Winter - Spring - Winter

Winter
December started with a visit to see THE roundabout dog on the west side of town. Though critics may claim that Linköping would be nothing without SAAB, they would be ignoring the first recorded addition of modern canine artwork to mundane roundabouts. The current installation is welded steel.

After such excitement, what better place to wind down than Gamla (Old) Linköping? One hundred years ago, the town leaders decided that, to prosper and grow, they would need to remove the old stone and timber neighborhoods to create a more dense urban environment. Many of the houses and workshops were saved by relocating them across town to create a cultural heritage center. Some of the houses were disassembled, many were moved on creepers and flatbeds as whole. After seventy years of careful effort, Linköping now has a working village of old crafts. You can buy rain gutters and chimneys made from sheet metal, formal invitations pressed by lithograph machines, delicate wood carvings, etc. This particular weekend was the Julfest (Christmas Festival) with crafts for sale including Swedish goats.

Spring
After a few weeks of hermitage, T arrived...and it was good. Once again, there was TnT.

We explored the town, took a walk to Lake Roxen, and arranged plans for a road trip to see the county of Östergötland.

Road Trip Day 1: Saw Brahehus Castle, Alvastra Monestary, and Vadstena Castle. It was a slow and easy day.
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Road Trip Day 2: Drove 3+ hours to the island of Öland. We visited the south half which was amazingly rugged. Wind blown, few shrubs, scant top soil/mud and yet people have subsisted here for thousands of years. We also saw numerous rune stones dotting the farmland and visited an iron age ring fort and church.

For those that are interested, we rented a VW Golf 1.6. Not the GT nor the TDI, the five speed moved just fine on the narrow, twisty Swedish roads. Unfortunately, the season necessitates studded tires and so the front tires never tracked straight. We put over 800 km on it and burned through exactly one tank of gas.
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Staying with the tradition of spending New Years in a city that starts with the letter "S", we went to Stockholm for four days. We ate our with through the old town, sampling Italian, traditional Swedish, and even an excellent Russian restaurant. Our last meal out was the perfect finish for New Years Eve--Crème Brûlée and hot Glögg (Swedish yule wine).

We also gorged ourselves on museums: the Modern Art (?!?), Viking Heritage, Tre Kronor (King's) Castle, Vassa, and a museum that was never intended to be one.

The fireworks on display were madness. There was no "show". Instead, every person able to operate matches, a lighter, or a cigarette was lighting off their own rockets and mortars. This alone would have been frightening enough, but the streets, sidewalks and piers were crammed with thousands of less-than-sober pyros/spectators. More than a few mis-fired rockets and mortars detonated in the middle of a crowd. After a few minutes T and I quickly escaped to the escalating sound of ambulances and police on horseback.

Winter
With T's departure, winter snapped back in to place and dropped snow for five days. Not to be done in by it, or my sore throat, I went for a long with with the telephoto. It was an exercise in "looking at things very far away." I like the results.



I apologize that I have not included as much thoughtful retrospection or humorous anecdotes for this posting as I have in the past. Nearing my return home, I'm mentally bearing down, tucked-in, and racing for the finish line. See you all soon.

-T