Odds, Ends and the End!

Hej, hej!

I left out some of the things we saw and did. 

I know, I know, we were only there 4 days - enough already of this never ending blog. 

But, I'm doin' it anyway. I loved Sweden.

One of the nights we went to an auto show near Lake Mälaren. 

In Sweden buying, restoring and showing classic cars is a big deal. Some of the Swedes we met, buy their cars in the USA and have them shipped over in pieces to Sweden. They have tricked out home garages and spend a lot of their spare time working on their classic cars. Our friend Peter has a Lotus that he's getting ready to restore.

After the car show, we ate dinner in an old mill on the site of the car show. This was hilarious.

They had a burrito bar! Yep! That's right, complete with flour tortillas. It did seem as if they were unsure of what is traditionally done...the piling of ingredients on the tortilla, rolling up and eating. Most of the people we saw put the filling on their plate and used the tortilla as if it was bread. 

Great fun with good beer and all our Swedish Volvo friends to enjoy it with.

On the way home, Stefan took us by another castle for a quick look.

This is for you Nikki if you are following this blog.

Another day, when Love and I were walking around Eskilstuna, we decided to check out the local grocery store (it was more of a small neighborhood market. This is always interesting when traveling. 

It's fun to see the different kinds of food and how things are sold and packaged.

A bin of donuts. What more could you want?

Eskilstuna did not have a Starbucks, but they did have these prepackage drinks. They looked just like the kind of cup you would get in your local Starbucks and included a collapsible straw.

Lots and lots of candy!

Yum! Mum-Mums. These must be like Mallomars. 

I just liked the name.

Love and I had been trying to see what was in the local art museum in Eskilstuna, but every time we went by, it was closed. 

We got lucky one day and it was open. However, they were hanging a new show and it was closed to the public. They took pity on us, because we would be on our way back to Arizona when they had their opening.

One of the curators allowed us to walk through while they were working. Here is some of what we were able to see.

KONSTMUSEUM - ESKILSTUNA

The show was titled The Nordic Art Station. It consisted of  contemporary art and music from  the Nordic countries of Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway and the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania

The theme was "Merry Melancholy". Gloom and melancholy as characterized by the world's view of these Nordic countries. Sadness and longing. Darkness and long cold winters. In another word, depression.

Museum space. At one time, long ago, this was the Volvo factory.

And now it's an art museum.

I loved this one.

Oh, I loved this one too. 

Lithograph

Same artist, just great!

Ceramic figures.

Figure still in the box waiting to be unpacked.

This was like "find the differences"...

Shameless plug for Volvo...this was a different museum. 

The Munktell Museum of Volvo Construction Equipment History. 

Mike with what he has on his wish list...I'm not sure he would fit in the cab though. Hahaha!!!!

One last thing...the story of Eskilstuna.

It's history dates back to medieval times. A monk named Eskil, (now Saint Eskil), traveled to what is now Sweden to Christianize the pagan Vikings. He made an area referred to as "tuna" his base. One day he heard about this great party the Vikings were having in a nearby town. He had the brilliant idea that this would be the perfect opportunity to proselytize to the horde of drunken nonbelievers. Needles to say they stoned him to death. Who wants to quit a great party?

Saint Eskil was buried in his monastery church in Tuna. Later "Eskil" was added in to the word "Tuna".

Church on the site of original 1000 year old monastery. 

 

Gravestone of St. Eskil inside church.

Inside church.

Altar

Statue of St. Eskil outside church.

The city grew enormously during the Industrial Revolution and became one of the most important industrial cities of Sweden, earning the nickname "Stålstaden" ("The City of Steel"). The very cool thing about this is, Eskilstuna has many, many beautiful old industrial buildings lining the river banks. As history and modernization changed industrial manufacturing, these beautiful brick structures were abandoned. But, they were reincarnated as museums, studios, shops, restaurants, schools and offices.

Eskilstuna circa 1940.

Old Munktell factory where Volvo Equipment was started, now a museum.

 Faktori Museum brass door handle.

A few pictures of the older section of the city.

This was a commercial area as well as residential.. 

We couldn't figure it out, but every other store front was a hair salon. There must have been at least 20+ just on this street alone. This for a city of only 90,000 people.

You can see this building from the other side of the river if you look closely. 

View of the St. Eskil's church  from the other side of the river.

Sweetheart locks on the bridge crossing the river.

Teacup  tree.

The randomness of finding an Arizona t-shirt in an Eskilstuna boutique.

Hand of God by Carl Milles - sculpture in the city park along the river.

Well, that's really it. We had a great time, we love Sweden, met so many nice people and in the end, even with our crazy schedule and lack of sleep, we were very glad we went. 

Thank you Volvo; Peter, Stefan and Johann and thank you Love for going to Sweden and being my sightseeing companion and navigator.

And thank you if you've stuck with me to the end of this blog!

Tills vi möts igen!

("Until we meet again" in Swedish)