Riz7

An interesting quiz question would be to name a famous Dane (apart from HKA). It turns out we all probably know a few and I stumbled on an interesting sight near to the centre of Copenhagen. My sight is the grave of the physicist Niels Bohr, but in the same cemetery (Assistens) HCA and the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard are also buried. After this we walk via the trendy centre (to embrace the full Scandi life J has herring for lunch) past the Rosenborg castle to the Little Mermaid then along the harbourside to the Amalienborg palace where the royal yacht is moored then on to Nyhavn for afternoon refreshments. We're using public transport here so then back across the city to the main railway station where we narrowly avoid catching our commuter train north instead of ... read more

There is a small island just off the coast from Torekov where we are staying and a ferry runs 2 or 3 times a day. Yesterday the wind was too strong for the ferry to operate, so we drove to the Kullen peninsular. On the way we stopped at a memorial to where a UFO was reported as landing in 1946. I haven’t read the details as these are in a book, but next to the memorial is a place where 2 dead aliens were supposedly buried temporarily while the UFO made repairs. Will try to find a copy of the book in English. On the peninsula we walk to the Kullen lighthouse. This is the oldest lighthouse in Scandinavia and was originally built in 1561. It is also the highest and the most powerful in ... read more

One of the best ways to experience the west coast of Sweden is to do some hiking. J finds a trail to a place that sounds interesting - King Tryggves grave on the island of Tryggo. The island is not connected to the mainland but I'm told you can walk across at low tide. High tide today isn't until 5pm so we should be fine. Turns out the information isn't quite correct and we need to wade across but the water isn't more than knee deep. The grave itself is a huge cairn of stones 20 metres across. The history of the site is not well understood. The cairn is considered to be from the Bronze age and Kung Tryggve died in 963, and though a stone coffin was found in the centre of the cairn ... read more

I DO remember the last time I was in Sweden, but as it was (I think) in 1978 I don't remember everything about it. It was our last family holiday and we spent 2 weeks camping in southern Sweden. Some of this holiday has become legend in Risby family history. The main thing I recall about the trip is that we had been told that bread was incredibly expensive to buy in Sweden. We therefore decided that we would take our own "crispbread" supplies with us from England, as well as most of our other food for cooking in the campsites (eating out was not thought to be an option if we could not afford bread!). To make our diet more interesting we purchased a wide variety of crispbreads so we would not become bored with ... read more

The most visited museum in Stockholm is not the Abba museum but the "Vasa" museum. The Vasa was a 17th century Swedish warship that sank on its maiden voyage just outside Stockholm, was raised in 1961 and is now brilliantly preserved in a special museum on Djurgarden. The ship is very very impressive. I had not expected it to be so intact, particularly as over 90% of what is on display is the original ship with only a few additions (rigging , masts etc) to improve the overall appearance. This incredible condition is due mainly to the water here which being cold and polluted did not support the oxygen that would normally have caused the wood to rot. The raising of the vessel and the subsequent preservation work are also impressive achievements and are featured in ... read more