Burning Desire For FIRE

Today was a road trip. We drove through Latvia, stopping off at a palace owned by a very wealthy Duke back in the day, before driving into Lithuania and having a little look around.

Rundale Palace was owned by a couple of generations of Dukes, before the Russians swept through and hung onto it for the next couple of centuries. I was excited to see that it still has a moat around it.

It would have been a simply stunning building back in the day. The bones were all still there, but it’s taken a monumental restoration job to get it back to where it is today.

It wasn’t just the Russians. Napoleon’s troops used this place as a hospital and that’s also never good news for beautiful old homes.

This room was the Gold Room. Masses of gilt decorations in a quasi throne room.

The room leading off from the Gold Room used to be used as a dining room. They could only seat 60 of their closest friends though.

I loved the ballroom. It was all plaster, which was left unpainted. It looked fantastic.

The stork’s nest in the middle of the ceiling was actual sticks and moss, just covered with plaster.

It had a small room where someone with a passion for vases exhibited their collection.

The Rose Room. This was one of my favourites.

There was a plaque on the wall of the Roman emperor Vespasian. LOOK AT HiS NOSE!!!!

omg

The western side of the palace was pretty much empty, so they used it for an exhibition of 17th century fashion.

This tiny little sculpture outside the cafe was exquisite. The fabric was handled so beautifully.

Liga out in the gardens.

The gardens around the palace were beautiful. They were very formally laid out.

Obviously this rose was named for Liga. There were hundreds of roses, all named.

What are the odds that I’d see a rose called this, on the very day the Dad joke was scheduled? Life is very funny sometimes.

We pinched some grapes from this vine. They were super sweet and juicy.

Then we were off to cross the border into Lithuania. James had mentioned something called the Hill of Crosses, so we thought we’d check it out.

Yeah, it looked pretty much the way it sounded. A hill of crosses. James in his red hat is clearly having a spiritual moment.

People started putting crosses on this hill for whatever reason, and eventually the Pope heard about it and came to visit. He donated a huge white cross “as a gift from God.”

There are thousands of crosses and rosary beads here. There’s a gift shop as you come in, which makes it easy for people to buy a cross and take it up there.

It was a strange place. Now, as you know, I don’t have a religious bone in my body, but I can respect the faith of ordinary people who want to contribute to a collective art installation.

But I can’t respond to this in a positive way. It’s just firewood thrown every which way. Big areas of the hill looked like this, which was a shame.

But there were gems among the rubbish.

After we visited the gift shop on the way out… I bought another Christmas Tree decoration… we headed into the nearest town to buy a traditional Lithuanian meal.

Here was our restaurant, chosen for us by Google. It had jolly German music playing, and it was full of macrame.

Liga was adamant that we had to try the potato dumplings. James, being Irish, needed no convincing, though we both drew the line at the pig lungs. We ordered a plate of two dumplings each, his filled with meat and mine with cheese.

The pictures in the menu were deceptive. Each dumpling was as big as my head.

I could only finish one.

Look at us in Lithuania!

I tried to take some photos of Lithuania as we drove back to Riga.

I’m sorry. I like this one.

These countries have so much timber. Forests are everywhere.

Tomorrow, Liga is planning an adventure for James and I.

Dad joke of the day:

This morning before we headed off, Liga showed me a couple of magazine articles she wrote about her trip to Afghanistan. She went there on her own, and travelled to remote areas.

Her photos are amazing, especially the ones taken with people who have never seen a female tourist before. She’s a brave woman!

We drove to another town near Riga. We were leaving James in Riga for the day and going for a girls day.

This is the oldest wooden church in the Baltics. It’s a Lutheran one, I think, built in the early 1700s.

It looks very Scandi inside.

The bible is very old. Imagine the thrill those people would have had when they saw a bible in their own language for the first time… especially if they could read it.

A little more up the path was the ruin of an old castle complex built around 1350. Earlier wooden structures were there, but 1350 was when the Catholic Church got serious about security here.

