Absolut Vodka, Apples and Fish Soup.

Last week we went over to the other side of Skåne (Scania) to visit friends. The area is called Österlen and is incredibly pretty, full of picturesque red-painted wooden houses or half-timbered, sometimes thatched cottages. It was a wonderful summersday when we drove from Helsingborg and this was Sweden at its summertime best.

We were making for a small village called Kivik which lies in the centre of the apple growing district. Needless to say, one of its most famous products is cider. Not far from Kivik is Åhus, the birthplace of Absolut Vodka. And in Kivik itself is a very well-known restaurant called Buhres, which does a fish soup to die for.

All three things we managed to consume in our overnight stay when we weren´t yapping our heads off to catch up on the 4 year´s absence since our last visit. A final walk round the centre of the village took us past the house where the author Fritiof Nilsson Piraten lived. His books cover a period from the 1930s till the 1970s and have become Swedish classics.

It reminded me that I haven´t written anything at all since we came on holiday. I must shape up for September when I go back to the Torrevieja Writers´Group!

Swedish Climate Reverts to Type!

We´d had some quite good weather and I was looking forward to meeting four friends from Spain who were on a Baltic Cruise and whose boat was calling in to Helsingborg as a final destination before returning to Copenhagen to disembark.

Monday dawned. The skies were iron grey and it was pouring like it would never end.
Down to the yacht harbour I traipsed, mac on , brolly up.

The tender came in and everyone came on land. It was ridiculous how heavy the rain was. They´d had wonderful weather in St Petersberg and all round the Baltic but our day was doomed.

I´d planned a leisurely stroll round the town and coffee and waffles outdoors in a lovely cafe with a thatched roof,a windmill and a fantastic view over the
Straights to Denmark and Hamlet´s Castle. But you couldn´t even see your hand in front of your face for the rain!
Talk about the best laid plans of mice and men.....

The following day was brilliant sunshine.
Bugger,Bugger, Bugger!!!

And this is summertime.
But already things are going swiftly the other way.
The shops have all the autumn clothes, the teachers start to work next week and the kids go back soon after. Mid-August in Sweden is back to work and nose to the grindstone and soon it´ll be dark evenings and low temperatures.

Could this be why I moved to Spain?

Summer in Sweden.

I flew from the heat, noise and bustle of Alicante airport at the beginning of July and landed at Copenhagen airport 4 hours later.( Although it´s in Denmark, it´s the nearest airport for us in Southern Sweden). Amazingly, it was very hot, almost as hot as it had been in Spain but what really sruck me was the quiet.

Copenhagen is a huge airport but compared with Alicante, it was unnervingly quiet, almost as if people were observing a period of mourning and silence had been requested! I´d forgotten that it can be like that in Scandinavia. Loud conversations aren´t appreciated - people are much more reserved and controlled here. It´s taken me nearly a month to get used to it again!

The good weather didn´t last long. For the past fortnight it has resumed par-for-the-course Swedish summer weather. Grey skies, cloud, lots of rain. However, it hasn´t stopped us from going out a lot and after the debilitating heat of the Costa in summer, it´s really quite refreshing!

I´ve been visiting friends, eating all the food we don´t get in Spain and really appreciating the lush greenness and abundance of flowers here. It´s also very organised and well-ordered, so life is smooth and relatively trouble-free when it comes to the everyday stuff ( the buses come according to the timetable, things actually start when they´re supposed to....)

I´ve been reading quite a few Swedish books and am really pleasded that my Swedish has come up to scratch pretty quickly. The other day I went to see the Swedish version of the first Stieg Larsson book of the Millenium series. It was really good and I enjoyed it tremendously. The cinema was very comfortable so it was quite an experience after the little local cinema where I live in Spain.

The picture is of a typical Swedish summer place by a lake.

O Gawd!! Summer in the Frozen North!!

