St. Peter's Priory

Every time I go to the Lund train station I walk by a very pretty, old looking church.  When my parents were here, we took a quick look around.  This is St. Peter's Priory, originally built in the 1160's.  It has gone through several re-builds over the centuries, but you can still see many markers of its previous shape(s).

The hand at the bottom of the chandelier looks like it was made to hold something - see the hole in the side. 

If you look to the left in the photo below, you can see the outline of previous arches in the brick wall. 

Just the girls

Play area at the mall.  No grown-ups allowed.

Being silly at home

Skipping to school.  That's S dancing in her stroller in the foreground. 

Snuggling on the train

Waiting for the bus on the way home from school

Riding the bus

Walking near our house with Granny and Granddaddy

August Strindberg

This house is just up the street from our apartment.  August Strindberg was a writer who is sometimes considered the iconic Swedish author.  His most famous novel, Röda Rummet (The Red Room, 1879) is considered the first modern Swedish novel.  I wish I could tell you what the book is like.  I checked it out of the library here but the translation was absolutely terrible so I returned it and have found another - much better - translation.  I haven't started my re-read yet!


This sign translates to "Here lived August Stringberg in the year 1897.  Here he wrote 'Inferno'."  I'm curious about his 'Inferno' - he wrote it to chronicle a time in his life of psychological and religious turmoil.  I think I've read that he wrote that one in French.

August Strindberg's house in Lund 

A few extra photos...

We love Sweden!

I think I've hit an all-time low.  Yes, yes, not only am I willing to admit I've taken a photo of the inside of a public restroom but I'm willing to put it on my blog.  But really, I am convinced there is no country that caters to families more than Sweden.  Here we are at the mall.  At the mall there is a whole corridor of family bathrooms, each with two rooms.  One room has a diaper changing area and space to nurse, the other room looks like this.  A sink and a toilet for little people.   I want to be a Swedish kid when I grow up!

Oh, look at that, another playground.  This one is very close to our house. 

Hot air balloon, floating over our house. 

Our favorite park... again!!

Here's a typical weekend at our local park, Stadsparken.  We always come across surprises!!

Heading in to the park.  It is always better to wear several necklaces.  

Look what appeared and stayed up for a weekend.   

It went up on a weekend when a small harvest festival was going on, but we didn't see anyone actually using it for anything.  This was large and it took a crew of people quite a bit of effort and time to put it up. 

The girls enjoyed running around it...

...and hanging out in it. 

Conkers!!  Wow this takes me back to my school-girl days!  In England we used to collect conkers by the bucket-load.  Some things don't change.  These little chestnuts with their beautiful rich brown shine are irresistible.  We had to stop and collect them everywhere we went.  And then E's teacher asked the children to collect them to use them with some school projects.  Now we had a mission.

Searching the ground and stuffing our pockets.

 We're big into building fairy houses these days so often we end up with pockets full of treasures to be used as fairy boats or fairy hats or fairy house roofs or... you get the idea. 

We were just walking along and suddenly came across this group. 

Pretty, aren't they?  I wish I knew what this was all about.  What do the uniforms indicate?  How often do they do this tour through the park?  Was it a special occasion?  There was no one around to ask!! 

Cykelparkering

Now that we've been here a while, bike traffic is becoming normal for me.  Of course, we ourselves are part of the bike traffic on a daily basis and I still get a kick out of the fact that we have special, separated bike lanes everywhere we go.  However I am no longer surprised that everywhere I go in town there are more bikes than cars.  Here in the center of town that is always true.  It is common to come to a large intersection at midday on a weekend and not see a single car in any direction.  I love that this is normal to us now.

Here's normal in Lund:

Multi-storey bike parking lots at the train station.  

Note the two bike-tire-width ramps going up both sides of the stairs. 

The upstairs parking lot

Exploring Malmo

Malmo is only a few minutes away on the train.  We have spent a little time exploring the city.  Here's a slideshow from a recent Saturday...

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Lördagsgodis

It is Saturday!!!  Here in Sweden that means only one thing:  Lördagsgodis!  Yay! 

Lördagsgodis translates to "Saturday sweets" (Lördag = Saturday, godis = candy).  Many children here are only allowed to eat candy on Saturdays.  But don't let this sensible attitude fool you.  Many kids go nuts over candy and it seems as though often they are allowed to go all out at the candy store.  I've even been warned not to go to candy stores on Saturday afternoons because by that point they've been ravaged by children.

Naturally our girls haven't missed that Saturdays can involve candy.  E and I took a trip to the candy store today.

The candy store here is pretty impressive.  Bin after bin of sugar!  

See what I mean? 

 Look at that happy little person. 

Beer, in the cooler right next to the Hello Kitty cola.  In the candy store. 

 Gummy smurfs.  

They have pastel fish (above) and salt licorice fish (below).  But no Swedish fish in this store.  We have seen Swedish fish sold here, but they are labeled just that:  Swedish fish.  In English.  

Misc Photos from September

Roadside marker

Typical scenery here in Skåne

Typical rooftops here in Lund

When the weather was warm we'd often see groups of students partying in the park.  Often they were dressed in costumes - we never really figured this out.  The costumes rarely seemed to be along a theme and since we saw these types of parties all the time I don't think there was a particular date / holiday they were celebrating.  Here they are splashing around in one of the fountains.

I'm always taking photos of the older pretty buildings in town.  Here are some more modern apartment neighborhoods.  These buildings slant out on one side giving the illusion that the building is tilting.

Here we are hanging out in town outside the cathedral.  Oh look!  A wedding party!

All it takes is the slight possibility of a bride sighting and my girls will be willing to wait... 

This says something along the lines of "During the Middle Ages St. Jacob's church stood here.  Built in the century 1100 and demolished in 1536."

Motorized cargobikes are used for lots of things around here, from mini-mail trucks to landscape work.

In the summer when the weather is wet these snails appear everywhere.  In some areas it is hard to walk without stepping on them, there are that many.  They come in all colors - my favorites are the pink ones -  and the girls love love love them.  When we run errands if it has been raining recently they will ask to take specific paths because they know there will be crowds of snails there.

Hmm... looks like someone was getting bubbly with the fountain. 

Stadsparken has an area with greenhouses and chicken coops.  Hello Swedish chicken. 

...and Swedish peacock.

Chickens in trees.

The Stadsparken greenhouses. 

This building is in the center of town and houses a pharmacy that has been there since 1627.