Of course, my naive belief that the climbing to the top of towers had finished far this holiday was wrong.

They built this thing to last.

It didn’t, of course, with all the conflicts and bloodthirsty takeovers this country has suffered. Restoration began in the 1960s.

“If you look, you see that all the graffiti is Russians names,” said Liga. “ They are the only ones who don’t care about ruining anything.”

This old, timber-lined well is still in use today.

Dog and cat footprints in the bricks.

Less than a week to go, Scout.

This castle had an underfloor heating system. Pretty advanced design for back then.

Then it was off to the country to the traditional Latvian sauna. Liga was very insistent that I experience a proper sauna.

The Latvian sauna has a slightly different feel than a Finnish one, for example. It has a more spiritual side. Liga said to me yesterday, “ You will need to say something you wish to leave there. A problem you have; something you’ve said that you regret… something like that.”

Well, being a Virgo, I’m practically perfect in every way… 😳

Haha. I wish! I thought of a couple of things, so I was ready.

We drank two cups of tea made from wormwood and mallow, which was really bitter. The idea is that you can’t wash your soul clean until you drink the bitter and eat the sweet. This was fruit touched by the sun.

We sat for ages, sipping the tea and talking. There was no rush, as the wood fire slowly warmed up the sauna.

It was all about relaxing, letting the world fall away and just letting the conversation flow.

Liga said that back in the day, the villagers worked 6 days, and on Sundays they gathered together in the saunas. They could get properly clean, they could relax and gossip with the neighbours.

Women gave birth in the saunas, and when people died, their bodies were prepared for burial here.

Sound was also an important part of the sauna, but later.

Remember this lake. It’s also an important part of the whole experience, but later.

We stripped naked and went into the sauna. We were there for quite a long time. We sat in the steam, while Agitai used bunches of dried birch leaves to flick cool water on us. We made a ‘tea’ of different herbs and citrus, and our feet went in there. It smelled amazing.

We each sang a song that is supposed to be important to us. When I was asked to sing, I couldn’t think of anything except Men At Work’s ‘Down Under’, so they got the first verse and the chorus.

Liga ducked outside to take a photo through the window. I don’t have a stitch on here.

There I am, hiding behind the dried birch.

Do you see the red around Agiai’s hat? It’s to stop the sauna master from absorbing anything bad that we might get rid of.

She is a third generation Sauna Master.

After the sauna part is over, you thank your parents, family and friends for being in your life. Then Agitai took me outside, still naked, and we got waist-deep into the lake outside the sauna. It was ICY.

She held me afloat, while I concentrated on stretching out and controlling my breathing. Georgia once told me that if I was ever stressed or in pain, if you breathe deeply and slowly, it tricks your brain that everything is ok. I was telling my brain that it really wasn’t that cold…

See the bunches of birch hanging up?

After the cold lake, I was brought in and wrapped up like a baby bunny. It was so relaxing. Then, as I shut my eyes, she and Liga used the bowls to make an amazing sound scape.

Then they disappeared back into the sauna to let me sleep.

I didn’t snooze, but it was warm and comforting. It was lovely.

It was an experience I’ll never forget.

James, Liga and I went out to dinner at a restaurant that one of Liga’s army friends owns. Best chile con carne nachos I’ve ever had.

The margaritas weren’t bad, too.

Dad joke of the day:

This morning we walked to Tallinn Old Town for breakfast. We had to fortify ourselves for the long car trip to another country… a full 350 kms.

Haha! Yes. Apparently this is considered almost as an epic drive in these parts.

No filter. This was the park in Tallinn as we walked back to the car.

Once we were out of Tallinn, it was all gently rolling countryside and forests. The buildings were all shaped very differently to farm buildings from home, which of course only added to the charm.

Timber is a huge part of the economy here. They have so many trees and so few people to live amongst them. Half of Estonia’s population of 1 million lives in the capital. Latvia is the same, except their population is double that of Estonia.

