Bohus Fastning

Bohus Fastning is a ruined fortress that never fell to an enemy attack, despite being sieged more than 14 times. You can't tell from the picture, but we were being knocked around by very hearty winds that day. We startled the woman at the ticket booth (she was putting on mascara when we tapped on the window) because she wasn't expecting anybody to show up on such a bad day. We were just happy it wasn't raining, and had fun exploring by ourselves. Parts of the castle smelled exactly like smoked salmon, which drove us crazy (where is that coming from?) but we finally decided it must be from the oil they used to waterproof the wood walkways.




One of those great towers that you find in derelict old castles with really thick walls and twisty tiny stairways.





The aforementioned tiny stairs.

A last look back at Elsinore castle from the ferry to Sweden.

We had decided to head on over to Malmo, Sweden for the night, and during the short ferry ride I had picked out a hotel and a driving route to find it. Imagine my surprise when we drove off the ferry and saw a sign welcoming us to Helsingborg, not Malmo. My mental map was obviously flawed, and we weren't where I thought we were, and suddenly I was madly scrambling to find the right map and the right guide book, so I could pick a new hotel and route, while Darrin is freaking out because he doesn't know where to go and I can't direct him, and there is no place to pull over. We gave up and just followed signs to the center of town and picked the first respectable looking hotel, which was new and nautical themed and smelled like linseed oil. This was the worst navigation error I think I've made... Malmo is really nowhere near Helsingborg. That's what I get for thinking I have the map memorized.





Swedish people like to ride bicycles.





A view of Karnan, the stone keep that looks across the water to Elsinore Castle...





...and looking back into town from the stairs leading to Karnan.

I really haven't fallen off the edge of the earth.

I haven't posted in a while for a couple of reasons. First, the Olympics were on, and Darrin and I are massive Olympics junkies and have tivo'd every last hour of it (except the hockey). In fact, its still the Olympics here in the casa, and probably will be for a few more months until we've managed to get through all of it. Don't tell me what happened. Second, I was sick for a week with some awful stomach flu or food poisoning, so the first few days worth of Olympics coverage passed for me in a bit of a haze. In fact, stomach flu and the 2006 winter Olympics will probably remain forever linked in my mind, since it seemed half the athletes were also coming down with the stomach flu at the same time. I kept imagining, in my dehydrated delirium, that there was some kind of Typhoid Mary working in the Olympic village cafeteria, gleefully infecting all the athletes stopping by for their big plates of pasta before heading off to the biathelon, or the downhill. The reporters seemed to like to talk about it, too... and Evan Lysacek's description of barfing on the bus on the way back to the village made me, uh, queasy with empathy. Anyway, food and I seem to be friends again, and otherwise things are returning to normal, so more pictures to come.

Oh, and this picture was taken near Elsinore Castle.