The South Coast of Sweden

So, as we said in the last post, winter is coming, or at least summer is definitely ending. To be fair, the temperature has not dropped that much so far. It is still getting to 18 Deg C most days, but the wind has definitely picked up and the light has a softer feel to it.

So here are some of the pictures we took along the way. The south coast of Sweden is far more like Denmark, both in terms of the landscape and the buildings we see. Historically, this part of the World was heavily disputed and was, for a very long time, Danish.

The Island of Utklippan

This has to be on my list of best places visited this year. It is just such a quirky place in the middle of the sea.

Approaching the Island (technically more than one)

Here is a map . The rectangular basin on the North island is the Harbour and there is a light house and a hostel on the south island. The place is run by a Swedish?German couple who run it from April to November (as it is all rock and a nature reserve they cannot bury the water pipes so have to drain them down in November so they don’t freeze. They generate all of their fresh water using a water maker converting thousands of litres of salt water every day into drinking and washing water for themselves and anyone staying in the hostel as well as to support the bar and BBQ they run every evening.

View from far end of the harbour. The harbour was built during the 30s and 40s as a refuge for fishermen

Lighthouse and Hostel (even has a sauna – little hut to the right of the light house)

The light house started as a stone building where they would hoist hot coal up to signal to the ships. Eventually it was extended with a metal tower and a gas lamp was used. The light is now no longer used and is in a museum (The owner of the island is quite grumpy about them taking away his light and would love it back as it would be stunning to see it working)

View from the top of the light looking back over the island with the harbour is in the distance

Jenny in the top of the light house (they have put a small light in for show)

They have 4 species of frog/toad on the island. How the hell did they get there?

Karlkrona

Karlkrona is an interesting town as it has been, and largely still is, the home of the Swedish Navy. The architecture goes from grand to functional with nothing in between.

It has a fantastic Naval and maritime museum. We did not do the dockyard tour as you need to take passports and get checks done before you go in as it is still a working yard.

Large Church in the Centre of town – it was beautiful in side and had been newly renovated

Stirling Scotsac, this guy needs some of your tuition as his ascent was clearly too fast for him to be this far out the water.

Jenny choosing a living room decoration for Danny

Clearly people had problems getting reception for mobiles in the days of sailing ships

Jenny decides to upgrade the yacht. I am not convinced she will fit into most marinas. (and here’s me thinking I’d lost weight!)

The Island of Hano

This was a stop over on the way along the coast. One of those places it was nice to be able to visit out of season as during the season it would have been rammed and hard to get into.

Found this tucked away, it was clearly a busy place at one time

The light house. Still functions (it was nice sitting outside at night and looking up to see the light sweeping over you) . This light has one of the longest visible distances of any lighthouse in Sweden (23 miles if I remember correctly) it was built in 1905 and replaced an old wooden one

The island was used as a base by the British in the Napoleonic war. This is a grave yard for the unknown (all bar two who were identified) British sailors. The Cross was put up by HMS Plymouth on a visit in 1973. It is custom that British ships serving in the Baltic land on the island and hold a service

Next to the grave is another grave of a lady and het two children who died in the cholera epidemic (1834)

Jenny found this copper nail head in the rock. We could not make out the pattern on it or what it was for, any suggestions?

Me blending in to the spit at the end of the island

Ystad

We got to Ystad at the beginning of September and decided to take a week off sailing as there were a set of lows coming in (and Andy felt we deserved a holiday!)We chose it as it has good connections by train to places like Malmo and by ferry to the Danish island of Bornholm. Both of which we visited.

IMG_E7822 — The breakwater doing a good job of sheltering the marina from the waves.

IMG_E7820 — The wind was a bit blowy for a few days

When a Panorama goes wrong. The centre of Ystad with a rather stretched car …

We stumbled across an old monastery while hunting for the chemist . This building was originally a monastery , but was later converted into a hospital when the crown fell out with the church. By the Victorian era it had fallen into disrepair, but was then renovated.

Has a nice set of gardens, vegetable, herb, flower etc

There was a Photo exhibition inside. Don’t fancy lugging this around

A Trip along the coast to see a stone boat!

We have not done that many selfies, so I figured we are allowed one occasionaly

Some nice beaches. Unfortunately at this time of year they can become covered in rotting seaweed

a small town of beach huts (there were actually little streets between them),

Every so often down the coast there were more of these relics from what I assume was the cold war, but may have been earlier

I had half thought about typing in a big explanation of how this Viking clock/ calendar works, but decided I would end up having to re draw all of the diagrams. Needless to say it is very clever and to think of when it was put up, it is quite astounding.

