Said "good bye" to Evan at the Gothenburg train station. He travelled back to Uppsala via Stockholm. Seems to have had a good trip as he sent Regan a photo of the lunch he was served ( courtesy of the BoD). By now he should be working his little buns off doing our washing. Sad not to have him travelling with us, but will see him on Friday for our trip to Kiruna to try and see the Northern Lights.
One last refection on Gothenburg- the number of people begging on the streets. There seemed to be one evry 30 metres outside the central mall. Also, the number of people checking out the rubbish bins ( pretty well dressed people at that).
Enough, now for todays trip. We spent anout 4 hours traversing forest, bogs and finger lakes. The forest appeared to be a mixture of conifers and decideous trees (like silver beechs or Elms). We passed through numerous little town (all had two story houses) and in the larger towns forestry ( lumber mills) seemed to dominate. Saw only a few paddockswith cattle or sheep. All were fenced in with stone walls. It wasn't until we were approaching Kalmar did we see more arable agriculture. So trucked along listening to the Beach Boys - "that's why god made the radio" and Clapton and JJ Cale " on the road to Escondido". Tried very hard not to sing-a-long much to Regans relief.
We are staying in a hotel facing the main square (Torg) in an older part of town. The old part Gamla Stan was burn't down sometime in the 17th century. The locals then moved to a small islan nearby, where we are currently staying. After checking we decided to check out the maritime museum ( Kalmar Lans museum. The whole museum is dedicated to one ship - the Krogen. The Krogen was the biggest man-o-war. It sank about 4 days after the Vasa. This time it was undone by tacking in heavy wind with too much sail. It heeled, cannons broke loose, cannon portals weren't closed. It not only rolled over, the gunpowder on board caused and explosion which finished it of. Of a crew (including marines ) of 840, only 40 survived. The wreck was re-discovered in the early 1980's, and once again thanks to the brackish nature of the Baltic the wooden construction was well preserved. By the way the naval battle was between the Swedish and combined Danish-Netherland navel force. The items that have been recovered is amazing. Well worth a vist. The musuem covers 4 floors, 2 floors dedicated to the Kronan, one to pirates and piracy (apparently that was a booming business in the 1700's here in the Baltic (part of the viking hertiage), covered piracy in the Baltic, Mediterranean and today around Somalia. Other exhibits were promoting local artists etc. The top floor included early 20th Century general store and a Kafe shop (great blueberry tart).
Tomorrow its off to see the Kamlar chuch and castle. Should be a fun day.
Woke to another gray overcast day, some rain fell during the night. The hotel we are staying at is the Calmar Stadshtell. It is an old hotel located in the main square ot Stortorget. The hotel is very comfortable, our room has two bedrooms, a small lounge and bathroom. Very pleasant.
Hit the road around 9.30 am and headed to the castle - Kalmar Slott. Built in the 16th and 17th century to protect this part of Sweden, mind you the Danes lay seige to the place and made them surrender. We could walk around the fort and its ramparts but could see the exhibits as the castle is closed for winter. In reality most of Sweden tourist attractions are closed for winter and are open on the weekends. They obviously they make sufficient during there summer season so don't need to open in the off season.
After the castle we walked into Gamla Stan (old town) that was burn't down sometime in the 17th century. Kamlar was re-established on a nearby island called Kvarnholmen. It evan has a wall around it ( well parts of the orginal wall).
There was a cold wind blowing off the Baltic. We noticed that there was no salt smell you normally get from the ocean, in fact you wouldn't 't know you were on the sea shore. Guess this is a result of the brackish nature of the Baltic. Not surprised really as the Baltic is closing and getting shallower as the surrounding land continues to rise following the end of the last ice age ( isoststic readjustment).
Walked around it before returning to the hotel (Regan was suffering badly from coughing fits). In the afternoon we continued walking around the island, before it began raining and we retreated to our hotel.
Some further general observations:
* a lot of Sweded smoke, evrywhere you look you see them smoking. They also use snuff (like chewing tobacco).
* One of the local English online papers (thelocal.se) in an opinion piece staes that Swedish women are one of the most attractive in the world. While I'm not an expert on this, i tend from general observation would have to agree with their statement. I know Evan subscribes strongly to this opinion.
thats about all for today.
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