Rennes (2 of 3): St. Malo and Rennes.

After our visit to Mont St. Michel we went to St. Malo. Here we spent the afternoon walking on the fortification wall of the city, enjoying the seaside view. We also had some ice-cream at Sanchez's ice-cream parlor (more about this in the next blog). St. Malo is about an hours drive from Rennes. Below are some photos of the afternoon.

 

 Fortified wall.

View of the sea (note the old sailing ship in the bay).

Zheya on the wall.

Francois and Maria.

 

Apartments where you could keep an eye on the English-channel.

The conference we attended was in Rennes. This is a lovely city and also the capital of Brittany. Some of the buildings date back to the 15th century and we spent a lot of time wandering between the wooden/concrete/modern buildings, all flowing into each other. Many of the shops sell stuff to eat and the whole next blog will be dedicated to the reason why we love France…food :) Below are some pictures of Rennes.

View from the street.

 

Beautiful old church. 

Old fortified city gates with drawbridge.  

Both St. Malo and Rennes are well worth a visit.

R&C

p.s. Again many thanks to Weronica, Xia and Zheya for the photos, Francois and Maria for hosting us, as well as everyone else for providing a very entertaining time (see also our adventures at Mont St. Michel).

p.p.s. leave a comment if you can't wait to see food :)

Rennes (1 of 3): Mont St. Michel.

Part of the Computational Biology Group went to Rennes for a  conference  and stayed for the weekend. The group included Marcin, Mats, Weronica, Xia, Zheya and me. After the conference Carina and Olga (Mats' wife) also came over for the weekend. In addition we joined up with a previous colleague, Francois (and his partner Maria). He grew up in Rennes and was therefore was coerced into being the guide for the whole weekend. In total we were 10 people (see video below).

This blog is about our trip to Mont St. Michel and the video below is mostly pictures of the tidal city. The trip started on Saturday morning in two cars and took about 1 hour from Rennes to Mont St. Michel.



Mont St. Michel is located 1 km off the cost. It has been a strategic fortification point since ancient times and became the seat of the St. Michel monastery during the 8th century AD. The whole place is breathtaking. From afar it stands out on the horizon and the size is only appreciated when standing at the bottom. We climbed to the top, past the citadel, to where the monastery is built. The view from here is awesome. We walked trough many stone corridors and chambers and emerged with almost everyone unscathed.

If you ever have the chance a visit is highly recommended.

The following blogs will be about out trip to St. Malo, our stay in Rennes and the magnificent food of France.

R&C

ps. for more information click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_Saint-Michel

Quick visit to Dalarna.

Our group went for to Dalarna for two days to plan for the year ahead. We stayed with Lars (a collaborator and former group member). These two photos are just to show how beautiful spring in the Dalarna province is.

A walk through the woods from the meeting place to Lars' house.

The houses where we stayed for the two days (located close to Leksand 3hours by train north-north-west of Uppsala).

Tomorrow in France…

R

ps. thank you Lars :)

Valborg välkomnar våren (Valborg welcomes spring)

Today is Valborg day again, the day that Sweden welcomes spring with great anticipation and merriment. In Uppsala the day starts with students racing their assembled and decorated boats/floats on the Fyris river, mainly attempting to survive the river rapids without tipping over. The whole Uppsala is out in town and having picnics in parks. Many old Uppsala students make a pilgrimage back to Uppsala to take part in the "Mösspåtagning", where the rector of the University appears on the balcony of the University library - Carolina Rediviva,  and waves his cap, upon which the sea of onlookers raise their student caps in recognition. The rest of the day is spent in various states and modes of celebration. In the evening people gather in different parts of the city and the Valborg bonfires are lit to officially welcome spring.

Valborg is an original pagan festival which heralded the onset of the growth season. In days long gone, this was the day farm animals were let out to graze for the first time after the winter, and bonfires (majbrasor) have been lit to scare away predators.

Below is a video of the bonfires at Gamla Uppsala (Old-Uppsala) that we also attended last year.



Happy spring to all Northern Hemispherians!

C&R

Picture Perfect Picnic

Yesterday we cycled down to lake Mälaren to have a picnic. We found a lovely spot next to the water and made ourselves comfortable. The weather was perfect, no wind, no clouds and a the lake looked like a mirror. We had our first "braai" of the year and had very nice accompanying dishes.

Afterwards we had a nice little nap (without worrying too much that anything will be stolen). Getting out in Swedish nature during spring is completely different from the snow covered landscape just a few weeks ago, but is still very nice.

Looking forward to more cycling picnics this year.

R&C

and this is how the lake looked like a few weeks ago...

Spring is in the air

The last 2 weeks were the first time one could really notice that spring is coming. The snow started to melt and has almost disappear completely now. There are only a few patches of snow remaining and some snow-grid heaps. The grid is put on the snow and ice on bicycle paths to try to prevent slip accidents. Every time the paths are ploughed the grid together with the snow and ice end up at the side of the paths and roads. At the end of the winter there are small mountains of ice-grit-snow on the sides of all paths. It is these ice mountains that hold out the longest against the approaching spring. Not all the grid are scraped from the bicycle paths though, and when the ice-snow cover melts, a lot of grid remains on the paths. This grid has a nasty habit to get into your shoes, but even worse into the grooves underneath your shoe-soles, which then systematically force cracks into the bottom of your shoes. I must say however, the grid is absolutely necessary in the winter and may have prevented many nasty accidents over the years. In April the city management starts to sweep up the grid with sweeping machines and you know that spring has arrived. It is very nice to cycle on the grid (and ice) free paths.

I have come to the conclusion that April in Sweden is comparable with August in SA. Not the prettiest of months, although you now spring is coming, its not quite there. Everything is still very much dead and just starts to wake up from the winter chill. Furthermore, there are nasty windstorms that kicks up a lot of dust and always seems to come from the front, no matter which direction you are cycling. But all and all I am very happy the summer is coming again, after a winter which seemed as if it will never end.

With all of the snow melting in the last couple of weeks, our city river, "Fyrisan", is also in flood. The, almost-to-the-brim-full river, in the city center is quite a nice sight. The past Wednesday evening after Swedish class, we celebrated the coming spring (and the ability to sit outside) with a burger next to the flooding Fyris river.  Below are some pics

Unfortunately Ronnie has already started to complain about all the sun, which is now rising ten to six in the mornings and setting ten to eight in the evening. For my part, at the moment - I'm loving it (the sun - not the complaining :)

C&R

A new hobby

My birthday present came early this year... ants! I always wanted an antfarm, and this birthday I got one.

It came in a big box,

here are the little beasts, a nice fat queen and 14 workers,

a bit of assembly required,

halfway there, the farm packed and the arena ready to be decorated,

the arena set up with thermometer and hygrometer, water and feeding troughs. Notice the white line painted just below the lid... that is the escape proofing, a kind of teflon you paint on (ptfe),

some final touches to the arena, a home fit for a queen... hopefully,

 and RELEASE!!

 

and the whole Saturday evening we sat and watch them venture out hesitantly, slowly, unenthusiastically and then... they started blocking up the entrance to the test tube! Not to worry though... this, apparently, is normal behavior, it can take weeks and even months for them to leave their 'cozy' test tube to move into their lovingly prepared new home,

so hopefully within a few weeks we can report that they decided to move her majesty to the nice humid, dark antfarm and rewarded us with some nice tunnels.

C&R