Norway – Super Facts

The Swedish War King

“The Swedish War King” is not about a super fact. It is just what I think might be interesting information. Americans are obsessed with the British Royalty. However, there 43 monarchies around the world, including Sweden (my native country). Some of the kings and queens of the past are quite interesting.

The focus of this post is Karl XII or Carolus Rex, the Swedish War King who invaded Russia before Napoleon did. I made a list of Swedish monarchs that I find interesting. Then I will focus on Karl XII . The number following the name of the king is his/her time of reign.

Painting of Gustav I Vasa liberator of Sweden from Denmark. Fashion was somewhat different back in the day.

Olof Skötkonung, 995–1022, son of King Erik VII and Sigrid the Haughty. He was Sweden’s first Christian King. The Swedish Viking era ended during his reign.
Erik IX, 1156 – 18 May 1160. Saint Erik was both a king and a saint. He tried to Christianize Finland and led the first crusade east. He was assassinated. Thereof his short reign.
Gustav Vasa or Gustav I, 6 June 1523 – 29 September 1560. From 1389 to 1523, Sweden was often united with Denmark and Norway under the kings of the Kalmar Union. Sweden’s full independence was restored under Gustav I in 1523. Gustav was elected king in Strängnäs 6 June 1523. Therefore, June 6 is celebrated as Sweden’s Independence Day. The Danish king at the time was King Christian II. In Sweden he is referred to Christian the Tyrant and in Denmark as Christian the Good.
Gustav II Adolf, 30 October 1611 – 6 November 1632. He is known as the “father of modern warfare”, or the first modern general, and under his reign Sweden became one of the great powers of Europe. Sweden was one of the primary military forces in Europe during the Thirty Years’ War (on the Protestant side). An estimated 4-8 million people died in the Thirty Years’ War, so this was a big war.
Queen Christina, 6 November 1632 – 16 June 1654. She was the daughter Gustav II Adolf. Gustav Adolf was closely attached to his daughter, and he taught her everything about being a monarch. Ironically, she fought to end the Thirty Years’ War. She converted to Catholicism, abdicated, and moved to Rome.
Carl XII, Charles XII, or Karl XII, or Carolus Rex, 5 April 1697 – 30 November 1718, was the Swedish War King, known for among other things invading Russia before Napoleon did. (see video below).
Gustav III, 12 February 1771 – 29 March 1792, was an autocrat and a believer in enlightened absolutism (educated despots). He ended the age of liberty and took away most of the powers of the riksdag/congress. He was assassinated.
Carl XIV Bernadotte or Charles XIV John, 5 February 1818 – 8 March 1844, was the king of Sweden and Norway. He was a former General in Napoleons army. Under his reign Sweden entered a long period of peace and neutrality that still lasts today. He is the founder of the current dynasty.
Carl XVI Gustaf Bernadotte or as he sometimes spells it himself Cal XVI, 15 September 1973 – present. He is champion for the dyslexic community. He was formerly made fun of because of his problems with spelling. Not anymore. His work for the dyslexic community has earned him respect.

The current Swedish Royal family. The two people in the middle are Queen Silvia and King Carl XVI Bernadotte. To the right of the king is the future monarch of Sweden princess Victoria and to the left of Queen Silvia is her husband. The others are their other two children and their spouses.

When Karl XII was king (5 April 1697 – 30 November 1718) Sweden was a large and powerful country. I should add that Sweden is viewed as a very small country, but it is significantly larger than California even today.

However, back when Karl XII became king Sweden included what is now Sweden, Finland, Estonia, parts of Norway, Denmark, Latvia, Germany, Poland, and Russia. Karl XII attempted to enlarge Sweden and in doing so he invaded Russia with a goal of taking Moscow and overthrow Tsar Peter the Great. It failed. The Russian winter killed the project.

According to the video below Karl XII was an inspiration for Napolean to do same thing. It was my blogger friend Debbie who alerted me this video. It is a bit long, 15 minutes, so you may want to watch only if you are really interested.

