Today we went on our "annual" canoe adventure. It was great fun, as always! We got into to some real action, hit some stones, tried taking a shortcut through the reed grass, and amazingly enough we almost crashed into a swimming moose in the middle of the lake!! It's the first time I've seen that in real life and it was just a few meters away from us. We were like.. "what the hell is that? ... a MOOSE?!"
Luckily we had our paddles as defence so we were safe. I wonder what the canoeing center would have said if we returned a broken canoe with the explanation "we were attacked by a moose".
I'm at top of the tower of the Kungsholms Fortress in Karlskrona, looking down.. It's windy up here and a bit scary, but pretty cool. The guided tour is good, thanks to the enthusiastic and knowledgeable military guide.
The fortress is actually the oldest continuously fortified military base in the world, as it has been manned since the 17th century. In true Swedish peaceful tradition the most important part of the fortress is a garden with exotic plants and trees from the navy's expeditions around the world.
I saw these beautiful warship figureheads at the Maritime Museum in Karlskrona. I have always liked old ships with figureheads like this, specially from the 17th and 18th centuries when they were most impressive. It would be fun to get the chance to design a figurehead like this some day, for my own ship. Did you know that at one point the ships were so overburdened with sculptures and ornamentation that it affected their sailing qualities, and during the latter part of the 18th century decoration was reduced to that of little more than a lone figurehead. And from that point on the age-old custom slowly but surely came to an end.
A day at the "Blue Lagoon" on Gotland; a former chalk quarry with crystal clear blue water. A very nice place. I'd like to go back again. In the photo: Mattias and Johanna.
The Medieval Week in Visby is over for this year, and I'm already longing to the next. If you have been there you know what I mean. The beautiful city, the good food, the fire shows, the music, Loke, Patrask, Trix, Cultus Ferox, Jauvet, Effes, Nordergravar, the market, all the beautiful medieval people, the neverending party; everything was just right.
Do you prefer to stay in the shadows instead of beeing in the sun? Then you are like me. I went to the beach this summer but I usually try to avoid strong sunshine. Among all the people I know I have by far the most pale skin tone, like a vampire, so I mostly stay in the shadows when it's hot..
Old castles and the like are always fun to see, so we made a visit to Glimmingehus on our trip in southern Sweden. It's the best-preserved medieval manor in Scandinavia and was built in 1499. It's well fortified with many defensive arrangements, but ironically it was never attacked.
One time though the Swedish king, Charles XI, ordered to demolish Glimmingehus, to ensure that it would not
fall into the hands of the Danish king during the war. However, just before the kings men could carry out the order they saw far away how a Danish-Dutch naval division was arriving the Swedish coast, and they had to change their plans.
Glimmingehus might not be that big or fancy, but the guided tour is good and it's worth a visit.
It was a perfect summer evening when we visited Ale's Stones. I have wanted to see this for some time now and was happy to get the chance. Ale's Stones is a stone ship; a megalithic monument from 500 AD located at the southernmost part of Sweden. Speculations have been made about the purpose of Ale's Stones. Some say it's a burial monument and some say it has an astronomical and/or astrological purpose, and that the stones are positioned according to the 365 days
of the year and the 24 hours of the day.
I think it's amazing that we have such an open and friendly culture in Sweden and that places like Ale's stones is open for anyone to visit whenever they want, and there are no entry costs, sales people, cheesy souvenirs or anything like that. It's just nature, as it should be. I have not visited Stonehenge in England, but I know there's an admission charge and it's only open for visits at certain times of day.
We got into to some real action, hit some stones, tried taking a shortcut through the reed grass, and amazingly enough we almost crashed into a swimming moose in the middle of the lake!! It's the first time I've seen that in real life and it was just a few meters away from us. We were like.. "what the hell is that? ... a MOOSE?!" 
I went to the beach this summer but I usually try to avoid strong sunshine. Among all the people I know I have by far the most pale skin tone, like a vampire, so I mostly stay in the shadows when it's hot..
