If you're paying attention, you'll notice that I really should change the name of this blog. However, since my friend made me such a cool banner (thankyou Simply14.blogspot.com), I'm going to let it be inaccurate. We were supposed to spend one year in Sweden. As often happens in these situations, the work assignment has been extended a bit longer. I'll spare you a discussion of the ups, downs, pros and cons involved in that. Suffice it to say, we returned to Sweden in time for the kids to go back to school.
It felt weird to come back at the same time of year we came originally but to have our feelings be so very different. Less excitement-- Sweden doesn't feel exotic to us anymore-- but also a whole lot less anxiety. We had a house, our stuff, friends-- a life-- waiting for us this time. Everyone adjusted back to Swedish life quickly. In a few days, it felt like we had never left.
It was really fun a month later to have my parents come visit from the U.S. They spent a week here with us, and seeing things with them reminded us a little of how we used to see Sweden. They told us that they were coming to see us, not Europe, so they didn't want to do any extensive traveling/sightseeing. So we spent a lot of time hanging out, playing games with the kids, but I also showed them around some of the fun places we've enjoyed in Skåne.
First up, of course, was the walking tour our our town, Kristianstad. Kristianstad is below sea-level. It was a swamp that was drained by a series of canals when the city was built in the early 1600s. The canals were designed strategically to surround the city for defense.
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An area on the edge of town reconstructed to show how the city
was fortified by enbankments and cannons along the canals. |
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There are canals all over town-- not needed anymore for defense
but great for ducks |
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| The old north gate to the city |
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| Heliga Trefaldighetskyrkan in the center of town |
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Inside this beautiful church. Very random fact-- we watched
jugglers and acrobats perform in here (to organ accompaniment)
once last year. That was interesting. |
We lucked out and had really nice fall weather during the visit. While it sprinkled off and on, we never got drenched on any of our outings and we actually saw some blue sky and sun (off and on). One sunny morning, we headed north on a little road trip. We stopped first at Bäckaskog castle. Bäckaskog was built as a monastery in the 13th century and transformed into a royal castle in the 16th. Now it is a hotel (with a reputation of being haunted). We enjoyed a walk around the beautiful gardens.
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| Bäckaskog |
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My daughter actually saw a performance of "Much Ado About Nothing"
here with herschool class. I was terribly jealous. |
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Trying to find my way to the ferry, we came across this lovely church.
It is very typical of the old churches in Sweden. |
Bäckaskog sits on the isthmus between Ivö Lake (Scania's largest lake) and Oppmanna Lake. We drove farther north along the shore of Ivö Lake and then took the free car ferry out to Ivö island in the middle of the lake. My kids had been to Ivö, for a school trip and church campout, but I'd only seen pictures. I was glad there were already other cars in line waiting for the ferry so I didn't have to figure out how/if to call it or just wait.
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| The ferry looks small from a distance but holds quite a few vehicles. |
First we drove down to the Bishop's cellar-- a ruin of a Bishop's palace. Since all that is left is the basement, with a roof added to protect it, we missed it our first time by.
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| The Bishop's Cellar |
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| Inside |
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When my son came for a church campout, they had a fireside
by candlelight here. |
Then we drove out towards the north end of the island and went for a nice hike out to the shore line.
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| I would love this house-- all by itself on the shore. |
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| We had to climb one of the hills to see the view. |
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| An old quarry |
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| We were the first car on the ferry ride back. |
The next day was fairly cool and looked rainy. We stayed close to home and the kids showed their grandparents the wetlands around Kristianstad.
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| View from the top floor of Naturum-- the visitor's center for the wetlands |
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| Looking up the Helge River |
We walked along both sides of the river and then drove over to Lillö. We would have walked over (it's a couple of miles) but the weather was looking threatening. It was a good call. Right after we went into the castle, we heard hard rain coming down on the roof.
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The ruins of Lillö. It was a multi-story castle, but only the lower
part remains. |
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| Inside the ruin |
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| Looking across the wetlands to Kristianstad. |
On Sunday, we enjoyed taking our visitors to church with them. They got to experience church in a language they didn't understand-- though kind church members translated several meetings for them and then their granddaughter translated sacrament meeting.
