chaps are charging right towards you as you enter their room

 

Below a Napoleonic gun crew

A Russian Napoleonic Jaeger taking aim at the battery above

French and German WWI

A Prussian Guardsman from the 1840s

Below, the uniform of Swedish infantryman and a musician of the Great Northern War

Hussars of various types

Some of the guns on display - I was surprised by the size of these two 3lb guns.

I even saw the Royal Guard parade with a full band.