Woo hoo! Another new country! What an amazing life I’m living right now.

Liga pointed out this dirt track. This is where, in the early 1990’s, people lined up, hand in hand, in an unbroken chain which led from one end of the 3 Baltic countries to the other. They were protesting being forced to be under Soviet rule.

Liga was one of those people.

It was interesting. She says that there’s a huge divide between the old people/Boomers and her generation. The oldies remember life under communism as being really easy. Housing and jobs were provided for everyone, there was no unemployment and nobody had to think or use any initiative. Life was spoon fed to you.

Of course, the younger ones want the freedom to decide their own future. They are vehemently against Russia and want nothing to do with it. “We just have to wait for the old ones to die and then we’ll be free of their nostalgia that helps no one.”

Mid afternoon we arrived at Liga’s place, where she was reunited with her grumpy-faced cat and her family. James from Ireland was in the city, so we arranged to meet up after I put some washing on.

Riga doesn’t have an underground rail, so these tunnels are purely for crossing the road. Buskers sometimes use them.

I’m in this photo with James, I promise!

Old Town Riga is pretty much for the tourists. Liga says she hardly ever goes here.

It’s a pretty place.

There is a traditional Latvian drink we tried. First we had shots of the traditional type, then the blackcurrant version. James and I liked both, and they certainly warmed us up.

This square has one of the nods to a film called ‘Flow.’ It’s the first Latvian film to win an Oscar. It’s an animated movie with no dialogue, and the guy who made it used free software from the internet. There are different statues for each character, dotted around the city.

Liga.

It was almost 7pm and it was still light. My phone was nearly dead…

It’s a bit sobering when we zoom in closer to the radio building…

Bullet holes from when they were fighting the Russians.

The Christmas markets here are meant to be pretty amazing. You can see why.

The musicians of Bremen. It’s a Brothers Grimm fairy tale. I touched the snout of the bottom one for luck. The others were all too high.

My phone died then. We went to a local restaurant near Liga’s place, with her husband and daughter, where we had what was essentially a pork chop Parma with mashed potatoes. Delicious!

Here’s Alise. She’s vey smart and wholly delightful. Her English, even at 8 years old, is extremely good.

Goodnight!

Dad joke of the day:

Here I am in beautiful Tallinn, Estonian, after a hideously early morning because TripaDeal booked us on the 7AM ferry. This city is so pretty that it was worth it. It didn’t stop me having a quick restorative nap when I got to the hotel this afternoon, though.

Estonian has roughly the same area as Denmark, but they have 5 million people and Estonian has only 1 million, half of whom live in the capital city of Tallinn.

We had another city guide for a 2 hour walking tour, and she wasn’t long into her spiel about Tallinn’s history when I became aware that these people were some of the unluckiest in history. People kept invading and invading; plagues kept plaguing; the weather is cold and thank god my ancestors didn’t decide to settle here.

Estonia has been occupied by the Danish for around 200 years, back in the 1400’s. Before that… Viking raids.

Then the Swedish had a go for another couple of hundred years in the 1600/1700’s.

Russia then had its turn, until Estonia fought them for 2 years in the early 1900’s and they signed a paper saying that Russia will never touch a single blade of grass on Estonian land ever again, which they totally kept their word on.

LOL, jokes. They came back after WWII and said, “That paper is irrelevant, because we’re not called Russia anymore. We’re the USSR, so we’re making you part of the Soviet Union whether you want to or not.”

Ugh. Russia.
Anyway, the Baltic states gained their independence in the 1990’s, and you can BET they’re keeping a close eye on what’s happening in Ukraine.

But Estonia has one of the best preserved medieval neighbourhoods left in the world, which has made it a Mecca for tourists.
We made straight for the castle, which was built by 12th century crusaders. Yes, crusaders! We normally think of the wars. In the Middle East against the Muslims as being the crusades, but the pope had his greasy little fingers in a few different pies.