General gist is the shaded areas are night. From the top, shortest day, then longest day , then equinox, with the red line joining the two stones that the sun rises and sets over through the central point of the ship.

I had seen it from about a mile of the coast when we sailed past and had no idea what it was

By knowing the time of year ( almost at the equinox ) you can count the stones between sun rise and sun set and then work out what time it is by which one has the shadow pointing to the centre. So, in effect, a sun dial. The Viking equivalent of a watch with a little window on it telling you the date. Maybe not quite so portable

And back at Ystad….

IMG_E7840 — Jen saw one taking a small fish

Oh, and I tried my hand at baking, Jenny Friendly Carrot Cake. Cant have been too bad as it all got eaten.

Trip to Bornholm a small island off Southern Sweden that is actually Danish.

One interesting fact about Bornholm, is that it remained occupied for a year after the end of WWII . The Germans refused to surrender to the Russians as they said they had been ordered to surrender to the allies. So apparently the Russian forces bombed the island then invaded and stayed for a year.

We decided that as it was still very windy we would let someone else do the driving and parking for a change and took the ferry out with the bikes ( I had read that it offered excellent cycle paths and was not disappointed).

Quite a posh ferry – and went at 40mph so fast as well.

When on the cycle path we found this little spot with loads of rocks with pictures carved in them. They were carved by a farmer who retired in 1988 (due to ill health) so took up stone carving as a hobby. In 1990 the council built a pond to help some rare frogs by the side of the cycle track. So the farmer decided to create a little place for cyclists to rest and decorate it with a few stones. The last stone was erected in 2004. The farmer past away in 2007. There were loads mostly based on Greek and Roman mythology or Hans Christian Andersson’s fairytales, so here is a collection of some of the ones we liked (note the church as crops up later)

Fields of Corn on the Cob ( I was so tempted to put a couple in the bag)

The Church from the stone carvings. Bornholm is famous for it’s four round churches built in the 12th and 13th Century. “The round churches were multipurpose structures that served as places of worship, but also as storage facilities and fortifications to guard against the many attacks. Their thick walls and round shape helped them withstand battering rams, while their upper stories could only be accessed through narrow passages, providing a place of refuge for local people and their treasures” (www.realscandinavia.com)

This is Nylars Church which was built around 1156 and is believed to be the best preserved on of the four. it is famous for it’s 13th Century frescoe depicted the Garden of Eden and the Creation. It is dedicated to St Nicholas, the Patron Saint of Seafarers.

Most of the churches we have seen in Denmark and Sweden have a ‘spare spire’, we have no idea what their purpose is but really should ask someone!

We arrived along with a bus loads of German tourists, even with so many people inside, it still felt almost organic, more like a cave than a man made building.

Two runestones were found near where the church was built and are now displayed in the church. There are about 40 runic stones known of on Bornholm. The first stones were erected in Denmark around 800AD.The Vikings erected them in memory of dead noblemen or fallen warriors.

we even found a vineyard….

Real grapes growing on real vines, never expected this (or growing corn on the cob) to be possible at the same latitude as Newcastle and Derry

He also distils his own whisky. Even Andy couldn’t talk him into giving us a tour as it was ‘the wrong day’. He makes it very lightly smoked as, he said, everything in Denmark is very smoky so he wanted to do something different.

Came across this Windmill. The small blades at the back are called a rose according to the guy I met later (tail fan) and it turns gears that in turn rotate the blades into the wind

A few miles up the road we came across this. Clearly was asking for further investigation. So in I go….

So this guy has a hobby of repairing windmills. Well , when I say hobby , he is just starting out. He recons 5 years for this and the out buildings. To be fair he managed to get it off in one peace which, looking at it, was quite an achievement.

Much of the wood will need to be replaced

The gear mechanism at the bottom of the rose or tail fan

The main cog – you can see the square holes where the pegs would have been

A Christmas tree farm specially for my old school pal, Jean, who grows Christmas trees outside Aberdeen.

If I could have come up with a way to bring this piece of glass home with us, without breaking it, I would have bought it. So many beautiful pieces but, living on a boat focusses the mind on what you need and have room for.

Just another beautiful cycle and walking path.

The church in Ronne, the main city on Bornholm.

I was convinced this had sunk, but it was just a very well loaded dredge boat dumping a load outside the sea wall

We went to Malmo for the day. This is the third largest city in Sweden. I get the impression this is the Glasgow of Sweden. A town that is functional and grew from the industrial revolution. It has had a new lease of life when the built “the Bridge” ( yes that one – see next blog) and is now probably also one of the design centres of Europe.