At Eva and Bengt's (July 4-8) - 1

After a couple of hours drive from Landskrona, we arrived in the little town of Genarp to visit our friends Eva and Bengt. They had prepared a whole program for us to see as much as we could of the beautiful southeastern part of Skåne (Scania).

They have a great house and a huge yard filled with vegetables and berries.


Here is Bengt taking care of the garlic harvest.

We started our excursions by visiting Ystad, the home town of the famous fictional detective Kurt Wallander of Henning Mankell's crime novels. We did not take a ''Tour in Wallander's Footsteps,'' but there are many such tours, especially popular among Germans.

Instead we went to the market and visited St. Mary's church. Every city or town we visited had a St. Mary's church, it seems.

But we just stopped briefly in Ystad since we were on a quest to find ''Ales stenar'' - Ale's Stones. Ale's Stones are a Swedish equivalent to Stonehenge and are believed to be from around 600 B.C., although, as I will explain, one researcher claims that they really are from around 3000 B.C., i.e., as old or older than Stonehenge.

We did find them without much trouble, but little did we know that these stones are at the center of huge controversy between an independent researcher Bob G. Lind and the Swedish archaeological and astronomical academic establishment. Bob G. Lind was there in person to greet visitors with information about his theory. He gave us a half-hour lecture in which he explained that these stones do not constitute a grave, which the academic establishment believes, but rather have been set up according to astronomical principles. His explanations sounded VERY persuasive to us, and if you want to inform yourself, read more here. Of course, we did not hear the other side.......
In any case, Ale's Stones are fascinating and the location at the top of the ridge overlooking the Baltic is stunning.


We took a short hike along the coast and marveled at the beauty of the landscape on the southernmost coast of Sweden. Those ancestors were obviously pretty smart.

After inspecting the stones, we went into the little village of Kåseberga, where the big attraction is to eat fried ''strömming'' (Baltic herring) with mashed potatoes.

With a glass of beer, now that is a treat.

Bengt is pretty pleased with his first great idea (to visit Ale's Stones and Kåseberga), and a lot of tourists had the same idea as he did.

We decided to try out the Baltic, but it was too cold for everybody, except Cliff and Thomas.


Staying on the beach was a better idea.

Helsingör and Soccer in Helsingborg

Actual date: July 3. What a great way to celebrate our anniversary! Beautiful weather and a ferry trip to Helsingör.

This is the ferry we took from Helsingborg (Sweden) to Helsingör (Denmark). It was unfortunate that the trip lasted only twenty minutes: not enough time to enjoy the cafe and the tax free shops, but there was enough time to go up on the deck and take a few pictures.

Soon we got close the the goal of our day trip, Kronborg Castle. This castle was made famous to theater lovers all over the world by Shakespeare. You probably did not know that the play Hamlet - Prince of Denmark is set in Kronborg Castle in Elsinore, which is the English name for Helsingör. So why is Hamlet Danish? Well it seems that Shakespeare's Hamlet is based on an old Norse legend about the Danish prince Amled or Amleth. This legend was then rewritten by Saxo Grammaticus in Latin around 1200 AD, and then Thomas Kyd (1558-1594) wrote an Ur-Hamlet which was played in London during Shakespeare's time. It is fortunate that nobody thought of intellectual property rights back then! The original Amleth is supposed to have lived in the 7th century, and he was, of course, a viking.
This picture is from a performance of The Saga of Amled in Ramsgate.

So, after a short ferry ride and a 15 minute walk, we are ready to take a tour of the castle.


The tour guide told us about the historic importance of Kronborg as a fort to control the entrance to the Baltic Sea. Sweden and Denmark had many wars over the forts on either side of the sound. At one point Sweden conquered the fort and moved a lot of artifacts to Stockholm, which obviously upsets Danes still today.

Here we can see the canons of Kronborg directed at Sweden on the other side of the sound.

After the tour and a swim in the Öresund we went to the city center to eat a late lunch. This is how hungry Alfred was.

Thomas was a bit calmer.

At Kronborg Cliff bought these earrings with a viking ornamentation as an anniversary present.
This is how the Swedes loaded up in Denmark - whole shopping carts with hundreds of beers.

As if the day was not long enough already, we (Thomas, Alfred, Cliff, and I) went to a soccer game. Helsingborg played Gais, a Gothenburg team, and won 1-0. Here is the team star Henke Larsson warming up.

We spent the next night in a hostel in Landskrona, while Birgitta, Arne, Ellinor, Fabian and Alfred went back to Stockholm. Thomas and I toured this citadel in Landskrona, and it was a really interesting tour. The citadel had a long history as Danish fort until Landskrona became Swedish in 1658. Then it was a Swedish fort for a few hundred years. After that it was a prison, and then for the last 100 years or so it was a prison for women. The tour guide gave us so many insights to the individuals who had been prisoners there.
This one is for Benjamin.

Visting Ven

The following day we decided to visit the island Ven, which is located in Öresund, the sound between Sweden and Denmark. Since 1658 the island has been Swedish. About 300 people live on the island, so there is ferry traffic year round. But the island really comes alive during the summer, when thousands of tourists come to enjoy riding their bikes (hardly any cars on the island), camping, and swimming. The island really is gorgeous.

While we were waiting for the ferry, Thomas, Cliff and the others took a swim.

Still waiting for the ferry, Thomas and Alfred worked on their soccer skills.


The ferry turned out to be an old fishing boat. We took the ferry from Råå, a little village south of Helsingborg. Most of the ferries leave from Landskrona.

Enjoying the 30 minute boat ride.


Arriving in Ven, and eating our picnic lunch in the harbor area.


We were all too tired to walk up to the center of the island, so we took this tractor trolley up the hill.
The central attraction on the island, besides biking and swimming, is the Tycho Brahe museum. Tycho Brahe was a Danish astronomer who lived between 1546-1601. He is best known for having invented instruments that were used to observe and measure the distances to the stars. Even though he made considerable contributions in the field of astronomy, he seems very overrated as a scientist. Despite the publication and circulation of Copernicus's Commentariolous (1514), which presents the idea that the earth circulates around the sun, a work that Tycho was familiar with, Tycho made his observations of the stars to prove that the earth was at the center of the universe.... Anyway, here he is looking at the stars. Tycho got the whole island of Ven from the Danish king Frederick II, where he then built the castle Uraniborg and the observatory Stjerneborg. The castle does not exists anymore, just the garden, but Stjerneborg exists and can be visited.

In the garden there is a playground with games that are said to have existed back in the 16th century. If that is the case, these games have stayed with us until today.







In any case, the kids and Arne had a great time trying them out.

But of course, soccer is THE game for Thomas and Alfred, here playing with the Danish, EU, and Swedish flags in the background.
and with Fabian as goalie.

And now it is time to take the boat back to Råå.

After dinner back at the Hostel, Cliff, Thomas, Eleanor, and Fabian decide to take an evening swim.
But I opt to take some pictures of the sunset over Öresund.