Scandinavia Trip: Sculpture, water tower, Viking stones, back to Tumba

[cjsmith]

*** Wed Oct 2

Blue sky this morning! Breakfast ended at nine, so we got up early.
I started on painkillers immediately. Drove east to Karlskoga where
we attempted to see the Alfred Nobel Museum, very very closed. We
also considered going to the Adventure House (challenging paths for
mind and body) but I was in too much pain, plus we had no information
about how, precisely, to find it, so we punted.

Continued east to O"rebro where we saw the ancient castle, now mostly
a conference center. It was interesting to see the various different
building materials used in the walls. There were clearly places were
windows used to be, for example. In one corner there was an exhibit
about the history of the castle - how it was built, its place as a
strategic power center in the area, what people ate back then, etc.
There was even a smell portion of the exhibit - push a button and
smell various spices and flavors!

We also saw Svampen, the giant mushroom-like water tower. We found
out we could ride the elevator to the top for free. Up there, letters
set in the walkway showed the compass points, and plaques with small
diagrams showed some of the buildings visible from various spots. It
was interesting to see where in the sky the sun was: almost due south,
as it was noon, and my shadow was very definitely longer than my
height. At each cardinal point there were two flags: east was Finland
and Sweden, south was Denmark and Sweden, west was Norway and Sweden,
and north was... something and Sweden. I've seen that flag before:
it's the Norwegian flag with blue and red reversed. But there's
nothing north of Sweden except more of Norway, and the Pole. I don't
know what that flag means. We also saw a little bit about how the
water tower was made. The big tank was cast in concrete at ground
level, tested for watertightness, and painted. Then it was set on
hydraulic jacks and more concrete was cast underneath it. It was
raised at a rate of two meters a day. Interesting method.

A half hour south of O"rebro was Kvantorpsho"gen, a hill covered with
weird outdoor sculptures. We saw a pile of sticks which was
surprisingly sturdy to climb in, a bowl whose bottom side had lots of
breasts hanging off it, an ark, some stones with columns carved inside
them, and a whole lot of other strange things. We also noticed that
the hill appeared to be ever so slightly geothermal. There was smelly
steam coming out of it in various places. The hill had a nice view of
the surrounding town. One interesting thing we could watch from this
vantage point was a course where drivers could try to stop on a slick
surface. There were two wide concrete paths, regularly doused with
water by big sprinkler systems: a small one for cars and a big one for
buses. One of the cars spun pretty well.

Back to the north, in Fro"vi, we toured an old paper mill and smelled
the new one. There were enormous heavy machines for rolling and
cutting paper; there was a display where you could make your own
paper, presumably if you had the good sense to show up when someone
was there; there was a display on packaging through the ages; and
there was some handmade paper for sale. One of the interesting things
that can be made into paper is elk (moose? the word's the same in
Swedish) droppings. I chose not to take any elk poop paper home with
me. Almost none of this was labeled in English, but we understood
enough to be fascinated.

As dusk was beginning to fall we came to Anundshog, an ancient Viking
burial mound and complex of related stuff. There was one very tall
mound, a few smaller mounds, a line of stones marking the road, a set
of stones in the shape of a ship, a rune stone, and across the
highway, a prehistoric labyrinth. I was amazed that the line of
stones marking the ancient road was not so far from, and parallel to,
today's highway.

It was pretty dark by the time we left there, and we basically
hightailed it to Stockholm and then to Tumba, to Arne and Birgit's
house. Now we need to rearrange suitcases and stuff. We drop off the
car tomorrow morning.

Comments

[curmudgn]

The flag you couldn't identify is, I think, Iceland.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's exactly it. A helpful English-speaker confirmed this a day or two later (don't know if I mentioned that in the trip log). I think I was too hung up on its placement to the north.