Sweden 2005: October 2005

Old Goteborg

Here are some pictures that I took of the old town section of Goteborg a couple of days before I left for Sweden.

I think this building is being used for luxury apartments.

Here is an interesting sculpture outside on of the old city museums.

Here they are building a strip mall in front of an old building.

Here is another old building being used for luxury apartments (I think.).

I couldn't figure out what the monument was for, but I liked the picture.

I think this was originally part of a fort.

Here is a view of a pedestrian way in old Goteborg. I bought some attractive Swedish glassware for Linda and the girls here.

It wasn't busy everywhere.

This old building is now a public library.

Here is an interesting section of an old building.

Here is the administrative building of the University at which I was giving the course.

Here is the entrance to the administrative headquarters for the Swedish Lutheran missionaries.

Here is a monument to Swedish mothers.

Here's a look downtown along a tram line.

Fermented Herring

This is a quick note on one of the most memorable experiences in Sweden: the annual Chemistry lunch of fermented herring. The idea is to take this stuff and put it in bread, add potato, onion and herring.

Everyone is getting ready. The other "fermented herring virgin" is the young lady to the left. Everyone else is a veteran. The lunch had to be schedule after everyone else had used the lunch room as most people find the smell so offensive.

By this stage we have lost our young lady (She, quite sensibly, decided that the health risk and smell was just too great. I managed to get one down, but never could get past the feeling that I was poisoning myself. At any rate, I felt that I should be declared an honorary (Northern) Swede.

The veterans were making short work of the herring. I took this picture to show everyone what one faced when fishing a herring out of the brew.

Houses in Sture's Neighborhood

At sister Barbara's request here are some houses around Lena and Sture's neighborhood.

Pulling down the Jetty

Every year with the approach of winter,people who use the jetty that Sture uses have to dismantle the jetty and stash it ashore. Otherwise, if the bay ices over, it could cause irreparable damage to the jetty. This is a chronicle of the jetty dismantling of 2005.

Before any serious work could start on dismantling the jetty, someone had to save a boat that had gotten away from a hauling out procedure (the mechanics of which were covered in a previous edition of this blog) gone bad. The choices were pretty simple, either let the boat drift on out to sea, or swim after it. Being the most intrepid of the bunch, Sture sway after it. The water was about 13-14 C -- brrr, I would have had to pay for a new boat.

The work crew is getting ready after Sture's bracing swim.

The work crew is dismantling the pontoon portion of the jetty. The pontoons are filled with styrofoam, so they have a lot of flotation.

The pontoon framework has not been unbolted from the rest of the jetty assembly. The crew is having to be pretty lively as they work the pontoon underneath the jetty to break it free.