The Pope declared a crusade for the pagans living here. The vikings had all turned to Jesus by then, but the people living around here were still worshipping trees and streams and such, as they had done without incident for thousands of years. They were an easy target. 

This crusade was led by the Nordic Kings. Tallinn = the Danish Town.

The old part of Tallinn is split into two. The castle on the hill, and Old Town, which is set lower down. The guys in the castle didn’t want to house all the merchants, so they told them to go further down the hill and build their own wall to defend their buildings from invaders.

In 1248 the wall was built so the merchants could defend their shops from invaders. The wall was originally a little over 2kms long, and nowadays 2/3rds of that original wall is still standing.

The reason it survived is quite interesting. The wall was defended by merchants, who were there to make money. They didn’t have an emotional connection to the town, which would have made them fight to the last to keep invaders away. Instead, they’d haggle and bargain with invaders, and when a deal was reached, they’d open the gates of the town and let the invaders in. By the rules of war, a city that doesn’t make you fight is one that is treated with clemency, because you haven’t had to waste time and money fighting them.

Capitulation or the plague, which also happened occasionally… the town stayed intact. Ironically, WWII inflicted the biggest damage, 13% was destroyed.

We emerged into a garden overlooking Old Town.

This wasn’t the only time we had buskers filling the air with music.

All too soon, we were heading further down the hill.

Orthodox cathedral was built by Tsar Alexander, the second last tsar. He wanted a heavily Russianised presence, hence the architectural features. When Russia invaded Ukraine, a lot of ties with Russia were severed here.

24% of the population is Russian speaking. Estonia keeps the church open for them as a sign of respect and tolerance.

I have no clue who this is, but he’s striking.

This is St Mary of the Rock, the oldest church here. The steps lead down, as the street level has risen 2.5 metres over 800 years. This is the main church for the Lutherans.

No state money goes to churches. Not a penny. Estonia is a secular state.

500 years ago, the first book published in Estonian was published.

Our city guide gave us a great quote, all about how universal education began when Martin Luther said that bibles should be translated into people’s everyday language. Once that was done, people had to learn to read.

“Writing begins with the church.  Nationhood begins with a book.”

Our last ledge overlooking Old Town. Doesn’t it look fabulous?

And then we were down there. Some of the buildings have had their windows changed since they were first built, but they are still medieval.

The cobbling on this street was nice and smooth. On most of the Old Town, it’s just rounded rocks placed haphazardly everywhere, at all levels. God knows how anyone with a pram or wheelchair would go.

It was like a massage for the soles. This stretch of concrete was there to give hope to people using wheels, only to finish abruptly for no apparent reason.

We had a medieval lunch together, which was surprisingly good. Then I had an hour to wander Old Town before I had to order an Uber to go back to the ferry terminal. My luggage was packed in a locker there.

Town Hall 1322. It looks like a church, but it’s always been the town hall.

The pharmacy in the town square is the oldest in Europe. It’s been continuously running since 1422. I did my bit to keep the business going by buying some antihistamines.

At 2PM I retrieved my bags and went to the hotel to have a sneaky snooze and wait for Liga. The Scandinavian leg of this trip is finished, and now I’m on the last of the 10 holidays I have booked for this year: touring the Baltics with Liga and James.
Yes, James from Ireland is coming too. It’s going to be so much fun!

Dad joke of the day:

Finland is the same size as Germany, but has 80 million fewer people.

What’s happening in Ukraine at the moment is history repeating itself. At the end of the Second World War, Stalin decided to annexe Finland. After a hard-fought war, Finland kept its independence, but had to give up 12% of its territory…  not surprisingly, the parts rich in natural resources.

This is why Finland felt it had no choice but to join NATO in 2023. Can’t say I blame them.

Finland has free education for everyone. No private schools, and every university degree is free. No one graduates with debt. I wish we had the same in Australia. Their taxes are high, but as the city guide said, “ No one complains about taxes here, because we get our money’s worth. Free healthcare, a year’s maternity leave at 80% pay, cheap childcare, generous unemployment benefits… the list goes on.

