A Place by the Sea

 (Monday 5 August, cont.)

Although Tjolöholm Castle (previous post) is situated on the coast, while we were there we did not really get a sense of being at the seaside. So before we turned back home, I said I also wanted to go to some place where one did get that feeling. 

So we drove on a little bit further south, and found a place called Gårda Brygga ('brygga' is the Swedish word for 'jetty'). Besides a jetty for small boats, it turned out to also offer smooth rocks with a good view towards the open sea, and even a small beach with a small kiosk/café where we could buy something to drink, and sit for a while to absorb that seaside feeling...

 

 

W for Varberg (Warberg) on the West Coast

ABC Wednesday - W

Varberg (in the past also spelled Warberg) is a town in the province of Halland on the West Coast of Sweden with around 27,600 inhabitants.

The fortress at Varberg, seen from the south

A fortress called Wardbergh, "watch hill", was erected in the 1280’s as part of a chain of military establishments along the coast, in what was then Danish territory. In 1645 the fortress became Swedish. It was used as a military installation until 1830 and as a prison from the end of the 17th Century until 1931.

The fortress seen from the other side

The original castle has been added to through the centuries, with a variety of buildings. Today within the fortress you find museums but also restaurant, café and Bed & Breakfast as well as private accommodation.

The province of Halland south of Varberg is known for its vast sandy beaches. In Varberg the coast changes from sandy to rocky terrain that continues north into the Bohuslän archipelago. In and around Varberg you can find both types of beaches.

In the 1800s, spa resorts were becoming very popular. Many people had strong faith in the healing power of water, both drinking water from certain springs supposed to have a particularly healthy combination of minerals etc, and/or taking hot and cold baths. Varberg was one of the places that thrived on that reputation. (There was a spring/well with mineral water too, back then.)

The old open air bath-house just below the fortress
(seen from the south)

With steam boat traffic from Gothenburg in the 1850s, and the railway from Borås in the 1880s, Varberg’s popularity as a resort increased. In the mid 1920s, Varberg had the biggest sanatorium in Scandinavia. (sanatorium = hospital for recuperation and/or treatment of chronic diseases, especially tuberculosis) The old sanatorium is now a modern spa hotel.

The beach near the spa resort (old sanatorium), looking south.

Varberg is still a very popular seaside resort in the summer, and many people from inland cities such as Borås (where I live) like to spend their holiday there; whether in cottage, caravan, bed & breakfast or hotel.

Personal notes

Two or three summers in the late 1990’s I got quite well acquainted with the walk/cycle path along the coastline at Varberg, between the fortress (which is quite close to the town centre and the railway station) and the beach at the spa hotel. One summer I stayed a few nights at the hostel/B&B within the fortress; and one or two summers when I had very little money to spend I bought a season ticket for the train and “commuted” between Borås and Varberg every other day or so – spending the nights in my own bed, and yet many days on the beach. That was before my current neck problems… Couldn’t do that now. (I was very lucky with the weather too, that summer when I went back and forth every other day.) 

The photos in this post are all my own; from 2001.

U for Uddevalla

ABC Wednesday - U

Uddevalla is a town of around 31 000 inhabitants situated on the West Coast of Sweden, in the province of Bohuslän. Bohuslän is known for its rocky shores, and the beaches of Uddevalla are filled with seashells.

Uddevalla has one of the largest shellbanks in the world, a remain from the last glacial period.  Subfossils from more than 103 species have been found. Due to the lime-rich soil there is a unique flora and fauna in the area and it’s a habitat of many different butterflies.

  

▲ Shellbanks Museum

Uddevalla got its city rights in 1498 but was probably a place of trade long before that. Historically, the town was often besieged and changed nationality several times between Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

In the 18th and 19th century, Uddevalla's main importance lay in its herring fishing.

Sometime around 1870-1880, Uddevalla began to attract industries. Uddevalla has a small port and once hosted a large shipyard. This was closed in 1985 in connection with general recession in Swedish shipyard industry.

▲ The health spa resort Gustafsberg is said to have been the first of its kind in Sweden. The old bath-houses still remain and have been turned into a hostel.

From the town, you can take a tourist boat to the old spa resort, or to islands off the coast.

Children fishing for crabs

In Uddevalla, you will also find Bohuslän’s Museum, which has about 300 000 visitors per year and is renowned for its generous opening hours and free entrance.

Personal notes

Most of the photos in this post are my own, from a holiday visit to Uddevalla in the summer of 2004.

Only the two pictures from the Shellbank Museum were copied off a tourist website, because I didn’t go there.

I stayed three or four nights at a small bed & breakfast hotel, looking idyllic on the outside, but rather reminding me of Fawlty Towers. (I blacked out the real name here, since it’s been eight years, and much may have changed since then.)

I remember that when I arrived in the town (by train) the rain was pouring down. Only one of my three days was sunny (and even then not very warm). That’s when I took a boat trip to Gustafsberg, the old spa resort, and snapped the few sunny photos.

The other days, I spent a lot of time inside the museum! - very thankful for the free entrance policy, which allowed me to come and go as I pleased… 

This was before I got a digital camera so the photos were taken with my Olympus XA2.

And those were the days when from a three-day-trip one came back with only a dozen or so photos, rather than at least three hundred ;)

 

 

 

Gifted

   

Thank you all who commented on my Sunday post by sending me good wishes for my birthday. Sandra wanted to know what was in the parcel I mentioned in the Sunday post. It was from from my friend Gunilla, and it turned out to contain a collection of postcards of water colours painted by a gifted artist friend of ours, Lena. Lena gets most of her inspiration from the province of Bohuslän on the Swedish west coast, which is also where she usually exhibits her art in the summer. Below are three of the pictures included in the card collection I got. (The card in the photo above, with the parcel, is not hers though.) You can also see these and more of Lena’s work at her own website and the Swedish Artists website:

  

I received more birthday greetings in the post yesterday; among them a gift certificate from my brother, allowing me to choose a number of albums from the website www.legalsounds.com, and he’ll download them onto discs for me. So I’ll take the opportunity to renew a few old favourites I used to have on LPs and cassette tapes. I also got a copy of my brother’s own album Trek.

Otherwise my celebrations yesterday were mostly “on line” by email, Facebook and telephone! Outside, it kept on raining…