Plans for Summer: Going to the Southern Hemisphere.

During summer in Sweden, we have the feeling that the world is depopulated. This effect is due to everyone going to some secluded summer cabin or island, or just leaving the country for a holiday abroad. We decided to join and will be going to South Africa for two weeks. This however meant that the last few weeks we were quite busy preparing to our trip, finishing off a lot of work and planning things after our return. The amount of work is also slightly more since Carina went to Denmark for a week, I am going to a conference in August and we are moving in September. We are therefore looking forward to a bit of a break and will post again once we are back in the North.

R&C

Quick trip to Denmark.

I went to Denmark for a workshop last week. Here are three photos of this beautiful harbor city. We plan to go again and wil spend more time exploring the city and experiencing Danish culture.

C

Rennes (3 of 3): Eating in France

This is the last (and slightly delayed) post on our trip to Rennes during May 2011. It will be only about the food we had. It is well known that we like to eat and that France has good food. It is difficult to describe how we feel about eating especially where they have some talent for fresh well prepared food so we recommend the following video (in full screen) to convey some of our experiences:



For more information on the rest of out trip click here or here.

R&C

p.s. many thanks to Francois and his parents for hosting us with an excellent barbecue.

p.p.s. thanks again to Weronica, Xia and Zheya for the photos.

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