Lady Hamilton 2019

KALMAR

Day 83  Friday, 23^rd August 2019

We’re staying in Kalmar for another night as the wind forecasts gusts up to 24 knots on the nose.  We pay at the Guest Harbour/Tourist Office and then walk towards the Kalmar Slott.

Then we head off to Gamla Stan, the old town, which was destroyed by fire in 1647.  The city fathers built a fortified city, with streets on a grid, where the cathedral and museum we went to yesterday are situated.

We find lovely wooden summer houses built by the residents of Kalmar town in the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

Next we head to the Kalmar Konstmuseum, in the park by the castle.

It’s an art museum with a difference: temporary exhibitions are key.  And it’s free today!   The exhibition on the top floor is all about ‘Smalands’, the old county in which Kalmar is situated.  The entrance is through a painting, ‘Summer Idyll’, by Lotte Laserstein (1898 – 1993).  She was Jewish so her opportunity to escape Berlin came in an exhibition of her art at Galerie Moderne in Stockholm in 1937.  A sham marriage made Swedish citizenship possible.  Lotte settled in Kalmar in the 1950’s and became a portrait painter.

I love these wedding clothes and christening robes, and the embroidery with a squirrel.

 

And this picture of a little girl scaring away the birds!

Down to the next floor we find an exhibition called ‘The Opening’, around an archive of glass negatives from Swedish missions in the then Belgian Congo 1890 – 1930.  It portrays the long and arduous journey made by the porters on narrow caravan trails carrying both equipment and sometimes the missionaries themselves, to distant mission sites.

Freddy Tsimba is from the Democratic Republic of Congo and he is a sculptor.  His work seems to be made of spoons and forks.

Next door to the museum is a restaurant, ‘Park Hermina’, with a bargain offer of lunch at £9 (109SEK), moules frites with soup and a coffee,  or soup and a salad (and coffee) for  £7.50 (89 SEK).  It’s a popular place so we go in.  Malcolm can’t finish his mussels – he’s never had such a big plate of mussels in his life!  The waitress finds out where they’re from – turns out they’re from Denmark. 

After lunch we walk round the ramparts of Kalmar Slott and it’s free.  We had a guided tour in English last year but we didn’t walk round the ramparts.  There’s lots of information about the bastions on the four corners and cannons pointing out to sea, but I won’t bore you with that!  We see no white horses so the forecast for gusts is wrong.

Go back to the boat and chill for the rest of the afternoon, me sunbathing on deck.  Many swallows are on the genoa sheets of the big German yacht parked alongside – they must be gathering to go south.  We pop to the Coop for the heavy stuff with the skipper.  I write a blog about yesterday.  Malcolm fills up the water tank – all under the eyes of the hotel guests who are eating their dinner on the balcony about 2 metres away from us!

We eat outside – it’s getting warmer (like the UK for the Bank Holiday weekend) – chicken wrapped in bacon, new potatoes and salad with fruit for dessert, and watch another episode of Series 7.

Going to Kristianopel tomorrow and we’re going to be in Utklippan on Sunday night and you can see us on the webcam.  Google ‘Webbkameror.se’ and press ‘Start’, then ‘City’ and choose and press ‘Utklippan’ from the list (it’s in alphabetical order).  It’s a strange little harbour on a rocky island and we’re using it as a jumping off point for the Danish island of Bornholm.  We’ll be there between 12 and 1 pm and there for the afternoon and early evening, leaving early on Monday morning for Bornholm.