LearnSweden Blog

Wanderings on a Rainy Afternoon

It really had a been a very rainy day.

 
 

We had tried to do the laundry and then we did it again via the storm.

 

We didn't really want to spend a day in the house. So there was only one option and that was to get in the car and head South. We knew we were heading towards När but we wanted to stop somewhere before we got to my aunt's house but where? 
Not really sure where we were headed we just kept winding down a variety of roads until we found ourselves at Jan Sandblom's keramik in Burs Flora, Gotland.

 

 
As the rumbling of thunder was heard over head, we entered a designer's studio just filled with works in progress. Upstairs was the most wonderful shop and gallery.

 

 

 
As boy waited for his mother, he had a little fun with candle play. Why is it that children love to try and blow out the candles or try not to blow out the candles in this case?

 
 Each piece is either hand turned or crafted in a mold. On our way out we saw a huge stack of items ready for the wood-fired kiln.

 
This is such a fabulous place which is open everyday in the summer. The drive is beautiful and there are some nice little places to stop and fika as well. You can find the Jan Sandblom keramik in the direction of Burs on route 144. It sits between Hemsa and Stånga.

 Today's Swedish words:

Rainy: regnig    phrase: en regnig sommar- a rainy summer

Laundry: tvätt   Laundromat: tvättstuga

Storm: oväder, storm

House: bostad, hem, hus

winding: buktig

road,route: väg

potter : keramiker

place one makes pottery: krukmakare or keramik

mold: forma

fika: to take a break and have coffee and some sweets.

The Family Parish of När

We started off with the intention of having lunch with the older members of our family known as the "ancient ones."  As we came into the little village of När on Gotland, we passed the church which led to many questions being asked as to "why does each town have a huge cathedral like church in it?" Who can go there? etc. 

I turned the car around and I gave my sweet son a look at his ancestry first hand. "This church "O" is where most of our family is buried and we have a very long history in this village of living inside this church. There have been baptisms, confirmations, weddings, and funerals for as long as the church has been standing."

 
"Can we go in and see what's inside?" he asked.

This is the baptismal font where many generations of Petterson's have been baptized.  

I thought it was so appropriate that this hand woven Tree of Life rug was laying before the alter. Here was this young boy who had come from very far away, learning about his connection to the village.

The church has beautiful painted decorations all over. Our favorites, however, are the painted pew doors which were done in the 1700's by a visiting painter from Belgium. Can you imagine sitting in these pews during services and leaning over to tell you brother, "Hey, that painting over there of the guy with the big nose could be your twin. It's uncanny how much you look alike."

No Catherdral is complete without the ship which hangs from the ceiling. It is a reminder that we are surrounded by the sea and our prayers are with those on the sea and who have been lost at sea. My father was a master builder of model tall ships. "Did grandpa get the ideas for these ships from the churches here?" My son asks. Most probably, plus he liked sailing on tall ships too.

From here we left through the door to the gardens which holds a lot of family history. 

to be continued.........  

Go-Carting 101

One summer day the entire Svangren tribe less Per and Lotta, and a couple of Budayrs' made it over to the great amusement park of Kneippbyn. First things first though,......all that was on this boys mind was riding the go carts.

With so many people around it does take a lot of patience.

First ,bring a really good friend along.

Second, wait in line for half an hour.

 

Third, place helmet on tightly.

Fourth, get into the car and buckle up.

And you're off........

  

and with that task finished we were free to continue playing.

Tjelvar

From a very young age I realized that I had two homes. The one I lived in with and surrounded by my large family and the other home was across the seas, where my family came from. The telling was always the same, I would sit outside with my father, my grandmother, an aunt, or any number of my extended family for the telling of "how Gotland came to be".

Fast-forward several years and I now find myself on Gotland with my youngest child, the first of my children to come to Gotland, and like all of my realitives before me it is my turn to tell the story. Why should this boy care about the story of Gotland and how it came to be? He is separated by two generations living in the United States. Because the story lives within us. Spanning more generations than can be counted we are Gutar for as far as the eyes can see. No matter where we live on this planet, it is this story which connects us to this place.

Sitting near and in Tjelvar's grave we begin the story:

Come sit and listen. This is an old story but not so old that we have forgotten.

Gotland was found by the first man, whose name was Tjelvar. In those days, Gotland was in a dusk that was so deep that the island would sink during the day and rise again during the night because it was enchanted. All of that changed, however, when Tjelvar came. He knew that fire was the only thing that could break the spell that sat over the island. Once he gathered fire and brought it to the island it sank no more. 

Tjelvar had a son, Havde, who was married to Vitastjerna (White star). These two were the first people to live on the island and are the ancestors of all the people who come from Gotland. The first night that Havde and Vitastjerna spent on the island, Vitastjerna had a dream that three snakes were coming out of her chest. Havde saw this as a sign that they would have three sons. As time went on this came to pass. Their son's names were Gute, Graip and Gunnfjaun.

Many years passed and Havde died. Upon his death the island was divided into three parts, one part for each son. Graip recieved the North part of the island, Gute got the center part of the island, and Gunnfjaun the South.

Gute was made chief of the whole island, giving his name to not only the island but to the people who live there. Until this day the island of Gotland is still divided into three parts.

 

 

This story comes from a book called the Gute Saga which was written down in the year 1300 but the story has been told from generation to generation. It's beginning goes way before the story was written down.

Tjelvar's grave is about 6000 years old and is a testament to the man and his island.

 

 

 

Wandering in the Fields

While touring around the island of Gotland, we discovered something we call "wandering moments". This is when you must stop your car or bicycle to just take a moment to walk down an undiscovered path, see what being in the middle of a field of flowers looks like, to admire a finely crafted stone wall, and above all else, we must always stop to pet a bleating sheep. What has you stopping for a little wandering moment of discovery today?

Walls in a Meadow

Driving under blue skies and through a variety of wheat and hay fields we met a forest. Surprisingly, out of a meadow rose a butress of a cathedral. It was totally unexpected and so we had to stop and see what this was.

  

Walking through the path and by the ancient wall we encountered a beautiful old church. This is Elinghem.

It was built in the 12th century but then suffered ruin in the 17th century from a fire. The community not having enough money to rebuild the church has left it to ruin.

The only remaining item is the altar and the baptismal font.

 

Today many weddings are held here in this peaceful and serene place.

The ancient walls around the church are thought to belong to an old castle or fortress.

It is such a lovely place to just sit and ponder. For little "O" it was an "incredible" discovery of which I'm sure he felt he was the first to find and uncover this treasure. It is truly a gem. There is a nice little picnic bench there if you are wanting to have a little picnic.

 

Ihregard

Finally we're back online. For the last couple of weeks I haven't had an internet connection. Though it was all around me, my computer didn't acknowledge the connections and I couldn't find any. I've never had that problem before, but we just rolled with the punches and had a great vacation to Gotland. We recorded almost every moment which has given us a vast store of future blog posts.

So let's get started..........

About 30 km north of Visby Gotland lies Ihregard, a lovely little all purpose farm.

 
 

Feeling the affects of jetlag we were in desparate need of some coffee. What we found was a quiet little garden which hosted a cafe where young and old a like could enjoy their Sunday with some coffee and a little lunch.

You can find Ihregard on route 149 heading north. There you will find a little store housing many products from the farm, horse and pony riding, a garden and a cafe, both I highly recommend.

 
   

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.