Sweden - Mårbacka, the home of Selma Lagerlöf

Today I posted a note about my visit to Mårbacka on my book blog. Mårbacka was the home of the very famous Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf. She was born there in 1858 and died there in 1940. However, when she was born the mansion looked a bit different. It was a red and smaller.

Selma moved away from Mårbacka when she studied to become a teacher. When her father died the family had to sell the property, but Selma dreamed about moving back there. Then, when she was an established author she bought back the house and later the property. I think the property was bought back when she got the Nobel Prize.

She really cared for this place - and also for the people she employed. It was she who wanted this to be a memorial place when she died. 

Unfortunately we could not take any photos inside the mansion, but it was awesome. The living-room was in gold and lightblue and it is really stilish. I would not have any problems living in that home! We did though take a photo peering through the window, you can also see it on my book blog.

Mårbacka is an amazing place, it is about one hour north of Karlstad and well worth to visit!

Croatian food.... did I eat anything?

Well, those of you that know me also know that I am not the easiest one when it comes to food. Especially foreign food. Well, in Croatia this turned out to be no problemos! Why? Because their food is tasty and simple...and a lot comes from the Italian kitchen. However we tried to eat the local dishes and here are some of those we tried....



In Pag we had the local Paski sir (Pag cheese), together with some locally made ham. Yummi, it was really good and I really liked the cheese.



My deares boyfriend who is not so picky as me, even tried the seafood plate in Pag. I went for the svinski koteleti (you know, this being before the out breake of the flue).



We ate a lot of grillplattes, usually grilled meat in some varieties together with some vegetables. Good, but the best one however we had...



... in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Were we had the Herzegovina platte, together with an amazing view of the old bridge.

Croatia, the island of Pag

Still on our first day in Croatia, after visiting Zadar, Nin and the beautiful church of St. Nicholas, we decided it was time for dinner. And why not drive a few hours to get dinner? Our destination became the island of Pag. The landscape of Pag is very different from the rest of Croatia.

Our first stop on Pag was the Paski Most (most = bridge) where we could see this very special landscape.Such naked landscape - it's not often one see that...









There are two towns on Pag, one is Pag town and the other one is Novalja. The first known for it's historical centre, while the latter for its modern beach- based life (according to our Rough guide). Well, anyone knowing us - we headed for the historical centre.

It had been raining when we arrived Pag town and there was literelly no people around. The streets were empty and we could walk around this charming town alone.

The original Pag town was situated 3 km from today's town. However in the 1300's many of the inhabitants were killed and the Venetians decided to rebuild the town in 1420's.



Of course I found a church - this is the Parish church called the Church of the Assumption of the Holy Mary. Pag is well-known for its laces and cheese. And the pattern on the rose window on the church can be seen in the traditional laces as well. Some of the traditional skirts can also be seen on the people who the Virgin protects on the photo above (once again - the photos can be enlargened by clicking on them!).

Croatia - a surprise along the road

On our way to Nin on our first day in Croatia we saw this little church. Actually first we thought it was some kind of watch tower. But, no watch tower, this is the little church of St. Nicholas.


This church was built in the 11th and 12th century. And according to the legend of the kings whom were coronated in Nin (se the post under this one about the village and island of Nin) rode to this church where the people were waiting and were they (obviously not at the same time!) promised to protect the country.

Croatia, the town of Nin

One of our few disoveries in Croatia was the small town on of Nin. It's situated a 20-minutes drive from Zadar (presumebly if not getting lost out of Zadar that is...). This small town was once an important Roman city and later it became the ecclesiastical (I love that word!) capital of Croatia.

We drove there one Sunday afternoon in March and found one empty, but beautiful town (once again, the photos can be enlargened by clicking on them).

The old town is situated on a small island and is only accesible by one of two bridges. This being the Donji Most (which is translated into something like lower bridge).

Just inside the old town, one can see ruins of some old, old town structure and buildings.

However, the main highligt for me (my dearest might disagree and go for the ice-cream...), is the Church of the Holy Cross. This small, cruciformed church is also known as the smallest cathedral in the world. It is thruly old, it's built in the 800 century.

This photos is a part of the entrance. The church itself is really simple and have almost no decorations.

The front part viewed from the ground. The windows are done in Romanesque style and inside it's almost completely empty. Since it was opened (and there was no one around) I felt for a look inside...
After looking around the church, being quite pleased with finding one of the oldest churces in Croatia of our first day of exploring, we found a small cafe in the old town where we could take a small breake before driving on the island of Pag.

An excellent outing from Zadar!

Croatia

I'm back! Litteraly from Croatia and on this blog:-) Yesterday we came back from what I would call a wonderful, wonderful holiday in Croatia. One week and we went to...

* Zadar, Nin and Pag
* Trogir and Split
* Krka National Park and the town of Sibenik
* Mostar (in Bosnia and Herzegovina)
* Fortresses in Knin and Klis
* Primosten, Vodice and our nice little village; Srima

Just a peek from five of the 600 hundred photos I took (if you want enlargen them, click on the photos)...


