Björlanda Church

Här är bilder från den andra medeltida kyrkan, Björlanda kyrka, som troligen är från 1300-talet.

Here is the other medieval church, Björlanda church, a so called Mary church, in the parish. It is unknown how old this one is, but probably from th 13th or 14th century.

Part of a wooden altarpiece from the 16th century:


The paintings in the ceiling are new (from 1950s), but really neat. They are painted in the same color scheme as older paintings in the church, and tell the salvation story. The Fall is illustrated by war, and God's salvation with fishing nets and harvest workers.

These murals on one of the walls were found in the 1930s behind whitewashed walls. They are from the 13th century.

Another baptismal font from the 13th century:

The back of a tombstone found in the cemetery outside of the church:


Björlanda church from the outside. Stonewalls like these seem to be pretty common in this area:

Torslanda Church

Vi besökte naturligtvis också några kyrkor, eftersom ett av Weslies största intressen är kyrkokonst och arkitektur. Stadsdelen där Kika o Martin bor stoltserar med två medeltida kyrkor, Torslanda och Björlanda. Här ser vi Torslanda kyrka. Man tror att kyrkan är byggd på en gammal hednisk offerplats till asaguden Tor, som tecken på Jesu seger över det mörka och onda. De äldsta delarna av kyrkan är från 1100-talet.

We took of course the time to visit some local churches. The suburb where my sister lives is proud to have two medieval churches. Here is the first one, Torslanda. It is thought to be built on an old place of sacrifice to Thor (who also is thought to have given name to the town, Torslanda). The oldest parts of the church are from the 12th century.

An angel with a trombone. A gift to the church, from some time before 1737.


The altarpiece from the 15th century depicts God the Father surrounded by the 12 apostles. However, Judas is replaced by King Olav II of Norway to symbolize the triumph of Christianity over paganism in Norway (this part of Sweden used to belong to Norway):

The pulpit is from 1627:


The baptismal font made of granit from 1250:

The crucifix is also pretty old, from the end of the 15th century:

Sailing

En perfekt dag ute i Göteborgs vackra skärgård. Solen sken och det var ca 20 grader. Vi njöt av en fin seglats, och stannade till på ön Knippla för picknick och bad.

One of the things we wanted to do while in Gothenburg was to go sailing with Kika and Martin on their sailboat. It was a beautiful day with perfect winds (not too strong) and sunshine. The archipelago is gorgeous and we stopped for picnic on an island, Knippla.

Martin is trying to get the engine to start so we would actually be able to get out of the marina...

Lukas is not afraid of boats...maybe even a bit too confident sometimes:


Our cute godson Adam:

Weslie, the master sailor:

Esther had a good time too:


On the island we found a "ljugarbänk", a bench were you would sit and tell your fishing stories...

On the highest point of Knippla, looking out toward the sea:

SIghtseeing in Gothenburg

Vi tillbringade en eftermiddag med se oss runt i Göteborg, åt bl a en jättegod lunch på en malaysisk restaurang och såg ostindiefararskeppet Götheborg.

We spent one day doing some sightseeing in Gothenburg and visiting with one of my friends, Anna.

A delicious lunch at a Malaysian restaurant. First time for both of us.


We toured a model of an East Indian ship from the 18th century, Götheborg. The original sank outside of Gothenburg in 1745.

Picking mushrooms

I skogen bakom Kikas och Martins hus fanns massor av svampar, vilket är en av Weslies favoriter. Han och Martin var ute i en halvtimme och hittade tillräckligt mycket svamp för att vi skulle kunna laga en jättegod svamppizza till middag. Tyvärr var det inte det enda de fick med sig från skogen. Jag plockade bort 10 fästingar från Weslie efteråt! Efter detta var han inte så intresserad av svampplockning längre...

In the woods behind my sister's house there were lots of mushrooms. Martin and Weslie found quite a bit of chantarelles and porcini mushrooms in just 3o minutes, enough to make a really good mushroom pizza for supper. Unfortunately that was not the only thing they brought back from the woods. Afterwards I found 10 (!) ticks on Weslie. Needless to say, he wasn't to excited... Martin and the kids had some on them too. There was an enormous amount of ticks there in the woods, and just last week we learned that my niece Esther (2 years) had gotten Lyme disease. She is doing just fine though (thanks be to God), although she has to be on an antibiotic for a couple of weeks.

Resan till Göteborg

Efter två härliga månader i Finland åkte vi till Göteborg den 15 augusti för att se min "gamla hemstad", besöka Kika o Martin o barnen, och träffa vänner. Vi bestämde oss för att resa den långsamma vägen, med tåg, färja och tåg, eftersom det var billigare och Weslie aldrig hade åkt en stor passagerarfärja.

After two wonderful and relaxing months in Finland, we left for Gothenburg, Sweden, on Aug 15th, to visit my old hometown, where I lived for three years before moving to the US, and old friends there. Also, that is where my sister Carina and her family live, so we were very happy to be able to spend some more time with them. We decided to take the slow route there. We took the train from my parents' place to Åbo (Turku) in southwestern part of Finland, then the ferry between Åbo and Stockholm, and finally the train from Stockholm to Gothenburg. This was the first time Weslie has been on one of these big passenger ferries. We took the night ferry, which means we left at 9pm and arrived at 6.30am. We had a nice cabin to ourselves so we were able to get some sleep. We also got to see some of the beautiful archipelago outside of Åbo, so here are some pictures of that. The whole trip took about 21 hours (it would probably have taken 5-6 hours from door to door if we had been flying). It was very nice though, other than the fact that we had to haul all our luggage everywhere, since we were flying back to the States from Gothenburg.

On the top deck:

Lots of nice cabins on the islands that we passed:

Per request - Dani's & Sofie's house

Äntligen tid för lite uppdatering av bloggen. Det har inte varit mycket vila den senaste månaden, med de sista veckorna i Sverige och Norge och sedan resan tillbaka och inflytt i vårt nya hus, skolstart och pluggande på sjukskötersketenta (för de som undrar så har jag inte fått svaret på den ännu). Vi ska lägga upp bilder på huset, men först lite bilder från slutet av semestern.

Finally time for some blog updating. It has been a really busy last month, but now we are pretty much settled down in our house. We will put up some posts with pictures of it all, but first to the end of our stay over seas.

Wayne and Sylvia, here's for you. Our last day in Finland we went over to Dani's and Sofie's house to take some pictures. They have a great big lot with plenty of room for the four of them (counting the baby) and all the horses. There is still some work to be done, but it is looking great so far.

The yard:


The stables:


The folds for the horses:


The house:


Hannes running around: