In the
early morning we reached Kalmar, one of the oldest cities in Sweden, in the
historical Province Smȧland. We lay directly in the center
of the city again and so it was easy to explore the city by ourselves. When we
walked through the streets of Kalmar we recognized that the city must have been
very important during the last centuries. Most of the historical buildings have
been nicely restored. Nobody will ever know how many pictures we have done for example
from the Cathedral, the city hall, the castle ……. How wonderful, that most of
us use a digital camera now. It makes life so much easier.
.jpg)
.jpg)
But of
course there have been excursions too and most passengers used the opportunity
of the guided tours.
Smȧland is also called the “Kingdom of Crystal” as it is very famous for
its glass factories at least since the 18th century. Many companies
- like Kosta-Boda - are well known in the whole world. So it is no wonder that
we were offered an excursion that was focused on the art of glass. It was
wonderful to see how the glassblowers created new models.
Another
group made a longer excursion to Öland. Öland is 140 km long and with a
maximum of 15km extent a very small but unbelievable nice island between the
mainland and the Baltic Sea. The whole island consists of limestone which gives
the area a very special impression. There are many flowers and animals which
are specialized on this lime stone. The center of the island, called “Great
Alvar”, is very scraggy and can only be used by the farmers for their cows, sheep or horses.
.jpg)
But in
former times this Alvar had been a very important area. The so called “Gettlinge
burial ground” showed that the island was settled since the Stone Age.
In the
fortress Eketorp, in the center of the Alvar, we learned a lot about
the life from the Iron Time up to the Middle Age.
.jpg)
.jpg)
At the southern end of the island you can find the “Long Jan”,
with 42 m Sweden´s tallest lighthouse.
.jpg)
Around
19.30h everybody has been back aboard – full of new impressions.
After a
nice Philipino Buffet the crew awaited us in the Panorama Lounge for the very,
very well known MV FRAM Crew Show.
