karinblomblom
WInterrail into the 20s, each stop posted on the same day...3 months later
Interrail och Impressionism
20 July - 2 August 2019
Already two months since my interrail trip started... A trip of tranquil freedom, making up my mind from moment to moment. Staying when I needed, leaving when I wanted was such a perfect way of travelling.
One of the best things about travelling by train was the resting of my eyes and mind on the passing by landscape. There was no need of doing anything. I could just...be.
Also, I discovered, rather accidentaly, how photographing could become something more than a sharp shot of the subject, just by gaining advantage of the rapidity of the train. Not even thinking about there was a genre such as impressionism photography, it is what I thought of the photos below when deciding on keeping them.
3. Spiral tree (& Bohus Fortress)
4. Lost in green(ery)
5. Treevial focus
6.The tiger's nose & wet nails (over Varberg)
Photos and text from the whole trip are all in previous posts.
Lund
Grande finale - Grand Hôtel
For my last night, I had found a good deal on one of the hotel apps. And yes, it was a nice experience to be in this beautiful hotel, opened in 1899, with comfortable beds. And with some complementary things in the room that I haven't seen in other hotels, like the dressing grown, the special drawer for the red wine and its glass... Also, there was a very cool... let's say... industrial designed view from the window that came with the good deal price...
The sweetest signs of "Please do not disturb" & "Please clean my room", (alluding to the the fact that Lund is a university town) that I have ever seen!
I certainly wanted to see the cathedral and finding out that there is an astronomical clock, I stayed around to see it play. The strokes in the beginning comes from the two knights on the top, one representing the day and the other one, the night. The playing doesn't continue until just after 0:50 so just skip the long pause in between.
There are a lot of small streets with pretty and idyllic houses as well as magnificent buildings like the cathedral and university buildings. Also, there are beautiful old buildings reminding of ancient times. like the Liberiet from the 15:th century, just beside the cathedral.
Sometimes I decide upon a road and then take another. Just because it seems more interesting, like when I happened to arrive at the botanical garden where there was a lot of floral beauty.
There were actually some plant life in the walls of the cathedral as well, just like a meeting between heaven and earth...
By five in the afternoon, I was on the last train on my Swedish interrail trip, at least for this time. I do hope SJ decides on continuing this great possibility of interrailing through Sweden!
One thing I really liked was how easy it was to book as it was just to open the SJ application, choose "tickets" to find the interrail card. When clicking on the booking button in the card one came into what locked like the regular booking mode, just that the available tickets cost 0 SEK. As previously mentioned, the couchette tickets could also be booked with no extra charge.
What a fantastic way to see our beautiful country!
Helsingborg
From H to H - 1 August 2019
After having left Falun so quickly I was about to return after my visit to Halden. It seemed however to take me more time to get there than to be there. Finding it more time effective to go further south, I opted for Helsingborg and Lund as a final of my trip.
Helsingborg has for me just been a "passing by town" on interrail trips in my twenties, looking out the window when the train got onto the ferry and the adventure could start for real... After all the years, it was very nice to now explore this city more than just from the train window.
The first sight of the day was Kärnan, a royal tower that once served as a home, guard, and defence within a stronghold.
A 20 minutes walk brought me to Fredriksdal's open museum with an ancient Helsingborg town quarter, country houses and a manor. It was the owner, Gisela Trapp, that, according to the will of her late and beloved husband, gave the manor to the town of Helsingborg in 1918, with the purpose of being used as an open air museum. New buildings have been added throughout the years.
Before leaving Helsingborg for Lund I had a cappuccino at the town's own coffee company, founded in 1886.The text in the first photo is the announcement of the coffee shop to open the following day...