Gail and John's travels: Summer 2010

Wednesday 28 July saw an early start from Trondheim as we were off on the train to Sweden. The line winds its way through the hills, forests and lakes, nothing spectacular though. After a quick change of trains at Östersund our next stop was Sundsvall on the Gulf of Bothnia about 350 km north of Stockholm.

Sundsvall

Wide streets in the centre of Sundsvall

Sundsvall is a modern industrial town although the only sign we saw was the paper mill across the other side of the bay. The origin of the wide streets and the large square in the centre of town can be traced back to 3 major fires which almost totally destroyed the town each time.

Sundsvall Square

In 1721 Sweden and Russia were at war. The invading Russians burnt to town down. The town was rebuilt using abundant timber from nearby forests. Another fire in 1803 wiped the town out again. When the town was rebuilt after this fire, the town was redesigned to have wide streets to act as fire breaks and of course mostly timber buildings again - because it was cheap and easy to use.

The Great Fire of 1888 In midsummer fire again ravaged the old town centre and destroyed everything except a few stone buildings. The devastation was absolute. Help in the form of food, clothing and money poured in from all over Sweden. They were lucky it was midsummer and not in winter where it could get to -25°C or lower.

Lesson learnt: buildings in central Sundsvall are now made of bricks and stone. Although there is a strange regulation which says that some buildings, mainly apartments must be stone or brick for the ground floor but that they can have timber for the second and third floors!

Not far from Sundsvall by bus is Alnö Island.

Holiday homes at Spikarna

I've included the next few shots taken in Sundsvall to show you what a digital camera can do to get some good shots.

Sundsvall Clock

(Canon 450D, EFS 55-250 lens 250mm, f/9, 1/160s, ISO-800)

This lens gives reasonably sharply focused images stopped down a bit in contrast to those where it is wide open. Image stabilisation helps when the using a telephoto at long settings.

Gustav Adolfs Kyrka

(Canon 450D, EF-S 10-22mm lens at 10mm, +2/3 f stop, F/3.5, 1/13s, ISO-500)

This one is included to show what can be achieved in low lighting conditions without a flash and tripod. Using the AEB setting on the camera at + and - 2/3 f stop yields a well lit shot with the light coming from through the windows a little over exposed. Most of my indoor shots are taken at -2/3f. (Outdoors, without the use of ND filters, I use 1/3 f stop compensation with reasonable results. Nearly all outdoor shots this summer were done with this setting.)

Gustav Adolfs Kyrka

(Canon 450D, EFS 17-85mm lens at 55mm, +1/3 f stop, F/4, 1/30s, ISO-800)

Letting the camera do the work and selecting from 3 exposures produces this pleasing image in a rather dark corner of the church. I am a great fan of the AEB function of modern digital cameras that allow good shots in difficult lighting situations where the use of flash is impractical.

Sundsvall has adopted the dragon as a symbol and there are dozens in the centre of town. This came about following rebuilding after the 1888 fire.

This one has a book in its mouth - outside the bookshop of course.

Two nights here was enough as a full on visit to Stockholm was next.

Stockholm

The Grand Hotel. The Nobel Laureats stay here during the Nobel Prize ceremonies in December each year, except the Peace Prize Laureates which receive theirs in Oslo.

Stockholm is built on a number of islands and around a rather large lake, Lake Mälaren which is less than a metre above sea level. There is a large network of ferry services to the many islands between the city center and the open sea of the Gulf of Bothnia.

Changing the guard at the Royal Palace (Kungliga Slottet) on Gamla Stan

The Summer Palace at Drottningholm

The raincoat again and dull skies!

The ferry to Drottningholm on Lake Mälaren

Gamla Stan

A quiet square on Gamla Stan

Late afternoon sun on af Chapman, built in 1888 tied up at Skeppsholmen

Admiralty House on Skeppsholmen

A quiet corner on Fjäderholmarana

The following three shots demonstrate my attempts at photographing birds on Fjäderholmarana. Apart from the seagull, the species of the other two birds is not know to me although the first one looks like a dottrel.

Canon 450D, EFS 55-250mm at 146mm, f/5.6, 1/160 sec, ISO-200

Canon 450D, EFS 55-250mm at 250mm, f/5.6, 1/320sec, ISO-200, cropped

Canon 450D, EFS 55-250mm at 131mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec, ISO-200

The waterfront in Stockholm on the way to another island, Djurgarden

Ships in the collection at the Vasamuseet, Djurgarden

The steamer on the right is an ice breaker built in 1917. In the winter the Gulf of Bothnia freezes over so the need for such ships is vital to keep communications open. It was converted to an oil burner in 1957 with a reduction on crew and continued its winter duties into the early 1970s. One interesting point is that the ship has a large v -shaped notch in the stern so that ships it was taking through the ice could be tied close so that they could help push! Another unusual feature is a propeller at the bow to push the ice away!

The main exhibit here of course is the Vasa. Click on the link above to read more about its maiden voyage of 1,300m in 1628.

Vasa.

The ship is at least 90% original!!! Rediscovered in 1956, raised in 1961 and towed in to dry dock and the museum built around it. I couldn't help but draw comparisons with Henry VIII's Mary Rose in Portsmouth. The cold low oxygen content water of the water playing a major part of keeping the worms at bay which would have eaten the timber.

The stern of the Vasa

The ferry to Vaxholm

After 6 nights and five full busy days it was time to head off to the southern part of Sweden and yet more lakes.

Jönköping

Why Jönköping? Good question. In the middle of the lakes and forests about half way to Göteborg (Gothenburg). Remember Beehive safety matches?

Safety matches were invented by the Swede Gustav Eric Pasch in 1844.

The Tänderstickmuseet - the match stick Museum

The Lundström brothers, Johan Edvard and Carl Frans, started a large scale match making business in this building in 1847. Jönköping quickly became the match making centre of the world for many years.

Chemicals and a laboratory for making the match heads.

The recipe for the chemical components of the match heads was a closely guarded commercial secret for many years. Being highly combustible, you would think that match factories would burn down frequently. Not one match factory in Jönköping burned down!

Going hand in hand with the development of the industry was the establishment of the fire brigade in Jönköping and stringent fire safety measures. Quite a proud record considering that it was the 1840s.

Aspen timber is the best to turn into veneer for making matches. There is plenty of high quality aspen in this part of Sweden.

The machinery was made in Jönköping. This machine turned veneer in to blank matches.

Another belt driven, steam powered match making machine.

The backgound is where 40,000 sticks at time were dipped in the phosphorus rich head mixture before going to the packaging machine in the foreground.

Nor far along the side of Lake Vättern is the town of Gränna, famous for where the Christmas walking stick lollies, polkagris, peppermint rock was first produced in 1859.