I had identified a place for photo stop on the return journey while we were heading towards the Talisker distillery. It proved even better than I had expected, and in a few minutes I had taken a number of good pictures…
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At least one of these pictures will feature in the Calendar.
Click on this picture to hear the piece of music after which it is named – Hamish MacCunn’s evocation of his native land.
LEAVING SKYE
I got a few more pictures during the rest of the journey home…
The first of several posts about the Tuesday of my Scottish holiday.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the latest post in the series about my Scottish holiday. We are now dealing with the Tuesday (May 30th), most of which was spent on the Isle of Skye. The day contained so much of interest and yielded so many splendid pictures that I am splitting it into a number of posts. Previous posts in this series:
We decided that our first major activity would be a tour of the Talisker Distillery (the tour itself will be the theme of the next post in this series). As you will see from some of the photographs the weather was suitable for a day most of which would be spent under cover.
THE GEOGRAPHY OF SKYE
Although Kyleakin is the more northerly of the settlements on Skye to have historic connections to the mainland (Armadale, with its ferry connection to Mallaig, is the other), it is still the case the most of Skye is to the north of Kyleakin.
PHOTOS OF THE OUTWARD JOURNEY
The outward journey yielded some good pictures and gave me an idea for the way back as well…
This waterfall is more than a bit blurred, but still worth showing.
I made a mental note that this was an area to get closer attention on the return journey, as you will see in a later post.
This is the approach to the Distillery Car Park – and distillery visitors are understandably strongly discouraged from parking elsewhere in the village.
The latest post in my series about my holiday in Sweden.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the latest installment in my series of posts about my recent holiday in Sweden. Readers of my previous post will recall that I alluded briefly to a waterside walk that started and finished at Gamla Stan. This post tells the story of that walk. I also included some pictures from the city of Stockholm in the first post in this series.
AT GAMLA STAN
Although it is on what is classed as an underground railway the station at Gamla Stan is actually slightly elevated, so that you exit it by going down to street level. It had always been in my plans to do some exploring around Gamla Stan and the sight of the waterside was enough to decide exactly what I would be doing…
THE WALK
I crossed the water and was delighted to find a waterside path on the other side, which I duly set off along it.
The bridge in the distance became my target – I envisaged crossing it and heading back along the other side.
Another facet of Stockholm well shown up during this walk is how many cliffs there are.
Approaching the bridge that I had marked out as my first target I found the water narrowing…
As you will see from the next set of pictures the view from the bridge gave me reason to believe that I could fulfill my plan of walking back along the other side of the water.
Although I located this path without difficulty it soon swung away from the water, and not long after that it became plain that the only waterside route was the one I had already taken, so I crossed a small pedestrian bridge to head back along that path. I paid close attention to the boats this time round, rather than picturing just a few…
I crossed one last bridge and headed back to Gamla Stan station to resume my travels, having thoroughly enjoyed my exploration of the heart of Stockholm.
The latest in my series of blog posts about my recent holiday in Sweden.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the latest post in my series about my recent holiday in Sweden.
STARTING THE DAY
Once I had followed instructions for ensuring the cleaners knew that my bed was reserved for another night and made sure that none of the stuff I was leaving in the dorm room would get in their way it was time to set off to explore Malmo, although my first photograph of the day was taken before I had left the building:
HEADING TO THE CENTRE OF MALMO
The first major building I spotted on my way towards the town centre was the public library (Stad Bibliotek in Swedish):
Arriving at the first of many waterways I took a brief walk in the opposite direction along it to the one I was ultimately going to be headed in (deliberately so)…
Then I faced a choice between staying with the road or going by way of the Gamla Kyrkogarden (old churchyard – gamla = old, kyrko has the same meaning as the Scottish kirk, and the g in Swedish is usually pronounced as an English y, giving ‘yarden’ or removing the last two letters, yard), I naturally chose the latter)
This building, spotted as I was leaving Gamla Kyrkogarden was very impressive:
It was at this point that I got my first sight of a notable feature of Malmo…
BRONZE SCULPTURES
I have not seen anything quite like these elsewhere:
At this stage I was heading towards the station, to visit the supermarket to buy food before continuing my explorations. However, I was not by any means hurrying, and was still getting plenty of pictures…
This remarkable clockface is in the covered market adjoining the station, by way of which one can access the supermarket.
Leaving the supermarket I headed for more water, deciding to see as much waterside as I could contrive…
Still envisaging being able to make this a circular walk, avoiding retracing my steps, I continued on, sticking as close to the water as possible.
I was not ultimately able to stay at the waterside the whole time – I soon found myself in a light industrial development and obliged to temporarily head away from the water, but I got back to a waterside location to eat my lunch…
I began to head in the general direction of the hostel, although my day’s photography was by no means done…
My first photo of the day was taken at the hostel, and so was this, my last photo of the day.
