30 Years Re-Union with Jack & Mildred

We were together in 1980-1982 in our Kota Kinabalu days.  It was very special to meet them again & stay with them in their Summer House, 130 kms from Stockholm, Sweden.

Rolling countryside - hay fields, trees and skies.

Mildred's best hibiscus for the house. There was a lot of Sabah reminiscing.

Sala - local town main street.

Ferry. Necessary to cross the river without a long detour. The flow was strong, with more water than the ferryman had seen in 10 years.

Busy skies. Unfortunately bringing rain which is no longer welcome. A cold spring and summer in the north, while the south of Europe swelters.

Old mill works. How did they move those stones in 1721?

Just beyond Jack and Mildred's boundary - cranes! A good new one for us.

Mist on the pond after another cold shower.

Seeing us off from Sala station this morning. When will we meet again?
It was a precious time together.

A smooth ride to Sundsvall for the night and on to Trondheim, Norway tomorrow for a new set of kroner, the third type.

Denmark Copenhagen

The ICE Express train takes the Ferry... just like anyone else..

across an arm of the Baltic
from former East Germany, near Lubeck,
and on to Copenhagen.

The very Aussie laid-back way the guards stroll up & down outside the Royal Palace is funny,

...they even have their arms folded while they are doing it !

This old fishing boat is almost identical to the ones that sailed out of Bridlington Harbour, when I was a lad...
but our part of Yorkshire's sea-faring connections with Denmark were always very close !

This old ship had a British flag.

But this old sub wasn't going anywhere.
Recognise it at all, Dave?

Now this was something else again!
Owned by a Kuwait company, built by an English yard, registered in the Caymens. When I googled it, the Billionaires' Club is the agent to contact if you want to charter it. Helicopter on the top deck!

This saxophone guy sat on that bench on the railway bridge outside our hotel window till 11 or 12 at night. Sometimes mates came along and distracted him from his repertoire of 4 tunes.















On the edge of this building is a thermometer. 
It was showing a lucky 20 or so on a good day in this wet summer in the north. But look how low the red line can go in winter! Minus 20C













Here is the real story teller, Hans Christian Andersen, with his little friend Granpa Graham

And here is Granma Graham getting closer to The Little Mermaid. She was very busy getting her picture taken.

This Round Tower in the old town was built in 1642 to have an observatory on the top. No stairs! Just an incline in bricks.











This is the first city we have seen this trick. Hat wired to glasses. No visible head. Got lots of second looks.

We once sent a photo of a similar boy and dog to Steve from Paris. This Gallery, a gift from the Carlsberg owner, also had Rodin casts of statues that turn up all over the place.

Mel, the colours have come out a bit dull here, but this is a lass with the chickens in her farmyard. We thought of you.

The title is Girl in a Spanish Dress. We remembered Adela in her red Spanish dress.

Neil seeing a Van Gogh he never saw before.

And this is part of a painting called The Beggar. again the colour is not bright, but he has a scarf like mine.

Tivoli's tallest ride viewed from our hotel window. They get sent really high up.

Leipzig and Wittenberg

Street art in Leipzig. Another town with pedestrianised central area and the mixture of old and modern. Not much sign in town  of the former East Germany.

Yet another beer to add to the collection. The Indian
restaurant provided Jogi beer.

This is St Thomas's and here is Bach.

The Bach Museum gave us such an education!  Early this new century the call went out to German archives to dig deep and many treasures were found, manuscripts and even copies not seen for centuries.

Met 2 enthusiastic Cypriot girls and a quiet Serbian visiting the Museum. They are on a 6 month German language school.

A short train trip brought us to Wittenberg, which overtook Leipzig for personal impact.
Here is Neil meeting Luther. He seems to have been a strong presence.







Two views down one of the two streets to the Castle Church which was Luther's main preaching place. After fires and the  passing of time, it was remodelled to include this splendid tower with gold lettering of "A mighty fortress......."




The original side doors went in the fire and were replaced by these bronze panels inscribed with the 95 theses.  They were back in 1517.  The Pope had a strangle-hold on forgiveness.  You only got it by "Indulgencies", namely you paid for your own sins and all those of your forebears as they may be in Purgatory, and therefore depending on you to get them out of it.  Totally man-made and devoid of the Spirit of Grace.  Our Lord died and rose again and thereby redeems us from our sins.  What more has the Pope to do with it ?   That was what Luther exposed in the Theses.  Scripture alone, faith alone.

Now preserved as Luther's house, this was originally the monastery where he started all that thinking.  After the Reformation, it was given to Luther, by the two local Lords who believed he was right (& who protected him from the Pope's army). There he kept a kind of open house. The evening meal conversations were written down and published by friends, and Bach had a copy, on display along with his Bibles in Leipzig.

Here I am with Katerina, the escaped nun whom Luther later married.





Neil will tell you the next bit.

Luther preached a sermon to his own local folks in this small Chapel church, beside the University Town's larger Church (seen on the right).  In it he challenged the Pope to try him, Luther, for heresy.  His words went all the way to Rome, & with the Theses, led to the start the Reformation.   


Each week during the Summer, there are several worship services in English in the afternoons for half an hour.  So we went along & met the US Pastor from California who was over for 2 weeks.  He was very welcoming, together with others.  It's a normal liturgy, but I was tremendously honoured when he asked me to read the lesson.  Such a simple thing, but in that place, with that history, and the drama that has gone on since... I am still awe-struck that I was afforded that privilege.  Very moving it still is, when I think about it.

Just maybe this is where papers were put on a bonfire including the letter the Pope sent to threaten Luther. Just maybe an oak was planted next day. Certainly in the 1800s this oak was planted to mark the idea.

This is one of many plaques about town. Napoleon was here too.
Galle discovered Neptune. Did Isaac translate the last line?