Sibelius monument.

An abstract homage to his music. 600 stainless steel tubes resembling an organ. It was very controversial in its day, so they added a mask of Sibelius in his prime to keep the old codgers happy.

You’re allowed to climb up and under it to see the whole sculpture. It’s terrific.

Our city guide was taking pics of the couples in the group. Wanda and I are a couple, I guess. She’s been to 7 continents with me, after all.

The Rock Church is the local Lutheran church. 

It was opened in 1969, just 2 years younger than the Sibelius monument.

Instead of putting the church on top of the granite hill, the architects embedded the church in the granite, using dynamite to blast a hole.

The hole is covered by a copper dome, and the interior is covered by concentric copper circles/cables.

The colours of the roof and the rocks are just lovely.

Next, we were off to the public library.

Outside the library was a huge crowd of tweens dancing and lip-synching to K-Pop music. They come here every Sunday.

Here’s some who have gone all out, with costumes.

We were taken inside the library. Every public building that is built here has to have an element of art. This double helix stairwell has words that were submitted to the artist by the public, adjectives describing people they know and care about. Some are complimentary, others, probably submitted as a joke, are not. But aside from a couple of omissions, the artist used them all, to show that everyone, even your flatulent alcoholic uncle, is welcome at the library.

Alexander II of Russia. He’s the one who sold Alaska to the US.
Big mistake. Huge…

This is the Orthodox Church, which was built by the Russians in 1860. It’s stunning.

The city guide was asked how Finland feels about Sweden and Russia, seeing as both those countries used to rule over them at different times.

”The relationship Finland has with Sweden is like that of having a beloved big brother. He annoys us, because he likes to tell us what to do, and the annoying thing is that he’s usually right. But when we meet up overseas, we are best buddies and we have each other’s backs. We love each other.

” Russia is like a mother-in-law… the bad kind. She has power and you try to stay away because if you say or do something she doesn’t like, then you’re in a world of trouble.”

Scott and I met up in the foyer of OUR hotel. Yes, not only are we in the same city at the same time, we’re in the same hotel. Too easy!

We walked around a craft market, where I bought a Finland Christmas decoration for my epic tree, then we took ourselves off to a little art gallery with an eclectic collection.

Scott got excited when we found a room full of Ugly Medieval Babies.

Buff baby, this one. He’d knock the devil right out of you, he would.

What is on his forehead??? And why does he look like a middle-aged bank manager sizing you up after you asked for a mortgage?

When Scott was in the locker room getting his backpack stowed away, I saw an image on a magnet, and after making sure I’d actually see it in the museum, I bought it. I loved the image so much. When we went into the room it was in, I asked Scott to guess which painting I loved. He chose this one.

Nope.

It was this one. It wasn’t until I read the label that I realised it was a Rembrandt. Maybe this means I have excellent taste. I can’t get over the use of light.

As we were walking away from the museum later, a memory came back to me. I think I may have seen this painting before, in an exhibition at the NGV when I was a student and I was captivated by it then as well.

We were almost at our hotel when all hell broke loose. Something was going on in the street behind. Police, ambulance, and fairies were all there, lights and sirens flashing. It was huge.
When we came back that way an hour and a half later on our way to dinner, you wouldn’t know that anything out of the ordinary had ever happened there.

Then I met a wire-haired dachshund at the tram stop! She was so friendly. Just one more week to go, Scout.

Scott told me that the restaurant he booked was his favourite in Helsinki, and it was a little quirky.
I tell you, when he opened the door, I was not expecting to see a cow.

It’s set up like a Finnish farm. It’s all hearty, Finnish food. I had the meatballs with mashed potatoes and it was great, but very filling.

Who would have thought that two friends who live on opposite sides of the world would be in Shanghai and Helsinki on the same days in the same year?

Life is pretty amazing.

