After a train ride from Stockholm and a wild bus ride, we arrived in the teeny town of Kosta, Sweden. There, we had a brief lecture on the history of the Kosta Boda glass facilities, and got to watch the factory workers blow glass for about half an hour before their work day ended. We then went over to the school for glassblowing. We each got to try our hand at blowing glass - so much harder than it looks. The glass blowers use these specialized rods that are h...

Our last full day in Stockholm, today was a free day so we could go visit whatever we wanted to. Becky and I opted to check out several of the cathedrals and do some more touristy shopping. We headed over to see Riddarholmskyrkan first, since we were intreigued by the cast-iron spire. We got to the church, only to discover that you had to pay to go inside, and decided just to sneak a picture from the door. Riddarholms is no longer an operating church, but rat...

This morning we visited Markuskyrkan, a brick church in an outer district of Stockholm. Rather plain on the outside, the ceiling of the congregation hall is made up of crazily angled brick curves, stretching the length of the hall. The inner courtyard of the church complex also featured a rather unique fountain, and a row of columns holding up curved wood cantilevers, mirroring the ceiling of the hall inside. The group then headed out to see sculptor Carl Mill...

We visited a wide variety of places today - a library, a design showroom, and a crematorium/cemetery, a bit of a change from relatively 'themed' days. We first went and sketched at Stockholms Stadsbibliotek - the public library - designed by architect Gunnar Asplund and built in 1928. There was a fairly recent design contest for an addition to the library, which was apparently received one of the largest amounts of entries for any architectural design contest...

Our overnight cruise ship arrived in port in Stockholm, Sweden early this morning. As we were there much too early to actually check into the hotel, we dropped off our luggage and ate a delicious and nourishing breakfast at a nearby McDonald's. Bad food notwithstanding, several of us decided to accompany Mark, our professor, around the city before going back to the hotel to check in. We did a full loop, crossing mostly through Gamla Stan, the Old Town, and the...