Our son lucked out and had Monday off of school, so he got to accompany his grandparents and I on another road trip. We went south this time. First stop was the castle in
Vittskövle. I love this castle. It is a private residence (of some lesser royals) so they ask that you don't cross the inner moat, but they do let you roam the outer gardens.
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| Vittskövle |
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| These were auxiliary buildings to the castle |
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The garden in front, you can see the front dor of the castle in
the distance. |
Next we went out to the coast to Haväng-- a beach area with a bronze-age burial monument.
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| The burial monument |
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| Up close |
We continued our bronze-age tour by visiting several sites in Kivik--another standing stone burial monument and a huge burial mound.
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This burial mound is called the King's Grave, although they
really don't know who was buried here. |
My parents are very physically fit and enjoy the outdoors. One of their current hobbies is that they have been hiking to the highest peak in each of the counties in Utah. So I had to take them to Stenshuvud-- the highest peak in Skåne. It was a very easy hike compared to what they are used to--only a few km round trip-- but the view of the Baltic Sea is nice.
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| View south from Stenshuvud |
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| View looking north |
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On our way down, we ran into a herd of these odd looking cows
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We continued down the coast to Simrishamn. I wanted to show them this pretty church, but apparently a renovation had begun since last we were there. We did succeed in our other goal-- lunch. We introduced them to the best/least expensive fast food in Europe-- kebab. If you aren't familiar with kebab, it is a Middle Eastern food similar to a Greek gyro. They have a chunk of season meat slow roasting and then shave off thin slices. They serve it either in a pita or just on a platter with vegetables, dressing and french fries if you want them.
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| Church in Simrishamn |
I was also pleased to find my way back to the rock carvings on the coast outside of town. I love seeing things that are thousands of years old!
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| An upside down boat and an animal. |
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| A man with a very large ax. |
We ran out of time and energy before we ran out of things we'd like to have shown them. We didn't make it to the waterfall in Degeberga (looks a lot like Virginia :-))or to Glimmingehus castle. On our way back through Kivik, I lucked out and could see that the apple art was still out! Apparently the Applemarkenad-- a big apple festival had been the previous weekend and they still had the centerpiece of the event-- a huge piece of art made from apples-- on display. We had to stop.
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| This year's apple art. |
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They also had the informative tent. My fruit-growing dad loved
seeing all the varieties of apples. |
We went to Applemarkenad last year and though we loved the apple art, we hadn't enjoyed the rest of the experience. It was a typical craft fair-- lots of vendor booths, TONS of people. Just not really our thing. So showing up a day late was perfect! No crowds, no parking headaches, and no admission fees.
For our last road trip, we drove east to Lund. I think Lund is a really beautiful city. It was founded around 900 AD and has had a university since the 1600s so there are many beautiful, old buildings. We took a walk through the university's botanical gardens and enjoyed a variety of plants, both outside and in the green houses. Then we walked down to the center of town to see the cathedral.
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| Botanical Garden in Lund |
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My mom loved the emergency exit signs-- another thing we've
gotten used to since we see them everywhere. |
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| The main square in Lund. Lots of bikes! |
The cathedral in Lund is amazing. It was built around 1000 AD with additions in the 1600s. It is a huge, stone building. It is hard to get far enough back from it to get a really good picture.
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| Lund Cathedral |
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| Lund Cathedral |
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| The front doors are beautiful. |
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| Looking up towards the altar |
The church has an astronomical clock dating from 1424 that still functions. We timed our visit to see it in action-- they run it twice a day. The knights at the top clashed swords for the number of the hour and then a song played while the wisemen came out to bring gifts to Jesus. In addition to the time and day, the clock shows phases of the moon, zodiak star patterns, saints days and more.
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| Astronomical Clock |
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| The wisemen visit |
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An elaborate candlestick. You can
also see the confessionals in the background. |
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| We were also able to see the crypt |
After the cathedral, we went across the street to Kulturen, an open-air history museum. They have collected historical buildings and furnishings from throughout the area here. You can see how people lived in southern Sweden in many different time periods.
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| The houses range from quite large and elaborate |
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| To very humble.(Would you have to mow the roof?) |
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There is an old church that is beautfully decorated.
I love the different flowers at the ends of the pews. |
Being able to show off our part of Sweden to family reminded us what a beautiful place it is and how fortunate we've been to have this experience.