Dad joke of the day:

Today was exciting, because I got to meet a woman I’ve “known” for years from the Simple Savings forum. It’s practically the same as a blogmeet, which are always good. You’ve never met in person, but you already know so much about each other that you just dive right into conversation. It’s lovely.

She probably wondered why on earth I was so interested in seeing the burial place of a queen who, quite frankly, wasn’t all that good at being a queen and was terribly homesick for Paris when she finally moved to Sweden. But it was her life before that happened which fascinates me.

Desiree Clary was a silk merchant’s daughter, who met Napoleon Buonaparte when she was around 15. She became engaged to him very quickly – Napoleon was broke back then and probably had more than a passing interest in the dowry – while her older sister married his older brother Joseph.
Napoleon then went to France, where he met the charming widow Josephine. Desiree was dumped like a hot potato.
A couple of years later, she met Field Marshall Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, and married him.

They were both commoners in Republican France. No one could ever have foreseen that a decade or so later, the Swedish King would need to adopt an heir to the throne. Bernadotte was chosen. Desiree was suddenly the Crown Princess of Sweden.

When the allies defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, Napoleon was going to fight right up to the last man, which would have meant hundreds of unnecessary deaths. The allies sent Desiree, the Crown Princess of Sweden, in to negotiate with him. She emerged holding his sword as a sign that he’d changed his mind and would surrender.

The last years of her life as Sweden’s Queen weren’t all that happy. She never really adjusted to life away from Paris and was terribly homesick.
But I love how the dynasty she and her husband founded 200 years ago is still going strong, while Napoleon’s fizzled.

”What a beautiful church,” said Nina as we walked in. I was pleased that this was new to her as well as to me.

Riddarholm Church is the traditional burial site of the Swedish royals.

I wandered around, looking in all the nooks. I knew I’d find her at some stage, there was no rush. These coffins on the left are made of tin, while the more ornate one on the right is made of pewter. There were quite a few pewter coffins in here.

And then there she was.

Her husband is bundled up in the pink sarcophagus behind her, while her son Oscar is to the left. He’s with his wife Josephine, who was Napoleon’s Josephine’s granddaughter!

I got tears in my eyes when I looked at Oscar’s dates and saw that he died a year before Desiree. How terribly sad.

We all have places that we’d like to see. This was one of mine.

I liked this pink spire. Nina and I were walking to the car where her husband Mark and one of his mates were waiting for us.

She was saying how her favourite royal is Prince Dan. He’s a commoner, the owner of a gym, and he got to know the Swedish Crown Princess when she started going to his gym because it was a private place to work out.
It worked out, alright. They got married.

Mark parked a little away from the Royal holiday house of Drottningholm Palace, and we walked through a very nice garden to get there.

This was given as a wedding present to a queen. I don’t know which one, but it was a couple of hundred years before Desiree.

Every time I go into a building in Europe, Scott’s words echo in my ears.

“Look up!”

Marble everywhere.

These stoves kept the rooms warm in the cold climate. The top was filled with pipes full of oil. You’d start a fire at the bottom, the heat would rise, warm the pipes and heat would radiate from the oil for hours.

Happy snap.

The library.

This bedroom used to be a different colour when it was first built. The queen who received the palace as a gift hated the original colour and changed it to the dark blue.

This caught my eye. So ugly and yet so friendly.

Can you imagine having all of this marble all over your house?

I think this is the only room in the palace that wasn’t ornately over-decorated. It was a bit of a relief to stop here for a minute and recover from all of the gilt and marble.

This was interesting. There was a room which had huge tapestries 200 years older than anything else in there. The tapestries originally belonged to Charles I of England. After he was executed, the tapestries somehow ended up here.
The circular shield that the cupids are holding at the very top of the tapestry is his emblem.

Desiree’s son! King Oscar I. His portrait was in between Napoleon and Queen Victoria… though he appeared larger than both of them.