Its only a short while and I´m off to Sweden for a summer holiday. As the temperature there just now is round 12 degrees and in Spain, where I am, it´s well over 30 degrees I think I´m in for a bit of a shock. No idea really what to take in the clothes line. It can change and get really warm but I´m not exactly holding my breath.

It´s Midsummer there today - just about the biggest festival of the year. The Swedish dream is of a lovely sunny day, sitting outside in a beautiful garden eating the traditional herring with new potatoes and strawberries and whipped cream for afters.

Unfortunately, often the only thing whipped is the trees , which are bending over in the wind, lashed with rain. I lived there for 30 years and in all that time, I maybe experienced the dream a handful of times. Normally, even if there isn´t a gale, it´s too nippy to be outside.

Still, I suppose I get enough sun down here in Spain so I have to be positive and think of all the other things that I´ll do there. Seeing friends, mooching about the town where I used to live and appreciating the lovely, totally different scenery.

Yes, actually, it might be quite a nice holiday. But I still think I´d better pack my thermals!

Que Aproveche!

My Weightwatchers´Discover Plan took a bit of a knocking this weekend. I was doing quite well, going down slowly but surely. Then Pilar Council´s Tourist Department goes and organises a Ruta de la Tapa!

Twenty Seven bars and restaurants in Pilar and the surrounding area are taking part in the initiative and very successful it is proving to be.

For 2 euros you get a tapas and a drink (wine, beer, soft drink). Each establishment offers a traditional tapas and a newly created one. Customers are given a card, which is stamped at each bar and when the card is full, you write which traditional and which new tapas gets your vote as the best one.

The Tapas Route is on next weekend too (19,20,21 June) and when all the stamped cards have been gathered in, a draw takes place and the winning voter gets a prize - a meal, I think, maybe at the winning establishment?

So far I´ve managed 12 out of the 27 bars so next weekend it´s off again. Weightwatchers is on hold for a bit - this opportunity is too good to miss!

A Short Break.

Calpe is a place I´ve been visiting for quite a few years now. a friend has a flat there and when she comes out from England I usually visit her.

The huge rock in the photo is called the Peñon de Ifach and it dominates Calpe. The first time I went there I knew nothing about Calpe at all and, as I arrived in the middle of the night, I didn´t see the rock until I went onto the balcony the next morning. I was totally gobsmacked and I´ve never got over that feeling, although I´ve seen it many times by now.

The town is full of expats, mostly British but a fair number of Belgians, Germans and Dutch. However, there are also many Spaniards living and working there and in the summer months there is a veritable invasion from Madrid and other large towns.

I always go to the Wednesday Rastro, and the Saturday market, which is on a hill and requires a certain level of fitness! There are stacks of places to eat and masses of bars doing tapas and then of course there´s the obvious attraction - the beach. The old town up on the hill and the port with its fish market and fish restaurants are two more of my favourite places.

All in all, another lovely visit chalked up.
Here´s to the next time, Calpe!

Caravaca The Wine Horses.

May 2, a lovely pre-summer day. Caravaca was packed to capacity for the annual Wine Horses race. For those who don´t know:

During the period when the Christians and the Moors were battling for control of southern Spain, Caravaca was under siege. The beleagured Christians had no more water left and men and horses were sent out to find supplies. No water could be found but plenty of wine was available and they raced back through enemy lines to reach the safety of Caravaca.The re-enactment of this event takes place annually when beautifully decorated horses, each accompanied by four men running alongside them, are raced up the final slope leading to the church at the top of the battlements in Caravaca. Sixty horses race up the slope one after another and are timed and prizes are given for the fastest and the most beautifully decorated.
Before the race,the Moorish and the Christian Kings and Queens parade through the towns with their followers and make their way up to the church, where a ceremony takes place.

The town was bursting at its seams with thousands of Spaniards as well as tourists and ex-pats and everyone was in a very happy mood. No bad temper, violence or drunkenness to be seen anywhere. A terrific day out and a spectacular event. Highly recommended!!