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?"

 
 

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. 

 

Sommarlov

 

Every summer, around midsummer time, Swedes head to their summer houses for a month or more of just pure vacation with family and friends. I've decided to do the same this year and so my little man "O" and I have headed to Gotland where we will visit family, stay at a horse farm called Avonlea, visit all of our neighbors, especially our good friends "The Svangrens", go to viking camp, and just live the island life of Gotland.

 
  
We are needing a couple of days to adjust to the new time zone and be kissed and hugged profusely by our loving family. We'll be back in a very short bit to share our summer life with all of you. Until then be well.

Up In Smoke

Ashes, Ashes, we all fall down. Or so the nursery rhyme says. It's more like "No Planes Fly !".  We just couldn't get over the fact that a volcano on a small little country like Iceland could stop a large portion of the planet from traveling.

As I write this, planes have been grounded for days. Many family and friends have been stuck in airports to and from Europe. We wish everyone a big dose of patience. What else is there?

I must say though that each time it would come on the news the kids and I would gather around just so we could get a glimpse of the volcano and Iceland.

A couple of years ago I took my children to Iceland. It was on my life list ( A life list is a list of things you want to do or experience before your die). So on one Dec 26th I started searching online and started renting a little vacation house, booking airplane tickets, and ordering travel books on Iceland.

 

You must know that my friends thought I was nuts. "Iceland? Why Iceland? Isn't it really cold? What will you do there in March?"

"Well that depends. Remember, there isn't bad weather,only bad clothings." One of the big highlights is the aurora borealis.  Also remember that my friends live in a warm climate and have little exposure to life in the North.

We spent the most incredible Easter week in Iceland, and though we were only there for 7 days, we bonded with this place for a life time. It is unanimous in our house, Iceland was the best vacation we've ever taken to date. There are times throughout the year where we have a real longing for Iceland. The waffles, daily bouts of coffee drinking at Kafe Tar,walking on the sea, visiting geysers, eating vegetable soup at a frozen waterfall, standing between the continental shelves, sitting in bookstores,walking around Reykjavik, and going to the blue lagoon have all of us longing to go back to Iceland.

  

So when we heard that a volcano was erupting in a glacier on "our" island, we have been enthralled. My blogging friend Britt's brother actually lives in Iceland and wrote a wonderful blog post about the volcano with photos. Have a look right over here.

To give you a feel for the place and to inspire you to travel there yourself, if the volcano let's you, here are some photos of "the best trip ever."

Paris in the Spring

By Per Svangren

Last week, me, my wife, and my youngest daughter went to Paris for a long weekend. First of all I had a couple of things to do and second we wanted to feel a little bit of spring.

We have had the longest, snowiest, and coldest winter for a very, very long time here in Sweden and we really felt the need for some sort of spring. So two hours south by plane and we landed in Paris, the train into the city center and there we were, in snow free streets and in a temperature at 5-10 degrees Celcius. So lovely. The very first thing we did, was stopping at a café and had an expresso outdoors. How lovely.

The rest of the days, we walked around the city, felt the non icy air, saw green grass and just felt spring. So we walked and saw attractions like the Eiffel tower, Mont Martre, Mona Lisa, Les Halles and so on. And of course French breakfast, French three course lunch and in the evenings, lovely long dinners together with French wine.

   

So back in Sweden again with a feeling of that we soon will also have spring here.......I hope.

Everywhere I go there's vintage

Here's another glimpse into my Swedish travels in September. Enjoy!

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Upon leaving the Hansgatan Konditori, I found this lovely little shop just across the road called, Acanthus. Here they mix old with new but honestly....I love the old. When I say old I mean really old. The cupboard in the photo was built in the early 1700's. There were many lovely items spanning many centuries. The only draw back is that they wouldn't ship. I got to keep a few more dollars in my pocket but sadly missed my newly found treasures.

Wedding in Thailand

By Per Svangren

How about a wedding on the beach at sunset? How about not spending too much money. Well we have a solution for those couples wanting such a wedding. Koh Lanta Thailand.

We will arrange everything you need for your special day. Clothes, hair, make up, the ceremony, transportation, hotel, dinner/reception, and all of the needed papers to get married in Thailand. This past year we've had the pleasure of serving100 happy couples with their special day. All with an unforgettable and beautiful stay on Koh Lanta, Thailand.