After the palace, we went out for lunch, then it was back to the hotel for the pickup for the ferry crossing. When Nina and Mark heard which ferry I was on, they said, “Oh, the Booze Cruise!” Apparently on a Saturday night, it’s a third tourists, a third local travellers and a third locals who go to party.

There were a LOT of animals on board.

But look at the tail end of the sunset I managed to catch:

Dad joke of the day:

Well , I hate to say it, but today’s tour of Stockholm was the most boring I’ve ever been on. Jan is a lovely guy, but he’s not a thrilling raconteur. We got the facts. The facts.

This is City Hall, where every Saturday around 80 couples get married. You can choose a wedding ceremony of 1 – 3 minutes if you want, so they obviously churn them through.

There’s the spire of the church I’ll be going to tomorrow. It’s where Queen Desideria/ Desiree Clary is buried. Ever since I saw the movie Desiree when I was a teenager, I’ve never forgotten her story. When Scott and I were in Paris 10 years ago, I unexpectedly came across her portrait in a little art gallery, (in the same room as a portrait of Josephine), which was a highlight of my trip. I still have postcards of the two of them on my fridge.

Here’s Desiree’s husband, the first king of the current dynasty of Sweden. He certainly had a honker on him.

The little castle was built for the royal family so they could go ice skating in private when the sea/ lake froze. 

Directly across the water is an amusement park. It was once an island where the king would go hunting.

Old a town is full of buildings that are charmingly lopsided-sided, because they were built on reclaimed, or soft land. The black metal thing is actually holding the building in place.

There were lots of intriguing side streets.

I love the colours here.

This is the oldest pub in Stockholm. It’s owned by the committee who decides the Nobel Prize for Literature. They meet here every Thursday for drinks.

Look at the angles on the building to the right!

And then we walked up the narrowest street in Stockholm.

One last shot of Old Town.

After a morning of gentle tedium, I found a park bench and actually went to sleep for 20 minutes. I must have looked like a homeless person!

I was ready for more exciting things when we embarked on the 2.5 hour Archipelago cruise.

Today was not the day for my wishes to be granted.

It was more gentle tedium, which, as I’m still not 100% recovered, was probably a good thing. I sat on the deck of a boat, by chance out of the wind, and looked at pretty little islands for a couple of hours.

My life is so hard…

Citadel. Since 1600’s they have always had the Swedish flag, showing that Sweden was not at war.

In 1996, 5 students from Norway came in and flew the Norwegian flag from the Citadel for 43 minutes. So, technically, Sweden was occupied by Norway for that time.

Royal hunting park. It was established in the 1400’s and stayed that way for 400 years. One king in the 1600’s actually built a huge wall around the whole island to keep the wolves away.

When Desiree’s husband became king, he gave the park to the people. It makes sense, as he was brought up in revolutionary France. It probably felt a little weird to have a whole hunting island for yourself.

This used to be owned by Bjorn Borg. When he owned it, it used to be pink

Cat Island. I I was ever going to buy an island, I’d want something like this.

It’s a very expensive area, full of houses that look like this. In other words, it was easy on the eyes.

Had dinner at a sushi restaurant with a couple of couples, which was very nice. We’re all dealing with caring for elderly parents. I’ve decided that 6 weeks is too long for me to be away. Mum had a fall when I was in Greenland and she’s not doing so well. I think it’s best that I only go away for shorter hops from now on.

Dad joke of the day:

How can you go to Oslo and not see ‘ The Scream’?

Twice…

… or even three times?

After a 14 hour sleep, trying to shake off my lurgy, I tottered down to breakfast and decided that I was going to take things easy today. I’d go to the Munch Museum and see Edvard Munich’s ‘ The Scream’, then wander back to the hotel in time to catch the train to Stockholm.
This plan actually worked.

This is worth reading.
They have each Scream on rotation at a half hour at a time. When the half hour for a Scream is over, automatic doors slide in front of it, and then another pair of doors slide open.

To my surprise, I was drawn to the black and white image more than the others.

This was depressing. ‘ Workers on their way home.’

