2. December

Christmas calendar is a little delayed, but better than never. This picture was taken some weeks ago, when we drove back from Kotka on father's day. We made a pit-stop in the little town Loviisa, to see if we could get a look at the nuclear power plant that is there. Since Janne hasn't seen one of those before (and has been living with nuclear power all of his life...), we figured since it was on the way home.....

We never found it. But we found these lovely little bath-houses in stead. Looks like a Tardis-meeting (if they were a little darker blue....)

And yes, it is supposed to be winter here, but the grass is green and no snow is in sight.

A one-day holiday

Saturday the 28th of May, I took the bus to a little place near here that is called Åhus. Its located on the coastal line of Kristianstad municipality, right on the mouth of  the river Helge å where it meets the sea. The town itself is said to have been there since the beginning of the first millennium, although the oldest settlements you can see the remains of today is the ruins of Aose hus, a castle that belonged to the archbishop Eskil. The building is dated back to the early 1100 ad. It was dug forth from tons of sand during the end of 17th century. I didn't go there myself, as it was quite out of my route.



The reason why I went to Åhus was to see the beach, the legendary hundreds of kilometers long sand beach. All white and totally beautiful. And as a bonus I discovered that the "centrum" of the town had quite interesting historical landmarks.
And let me just tell you, the beach was fantastically beautiful. I hope I can bring my friends and family there to enjoy it in the future, because this was completely stunning! And the silence! I thought I had come on a holiday where everything was closed or everyone just happened to have gone out of town, save for a few fishermen. All you could hear was the waves, the wind and my own personal thoughts. Could be that I happened to be there on a day that didn't offer the best of weather, but none the less, totally worth it. It was just sad that I had no one to show this to, to share the sights with... 

The sand in my shoes and pockets(!) are clear reminders of a beautiful day.

The names are those who are sponsors of the pier.

One of the sights grabbed my attention and imagination. It’s called the sarcophagus. It was a giant 8 ton stone box with lid, that had been pulled from a boat wreckage that was discovered on only 3m deep water in the bay south of a place called Revhaken close by. They pulled up one of the sarcophagi in the cargo in the 1950's, they placed it near the ruin of S:t Annas cloister, and is clearly a local myth creator. You could clearly see that the water had eaten on it for a long time. What I found most mystifying, was that this piece of historical display (if one should say so) didn't have any plaque or sign on it saying what this was, just a little comment on the sign telling about S:t Annas cloister. Every other piece of archaeology in this area had detailed information about it nearby. I wonder what was its purpose?? And for that matter, all of the remaining underwater copies of this one. How old is it and why did the ship sink on that shallow water? Did they overload it and it just sank and was left there? Where did the ship come from, why did it have a cargo of sarcophagi? I mean, what is the popular demand of those? One every king death?

And as it seems, ABSOLUT vodka are produced here. 

During my stay there the weather started to become more and more gray, almost onto raining. Quickly deciding that I had seen what needed to be seen and hurried onto a bus leaving back to Kristianstad.