From the bus to Vasteras

Our plane arrived about 7 am,. Getting quickly through immigration, we collected our bags, and headed out into minus 2°C (a bit of a shock after > 30°C in Townsville and in Bangkok). We managed to catch the 7:55 am express bus to Västerås which headed east into the rising sun past snow powdered fields for the 1 h 20 min/110 km trip. Mia kindly collected us and took us home for a much needed rest.

Tillberga vs VSK Bandy Match (3-2)

We’re enjoying sharing time with family, exploring Vãsterås and generally unwinding. We’ve been kept busy so far. One evening was a Bandy competition. Bandy is a variant of hockey played on ice – it is much more like hockey than Ice Hockey. It is incredibly fast, and apart from the bit about getting the ball into the opposing team’s goal, we had little idea of the rules. But who needs rules – the excitement was clear. This was a darby with two local Vãsterås teams;  “our” team, Tillberga Vãsterås were the underdogs, taking on VSK who recently won their 20th National Championship… but we won 3:2 much to the surprise/shock of VSK.

Mia and family are keen on horses, so we went to the stables. These are somewhat different to what one thinks of in Australia, because of the extreme cold. There are huge heated barns with the horse stalls and equipment rooms and vast unheated barns that serve as exercise arenas, in addition to the paths outdoors in the snow. It was fun to watch the youngsters riding their horses. 2:30 PM, sun setting – time to go indoors.

Walking round town I was surprised to see what looked like parking meters along one of the streets here, until I looked closer. They turned out to be power outlets. When you park your car on the street you plug in to the mains power which runs small heaters to keep the battery and oil from freezing so you can start your car when you return. Not a thing we worry about in Melbourne.

Vãsterås is on Malaren, a huge lake that stretches from Stockholm and another 100 km further to the east, covering an area over 1100 square km. As Christmas approaches the surface is starting to freeze over. Soon the ice will be thick enough for skating. The local ducks are making the most of the few patches of free water, and in places they have bubblers that keep the water moving and prevent ice formation, so there are small clear patches for the birds.

There used to be a major shipping port here (with water access all the way to Stockholm and to several major regional centres around the lake), but road and rail have taken over. As in Melbourne, the port area is becoming developed with apartment blocks, oriented, by and large, so that there are at least some water views from most of the units.

We’re a little late for the “…season of mists and mellow fruitfulness…” but the evidence of autumn are all around. Mia has a wheelbarrow of apples awaiting processing. Fortunately cool storage is easy here. The wheelbarrow is in the garage, hovering just above freezing. Trees around the streets are loaded with remnant fruit and with red and white berries, which the resident passerine birdlife are no doubt relying on to get them through the cold. It isn’t hard to see how bird migration to warmer climes from the northern winter has selective advantages.

Among the oddities of Vãsterås is a tree-house hotel, 13 m above ground in a huge oak. Hotel Hakspett (hotel woodpecker) as it is called was a concept of a local artist, and was available to rent in the summer. As far as facilities are concerned it is a little primitive. A small bed, a dry toilet and a balcony with lovely views of the park. One gets up to the room in a harness – hardly the most convenient, but it is differently a contrast to the normal hotel room. Alas, the tree has become insecure and the room is no longer available for rent. But there is another, underwater room by the same artist, out in the lake and available for summer guests.

More later. Photo Gallery so far is at: https://goo.gl/photos/yX21ne76vG6MUR6t7

The end of the year approached. We had a fine family feast. Jill and Mia completed yet another 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle. All this to sporadic bangs and flashes. Swedes do like their pyrotechnics. There seem to be few regulations on sale of fireworks. With sunset around 3pm there was plenty of dark to illuminate with bangs and flashes. Rockets pocked the skies in all directions as soon as it was reasonably dark, and they just kept on going. I headed down into town to see the official New Year Fireworks. The official ones were even bigger (I think there are limits on the size of rockets etc sold in the shops).

Wandering back through town after the fireworks there were large crowds of people, many somewhat inebriated, but not unruly. After the blatant presence of police and paramilitary on show everywhere we went in Rome, it was lovely that in all the New Year’s eve celebrations I only saw 6 police patrolling the streets of Västerås .

The Valby Open Air Museum is only a few km walk, so Jill and I went there to admire the old buildings. The museum is a sort of farm with rare or endangered breeds of Swedish livestock, with a collection of old, traditional buildings of various ages, relocated here from various places in Vastmansland.

On the other side of town is Anund’s Hög. This bronze age site features a large burial mound about 60 m across and 9 m high plus several smaller ones, several sets of standing stones arranged in the form of boat outlines, and some rune stones. Fascinating, and very pretty in the light dusting of snow, with the low angled sunlight (even at mid-day the sun is not far above the horizon at this time of year).

A cold snap brought a fresh load of snow, and we got stuck into a task we don’t usually face in Australia – clearing snow from driveways and footpaths. Everything looks picturesque with a nice blanket of snow. It does make the streets rather slippery, but the snow ploughs get to work quickly, clearing the fresh snow to the sides and spreading a sprinkle of gravel to minimise skidding.

