Three Churches

(Alternative titles: "Lost and Found" or "Tower Power")

On our recent trip to the coast, we did not get the opportunity to "properly" visit any church (as we have often done on other holiday trips). However, we did find church towers rather helpful for orientation in an unknown landscape (vs the map)! 

On the second day of our trip, we found ourselves stopping at three different countryside churches because of feeling a bit lost, and needing to (re)establish our position on the map. 

I have afterwards found that all three of them belong to the parish of Munkedal. If you click on the links to each of them below, you will also be able to have a look inside them on the parish website - even though my brother and I did not get to do that IRL. (I did try the door at each on them, but they were all locked.) 

With the first one, the time stamp on my photo tells me that we stopped there around 10:11 - on our way to Bovallstrand. I've now (re-)identified it as Bärfendal church - dating back to the mid 1100s; but the wooden tower added as late as 1868.

10:11 - Bärfendal Church

An  old wooden shed close to the church above

The next two were our way back from Smögen the same afternoon.

 

 

16:05 - passing Håby Church

Håby church, near Munkedal: We had already driven past this one (without stopping) at least three times - twice when looking for our hotel on Wednesday evening, and again on Thursday morning... And just after 4 pm on Thursday afternoon we passed it again. We did not intend to stop there, so I just took the opportunity to take photos from the car...

However, shortly after that we managed to miss a turn somewhere, had to have a full spin around a roundabout, and then found no place to safely turn around again until back at Håby church. Where we then parked for a few minutes to try and get our bearings straight - again.

This church too goes back to the 1100s, with the wooden tower added in 1869.

16:14 - parked at Håby Church...

16:16 (a side door)

16:17

 

However, as there was more than one confusing roundabout to get through in this neighbourhood , we also ended up at a third church that we had not really intended to visit.

16:34 - Foss Church

 

Foss church, also close to Munkedal. Yet another one going back to the 1100s, with the tower added much later. (This seems to have been "standard" in those parts...) 

 

Once we got past Uddevalla, we were finally back on more familiar roads. But still with another two hours or so to drive back to Borås... (phew)  

We only made two more short stops. The first one at a motel somewhere after Uddevalla for coffee/tea. (Coffee for the driver, tea for me.)

17:00

 The second at the church and graveyard in the village just outside Borås where our parents and paternal grandparents (and some other ancestors) are buried - just for a little walkabout to check on our family graves, this time!  

From the one photo I took there (19:05),  I conclude that we must have arrived home (at my flat) around 19:30 or so. Tired, with two long days behind us... but also quite a lot to look back on!

 

"Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves."
- Henry David Thoreau

Smögen

(Still Thursday 10 August)
From Hunnebostrand (previous two posts) we drove on another 11 km or so down south to Smögen - another old west coast village with not very many permanent inhabitants in winter, but all the more crowded with tourists in the summer holiday season. (Smögen is also closely connected with a somewhat larger small town, Kungshamn - but we did not have time to stop there as well.)

"In modern times, Smögen is well known for its long, wooden pier, about 600 m (2,000 ft), filled with shops in old fishing huts, which are frequented by a multitude of tourists during the summer. Smögen is one of the most popular tourist destinations on the Swedish west coast, well known for its fish, prawns and other seafood, and one of Sweden's few fish markets is located here. There is also an extensive nightlife scene, with many bars, clubs and concert venues open during the summer" (Wikipedia)

In general, I'm not all that fond of really crowded places. But there was one very special reason why I wanted to go to Smögen - and in fact, that was also what inspired me to suggest this whole trip to begin with... 

The things is, I have an old friend (Lena) since nearly 50 years who is a water colour artist, and nowadays (having retired from her other job as a teacher) living full time on the west coast; and in summer she always has a few exhibitions in these kinds of places. I've never yet (until now) had the opportunity to visit any of her exhibitions, but I have long been wanting to. And last week happened to be her last week (of three) in Smögen, and Thursday the next to last day of the exhibition... So I was really excited that we managed to fit that in!

Just finding somewhere to park in Smögen is an ordeal in itself, but at last we managed it (although it required quite a bit of manouvering skills from my brother). And then we just followed the general stream of other tourists towards the famous wooden pier... 

Lena had sent me a photo of "her" fishing hut, so I knew what to look for... (I had texted her the evening before to tell her that we intended to come by, and to make sure she was going to be there in person). I'm taking the liberty of including her photo here (taken on a less busy day), as I forgot to take one myself once we were there. (The items on display outdoors are trays and coasters and other items with printed images of her paintings, not so sensitive to the weather - and no doubt very popular tourist souvenirs.)

The disadvantage of being there on a rather busy day was that she had lots of other customers popping in and out of the tiny shop while I was there, interrupting our chatting... (But I was prepared that it would be like that.) Still, it was really great to meet her again (many years since we last met in person, I can't even remember when that was). An extra reason now being that we lost a dear mutual friend back in January - so quite a lot of our chat was related to that. As a 'bonus', just when we arrived, one of her sisters happened to be there as well - but just about to leave. Even longer since I last met her; and good to see her too again - even if only to say "hi and goodbye"...