The latest in my series of posts about my holiday in Sweden, introducing Uppsala.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the latest installment in my series of posts about my recent holiday in Sweden. This post sets the scene for my two night stay in Uppsala.
ARRIVAL
Those following this series will be aware that I travelled to Uppsala on an overnight train from Lulea. Apart from one moment about half an hour before Uppsala when I managed to shut myself out of my compartment and had to knock on the door to regain admission (I was only just stirring, and simply forgot to pick my key card up) the journey was largely uneventful. By good fortune I had been assigned the bottom of three beds (the top bed hangs from the ceiling as a permanent fixture, the middle bed folds out from the wall when everybody is ready for bed and the bottom bed is created by rotating the row of seats over by means of an ingenious mechanism).
On arrival at Uppsala Central Station I noted that the was a line of hotels on one side of the tracks, so I went to investigate whether Vandrarhem Uppsala Centralstation was among them and found that it was not. Deciding that other than this little clump of hotels the other side of the tracks looked more promising I headed along the generously spaced walking and cycleway that passes under the station and after passing the bus station found myself on Kungsgatan, where I spied a Tourist Information Office. As it turned out the entrance to the building in which I was staying was just off the main road on the same side street that this office sat at the corner of.
The building in which I was staying had a hotel at the front, and the hostel type rooms in which I was staying at the back. Although it was too early to check in they did have a bag room, so I offloaded some luggage there and set off to commence my exploration of the city. I already had a few photos…
As well as being the birthplace of the great Carolus Linnaeus, Uppsala is home to a sculptor named Bror Hjorth, and two pieces of his work are on display very close to the station.
The station plan of Uppsala Central.
COMMENCING SERIOUS EXPLORATIONS
Consultation of the map with which I had been equipped at the Tourist Information Office revealed that everything of interest to me was to be found by starting in from my hotel in the opposite direction to Kungsgatan, which would serve as a very handy outer boundary marker. My initial target was the cathedral since I reckoned that a very large and prominent landmark that must be pretty much plumb in the centre of the interesting part of the city would serve as a further useful point of orientation, and I could then pick out other places. This part of Uppsala proved to be very attractive and as a bonus was pretty much pedestrianised. Almost directly underneath the cathedral I found the University Museum, and deeming the admission price acceptable decided to go in, with results that will form my next post…
The frontage of the cathedralImmediately above the main doorA close up of that very elaborate circular window.The outside of the University MuseumA close up of the curious onion shaped dome – as you will see in my next post what lies inside that dome is almost as curious.
The next stage in my account of my travels around Sweden. Read, enjoy and please share.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to this latest installment in my series of posts about my recent holiday in Sweden. My previous posts about the journey along Inlandsbanan can be found here.
THE JOURNEY
With the train from Ostersund to Gallivare leaving at 7:20 AM it was necessary to leave my accommodation early (not that many would have been tempted to linger in the Pensionat Bjornen anyway!). I arrived at the station in good time, and this not being Britain so did the train.
Settled in my seat, seat 40 (I had booked the same seat number on both the Mora-Ostersund and Ostersund-Gallivare trains), I was ready to do my best to capture the scenery that was visible through my window…
This being a fourteen hour trip there were two scheduled meal stops. My order for the first was the smoked pork collar sandwich.
Shortly after crossing the bridge through whose metalwork I took the picture above we arrived at Ulriksfors where we were stopped long enough for me to identify our whereabouts, and hence where the first part of my account of the journey from Ostersund to Gallivare ends.
I hope that you will enjoy this post and be encouraged to share it.
THE WENSUM
The Wensum is the river that flows through the centre of Norwich. There are many fine sights to be seen along its banks. Here is a view looking along one bank…
You will notice a boat in this shot, here is what it looks like closer up…
Is there any information available about this riverside? You bet there is…
You may have glimpsed a stone bridge in the first picture I showed. I have a close up of the centre portion and two shots showing how the smooth waters of the Wensum reflect it back…
Here is the approach to river via Ferry Lane…
Two pub signs on opposite sides of the river provide a fine contrast – one an unusual name in a plain style and one the commonest of all English pub names in a more elaborate style…
After these signs we came to a decorative wooden seat…
Now we come to the exraordinarily named Cow Tower, one of Britain’s oldest artillery placements, dating from 1398…
Next, one for the swan fanciers…
These water lilies made for decent picture…
Two more closing shots for you, from just before we left the river for the last time…
Our final stop of the day was at Karytaina, where there is an old Frankish fort (from the time of the fourth crusade) which at present you can only see a little of, and a very fine Byzantine church, albeit with far less of the decorative use of Roman style brickwork than the others I have featured.
Enjoy some excellent pictures…
This is a modern replica of a Byzantine church, though somewhat less ghastly than most of the genre.
These little yellow flowers are called Stonebergia.
A spectacular view of the old and new or high and low (ano- and kato- in Greek) bridges.The river from on high.
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