As usual there are lots of photos in a gallery: https://goo.gl/photos/P9DZrWXg4ycLYKUP8 .

We spend the weekend in Uppsala, hosted by one of Jill’s swimming friends from her school days. We had a fantastic time.

Uppsala is the 4th largest city in Sweden, with a population of about 140,000. It has a cathedral, and is well known as a university town. The University was founded in 1477, but the town is much older.

The initial site, now called Gamla Uppsala (old Uppsala) is a few km north, and has some prehistoric burial mounds. From the 3rd centrury AD it was a major religious, economic and political centre. There is the old cathedral, initially build in the 11th century. The museum there is very interesting, with a nice collection of artefacts and a timeline of events in the area.

Uppsala at its current location became dominant around 1274 when the cathedral at Gamla Uppsala burned down. The new cathedral, consecrated in 1435 is a gothic masterpiece and one of the largest in Europe, with spires reaching almost 120 m high.

On Sunday we had the pleasure of a walk in the forests outside Uppsala. We were taken to a popular venue for skating – the lake was frozen 10-15 cm deep and there were scores of people out on the lake taking the trails cleared of snow (1km, 4 km or 10 km options if I recall correctly). The ice was somewhat slippery to walk on so we elected to take a trail over the ridge to overlook another lake. All very scenic and a lovely way to spend a morning.

A gallery of Uppsala photos is at: https://goo.gl/photos/XuZS41tUoXn34oYL8

Back in Sweden safely – Mr Trump did not turn off the GPS whilst our Ryanair flight was half way there 🙂

Alas, the snow has thawed. Sweden is gripped by mild weather.  Our plans to head north to the cottage in the mountains for a few days of gentle cross country skiing are scotched – given the daytime thawing temperatures followed by sub-zero overnight, all we could expect is lots if nasty icy conditions which are not pleasant on skis. Plan B is relaxation; and gentle walks around Vasteras (with camera), visits to Jill’s mum (all of 8 minutes walk away), reading books (lots of books given at Christmas that still need reading).

First, a day in Enköping, half way to Stockholm. It is much smaller than Västerås – population about 21,000 and  has several manufacturing industries, a hospital and an army electronic warfare centre Ledningsregementet (LedR). Whilst not a place I would add to the “places to revisit” list, it was an interesting day.

On the way back Erik pointed out that the E18 motorway went through a couple of tunnels  that had been added to provide an uninterrupted wildlife corridor above, rather than being needed because there was a hill to get through. They dug the road into a trench in the solid rock and tunnel under for about 200 m, leaving the woods above undisturbed. the sides of the highway are fenced, which probably helps to funnel wildlife onto the resulting bridge. It’s costly, I guess, but the alternative is deaths on the roads when cars hit deer and elk at high speed.

On one of our wanders around town, we noticed a counter machine set up beside one of the cycle/walk ways. It had some interesting statistics. We passed at half past 2 PM, and already there had been over 1000 cyclists and almost 900 pedestrians registered. Year-to-date numbers averaged around 1000 cyclists and 1000 pedestrians each day. That is quite a bit of traffic, especially considering this was winter, with cold and often icy conditions.  It is clearly worth the effort they put into snow clearing and salt and grit spreading on the cycle paths as they do on the roads.

Although there was no fresh snow, the temperatures had been low enough to freeze the lake to over 10 cm thick ice, which is considered the safe thickness for skating etc, so Jill and I headed onto the lake. Jill, bravely, took skates. After slipping and falling she packed them up and donned her ice cleats – a much safer way to walk on the ice (without ice cleats it is almost impossible to walk on the ice – it is as slippery as ice!). The lake ice was lovely – lots of patterns with crystals, bubbles, cracks and so on. From out on the lake there are also different views to the islands and the mainland. It was all very nice (apart from Jill’s bruised ribs). We walked out about a km, past the underwater hotel (above the water is a raft with a small room, inside are steps down to a sleeping room a couple of metres under the water level. It is an interesting concept, though I suspect it would be better on the great barrier reef than in a lake where the water is probably fairly turbid most of the time, and there really isn’t that much diversity of aquatic life to amuse one in Malaren).

Another day we spend on bicycles heading to Bjorno, an island a few km south east, which is mostly parkland with jogging tracks through the woods and along the coast. It is rather scenic. By then the ice was melting rapidly, so there was a mm or so of water over the ice – still plenty of ice to support skaters and ice yachts, but it really made it look like the people were walking on water.

Our 2 months has flown. Tomorrow we had down to Stockholm for a family lunch with Tomas and Cristina. We’ll stay for the monday (exploring the museums), then we are off to the airport on Tues for our return (via another day in Bangkok).

I’ve put a gallery with larger photos online at https://goo.gl/photos/e8hCkM1N2aSa6JQ5A