While looking through my files for that picture of Kalmar castle that I posted last entry, I came across another photo that was taken in this area five years ago when we were sailing Fiona home from Göteborg. I remembered that we had just left Kalmar, headed to Oskarshamn. It was a long stage, so we had set up a watch system. The winds were quite brisk but stable, so the auto pilot handled a lot of the steering, but one of us had to be alert and looking out for other boats (in November?) and keeping an eye on our speed and course. In mid-afternoon, during Lars-Göran's turn, he kind of drifted off to sleep in the sunshine and I was there to capture "the alert helmsman". Just as well I was also keeping watch as well.




Okay, fast forward five years to today. We have spent a really enjoyable week at the town of Mönsterås, having sailed here slowly from Färjestaden over two days. We didn't take any more pictures as we spent a lot of time in this town last year and you can see the town again in my older entries here and here. Most of the time was spent walking around the town, visiting favourite and new haunts, a spot of shopping and a little boat maintenance. We love it here just as much as we did last time.

We also had a stroke of good luck. Lars-Göran's older daughter was over in Öland for a course connected to her studies and we made arrangements to meet up with her. The best option for all concerned was for each of us to take a bus to Kalmar where we could have a day out together. So we boarded the bus at Mönsterås on Saturday morning and an hour later, we met Madde in town. There were wild scenes of joy from the smallest, fluffiest member of the family who initially refused to let Madde out of her sight.




So with Lambi carefully stowed in her backpack we started a walking tour of town, chatting and catching up on news and gossip. Again the weather was lovely, which confirms this part of Sweden as having the best climate and the most sunshine. We began in the main shopping area and we wandered in and out of shops, admiring goods, buying a few things and enjoying each other's company. I bought two huge bags of books and Madde found a skirt and a few accessories. We then stopped for lunch at a small street-side sandwich bar which served scrumptious feta and salad rolls.




After lunch we hit the shops again, this time on the hunt for a stereo system, which we finally found for a good price. Everyone professed to be happy with their buys, so we retired to a waterfront café where we could chat some more over a cup of coffee. It was so good to catch up with all of her news and we had a day full of laughter.

After fika, we thought we could look at the more historic parts of the city which were located nearby. This included passing through the old gates that formed part of the city walls, where we browsed around in a beautiful but very expensive handcraft shop. I love the goods they had for sale, but they were priced with wealthy European tourists in mind.




However, the locale was perfect, tucked away in a tiny courtyard where you had the feeling that time, if not inflation had stood still for centuries. We bought ice-creams and strolled leisurely up and down the streets, stopping in Stortorget to take a look at the cathedral, which was designed in 1660 by the same architect (Nicodemus Tessin) that built the Royal Palace in Stockholm. I did a double take as it reminded me so much of the Renaissance palaces we visited in Italy. I had to look around and make sure that I was still in Sweden. I think the absence of a tower gives it more of a palace feel than a church feel. I read in the tourist blurb that they claim this is the only cathedral in the world built without a tower. Can I just say that Adelaide's own St Francis Xavier Cathedral had no tower until 1996.




We went inside and looked at the magnificent and opulent interior. You could not help but observe that it was obviously built when Sweden was a mighty power - there was a magnificent baroque altar, carved tombstones and everything glittered with gold. The church took a long time to build, in fact over the reigns of three kings (Karl IX, Karl X Gustaf and Karl XII). I smiled when I saw that as a result, it was known as Karls kyrka (Karl's church). Mine! Mine! Mine!

I am interested in church interiors and I was telling Madde a little about what some of the figures signified. See, my thirteen years in a catholic ladies college was not all wasted! I was looking at the detail on the carved pulpit and was explaining to Madde how it was constructed and what each of the three levels signifies. It was a graphic representation of the resurrection and I showed her the file of allegorical women symbolising Truth, Erudition, Strength, Maternal Love etc. She noticed that the whole pulpit was supported by a sculpture of a man and I speculated that it could possibly be St Christopher. Lars-Göran then said cynically "How do you know that or are you just making it up?"

Oh ye of little faith!

I smiled and tried to explain that "brand recognition" had been used by the church long before Coca-Cola and Maccers thought of using it. People were mostly illiterate in the early days of the church, so they used standard symbolic representations so that people could instantly recognise the saint being depicted. You prayed to different saints for different things, so it was important that you knew whose statue it was in front of you. St Christopher is depicted as carrying a child, or the weight of the world on his shoulders. He looked skeptical, so I went to the back of the church and leafed through the brochures on display, plucking out an English one and finding a reference to the pulpit being supported by "St Christopher, the patron saint of Kalmar".

Lars-Göran hates to be wrong, so he picked out the Swedish version and would you believe it said that the statue was Moses. He was crowing about that, I can tell you. But there was no way it was Moses - he is always shown holding the ten commandments. So I grabbed the French leaflet and showed him St Christopher in that one. He took the German leaflet that said it was Moses. We asked one of the attendants to referee, but he confessed that he had no idea who it was and moreover, there was nobody who could answer our question in the church that day. I think Lars-Göran paid them all to stay away. So, we still haven't resolved that mystery, but I think that since I won the religion prize at school nearly every year (stop laughing, it's true - I have many glow-in-the-dark statues of Mary to prove it) that my opinion should carry more weight.




Oh well, at least Madde was amused. We also walked a little in the older part of town - Gamla Stan. This area is just outside of the castle walls and was built up after a fire destroyed the original buildings in 1647. The main town was moved inside the city walls and this area was used to build small summer houses by the wealthy population. It is a beautiful area, with narrow winding streets and pretty timber cottages draped with climbing roses. It was beautifully preserved and it was hard to believe that these houses dated back over 300 years.




Madde caught her bus back to Öland and we had an hour to kill before our bus back to Mönsterås, so we spent it in the beautiful town park, also located next to the castle. What a lovely place this is, filled with exotic plants and trees, little ponds full of bird life and bright flowers. A local town merchant had donated a large sum of money that allowed the park to be laid out here in the mid nineteenth century and it is still very well cultivated today. After the grand opening in 1880, the town newspaper wrote "In the town park it is possible to breathe in health and beauty, and enjoy the summer of the leafy groups of trees.” That is as true today as when it was written 127 years ago.




Slowly but surely we are getting back into familiar waters. It has taken us nearly four months to get to this point and we still have a way to go. Tomorrow we will set off again and start with the protected inner route of the east coast archipelago again. I have spied a rather shallow, twisty route marked on an older chart that might just be do-able. Perhaps we could pray to St Christopher, I suggested to my heathen husband, after all, he's the patron saint of sailors. But I think he has more faith in putting a bare-breasted woman on the fore of the ship. Maybe he's not as far removed from the Vikings as I thought.