Minneapolis/St. Paul

10 3 09

This is the first large city we are visiting and that is a different ballgame. We have just played it by ear before but here that is difficult as you get tangled in all the high rises and one way streets.

First we wanted to drive around to get a feel for the two cities and we started with St. Paul. First we saw the state capitol but it was barricaded off by the police for some reason. We parked on Kellogg blvd from where we could see the Wabasha bridge and another one across the Mississippi and Rasberry Island. It was rainy and windy. We walked around Rice Park, checked out the St. Paul Hotel (a historical landmark) where there were a lot of African people all dressed for a wedding. Then we had to run back to the parking meter. We passed the City Hall and Ramsey Court House which AAA considers a gem but it was closed. The next night I read that there was a large statue there by Carl Milles. I grew up hearing about him my whole childhood as my neighbor Axel Wallenberg was in charge of Millesgarden in Stockholm. So I made poor Jalil drive back the next day to check it out. It was nowhere to be found! But the sun was now shining and I got some better pictures of the briges than the day before.

I really wanted to see the Prairie Home Companion at the Fitzgerald Theater and I had checked out where it was and that you could come at 4 PM to get left over tickets. We happened to drive by it around noon and there was already a line. Forget that, we agreed!

On to Minneapolis and the American Swedish Institute on Park Avenue and their 1 PM tour. We were early and the gates were not open yet. A mother and her son (about 6 years) offered to take us through the back to the kaffestuga. They had been there earlier for his Swedish language class. We were not allowed to come in that way so we had to go through the official gate and pay the entrance fee. Well me in the kaffestuga properly, we had herring and cheese, knackebrod, and cardamom pastry until it was time for the tour.
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Sven Mansson (1860-1933) came from Sweden, changed his name to Swan Turnblad (!) and worked at the newspaper as a typesetter. He bought stocks little by little and eventually owned the whole paper - Svenska Amerikanska Posten. He turned the paper around and sold 40,000 copies weekly for a nickel a copy. It claimed to be the largest Swedish newspaper in the United States. So he made a fortune and built this mansion on Park Avenue in 1903. There were 11 beautiful kakelugnar (ceramic tile stoves) ordered from catalogues and shipped from Rorstrand and Uppsala-Ekeby in Sweden. There was so much opulence's that I will not go into. After his wife died, Turnblad established the American Institute of Swedish Art, Literature and Science which was changed to the American Swedish Institute in 1949 to promote the Swedish cultural heritage.In the gift shop I found a book called Touring Swedish America. Now I could do my homework!

Afterwards we drove around downtown Minneapolis, saw the Guthrie Theater, Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, along the River Parkway to Lake street where we were able to find the Scandinavian store Ingebretsen's that the young girl at the kaffestuga told us about. It was painted in old Scandinavian style and they sold typical Scandinavian stuff but on the other side there was food - sausages, baked stuff, canned herring, kaviar, rice pudding, etc. They were about to close but we managed to buy a few items.
At that time we were hungry so we went next door to a Mexican restaurant with very loud Mexican music, where we were the only non-Mexicans. The neighborhood had totally turned Latin but the Scandinavian store was doing well per a newspaper article on their wall.