In several Swedish towns you’ll be able to find a special “health path” marked with this sign:
For a walkpath to qualify for this sign, it should be easily accessible for anyone. For example it should not include steep hills or stairs. There will be signs along the way to help you keep track of how far you’ve walked. If you follow the whole path (4 km in my town) you will get back to your starting point. But there should also be plenty of possibilities to enter or leave the path anywhere, and to choose shortcuts.
There is a starting point for my town’s health path very close to where I live, and yesterday I decided to follow it. I frequently walk various parts of it, but rarely the whole path in one go. Actually even yesterday I got a bit sidetracked when I got into town, but never mind…
One of our more spectacular pieces of modern architecture – a triangular glass-covered office building.
Oops, the health path (left) is closed… Even if someone else evidently just went ahead anyway, I think I’ll take the steeper path to the right… I know that from the top of that little hill there is a better view over the town:
They’ve been building a new traffic roundabout here and I’ve lost the path, no sign in sight… Never mind, I know roughly where I’m supposed to go anyway…
Some autumn colours are sneaking up on us!
Back on track, along the river.
Old textile factory building to the left, the tower of the old church in the middle. (And no, I’ve not gone for a swim, I’m standing on a bridge.)
A powerful building: The electricity company.
No autumn colours yet in those trees!
Entering a street which was officially opened as a new Pedestrian Street, with a ceremony earlier the same day.
Getting distracted… A vintage second hand shop seemed to have moved half of their stock out on the street.
A magic toy shop. (Can you see me?)
The old Town Hall / Court House from an unusal angle.
The fountain in the Town Square. There was quite a wind blowing so if you got too close to the fountain it was like walking into a rainshower.
There’s that church tower again.
It has a habit of following you around…
You know the old superstition of not walking under ladders? I’d include scaffolding. And wheelbarrows…
I got sidetracked into another shop, but here I am again. It would be quicker now to turn around and walk home in the other direction, but I’ll follow the path…
The outdoors cafés still popular, even on a windy day.
Still a bit of exotic touch with the palm trees… They’ll soon be moved indoors into some greenhouse for the winter. Walking towards our Bus Square, where all of the town’s bus routes meet.
Anna Lindh’s park, with the Non-Violence sculpture. (In memory of Anna Lindh, minister for foreign affairs, who was assassinated – in Stockholm – on 10th September 2003. Nine years ago on Monday…)
Along the river again… Old factory buildings on one side, and modern housing on the other:
And the city continues to grow… On the building site behind that fence, a new 12-storey building will be rising.
Coming to a crossroads again… Following the official path, I should take the one to the left. But I choose to go the right and take a shortcut/detour across the old cemetery. (It’s a shortcut if I really take the shortest way across. A detour if I stroll around a bit…)
For one thing I get to say hello to the rabbits…
… and some of my ancestors (great-grandparents, left).
On the other side of the cemetery, we’re back to where we started this walk. Thanks for keeping me company!
Linking to Straight Out of the Camera Sunday.
12 comments:
Hello:
We have so enjoyed this 'healthy' walk around your town and as we do not know Sweden at all, it is particularly interesting to have a glimpse of some, we assume, typical architecture, shops and housing. Certainly you do seem to have much in the way of open spaces, and the river running through is most attractive.
And yes, we did catch sight of you in the toy shop window!!
your buildings are so full of character, i love the electric company, wow on that one. and what a walk, i loved every moment of it. especially the palm tree in a pot. beautiful. stunning view and the red leaves under the view. bunnies and factory's oh MY... thanks for my walk on the heath path. i feel better already
If you have following my blog for a while, you'll know how much I love walking! Yours looks very pleasant, and I can very easily picture myself choosing that same route for a leisurely run of about 25 minutes on Tuesday evenings :-)
I know I've said this before, but your town really looks a good place to live in.
Yes, while back in the days of industrialization the river was essential for the textile industry in this area, and not much thought given to environmental aspects, in our time it is being detoxified and seen as essential for recreational purposes instead, and new walkpaths are created along the riverside whereever possible. I love to walk along the water myself and often choose those paths if I can.
I quite enjoyed it myself and I have to say I think they've chosen a good route for this path, with a lot of variation in the views along the way.
I did "go for a walk" with you on your blog recently. Probably a good thing I only walk with you virtually though, because in my book the words "leisurely" and "run" are not compatible... ;) I'm a slow walker and my favourite walking companion is the camera, because it gives me so many reasons to stop!!!
One of the best things about a camera is that one can rest without feeling guilty.
I never feel guilty for taking a rest - camera or no camera :-) Walking and running are such a pleasure for me; and while walking more often than not also serves the purpose of getting me from A to B, running is really just for fun. But I never take the camera with me when I'm running, so you have never seen my usual running paths... so maybe I should one day just walk them and take pictures.
Ah - what a lovely walk! Which town is this in?
The town is Borås.
That really is an excellent idea Monica. I don't think we have them in the UK although I'm not that au fait with many of our cities these days. You passed one of my favourite buildings/situations in your town when you showed the old textile factory. For some reason it really appeals to me.
It's one of my favourite views too. For about 1½ years our town library resided in that old factory building while the Cultural Centre building (of more modern date) was being renovated. I was almost sorry when they moved back...
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