’The Murderer.’

Remember that odd statue of Ibsen I saw a few days ago in Bergen? Maybe he really did look weird. Here’s a portrait of him.

I loved this one.
That’s not the case with a lot of the paintings and sculptures here. It’s a very large museum, and they needed to fill it. Still, a more ruthless curation wouldn’t have done any harm.

Here’s a sculpture he made before painting the picture behind it.

’The Day After.’

Honestly, we’ve all been there.

After a 6 hour train trip, I’m now in Sweden. Tomorrow we explore the city of Stockholm.

Dad joke of the day:

Today we went to Lillehammer, and even though I was so sick, I walked down all the steps next to the ski jumps.

The noise that they make when they’re floating in the air is just like the sound I heard when I was free falling when I did the skydive.

I spent the previous night and today either sleeping or spewing. I feel miserable.

At 5:30 I got up out of bed to at least go and see the church.

It was locked. It’s really not my day today.

I walked around for 10 minutes, then gave up and went back to bed.

we have the whole morning free in Oslo tomorrow. I’m making a strategic withdrawal tonight, hoping that my body will get rid of whatever is making me feel sick.

Ah well. I’ve travelled so much lately that I suppose I was due for a bad day…

Dad joke of the day:

Most of the buildings in Alesund were built after the big fire of 1905. Kaiser Wilhelm, the last kaiser of Germany, loved Norway and spent a lot of money here to restore the town.

We left Alesund at 11, which allowed time for a walk to the harbour. 

This place is very pretty. 

Jan said that in the middle of winter, Alesund only gets 4 hours of daylight a day.

I went shopping at 9am, but very quickly discovered that most shops didn’t open until 10. Back to the hotel to pack, then at the stroke of 10 I was hitting the shops. I came home with a hat and a polar bear magnet.

This mug made me laugh.

So did this one. Excellent marketing strategy.

A last look at this pretty town.

The weather has suddenly turned sunny. This morning, I chose to sit in the front left seat, which in this new bus is actually a horrible place for taking photos, but is a great place for seeing the vista. The photos that follow are the best I could do…

We drove through a little village that is famous for growing the best strawberries in Norway, if not the world. 

Every midsummer, Scandinavia and the Baltics celebrate by eating strawberries with whipped cream. Jan also mentioned something about dancing around trees and having a jolly old time. 

Suddenly, there was snow beside the road!

Then, more and more.

This started to remind me of when Megan and I went to Alaska last year. Brilliant sunny days in their summer, (to be fair, it’s the beginning of autumn here), and yet there’s snow.

We stopped for lunch, but the café wasn’t open, to the disgust of the rest of the bus. I, on the other hand, was prepared, with my lunch made from the breakfast buffet. The others had to wait 2 more hours for lunch at 3 pm. Jan warned us at the start of the trip to always have some snacks with us. A few people listened. I bet a lot more will, after today!

Snow and water.

It really shouldn’t be this cold when the sun shines. My hands were icy.

The Troll Road was built in the 1930’s. Jan said, “It’s quite lucky for this road to be open. I have been a guide on this trip 6 times and this is the first time I’ll see it. It was closed all last summer. They have rocks and boulders which fall on it.”

I’m not sure how much the bus driver enjoyed driving along the Troll Road. I know Jan hated it. He’s not good with heights, though even he agreed that it was very beautiful.

This is where we stopped to take a group photo, with Troy setting up a timer. We were standing in front of a big troll statue. I haven’t bothered to show you trolls because they do absolutely nothing for me. I don’t get the attraction some people have for them.
These mountains are so tall. When I was standing, looking up at the top, my head was tilted right back, almost as far as it could go. Photos simply cannot do it justice.

Then it was down to Lillehammer, the Olympic Village, where we’ll stay the night. Tomorrow, after a look around the town, we’re off to Oslo again.
Our time in this beautiful country is rapidly coming to an end.
The day after tomorrow, we’re off to Sweden…

Dad joke of the day: