Back in Brussels

Gustav Adolphs Torg (square) in Stockholm, with the Stockholm Opera house on the right.

Birch trees in a forest near Västerås.  Feels like looking into infinity.

Dala horse in Mora

The finish line for the Vasaloppet cross country ski race in Mora.  It's the longest, oldest, and largest ski race in the world.

I was absolutely shocked when I saw this thing in Mora.  It's a robotic lawn mower!  Apparently they are somewhat common in Europe.

An old movie theater in Stockholm called the Röda Kvarn (Red Mill) that's tragically been converted into a clothing store.

A night at the Opera - my first one!  It was Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro at Stockholm's Opera House. The opera was in Italian, but luckily there were Swedish subtitles displayed on a sign above the stage", so I knew exactly what was going on of course.  It was really difficult to take a good picture, so here's a little video that kind of shows the inside of the theater.  Hopefully it works.

Fried herring in Stockholm (with mashed potatoes, coleslaw, pickles, crispbread and Ramlösa).

View of Stockholm's Gamla Stan (Old Town), the royal palace and some boats.  One of them is a steamship that was puffing away pretty loudly.

The cinema at the Swedish Film Institute - the film being shown was Nosferatu (a silent film from 1922).  Not only was there live music (three musicians playing a number of different instruments), but one of the musicians was the Swedish composer Matti Bye, who's written a number of compositions for silent films, and had written a new score just for this screening.  It was an amazing show!

A nice park on Djurgården island in Stockholm.  My question is, why are there leaves on the ground in the middle of August??

Bust of actor Max von Sydow in Stockholm's Royal Dramatic Theater

Lunch at Gamla Uppsala - meatball and beet salad sandwich, washed down with some pretty nasty mead (alcohol made from fermented honey).

Burial mounds at Gamla Uppsala that date from around the 5th century.  There are three large burial mounds and then a number of smaller ones.  No one really knows who was buried here, but they were probably royalty of some kind. 

Map of Mora - there is actually a part of the town called "Canada."  As far as I could tell, "Canada" was either a residential area, or the trees behind the residential area.

Bach on a wall in Stockholm's Gamla Stan

The GB Glace clown has a wife!

Old movie theater built in 1919 in Uppsala.  It's been restored to exactly how it was originally, other than the seats.  Ingmar Bergman went to this cinema as a kid, and on the right you can see some of his movie posters.

Fika - the tradition in Sweden of drinking coffee and eating something sweet, often a kanelbulle (cinnamon bun).  This kanelbulle was from a cafe in Uppsala and was by far the best one I had in Sweden.

Gamla Stan in Västerås - a very well preserved area with lots of old, wooden, colourful houses and winding streets. 

Pirate ship docked at Västerås harbour

Cute, modern house in a pretty suburb in Västerås

Rune stone, burial mound and stone ships at Anundshög

Self portrait taken from on top of a garbage bin.  I'm in front of Skattungbyn church (featured in the Ingmar Bergman film Winter Light).  It's hard to tell, but the church is located at the top of a large hill, and there's a great view down into the valley.

There was a cultural festival going on in Stockholm, with lots of free concerts from all different genres.  This is a clip of the opera orchestra playing a piece from Bizet's Carmen.

Sunset at Rättvik.  The wooden pier there is over 600 meters long, and goes out to a very small island, which is the clump of trees on the right.

At my Rättvik hostel, drinking a local beer brewed in Mora

Västerås

I have free internet access at the hostel in Västerås, but unfortunately I can't seem to upload pictures.  Luckily I uploaded a few before I left Borlänge but haven't had a chance to post them yet.  So these are few older pictures from Lund, Göteborg and Borlänge.  I'll try to get some up from the rest of Dalarna, Uppsala and Västerås when I get to Stockholm (I head there tomrorow).

Astronomical clock inside Lund's cathedral.  It plays twice a day, and when it does, some knights on horses on the top of the clock fight with swords, and then the three wise men and their servants pass by Mary and Jesus in the center.  All to music.

Just in case you want to make a donation to Lund's cathedral but don't have cash on you, now you can donate by debit and credit card.

Lund's Cathedral - it dates to around the 12th century.  I got to heard an organ concert there, which was pretty cool.

Fresh smoked fish from Donsö, in Göteborg's archipelago.  Donsö is one of the few islands in that archipelago that still has a fishery.  The smoked fish was so good! 

More Donsö

A storm brewing in Göteborg's archipelago.

Torsång church and it's bell tower.  The bell tower had just been freshly tarred.  This is the oldest church in the region of Dalarna (probably built in the 13th century), and incidentally was also featured in the Ingmar Bergman film Winter Light.

Typical houses in Dalarna, painted in the colour "falun red".  The paint was a by-product of the old copper mines in Falun, so that's why traditionally there were so many houses painted this colour in the region.  The mines are shut down now, but it's still a popular colour today, and not just in Dalarna.

Birch trees in a forest near Torsång.

View of Lake Ösjön, near Torsång.

I haven't seen any wild strawberries yet, but wild raspberries are everywhere!  It takes a special kind of will-power to pass by raspberry bushes and not try to eat as many berries as possible.  A will-power I'm afraid to say I don't have.

View overlooking the city of Borlänge, although it's kind of hard to tell there's actually a city down there.

Update from Borlänge

Well it's been a while, but I've finally managed to find a computer that allows me to upload pictures from my camera!



Almost more than anything else, this clown (advertising GB Glace ice cream products) represents Sweden for me.  He's everywhere!  And I don't think the logo has changed since at least the 60s.  I saw a documentary made in 1969 and it was exactly the same!




View of Helsingborg.  It was incredibly windy that day.  I almost couldn't hold up my camera.



At Hovs Hallar, playing chess with myself.  I guess I'm trying to figure out how to set up the pieces.

Hovs Hallar - lots of great rocks and trails all along the beach.

Another picture of the beach at Hovs Hallar.  The people in it give an idea of the scale.  Some of the cliffs were huge!

A homecooked meal of pasta, zuchinni, tomatos and "fiskebullar" in a creamy dill sauce.  The fishballs come in a can.  Maybe not so classy, but tasty!

View looking down "Avenyn" in Göteborg, a famous (and touristy) street that's popular to walk down.

Looking a little wind-blown on Vrångö, an island in Göteborg's archipelago.  The islands are similar to the archipelago in Stockholm, but in Göteborg the islands are much closer, and you can reach them using the city's public transit.  Picture courtesy of my friend Carles from Barcelona.

Finally, on my fourth trip to Europe, I went to a football match!  We saw Göteborg IFK play Halmstad (in Göteborg).  The teams play in "Allsvenskan", which is Sweden's highest football league.  The league is ranked 28th in the world according to UEFA, just behind Serbia and ahead of Bosnia and Herzegovina.  But as one Swedish person told me, everyone knows the league isn't good, but they love it anyways.  And it was a lot of fun!  Constant singing/chanting/dancing/drumming.  The fans really got into it.  Just what I was hoping for!



Göteborg ended up winning 3-1.  They are the blue team.



Not sure if these videos will work, and I'm also not really sure which ones they are since I can't preview them before I upload them, but they are from the football match.

View of a canal in Göteborg at dusk. 

Unfortunately I can't figure out how to rotate the picture, but I just had to post it because I've never seen anything like it.  The tall thing in the middle of the table is some kind of beer pitcher.  And there is a nozzle at the bottom where you pour out your drinks.  Crazy!

View from a hiking trail in Borlänge