SWEDEN STORY 1

 

I've just been reminded by a friend that I haven't posted any blogs about our journey to Sweden in 2012.  The main reason is that at the time I didn't have a blog and when I did get the blog started I was concentrating on my nature sketching.

So here it is at last and I hope you'll enjoy coming along down memory lane with me.

 

  I bought a Moleskine sketchbook and covered it in a pretty blue fabric with a yellow cross stitched on to represent the Swedish flag. For the title pages I used some cut out copies of old family photos to make the script as well as some left over stamps and drawings of things that mean a lot to me. 

 

I traced a map and stuck it in so I could draw out our progress as we travelled through Denmark and Sweden but it had to be turned on it's side to fit the page.

For those who don't know me well the reason for the trip was to find my birthplace in Norrkoping where my parents met and married in 1946.  I hadn't been back since we left in 1956 when I was only 6 years old so it was a real pilgrimage for me.

 

We travelled to England first and spent a couple of weeks visiting the family before setting off for Harwich where we caught the ferry to Esbjerg in Denmark.  Throughout the journey I did a page of squares for each day depicting highlights and the weather as well as full sketches of things that particularly caught my eye.

 

We drove across Denmark to the outskirts of Copenhagen where we had booked a pleasant campsite near the sea.  It was only a short walk to the sand dunes where we could look across the bay to the capital city. 

By the way I think I should mention that language was never a problem during this trip as everybody we encountered spoke English and without exception were very pleased to welcome us to their country.

 

We took the train into the city to explore and spent the whole day walking around and seeing all the sights, including the little mermaid and the royal palaces.  You can see by my comments on the page I wasn't very inspired and I was also rather impatient to get to Sweden!

 

On the 8th of June we crossed the fabulous Malmo bridge to Sweden in damp drizzly weather and drove to our next campsite near the town of Kalmar.  We were welcomed by the charming owner who had already chosen a spot for us at the water's edge and we settled down for the night, which being almost midsummer hardly got dark at all! This is the view that we saw when we awoke in the morning, clear blue sky and the calm waters of the Baltic lapping almost at our feet. 

In part 2 I'll show you some of the beautiful nature we found while at this lovely campsite.