Sweden - Thursday and Friday (Home)

Thursday September 21, 2017

Not much to tell about today.  We sleep in and have a restful day at home.  I work on my blog, sort out photographs and write my book review for the book club at home. I have read a Dutch book, translated in English, called The Dinner (Het Diner) by Herman Koch, but didn’t like it one little bit.  Waiting to see what the others thought of it.

Friday September 22, 2017

We had all sorts of plans for today, but they didn’t quite pan out.  Do you ever have frustrations when working on the computer, trying to book something or otherwise?  Well, I do!  And today Dianne had similar problems.  We spent 3 full hours trying to book the train tickets for our trip to Stockholm.  We were successful, but not before all three or our credit cards had been refused!  However, in the end we got the train and hotel booked, so Patricia and I are all set for our trip on Tuesday. We will be spending some time, and a night, in Stockholm.  Next we take the train to Södenhamn, where Ria will pick us up and we will spend two nights with her and her husband at Rengsjö.

When the bookings were done we drove to Bara (Dianne’s old house) to print out the tickets. As we had forgotten about lunch we bought a lovely pastry at a bakery stall, and we picked up some caches on the way back.

Photos of the caches to follow, of course.

We dropped in at a craft store, but since I can’t take any more weight when travelling in Europe I just looked at all the great craft items.  The next stop, a second hand shop, didn’t do anything for me, so I was glad we didn’t spend a lot of time there.

Then it was time to go home and we had an early dinner since a pastry doesn’t really fill you up.  Probably heading for a quiet and early night again...

Sweden - Tuesday and Wednesday (Lund & Copenhagen)

Tuesday September 19, 2017

Another day out.  This time a trip to Lund, just north-east of Malmö. It took a bit before we had found a parking garage, but it was a short walk into the centre from there.  First stop was the Lunds domkyrka (Lund Cathedral), and surprise, surprise, this cathedral contained an astronomical clock, known as the Horologium mirabile Lundense. The clock was built in the twelfth century, but installed only in 1387.  It was a great surprise, because in 2011 Frank and I so admired the astronomical clock in Prague.  It was actually quite emotional not to have Frank here with me to admire this beautiful clock and share memories of the other one...

Lund's cathedral

Astronomical clock

Entrance to the crypt, but we were not allowed in on the day

But, life goes on and we had a lot to look around at in this beautiful old, cobblestoned town, before we got too hungry.  There were also a few caches to be found.  We had lunch at Subway near the market and a very old building.  After lunch we went and search for a cache there.  The hint was: evil!  We searched the loose bricks and other places first and then walked past a short flight of stairs to which a, no longer working, bell button was attached.  At the back of the black metal sat a black metal box, which could have easily been part of the set-up, but was indeed the cache!  I have nearly been tricked by such a cache before, so I am learning. ;-) It gave way after a heavy pull (strong magnet) so we could sign the log, surrounded by muggles who had no idea...

(Photo's of the caches will come later as I mentioned on Monday.)

Town hall

Walking the maze

The little building with the 'evil' cache

Selling fish

Lund wasn’t a very big town, or there wasn’t much more to see, I don’t know, but Dianne and Patricia decided that it was time to go on.  We located our car and did some more caching on the way back.  We found a few caches on the way and then Dianne took us to Bara, where she had lived before, and where she had hidden a few of her own.

After that we went back to her apartment for dinner.  I haven’t mentioned it yet, but Dianne’s apartment is a one room unit with the kitchen in the corner and with a bathroom and sunroom, so very small.  With three beds and a new armchair it’s more like camping than anything else and more often than not we play ‘musical chairs’.

After dinner we drive to Bara to visit Dianne’s ex-husband and the two boys.  Henrik’s mother is there as well and we have a coffee and cake and spend a pleasant evening together.  As we are still a bit jet-lagged we don’t go home late as we’ve planned a day out to Copenhagen for the next day.

Wednesday September 20, 2017

Early in the morning we take the bus and train to Copenhagen, again across the bridge.

Shopping Centre in Malmo

Central Station Copenhagen

We start off with a visit to the information centre where we obtain maps for the city and lo and behold, they sell Danish pastries, so we can’t pay a visit to Denmark without trying one of those delicious pastries. We each have one and I have a coffee with a rhubarb pastry, called a rabarberhorn. 

We decide to walk from the train station to the little Mermaid and back again, and stop off at all interesting places in the meantime.  If we get too tired we can catch the train back to our starting point.

We come across interesting buildings and a small market place where they sell international foods.  We get to taste some amandelspeculaas and kruidnootjes from a Dutch baker and there is also an interesting Swinging Grill:

Food market with a swinging grill

Next stop is at a row of very colourful houses

Coloured buildings at Nyhavn

The Art Building

And after a while we reach the royal palace where we briefly watch the change of the guards:

Changing of the guard at the Royal Palace

Close to the royal palace is the Marble Church:

The Marble Church

Park near the Citadel

On our way we encounter more buildings and also a few caches.

Eventually we reach the Citadel, which we visit:

Inside the Citadel

Seaplane.  Brings back memories (Wim!)

And shortly after that we reach the water where we see Copenhagen’s Little Mermaid:

The Little Mermaid. Who doesn't know her?

We walk back via the royal palace, the coloured buildings and the Kunsthal Charlottenborg (Art Building) where they have attached 3500 life vests from refugees on the Greek Island of Lesbos.

We also stop at a place called Joe and the Juice, where we have a delicious sandwich and juice. Patricia and Dianne talk to the owner who tells us that he is thinking of opening a branch in Sydney.

I had a photo of a deliceous sandwich, but it has disappeared, so.... no show. :-)

Then I have a few more pictures of interesting items on our walk back, past the Tivoli before we reach the railway station, where we find the train back to Malmö.

We have a very early night, because walking all day makes you a tad bit tired.... :-)