Category: Travel

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Another Summer Gone?

Well, indeed another summer has left. It’s been a great one weather-wise for those of us in Sweden, at least in my humble opinion. It rarely was hot, the nights were cool, and there was a lot of sun. We had some “heatwaves” which I always find a bit humorous. 78 degrees Fahrenheit (I can appreciate Celsius after all this time but I convert it back to my favorite backward index of heat) will never be hot for me. I even wear a light jacket if it is cloudy. But to folks here it’s practically tropical. Yes, I am insufferable when it comes to talking about what “real” hot weather is. Of course someone from where it is incredibly hot could do the same to me and I’d just have to listen and bear it since I know I’d be getting “my own medicine”.

Anyway, it was a uneventful Summer for me. My vacation was a two week trek to the West coast of Sweden and after some of the less touristy spots of Denmark. I’ve not spent much time in Gothenburg till this trip and it’s a very nice city. We stayed at a high-rise hotel which thrilled my son since he loves heights. In Denmark I saw a lot of lighthouses and made the inevitable trip to Legoland. My son’s been there twice already but wanted a third go, which I gave him. It was my first go and I was not too impressed. But they do have great models of places in Europe, including a few we just saw in Denmark prior.

Before I give up trying to write interesting text and lay out the photos I must mention the first few pictures are from the Uppsala University (my alma mater, humble-brag) Gustavianum museum. It has a very old medical dissection theater which is incredible. After a very long restoration the museum it is open again and if you are in the neighborhood I’d recommend a visit.

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The First Normal Summer In Some Time

My summer trip this year was once again intended to bring me closer to my adopted country. With the pandemic less intense it almost seemed normal. Sweden is a land of lakes, and I mean a lot of them. Pond-like ones, scenic petite ones, large ones, and some that are more like small inland seas dot the country. I grew up on the Great Lakes in the U.S. so I’m not as impressed by the big ones but they are still majestic. The second largest lake is called Vättern and I’ve been to it a few times. However, this year the trip was on the Western shore which isn’t as well visited as the more populous Eastern one. 

On the route there we spent a night at Nora which has a rich railroad history. In fact the hostel that kept us warm and cozy that stay was made of 1930’s sleeper rail cars. It was quite interesting to imagine moving along the tracks in the past although I struggled with high and somewhat claustrophobic bed. Still, even stationary one gets a warm feeling of nostalgia for a time when you could lay down and sleep the miles away in a comforting environment with wooden accents. 

Then we went to Karlsborg, Hjo, and Jönköping all of which were fascinating. I’ll quit here since you can google them. Below are some pictures.

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Summer of Covid

It takes a long time for me to put a new post up, this time it seems a century. Last post I said we were looking into a pandemic but at the time of this writing we’ve been living in it for quite a period. I needn’t say it has changed so much about life, even in Sweden where we’ve had “mild” response to the virus. Most of all it limited travel so when my vacation came up we took a drive to areas of Sweden I’ve never seen. I’m rather happy about this since the country of my residence is still a bit of a mystery to me and has many surprises to impart.

The first surprise I had on the trip was that my camera succumbed, not to a virus but a rather small fall onto a carpet. The last image it took is the header to this post. After that I had to use a backup camera which didn’t allow me as much latitude in capturing images. Such is life.

I’ll not make comments right now about where these photos were taken, but most were in Skåne , Hallands, and Blekinge. A few were on the Göta Canal which is most lovely.

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A Brief Time in Riga

There’s a lot I could say about Riga but since I only had a short time there I’ll try and be just as brief. We often think that the Soviet sphere of influence tore everything down within its control and replaced it with Brutalist communal architecture. I’m glad to say that is not true in many places. My trip last year to Tallinn and this one to Riga showed that very pristine old towns can exist. Of course much was rebuilt after the two world wars so it’s not exactly as it was but the fact that areas seem untouched by time says quite a bit. The largest concentration of Art Nouveau buildings resides here and I wish I could have seen each one.

It was typical November weather on the Baltic with grey skies and the threat of rain constantly. Not a good environment for pictures and certainly not what I had hoped for. A bit boring and bit colorless I present here the images I took.

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Tallinn In The Cold

Estonia has a long and turbulent history. There’s a hackneyed phrase for you but pretty accurate here. Bouncing between empires and occupations it hasn’t been until the fall of the Iron Curtain that they could rise up as a nation. It also means that a city like Tallinn has not been scarred by modernism too badly…until recently. New building is evident all over but the old city is still untouched. I had a ferry ride there and spend a brief day exploring this impressive place.

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The Flame of Soul

“There is a kind of flame in Crete – let us call it “soul” – something more powerful than either life or death. There is pride, obstinacy, valor, and together with these something else inexpressible and imponderable, something which makes you rejoice that you are human being, and at the same time tremble.”
― N. Kazantzakis, Report to Greco

I didn’t know what to except from our visit to Crete. The idea to travel there wasn’t mine and I knew very little about this large Island in the Mediterranean. However, it turned out to exceed my hopes. It was hot, but the nights were cool on the water, so lack of AC wasn’t a big problem. We just needed to keep the sunscreen flowing under that big, hot orb. Here in Sweden I miss a café culture and the ability to eat excellent food at a reasonable cost so finding the Crete had a few tavernas in every town that didn’t charge a fortune was nice. The food, even at the modest restaurants, was great. Ancient history always attracts me, so I was glad to be constantly exposed to it. Crete is not a impoverish part of Greece, but you do see an odd mix of clean modern buildings next to much older ones in poor states of repair. But that’s the kind of juxtaposition I love to see, especially in such stunning landscapes. Through it all the Cretans were uniformly friendly far beyond normal hospitality. The downside was terrifying mountain road drives with the reward of magnificent vistas. We survived it all as these pictures prove.

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Of Castles and Kings

A friend visiting in the summer provided the excuse to see some of the area around Stockholm. I hate to admit it but even though I’m a short drive or train ride away I have not explored that city as much as I should. Drottningholm Palace just outside Stockholm is where the Swedish royals actually live but you can still tour a portion of the historic building. While there’s certainly vast wealth on display you can see that Sweden’s Royal Family wasn’t the wealthiest in Europe by all the faux detailing and decoration. I captured a little bit of it in pictures.

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Sweden 2014
(So Far)

It’s hard to believe that I moved to Sverige in January of this year. I’ve now worked my way through a few seasons here and am staring down winter. While I’ve been lax in updating this blog I’ve not been remiss in taking photographs. Here’s a variety of them from this year.