Back Home, Clean up, Back at it

As we traveled back to our home in Upplands Väsby, we took an evening and a morning to stop at Kalmar Castle and Borgholm (bor'-ee-holm) ruins on the island of Öland (uh'-land), as I mentioned in my last post. However, it got to be so late last night that I didn't post pictures. So, here are some of the things to see there. Kalmar was at one point a most important port from a trading and protection standpoint. It was built up from a tower in 1200 to a fortress in the 1500s and continued to be a protection until peace and final borders were decided upon with Denmark. It was the scene of the Kalmar Union when the kingdoms of Sweden, Denmark and Norway united under one king who was the foster child of Queen Margrete I.

Margrete was born in Denmark 1353 and at the age of 10 was given in marriage to the king of Norway with whom, at age 17, she had a baby boy, Olof. He became king of the two countries at age 5, so Margrete was the true ruler. Her son died as a young man without a wife or heir, so she adopted her sister's son from Poland. He was renamed Erik to give him a Scandinavian name, but he, too was quite young, so she continued to reign in the background.

She was a brilliant negotiator and tactician, so when the Swedish nobles are unhappy with their king, they petitioned her to step in. The king of Sweden was deposed and she arranged for the union of the three in 1397. While it is a matter of controversy, many believe that this is when the symbol for Sweden became the Tre Kroner (three crowns). There were more ancient uses of the symbol, but this seems to be when it is adopted.

By slady - Swedish Hkp15, CC BY-SA 3.0,
 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1176268
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In the 1530s Gustav Vasa decoupled Sweden from the union and Kalmar again became a fortress and the castle was upgraded to the style of the time. This happened every few hundred years, so there are many eras represented in the interior and exterior.

At the bridge where the entrance
is located

The page who gave us
our brochure after paying
to get in.

Inside the courtyard there were people in costume for the benefit of the children. Here are a princess in her beautiful gown who posed with the little girls who came. The boys got to have a sword fight with the knight who would go to the side to talk to a pretty wench allowing the boys to take him from behind. There was also a horse on a rail where the children could practice jousting. 

Copy of a bust of Queen Margrete I

A copy of the gown attributed to
Queen Margrete

There is a wall of the family trees of the various monarchs of Sweden who lived at the castle in Kalmar

An exact copy of the coronation
robe of King Erik XIV. Velvet,
gold embroidery, with pearls and
ermine 

The Queen's bed which was taken as booty
from Denmark.

The posts were defaced
(literally, they cut off the nose)
because the belief at the time
was that the spirit dwells
behind the nose and they
didn't want the spirits of
Danish kings haunting the
bedchamber.

Coats of armor

The prison with the dungeon below

Prisoners were lowered into
the dungeon where there was
no light, heat or beds. True
torture.

A waiting and banquet room

A banquet table set with depictions of
typical food. 4 and 20 black birds
in a pie was kind of accurate. Cooks
would place a live bird in a pie so
when the crust was broken the bird
would fly out into the room to the
delight of the guests.

The queen's waiting room
which was sometimes the
bedroom, depending on who
reigned.

Some of the papier mache costumes that have been recreated
depicting accurately the costumes of the medieval period. This
is a traveling exhibit that has been in the palace in Stockholm is
now in Kalmar Castle and will travel to the USA this year or
early next year. Amazing

Ancient cannons outside
the castle

A prospect of the castle from the top of the
fortress wall

The cannon balls are
still in the wall of this
tower attached to the
castle

This is a special hybrid rose developed
for the grounds of the castle. It is the
Kalmar rose. The fragrance is a
sweet odor, not like the typical
woody smell of a roses in general.

From the castle, we traveled a few kilometers to Öland, an island just of the coast in the Baltic Sea, where the Borgholm castle ruins are located. This, too, was a large and important castle until the threats from neighboring countries became a thing of the past. Eventually, it was abandoned and purchased by various people over the centuries. It suffered several fires that left just the stone walls. It would be rebuilt and used again. Finally, it was purchased by a merchant who used it as a dying facility for fabrics. When it subsequently burned again, it was abandoned for good. In the mid to late 19th century, there was general interest in Europe for these ruins, so the walls were shored up and protections began to be put into place to arrest further disintegration. That work continues along with archaeological work.

The lengthy bridge to the
island. 