On the small island of Nin we found the smallest cathedral in the world. And one of the oldest in Croatia as well (800 century).

The huge fortress of Knin. When we saw it from the road it looked really small, but it felt like it would never end when we visited it.

The city of Sibenik and it's famous gothic cathedral. Such a small and pleasant town, and almost empty on a Wednesday afternoon.

The very famous bridge of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Eight hours in a car (one day) was totally worth it to see this bridge and the surroundings.

The nature of Pag, this windblowen island with lots of sheeps and cheese.

Another view from our kitchen window...

This morning, during breakfast I realised there was something brown and fury in the tree outside... Looking out we could a see a cat chasing a bird... When I opened the window in order to take a photo of this climbing cat, she was 3-4 metres above ground, her attention was turned toward us... For a moment I thought she was going to jump into our flat....

More from Stockholm will come later next week! Enjoy this Sunday and the upcoming week!

Stockholm - view from the Katarinahissen

When we're in Stockholm we stayed in the area known as Södermalm. I think we could have spent three days walking around in that district instead of visiting some of the more obvious touristy pars like the old town (Gamla Stan). Very close to Slussen, Stockholm's major transportation hub, you can find Katarinahissen. Katakrinahissen is a lift which takes you up to a viewing point, from where you can walk to Mosebecke Torg. If you look close to the first photo you can see people walking on the viewing platformn (click on the photo to get a larger image). It really does have a good view, but I don't understand why I insist on visiting viewing places like that. I really do not like hights!

On this photo above you can see parts of Slussen and look further to the City Hall (Stadshuset) which is made of red bricks and have greenish roof. On one of the towers you can se the three crowns (Sweden's heraldic symbol).

One thing which is quite different from Oslo is the sea which is covered by ice. That never happens along the coast in Norway due to the Gulf stream. It looks quite nice with the snow, but I am sure it's not that practical all the time.

In the middle of these two photos one can see the island called Djurgården (behind the island called Kastellholmen). We took a small boat over there and had a lovely walk in the sun to the Vasamuseum. If you look close you can see the amusement park Grønalund.

All of these photos were taken one Sunday morning. It was a bit cold, but sunny and the streets where almost empty. To the take the lift only costs 10 swedish kroner - a rather cheap way to get a good view!

Stockholm

We had a wonderful weekend in Stockholm! On Sunday we even had sun so we made walks around Sødermalm and Djurgården. This photo is of the famous Vasamuseum (the red building in the front). Behind it you can see the amazing castle which is Nordiska Museum today.

More photos (and stories) to come!

Beautiful Vienna...

If you want to visit Vienna, take a look at this wonderful blog Merisi's Vienna For Beginners . It has some beautiful photos from this beautiful town. Thanks to Anni who made me aware of this blog:-)

Deadly Oslo

It's been quite scary to walk around in Oslo the last week, even looking out my window reminds me about the icey roofs... Hopefully Stockholm will be better, off to Swedish capital on Saturday!

Norway - Oslo, a winter walk along the Akerselva

In September we made a walk along the Akerselva . Today we walked the same route in winter landscape... It is really amazing how different the scenery is. Here is a few photos from our walk...

Norway, Oslo - the Vigeland Park

It is completely chaos in Oslo tonight. There is snow, snow, and even more snow! I am happy to be inside, curled up on the sofa. It's not always snowy in Oslo. When the sun is shining it can be very nice to walk around in the Vigeland Park. Most of the work in this park is done by Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943).

The Vigeland Park includes a great number of Gustav Vigeland's works. Here are 212 sculptures in bronze and granite and several wrought iron gates. Vigeland modelled all his sculptures in full size without any assistance of pupils or other artists. The carving in stone and the casting in bronze were left to a number of talented craftsmen. Vigeland also designed the architectural setting and the layout of the grounds with their far stretching lawns and long straight avenues bordered with maple trees*.

* from www.vigeland.museum.no

Remembering those sunny days.... Håholmen...

It's definately not sunny outside, nor warm, and all I want to do is to travel somewhere. But February with Stockholm and April with Croatia seems so far away this Sunday morning.... So why don't I keep on remembering those sunny days...

This takes me back to July 2007 and my cousin getting married. The reception was held at Håholmen, an old fishing community situated on a small, small island close to Averøya where I grew up.

Today the island is a hotel, popular for both tourists and seminars. The first photo is the view from my hotel room... Slightly better than the view from my kitchen window, right...

It was such an unusual day at the coast... so quiet and warm! I also took some photos at night, watching the sun set.

If you want to read more about Håholmen

• Håholmen Havstuer

(Almost) full moon in Oslo...

No wonder why people are behaving so odd in Oslo today, it's full moon tomorrow...





...another view of from my kitchen window!