Road Trip 2025 (1) - Lake Vättern

 

From Google Maps

The map shows main roads and towns involved in our road trip. We started from Borås on Saturday, 9 August and drove to Linköping, where we stayed two nights. On Monday the 11th, we drove from there down to Västervik on the east coast, where we stayed one night. On Tuesday the 12th, we drove from Västervik via Vimmerby to Eksjö, where we stayed one night. And on the 13th from there back to Borås. 

Of course we also made various stops along the way - both planned and unplanned...

 

Saturday, 9 August - Part 1
Lake Vättern and Brahehus Castle Ruin

I think we left Borås around 11 AM or so, and then drove straight on past Jönköping (where there were a lot of roadworks going on, causing some boring queues). Our first stop was at a motel between Jönköping and Gränna, overlooking Lake Vättern. We've been there before, so knew it was a good place to stop for lunch.

View from Motell Vätterleden, overlooking Lake Vättern

 

Next, we also made a stop just after Gränna, at Brahehus Castle Ruin. We'd been there before, but remembered the views from there as well worth seeing again.

 

Brahehus Castle Ruin near Gränna

 

"The ruins of Brahehus Castle are located 3 km (2 mi) outside of Gränna in the province of Småland, Sweden. The ruins sit 270 m (890 ft) above sea level and 180 m (590 ft) above the lake Vättern, providing a panoramic view of the lake and the island of Visingsö. Built for and named after Count Per Brahe the Younger (a 17th century Swedish statesman and writer) in the 1640s, the castle was abandoned by the 1680s and suffered a fire in 1708. The castle is near the modern E4 highway and is a popular destination for recreation and tourism."

 

Vättern is the second-largest lake in Sweden, and the sixth-largest lake in Europe. 

 

 

 

Linking to:

 

 

Postcards from Ukraine

 

Trying to digest hours and hours of news reports today about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, I went to my Postcrossing account to check what postcards I've received in the past from Ukraine. I found that between 2013-2015, I received quite a few cards from there. In 2016, only one (the top one above) - and since then, no more. Since 2016 I also haven't been given any address in Ukraine to send a card to, except once in 2021. I know I was more active in postcrossing myself during the first years after I joined (then having a lot of inherited old stamps that I wanted to send out into the world); but looking at the PC statistics now, they also seem to reflect political changes in Ukraine around that time.

The dragon card was sent to me from Ukraine in September 2015. I don't know if this particular dragon belongs in a special story, or if it is meant to be good or bad. But usually in European/Slavic folklore I think dragons are at least not considered trustworthy as to their good intentions.

Just now, I guess we must hope that just like in various fairy tales, the (wicked) dragon will be tricked to fall victim to its own greed in the end... 

PS. Looking at these two cards together on my screen, it strikes me that the dragon image has roughly the same shape as the map of the country! (Especially that front paw...)

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PPS (25.2) On the back of the dragon postcard it says "golden dragon". I tried googling that but didn't find any reference to a special tale, or Ukraine. I did get sent to some websites related to the game Dungeons & Dragons, though. On one of them, about Gold Dragons, under the heading Personality and Motivations I found this - rather worth contemplating in relation to mighty human leaders as well...

Gold dragons are strong believers in the rule of order and the greater good, but they are also arrogant and dismissive, more concerned with unfathomable goals than with the needs of "lesser creatures." For every gold dragon champion that aids a community of humanoids, or rules it with a just and benevolent hand, there is another that has become a tyrant, demanding the obedience it deserves "by right," or crushing individual freedoms and creativity in the name of law. Even these dragons tend to view themselves as morally in the right, making the hard choices nobody else can.

Even when cooperating with or benevolently ruling other creatures, gold dragons seem dismissive of the concerns of lesser beings. This attitude isn't necessarily a sign that they don't care for the good of their subjects or allies (though some might not); rather, it's because gold dragons believe in their superiority over other races but don't necessarily understand what that means. A gold dragon watching over a community might not acknowledge the complaints, needs, or troubles of citizens because it truly doesn't realize how bad things are. Even after dwelling for years among humans, gold dragons are frequently shocked at just how weak and fragile such creatures are.

Postcards for the Weekend - Country Maps

 
Postcard map of Sweden, featuring some typical tourist attractions

Postcrossing card from China, 2014 - Chinese Food Map

Postcrossing card from India, 2014 - Incredible India
(featuring the Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of the world)

I hope none of my postcards sent to people in April and May have gone astray. I learned this week that our postage was raised again from 1st April... Happily unaware of that, I have probably been sending out a few with not quite enough stamps on them...

 
Postcards for the weekend 40 - Country maps

Around the World

Time to get started on getting these off around the world!

And speaking of the world… Frances Garrood was wondering the other day “why America is always on the left, and the Eastern countries on the far right, and what would it look like if it were seen from a different angle”.

Well, I suppose it depends on what angle… But this is what it looks like if you just spin it around from our usual European view of it. (Which might actually explain why most of us don’t really look at it from that angle very often.)

The world is my deskpad, and my money box…

I think it was when I joined Postcrossing 2-3 years ago that I bought the globe. I don’t actually use it as a coin box; but I do sometimes find it a helpful tool for a not-quite-so-flat perspective of the world.

 

Weekend Reflections – Alingsås (1)

I’m back from our little trip. Actually we arrived back in Borås on Thursday evening. After breakfast on Friday my brother left for the last bit of his trip back to his own home; and I spent the rest of the day unpacking and getting re-organised.

I’m now also facing the job of a thousand photos to sort out… No, I’m not exaggerating. When I copied the camera-card onto the computer, it said exactly 1000 photos! (Plus a few more on the phone…)

I’ve decided to put some extra effort into ‘tagging’ these holiday photos (compared to usual); so I’ll be taking my time about it. But basically I think I will blog about the trip in chronological order.

We started from Borås on Monday morning (20.7), and our first stop was Alingsås, a small(ish) town of 25.000 inhabitants by the river Säveån.

Alingsås got it’s royal charter as a town in 1691 and among other things it is a very picturesque little town with many well-preserved old wooden buildings in the city, and a lot of cafés.

In the main square stands a bust of Jonas Alströmer (1685-1761), a pioneer within agriculture and industry in Sweden. In Sweden he is perhaps best generally known for introducing the potato plant here – which soon became an important staple food all over the country, and still is. But Alströmer was also involved in for example textile industry and trade, shipbuilding, starting a sugar refinery in Gothenburg, and whatnot. He was also one of the founders of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1739.

The old town house (the pink house to the left of the Jonas Alströmer memorial) was built by his son Patrik Alströmer in 1769 (back then as residence for him and his family). The building was acquired by the Town in 1831 and is now listed as a cultural heritage building.

Below are some other random pictures of old wooden buildings in the town – taken while we were strolling around looking for a café where we could have lunch.

In the last photo (for today) please note that in the windows behind the inviting market stand you can see the reflection of the old wooden building on the other side of the street.

Linking to Weekend Reflections