Some of the walls 

and courtyard of the castle

This gives perspective to the size

This give an idea of the size of the structure

A series of arches inside

The ovens in the kitchen area

From the top you can see the landscape
behind

A panoramic view from the entrance side 

Öland is also famous for the hundreds of windmills that used to
be a status symbol of wealth on the island. There are still several
along the road to the ruins.

The morning was over and we had a long way to travel, so we made our way back to our home stopping only for gas. We got in at about 10:30 that night.

The next day we assisted with the Stockholm zone conference during the day.

Pres and Sister Youngberg, Sisters Eriksson, Heaps, Christensen, Argyle, Nielson, Hale, Hunter, Pickett, Sidwell, Woodman
President Karlsson,  counselor in the Stockholm Stake Presidency

Elders Adcox, Olaveson, Barney, Winkle, Bringhurst, Stapley, Harrell, Harper, Cluff, Benson, Brown,
Craun, Bentson, Schultz, Helm, Warnick

Me, Olivia, Elders Kilton, Jämsä, Sisters Kinnison, Kunzler, Sister and Elder
Johnson, Elder and Sister Hales

That evening we substituted for the Pettits giving a self reliance presentation to the Göteborg (yet'-uh-bori) youth who were staying at the guest house on the temple grounds for the week, where they performed baptisms every day. The chapel for the Västerhaninge (vester-han'-inga) Ward is located next door, so that is where we made the presentation. We had a PowerPoint show and played initiative games to reinforce the principles we were teaching. It was a lot of fun, but the group was large, so everything took longer than we anticipated, thus we didn't finish all we normally would have. Still, the advisers seemed to be happy with the results.

Magic Carpet game

Human Knot

Human Knot untangled

There is a way to get out without breaking
or untying the string

That's not it

 

 Thursday we were finally able to catch up on some sleep, and after taking the Youngbergs to the airport, doing laundry. I ironed 10 white shirts, so you have some idea of how long it had been. I also finally got a haircut from a beautiful, talented hairdresser that I brought with me from America. We caught up on much of our paperwork and did some planning for the month. It was good to finally have a true P day!

Friday we went to the temple and while we were there we saw our Mongolian friends from the Uppsala Ward. The grandma is going back to Mongolia at the end of the month, so the ward had a special party for her on Saturday. We were told that it was a Relief Society social, so I stayed at home and drafted the post I sent out yesterday. It turns out it was for the whole ward and I missed it, regrettably. 

Look in the dictionary under "committed" or "dedicated" and
you will find their pictures. All so very faithful despite the
language challenges.

Saturday, we were invited to meet Amanda Hall, her brother Adam, and her parents for lunch in Sigtuna. Amanda had been a missionary in Uppsala for 4.5 months and we had grown very close to her, so she wanted her family to meet us when she brought them back to travel through Sweden.

Sister Hall and family in Tant Bruns cafe
in Sigtuna, Built in the late 1700s you
still have to duck to get in and all
the furniture is from the early 1800s

Us with the Halls outside Tant Bruns

 It turned out that the family went to the Uppsala Ward social for the grandmother from Mongolia. 

The grandma left the Relief Society with a giant cross stitch
project to remember her by. One of the young single adult
women volunteered to be the first, then realized that Olivia was
sitting next to her and said, "You're old. You know how to do
this. You should be first." The sisters were mortified that she
would call Olivia old, but she took it in good humor.

Sister Hall's father, brother and mother who
accompanied all the singing for the evening

Odd (pronounced Ode) and Salme wanted
to sing. 

Sister Hall and her family with the Mongolian family. 

Sister Christensen with Amanda Hall. They had
served together at some point.

Today, we were back in our wonderful Uppsala Ward with our friends whom we had missed so much. I got to pass the sacrament and Olivia sat next to Elsa who has scheduled her baptism for the 23rd of this month after almost a year of investigating the Church. We count her as one of our dear friends. There were several investigators in church today, which is always a good thing. 

Kurt Heden was back in church after being out with a staff infection he picked up in the hospital. In Priesthood Meeting he was given time to tell us about his ordeal. Through tears, he testified of the power of prayer that helped him survive the infection. It was quite serious and could have ended badly. Once he is completely clear of it, he will return to have a hip replacement. We are keeping him in our prayers.

It is good to be back. We still have much to do, but at a saner pace, I hope. Thanks to all who take the time to read these posts. I hope you find them uplifting and that they give you hope for the growing Church and the rising generation. Observing what we do, we certainly have that hope.