Exactly paralleling old home Chicago, Summer 08 didn't arrive in Zürich until about June 20. Let's hope it stays a while! But our collective impatience for summer is nothing compared to Sweden's. After suffering through long, dark, cold winters, the Swedes embrace summer's onset like nobody's business. So much so, in fact, that the summer solstice weekend of June 21 is arguably their most important holiday, featuring a traditional Midsummer celebration nothing short of wacky. As Sven found online recently from an English-Swedish newspaper: 'I've been invited to a Swedish Midsummer party, and frankly, I'm terrified. I've been told it involves eating raw fish, drinking copious amounts of vodka and dancing around a big phallus while I pretend to be a frog.'If this piques your interest (how could it not?), digest the fascinating full article here: The Lowdown on Swedish Midsummer. Or dare to take the next step and check out the hilarious banned IKEA spoof on the celebration. An invitation for a non-Swede to such a private, close-friends affair is a rarity, and even after working several years with good relationships with several Swedes, nobody remotely considered broaching the possibility with Sven this year. Rats! Maybe it's a good thing because the hangover from this party purportedly lasts a week.
Our Skåne County tour across the windswept Swedish(-Wisconsin) plains on Thu-Fri lead from Staffanstorp village to nearby Lund and Malmö, Kullaberg and Helsingborg. Heard of those? Capital city Stockholm is nearly 400 miles further north and we weren't about to attempt it. Copenhagen, Denmark is actually the closest big city, we laid siege on Saturday.
Lund (below map, 'A') is a cute Swedish town with an awesome cathedral, much cooler inside than our more fabled but austere Zürich churches, with an intricate 600-year-old astronomical calendar clock and a spooky 900-year-old crypt. Malmö ('B') is the capital of Skåne and Sweden's third-largest city (not large by U.S. standards, less than 300,000 people) with an active Old Town plaza nightlife scene where we took in several Europameister games. Kullaberg nature park ('C') sits atop a sharp peninsula jutting into the Kattegat sea between Sweden & Denmark; we hiked down a steep rocky trail to a craggy seaside viewpoint and later to the peninsula's tip for expansive views and a healthy dose of windburn. Kullaberg claims infamy as the birthplace of "Swedish Sin", Europe's first resort area to allow mixed-sex bathing in the late 1800's (scandalous!).
Hiking out we saw groups of Swedes heading to an already-swelling Midsommer party gathering at the peninsula's lighthouse (invite only, regrettably) preparing to get their frog on. We stopped in Helsingborg ('D'), the closest point between Sweden and Denmark separated by a narrow strait, another nice town with several interesting fortifications given the proximity of the historical enemy. Due to their proprietors and employees downing dill schnapps in the woods all Midsommer weekend, most shops were unfortunately closed but we located an open Turkish-run café for mandatory Kaffee + (really good) Kuchen. Although Sven claimed his wife would never believe us, the weather particularly on our hiking day stayed mostly miraculously sunny (yes, even one sunny Swedish summer day is newsworthy), although frequent rain squalls also chased us.
Saturday we crossed the big bridge for a day in Copenhagen (København in Danish, pronounced SHOPE-en-hahm, which I quickly confused with Schlagrahm, German for 'whipped cream'). Once off the kitschy crammed main tourist avenue, we found Copenhagen quite pleasant, with fairly grand squares and neighborhoods and architecture somewhat reminiscent of Paris (admittedly I know zilch about architecture). After a shaky start the weather cooperated admirably and we enjoyed strolling around the city, a patio lunch complete with lingonberries, and another Kaffee + Kuchen diversion. My only regret was not sampling more Danish pastry and kringle, with bakery windows presenting a much different selection than our usual French/German/Swiss variety. Sven hails from Racine, Wisconsin, and don't believe for one second that his ex-pat assignment to Scandinavia was randomly dealt as you examine the eery relationship between Racine and kringle.
Heavy rains finally chased us away on Sunday with our journey from overcast 60°F Sweden to sunny and nearly 90°F Zürich shocking our unaccustomed systems. Where did that sudden summer weather come from?? We didn't even dance around a Maypole to earn it.
The usual routine here. Map. Pictures. http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2hd8fyj.2ne0e0sr&x=0&y=9zsl37&localeid=en_US
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