Midsommar

Today is Midsommar Afton.  Midsommar is the longest day of the year and Midsommar Afton is the evening prior.  This is a very popular holiday in Sweden. (I wrote about it last year, so you can look back at that blog for details about the celebration.)   Only Christmas is more celebrate.  So what's the big deal?  (OK - compared to the meaning of Christmas, there is no big deal, but we are not talking theology here.)  Remember in December I showed pictures of the sun setting at ~ 4 PM (after having just shown itself ~ 8 1/2 hours earlier)?  Well - This is what it looks like here this week:   

03:40 this morning. 

(I hope you appreciate this picture.  I set my alarm just to take it!)

The sky at 11:45 at night.  

Pretty cool, huh?!

Glad Midsommar everyone!

Hole punch

 

There are volumes dedicated to the rise and fall of the Roman empire.  But someday, should Sweden every be just a distant memory, it's demise will be obvious. 

 

I give you, unique to Sweden, the svensk hole punch and corresponding notebook.  And you can keep them.

 

To my svensk friends:  Sorry.  You have a very nice country.  But your notebooks don't lay flat and why do you have all the securing rings at the center of the paper?

 

 

The island of Ven

Ven

A small Swedish island situated between Sweden  and Denmark in the Öresund strait.

 

Due to a late train, we missed the bus that took us to the ferry.  But, in a happy coincidence, a person sitting next to us on the train was also headed to Ven. She was able ot call the ferry station, and a small utility ferry was held for us!  So the only people on the ferry were its employees, our guardian angel, and us.  It wasn't luxurious, but it held its own fun.  And it allowed us to get to Ven without having to wait an hour and a half for the next ferry.

 

Ven's 2.9 square miles are home to less than 400 people, but it must boast a bustling tourist trade judging from the number of bicycles that are available to rent (my bicycle number was 930).

 

 

Aside from its being lovely to cycle around, a local point of interest is that astronomer Tycho Brahee (1546–1601) built two observatories here. Apparently the King of Denmark (the island was Danish at the time) was so impressed with the astronomer that he give him the island. 

 

Museum seen, and picnic lunch enjoyed, on our bikes we rode. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You may be wondering if I have enhanced the color on these pictures.  The answer is no. 

The color is God's handy-work.