To see the Super Facts click here

United States, Europe and the Pacific Ocean Are Bigger Than You Might Think

Superfact 11: United States, Europe and the Pacific Ocean Are Bigger Than You Might Think

The area of the United States is around 9,8 million square kilometers
The area of continental United States is around 8.1 million square kilometers
The area of Europe is around 10.2 million square kilometers
Earth’s total land area is 148.9 million square kilometers
The area of the Pacific Ocean is 165.3 million square kilometers
The area of the whole earth is 510 million square kilometers

The United States

The United States is much bigger than many Europeans think. Europe is much bigger than many Americans think. Many of us don’t realize that one of the five oceans, the Pacific Ocean, is one third of earth’s entire surface and cover a larger area than all landmass on earth. Since so many of us are surprised to hear these facts and they are not under dispute among experts, they constitute a super-fact, or a few super-facts in my opinion.

Some time ago I was talking to a Swedish friend of mine who told me something along the lines of “the United States isn’t so big as they say. We drove through half a dozen states in an afternoon.” I asked her, “which states?” It turns out that was the New England states, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and finally New Jersey and New York (New York city). You can do that drive in an afternoon, but you cannot drive through Texas in an afternoon, not even in a day.

The distance from Texarkana to El Paso is 1,300 kilometers and takes more than 12 hours to drive on the highway without stopping. I’ve come across many Europeans who underestimate the size of the United States. The mistake they make is that they don’t realize that while some US states are small, other states are much bigger. Just look at the map.

Europe

Interestingly Americans often make the same mistake about Europe. I quite often hear Americans claim that distances are so small in Europe. You can drive through a country in a couple of hours and the language changes. It’s a trope that seems to be repeated every time Europe is discussed on social networks.

Today, as I was talking to a friend of mine about our recent trip to Sweden and Norway, my friend told me that it was good that distances in Europe were so short so we could easily travel between the places I was telling him about. He was more than surprised to hear that was not the case. The distance between where we were Sweden and Norway was too large for anything other than planes considering we only had 10 days.

The distance from Malmö in southern Sweden to Karesuando in northern Sweden is more than 1,900 kilometers and takes more than 21 hours to drive without stopping. In fact, by area, Sweden is bigger and longer than California.

The Pacific Ocean

Last but not least. Earth has seven continents (Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia), and five oceans (the Arctic, Atlantic, Indian, Pacific, and Southern (Antarctic) Oceans). But just one ocean, the Pacific Ocean cover a third of earth’s entire surface. This may come as a surprise to many. See the globe photorealistic 3d illustration below.

Earth Pacific Ocean view Stock Illustration ID: 1617553012 by Matis75.

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Tourism in Scandinavia on World Tourism Day

I just returned from a trip to Scandinavia with my son and his wife. Since it is World Tourism Day today, September 27^th, I thought I’d make one more post related to our trip. As usual, the post features many interesting facts, but it is not a super-fact post. To provide some background. Me and my oldest son and his wife visited my native country of Sweden and Norway over the last 10+ days. We got a lot done. Unfortunately, we did not have time to visit with family this time.

From a cruise in Sognefjord. Left to right, me, my eldest son and his wife.

First, we visited Stockholm including the Old City (Gamla Stan), the Royal Palace in Stockholm and Drottningholm, which is a Royal Palace outside of Stockholm, built in the 1660’s and resembling Versailles in France. We also visited the Ice Bar, a Viking restaurant, many museums including the Vasa Museum and the Abba Museum, and we learned about Karl XIV Bernadotte, the founder of the current Swedish Royal dynasty.

A photo of the Vasa ship from the bottom floor. My son is standing on the right in a green and black shirt.

We spent a day in Uppsala, the student city north of Stockholm, where I studied engineering physics. Here we visited Sweden’s largest cathedral, the tomb of king Gustav I, Uppsala castle, my old student club (Nation of Norrland), the religious center of the Vikings, a Viking Museum, and we spent the afternoon with a classmate from my days at Uppsala University.