My brother rambled off on his own along the pier for a while, leaving us to our memories... And while Lena was busy with customers, I climbed upstairs on my own to have a peek at her exhibition of originals and large prints up there.

 

Before we left, my brother took this photo (below) of the two of us. 

I also made a purchase (the parcel Lena is holding)... I've long been thinking that I'd like to have an original painting by her. I have some trays since before, and also a couple of small signed and framed prints (which she sent me by post). But buying an original is different - and not something I'm used to doing. I looked through the ones she had for sale upstairs (mostly signed prints, but she had a few originals too) but it was when I got back down again that my eyes fell on one that I almost immediately felt could be The One. And it turned out to be an original from which no prints have been made. I almost had a hard time convincing her that I really wanted to buy it (not just because of feeling some sort of obligation to buy one) ... But it did get to go home with me in the end. :)  Lena wrapped it up well for me, and my brother carried it to the car. Back at home I soon found the perfect place for it: in my hall, just by the (doorless) opening into my living room. (I do love it, and  there's no way I'll regret the purchase!)

 

You can see more of Lena's art on her website here.

 

More from Hunnebostrand

 

Leaving the quarry sculpture park behind us, we walked into the centre of the village to have a look around - and to find somewhere to have lunch.

Södra Strandgatan 1 - South Seaside Street

 

The whole seaside street  is kind of a museum in itself, with charming old buildings.
  

Here and there they had put up posters showing photos of what it used to look like in the past. Like the one above, from 1935. The text says that back then, there were still very few cars; but in the late 1940s, some buildings were torn down, and some boathouses made smaller, in order to widen the street for more traffic. And where there was a fish shop back in 1935, in modern times there is a lobster restaurant in the same spot.

 

 

On one of the boathouses, we found this door, with signs to indicate that this may be where they produce those "tourist" signs... The wooden sign "Gubb-dagis" would translate something like "Daycare for Old Men" :)

Many of the old boathouses now serve as quaint little tourist shops where you can buy for example souvenirs, art&crafts, or clothes. Around the corner of one such place I spotted this sign saying "Catch of the Day". I did not feel entirely sure whether to interpret this as advertising for clothes sold inside, or just a place to display recently "lost and found" items from the beach!

Having stopped here and there to read the menus outside restaurants along the street, we finally decided on one with tables outdoors, and offering the possibility to order "half" salads (without age restrictions). P choose prawns; as I'm not overly fond of shellfish, I stuck with my usual favourite - chicken... (The rest of the ingredients were the same in both salads.) My only complaint was that the benches we sat on were rather uncomfortable for one's back. (P suggested it might be intentional - to stop customers from staying on too long after they've finished eating...)

Well, when we had finished our lunch, it was time for us to continue our journey anyway!

Hunnebostrand - 'Udden' Sculpture Exhibition

 

 

From Bovallstrand (previous post) we drove on to Hunnebostrand (about 5-6 km to the south), another small(ish) sea-side village - with about 2000 permanent inhabitants; but full of tourists in summer. Back in the previous century it was an important place for the Swedish quarry industry (mainly granite). More recently, they've turned one of the old quarries into another interesting setting for a sculpture park. Not as large as Pilane (link to my recent post from there), but more easily accessible.

Udden = 'The Headland'
Sculpture 'Vindarnas Hus' (House of the Winds) by Lars Widenfalk (SE)

"Udden Skulptur is an international sculpture exhibition at Udden in Hunnebostrand, a historic quarry and one of the finest in Sweden, where the most qualified stone works were carried out from the mid-19th century to the middle of the 20th century."

"This site is now an exhibition space for sculpture that is completely unique in the world with a vertical 40 m high granite wall, a large meadow where the quarry was located, and the endless sea that offered the transport of stone to distant lands. A place with magnificent beauty that has everything that Sotenäs and Bohuslän’s tourism industry rests on: an untouched nature and everyone’s access to the coast."

'Säng' (Bed) by Anders Thorlin (SE)

'Diamonds are forever' by Peder Istad (SE)

Novice by Viktor Grachev (RU)

 

 

'Swedish Madonna - After the Bath'
by Russian-Swedish artist Viktor Korneev

'Ascent' by Viktor Korneev (SE)

'Ohne Titel' (das Messer) (Without Title - The Knife) by Hubert Maier (DE)

'Slägga' (Sledgehammer) by Claes Haake (SE)

'Open Globe' by Ulf Johnsson (SE)

'The veiled man'
by Hans Leutscher (SE) (2011)

 

▲These are probably not sculptures but "tools" from the old quarry (?) ▼

 

More photos from Hunnebostrand in my next post.