A November Walk

On Thursday morning I received an email telling me that I had a parcel to pick up at an inconvenience store across town. No, I did not spell that wrong - just trying to be funny... The thing is, I had ordered something, not very large, which I had expected to be smoothly delivered by regular post to my own postbox, or at worst the convenience store in my own neighbourhood, only a few minutes walk away. But it turned out the company had used a different delivery service; and thus the parcel ended up in a store much more inconvenient for me... Half an hour's walk away at least - and no use trying to take a bus either. (Because that would involve a change of bus, and the stops for those two lines are so far apart nowadays that one would have to walk half the distance anyway, and the whole adventure from door to door might actually end up taking even longer than walking the whole distance...)

Luckily, it was a sunny day (rather rare for November), and I decided that I had better just get the inconvenient errand over with, and make the walk as enjoyable as possible. 

I live to the south of the city centre; while the inconvenience store is situated along a busy street uphill to the east of there. I decided the best way for me to walk there was along the river as usual down to the city park, and then choose a side street for my walk uphill.

Besides being sunny it was even one of those days with the river still like a mirror... And I also quite enjoyed my walk uphill through an older part of town that I don't visit very often now. (I used to walk there more often back in a distant past when my place of work was at the hospital up on the top of that hill.)

Birch tree still holding on to most of its leaves!

After picking up my parcel (small and flat enough to fit into my backpack), I crossed the busy road over to the city library & culture centre for a quick visit.

It turned out they're rebuilding their entrance hall, and while doing so they have put up some temporary art made by school children to make things a bit more cheerful :)

I then decided to make a further detour on my way back home, to a park on the hillside. From photography point of view it may have been better to go there a month earlier, in the full glory of autumn colours - but on the other hand, one probably gets a better view of the town with the leaves gone... ;)

From a path somewhere half way up the hill, looking down on the town below.

Oops... When I saw it, I remembered having read about it in the local paper: They're doing some restruction work here too, reparing an old stone wall...

Once upon a time, this park belonged to a private manor house, built for a wealthy manufacturer back in the 1820s. (That house no longer there, and the park nowadays owned by the town.) 

▲ Walking down, and further down... ▼

▲...Looking back up...▼

Back down on flat ground, below the park, there is a major busy thoroughfare road to cross; and then a rather complicated traffic roundabout; and in the middle of that, since 2008, stands the huge Pinocchio sculpture by American artist Jim Dine (9 m high, and official title Walking to Borås), which was really the start of our city building a new reputation as a  City of Art. (Many more sculptures and murals added since then, and regular art biennials.)