From left to right, my oldest son, his wife, a classmate of mine from engineering physics 35-40 years ago, and finally me in the white jacket. In the background is a restaurant. I had Viking honey mead.

We also visited Oslo, Norway, where we visited several museums including an outdoor museum, the armed forces museum, the Maritime and the Fram Museum, an old fort, and we did some fishing in Oslo fjord. We toured the Norwegian mountains and did a cruise on Sognefjord. As a side note, the Fram Museum was centered around a ship called Fram, which was used by polar explorers such as Roald Amundsen who was the first to reach the South Pole. It is generally considered that the American Robert Peary reached the North Pole first, but that claim is disputed, which makes it possible that Roald Amundsen reached the North Pole first as well.

Fram was the Norwegian ship used for Polar expeditions.

With this post I also wanted to focus on practical issues regarding visiting Scandinavia. The Scandinavian countries are relatively wealthy, like the United States, and most people, at least young people, speak English and are friendly towards tourists including Americans. When you visit tourist attractions in Scandinavia you will hear a plethora of languages. However, unlike Texas, Spanish is not a common language, so if Spanish is your first language you’ve got to know English as well. Crime is not high, even though you should watch out for pick pockets. It is rare to encounter Scandinavians who try to trick you or take advantage of you, in contrast to some other tourist places around the world. However, there are some differences between Scandinavia and the United States, especially Texas, that can be challenging to tourists.

Sweden and to a certain degree Norway are trying to be cashless societies. Banks will not handle cash, most stores, restaurants, hotels, and other businesses will not accept cash. Before leaving I tried to change dollars into Swedish crowns at my bank in Dallas, but I was informed that Swedish banks no longer provide or handle cash, so they did not have any either. There are Forex stores at airports that will exchange dollars and euros into Swedish and Norwegian crowns, but using the cash is a challenge. You pretty much have to use credit cards or a swish app on your phone to pay for anything.

Fyrisån, the small river that flows through Uppsala.

Personally, I disagree with this. It removes one important option to pay, which becomes a problem if your credit card is stopped, or you don’t have a credit card. It greatly inconveniences tourists, visitors, and many immigrants. In addition, it forces everyone to have a detailed digital footprint that can be used to track everything you buy. Identity theft, power outages, cyber-attacks, natural disasters, and other mishaps that disable electronic payment options can become disastrous without access to cash. Therefore, despite being Swedish I think this is a bad move by Sweden.

A view of a few of the Viking king and iron age king burial mounds in Uppsala.

One difference that I personally find more amenable, but I know that many Texans (I live in Texas) will find objectionable, is the focus on reducing one’s carbon footprint and the fight against global warming. You are reminded of this all the time and EV cars are very common. Texans frequently believe that EV cars are not environmentally friendly and does not emit less carbon dioxide than regular internal combustion engine cars. This is a false belief that Swedes do not tend share. Sweden has an almost entirely fossil fuel free grid and Swedes value that their carbon footprint is less than a third of that of, for example, Americans. These are all things that could rub some Texans the wrong way, just like Texas opinions could rub Swedes the wrong way. It is better not to argue.

16-25% of original energy goes to the wheels. Data from FuelEconomy.gov, Image by Karin Kirk for Yale Connections.

87-91% of original energy goes to the wheels. Since EVs are so much more efficient than internal combustion engines they are cleaner even when their electricity come from a very dirty grid. Data from FuelEconomy.gov, Image by Karin Kirk for Yale Connections.

There are other differences. Public transportation is very good in Sweden and Norway. Public transportation is safe and typically much cheaper than taxi, uber or renting a car. In fact, considering the difference in traffic signs, the difficulties with parking, and the restrictions on driving in inner cities, you may not want to rent a car unless you plan on driving far out into the countryside. Bicycles and bicycle lanes are also very common and need to be respected. Luckily Scandinavian inner cities are very walkable. Doorknobs/handles are not round and are like levers. Scandinavians eat dinner earlier compared to southern and central Europeans and are like Americans in that regard.

Happy World Tourism Day Everyone