The weather has been unusually cold and snowy in the southernmost parts of Sweden this winter so it made for some extra Christmas vibes when it was time for the annual Christmas market at the Malmöhus Castle, the old renaissance fortress in the center of town. There’s just something special about walking across that causeway through the old gatehouse (thankfully no drawbridge or portcullis anymore) into the courtyard and experiencing the good vibes of the place.
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In the halls of the mountain king...
Yes, that title is blatantly stolen from an orchestral piece by the Norwegian composer Edward Grieg (but he’s been dead for over a century, so he can’t complain much), but in a way it fits the location that I visited last weekend. The Tykarp Cave outside Hässleholm in the northeastern part of my home province Skåne is an old underground limestone quarry (that closed in the late 1800s) that you can visit year round as a tourist attraction, but this particular weekend they held their Christmas market.
Read More...'tis the season once again
Regular as clockwork (or should that perhaps be calendar work, given that it’s an annual thing?) the holiday season comes along and cities go nuts with hanging up lights and decorations in the streets and squares. I am absolutely fine with this tradition, in fact I definitely enjoy it! Especially after the ultra doomy, gloomy, dark and rainy November we had this year I feel we’ve definitely earned it!
Read MoreA million lights lighting up the night
One of the joys about the upcoming holidays is how all the lights that people put up put an end to gloomy and dark November. This year it has been a particularly gloomy and gray November with VERY little sunshine and that has had an effect on the general mood and the urge to shoot (although I’ve been unusually active with stuff like that this month, thanks among other things to the outing to the coast I’ve covered in two blogposts lately).
When a friend on Facebook suggested a group trip to the Tivoli amusement park to experience the Christmas decorations there I jumped at the opportunity right away. I’ve enjoyed that place several times in the last few years and it’s always a positive experience. The weather looked to be somewhat iffy with splashes of rain in the forecast, but I didn’t really care. That’s what umbrellas and rain covers are for. Also, this was the first chance I had to try out my new Fujifilm camera at night and that was exciting in itself…at least for me.
Read MoreChristmas Market time...again
During the month of December (just like in every other part of the world I am sure) there's a tradition for Christmas markets around these parts of southernmost Sweden. I've been to a number of them through the years, and this year I chose the one at Jakriborg, a faux-medieval housing area a short commuter train ride away from Lund. It has a definite North German feel to it with its narrow buildings with steep roofs, even though it was all built in the 1990s.
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