Kalmar, Sweden

 Saturday, May 28, 2022

Kalmar, Sweden

 We have traveled up to the southeast coast of Sweden and have docked in Kalmar:

 

The city was founded in the 12th century, and in 1397 it was the site of the formation of the Kalmar Union, uniting all of Scandinavia under a single ruler which lasted until 1523.  Kalmar Castle is the major feature of the city, and we took our Zodiacs to the castle:

 


 We entered the castle over the moat:

 


 The interior is appropriately opulent for kings and queens; I’ll show a few samples.  Here’s an interior door with exquisite marquetry and an incredible hinge, part of a room completely covered with marquetry walls:

 


 Here’s a dining room set for dinner, with a peacock and a swan on the table:

 


 This is a portion of the king’s bedroom:

 


There is a frieze which goes all around the ceiling of the bedroom; this is a portion of it:

 


 As we left the castle on the Zodiacs, we passed a small island with a zillion gulls:

 


 We returned to the ship for lunch, and then took a walking tour of the city, which doesn’t have too much to recommend it.  There were a couple of interesting things to see.  For over 100 years there has been a cottage industry of carpet washing, done in a building with a floating floor.  Women stand in the wooden bucket-like structures, and wash the carpets by hand:

 


 The local church is impressive:

 

 The pulpit is ornate:

 


 And there are carved shields on the walls from noble families:

 


 There’s also a museum with an entire floor dedicated to the artifacts brought up from a large Middle Ages sunken ship.  We spent some time there before going back to the ship for teatime at which marzipan from Lubeck was served.  It was outstanding!  After dinner we had a talk by one of the two National Geographic photographers who are with us.  He spoke on the use of a cell phone as a camera, focusing on the iPhone; he loves the fact that he has a very capable camera in his pocket all the time, and he is able to use it phenomenally well!  He had lots of great information on the phone’s camera features, most of which I had no idea were there in the phone.  It was very useful!

 Tomorrow to Finland!  More then.

Comments

  1. Ralph P. LockeMay 29, 2022 at 10:49 AM

    Amazingly ornate decorations! I suppose each panel, etc., has its own tale to tell, its specific symbols, etc. The boar hunt is vividly rendered--I suppose the paint has been "restored" in recent years--it's so bright! A good restoration is carefully done following international standards, as surely was the case here. Fun that Lu"beck marzipan catches up with you in Sweden.... I can never get enough marzipan!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rwa442May 29, 2022 at 4:06 PM

    Always amazed by the craftsmanship presumably all done with hand tools, or manpowered tools.

    ReplyDelete

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