LearnSweden Blog

Visby Glassworks

 

Sweden has a long standing tradition of glassblowing. Personally, I love glass and I don't think there is such a thing as too much glass. Lucky for us not only did we find glass but the furnace was hot and working. We just had to stay and watch. It was totally mesmerizing. The furnace is 1200 degrees C.

The pole sits in the oven getting hot and ready to put a blob of sand on it. Excuse me because this isn't a technical term. It is my own homegrown interpretation of things.

The pole is constantly in motion as the glass maker turns and bends the molten sand.

What was this fine artist making? Why this of course. Isn't it beautiful?

Also from the oven

Are these beautiful works of art. I ended up buying a little carafe for salad dressing.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

To Scale

This is the boy over the last two years has built a myriad of trebuchets in a variety of sizes. Small ones, medium size ones, fairy sized ones.

But nothing could have prepared him for this. A lifesize trebuchet. Seeing is believing.

It left him speechless and a bit in awe. I'm just waiting for the moment when he'll ask, "Mom when Home Depot has a sale on wood can we get some to build a trebuchet?"

 
 

How Long Is The Day? How Short the Night?

On the very first day of our visit, little "O" started questioning everyone about "How long is the day?" Is there a sunset? and of course the reverse is true as well. "When does the sunrise?" "How long is night?"

The best answers to these questions is to experience them for oneself.

Eating pizza at 9:30 at night. He was wishing he had brought his sunglasses to keep the sun out of his eyes.

Every five minutes the questions would be asked again and again. After dinner we took a walk to yet another scale model of Visby. With notebook in hand he started sketching, drawing, and writing comments in the margins. Oh did I mention it's about 10 at night.

When my dad's cousin said,"Look Omar the sun is starting to go down now. 

"Come On everybody! To the Mermaid Fort to see the sea put out the sun!"

From there we started running up the street, climbed the stairs to watch the day say goodbye.

and then the day was done. We had two hours of sort of dark in which the young boy closed his eyes and went to sleep. 

The answer to his question about the sunrise story will have to wait for another day because you see, he slept through it.
  
  
 

And the Mist Rose Up to Meet Him

From the moment he saw the mist coming off the fountain he knew one thing had to happen.

The only thing that could happen and that is for this wall of mist to blow over him so that he could feel the complete effect. So here he waits but so far nothing.

Nope,that didn't work. Why not get a little closer?

Not happening. Let's try it from over here. "I think it's coming!" Almost, ....almost. Not yet.

And when you least expect it. The mist will rise up to meet you.

 
 
 
 

And the Mist Rose Up to Meet Him

From the moment he saw the mist coming off the fountain he knew one thing had to happen.

The only thing that could happen and that is for this wall of mist to blow over him so that he could feel the complete effect. So here he waits but so far nothing.

Nope,that didn't work. Why not get a little closer?

Not happening. Let's try it from over here. "I think it's coming!" Almost, ....almost. Not yet.

And when you least expect it. The mist will rise up to meet you.

 
 
 
 

We Love to Ride our Bicycles

For about $10, we rented bicycles for an entire 24 hour period. For little "O" this means that one may never dismount their bicycle and that we are to ride them everywhere. No problem if you are riding on a flat surface but we're in Visby, home of the cobble stone streets and an elevation that starts at sea-level and then rises to this huge cliff on top of the walled city. Oh and lets not forget that we are in the middle of a heat wave that even has the locals complaining. After about an hour or so, my giddy-up  got up and went. It was time to intervene with a suggestion, "Why not ride along the sea coast bike road?"

Nothing made me happier than when this sweet boy agreed with much enthusiasm.

So off we went to see what we could discover.

First up, a family of swans. Who were so very sweet. "Do you know they mate for life mom? Just like humans."

We continued on past beautiful coastal scenes on the left and incredible clifts on the right.

We arrived at a little fishing village.

We had rode 5 kilometres and so it was time to turn around and go back to Visby.

As we returned to Visby a long line of bicycles with little wagons on the back of their bicycles were getting ready to start by the looks of it, a very long journey.

"Where are you going? Little O asked.

"We are biking around the entire island and staying in little huts in the evenings." Informed the biker papa.

"How many days does it take to go around the island?"

"Oh about 4 days if you don't stop too much but as you can see we have many children with us so it will take about a week."

Boy, that caught his attention. His eyes were all sparkly with the notion of biking around the whole island. "Can we do it today mom? or should we put it on our life list?"

Without a moments hesitation I said,"Life List!"

So with that idea we said good bye to our newly made biking friends.

 
 and look forward to a ride around the island one day. One day we I get a loveseat for my bicycle.;)
 
 
 
 
  

Ahoy

Ahoy mate! What are you spying?

Intently he keeps looking.

 
 When he finally says," I see........... a pirate ship."

Almedalen Week

Known as the rock concert of politics, Almedalen Week is an annual event taking place in the first week of July in and around Almedalen, a park in the city of Visby on the Swedish island Gotland. With speeches, seminars and other political activities, it is considered an important forum in Swedish politics.

 

During the week, representatives from the major political parties in Sweden take turns to hold speeches in Almedalen.

  
 
 

The origins of the Almedalen Week are the speeches held by Olof Palme every summer in Visby, beginning in 1968. The first official Almedalen Week took place in 1982, when the Social Democrats started to organise economic seminars. As a response, the other political parties started to take a more active part. In recent years, the event has grown larger, with hordes of journalists (350 2008), lobbyists, local and national politicians and representatives of non-governmental organizations, all coming to Visby to meet, discuss politics and socialize.

After everything is said and done, there are a few reminders left behind.

 
 
   

The Ramparts

A Swedish flag on top of a

medieval wall in Visby Gotland, Sweden.

Around the corner and through the archway, led us to the ramparts.

Nearby, under a tree, was a scale model of the ramparts the city had reconstructed on the wall.

Totally engaged and completely inspired, the boy sets how to figure out how to build his own city wall with ramparts for the fairy village.

I think our fairy village is going Middle Ages. In fact I'm sure of it.

All of us here on Gotland are wishing our sweet Zaina a very happy 21st birthday today. We miss you sweet girl. 

 

Welcomed to Visby

There is nothing better than a kind friend waiting for you.

who's that? she asks.

 

"It's Valli and Omar."... and that's about as excited as she gets, but we'll take it.