May 09

25 May

A long weekend is always a chance to run off somewhere exotic. The joy of living in Geneva is that you can travel easily to all sorts of places, and the hard part is deciding where to go!

I had been chatting to an SCA friend in Sweden and decided that I would head off to Stockholm to visit and catch up with him. I sent him a few email messages, with no reply, but booked my flights anyway, figuring if he wasn't about, I would still be able to explore quite happily by myself, as I usually do. Eventually I discovered that he and all the rest of the SCA in Stockholm were off at an event in the south of Sweden. Oops!

It didn't matter at all though, as there was plenty in Stockholm to keep me occupied. I booked a hotel which included a card giving me free public transport and entry into quite a large proportion of the museums in the city and was set. On the first day, I took advantage of the card to take two cruises to get a bit of an image of the city. Typically for my international travel, I had failed to look up any details of my destination and to be truthful had no idea that Stockholm is actually a set of islands! Am I the only person that ignorant in the world?

Then it was off to the first of the museums.

The real motherload though, was my visit to the Royal Armoury, where I discovered that a whole pile of the garments from the Patterns of Fashion books are here in Sweden. WOAH... super!

I wish I was a better photographer, but I guess I do ok without flash or tripod.

The next day and the next museum (Historiska Museum) was just as much of a joy to visit. There was a beautiful exhibition on Mary, which was incredibly moving. Slowly changing lights focused on different parts of the room, and statues and pictures, while very lovely music played. I have transfered the video up to Youtube. I wanted to buy the CD for the music, but sadly they were all sold out. Next time perhaps.

	May 09 25 May A long weekend is always a chance to run off somewhere exotic. The joy of living in Geneva is that you can travel easily to all sorts of places, and the hard part is deciding where to go! I had been chatting to an SCA friend in Sweden and decided that I would head off to Stockholm to visit and catch up with him. I sent him a few email messages, with no reply, but booked my flights anyway, figuring if he wasn't about, I would still be able to explore quite happily by myself, as I usually do. Eventually I discovered that he and all the rest of the SCA in Stockholm were off at an event in the south of Sweden. Oops! It didn't matter at all though, as there was plenty in Stockholm to keep me occupied. I booked a hotel which included a card giving me free public transport and entry into quite a large proportion of the museums in the city and was set. On the first day, I took advantage of the card to take two cruises to get a bit of an image of the city. Typically for my international travel, I had failed to look up any details of my destination and to be truthful had no idea that Stockholm is actually a set of islands! Am I the only person that ignorant in the world? Then it was off to the first of the museums. The real motherload though, was my visit to the Royal Armoury, where I discovered that a whole pile of the garments from the Patterns of Fashion books are here in Sweden. WOAH... super! I wish I was a better photographer, but I guess I do ok without flash or tripod. The next day and the next museum (Historiska Museum) was just as much of a joy to visit. There was a beautiful exhibition on Mary, which was incredibly moving. Slowly changing lights focused on different parts of the room, and statues and pictures, while very lovely music played. I have transfered the video up to Youtube. I wanted to buy the CD for the music, but sadly they were all sold out. Next time perhaps. As always, what you see above is just a wee taster of the wonderful things I saw and photographed. Did I tell you that my plan is to make a set of CD's of my photographs as a resource for other medievalists? I have taken over 43,000 photos since I left Australia 5 years ago, and although a fair proportion of my photos are poor, and a fair number of them are photos of the labels next to the objects I have photographed, there still should be enough to keep a whole pile of medievalists happy for a whole lot of time! Quite when and how I will catalogue this collection of wonders is yet to be established and the task of course gets more intimidating as time passes and the number of files grows. All suggestions gratefully received on how to manage it! Anyway, I digress... Stockholm. Actually Grippsholm Slott, which was my next destination. My Stockholm pass included a long comfortable steam boat trip to Grippsholm Slott, which was lovely and OH SO frustrating. You know, I can live with the concept that there are museums that don't allow photos. I am all up with that... but when they don't have a SINGLE book containing the amazing renaissance portraits inside, I just get, well, MAD!!! Still, I got to have a steamtrain ride afterwards, and the grounds were very pretty. My last day in Sweden and a visit to check out the museum of Swedish culture. Sadly there wasn't all that much of interest to me, and it irritated me in that way that modern museums do... lots of emphasis on the story (which I do like) but at the expense of the facts. Why can't they have both the happy friendly story and information about the objects on display? Still I did find a few interesting bits and pieces. After the museum I met up with Robert, who was back from the event. We had lunch together and then wandered around Stockholm. He was as charming company as I remembered from when we met a year ago, and a great guide to the streets of Stockholm, including the narrowest street: So my trip to Stockholm had some grand surprises and I definitely want to go back!

As always, what you see above is just a wee taster of the wonderful things I saw and photographed. Did I tell you that my plan is to make a set of CD's of my photographs as a resource for other medievalists? I have taken over 43,000 photos since I left Australia 5 years ago, and although a fair proportion of my photos are poor, and a fair number of them are photos of the labels next to the objects I have photographed, there still should be enough to keep a whole pile of medievalists happy for a whole lot of time! Quite when and how I will catalogue this collection of wonders is yet to be established and the task of course gets more intimidating as time passes and the number of files grows. All suggestions gratefully received on how to manage it!

Anyway, I digress... Stockholm.

Actually Grippsholm Slott, which was my next destination. My Stockholm pass included a long comfortable steam boat trip to Grippsholm Slott, which was lovely and OH SO frustrating. You know, I can live with the concept that there are museums that don't allow photos. I am all up with that... but when they don't have a SINGLE book containing the amazing renaissance portraits inside, I just get, well, MAD!!!

Still, I got to have a steamtrain ride afterwards, and the grounds were very pretty.

My last day in Sweden and a visit to check out the museum of Swedish culture. Sadly there wasn't all that much of interest to me, and it irritated me in that way that modern museums do... lots of emphasis on the story (which I do like) but at the expense of the facts. Why can't they have both the happy friendly story and information about the objects on display? Still I did find a few interesting bits and pieces.

After the museum I met up with Robert, who was back from the event. We had lunch together and then wandered around Stockholm. He was as charming company as I remembered from when we met a year ago, and a great guide to the streets of Stockholm, including the narrowest street:

So my trip to Stockholm had some grand surprises and I definitely want to go back!

5 May

15 May was a big day for two of my dear friends here in Geneva, Ed and Patrizia. They had their first wedding. Yes, I meant to type that... you see in Switzerland church and state are very definitely separate, and so you have two weddings, your civil ceremony and your church wedding. So we gathered in the Mairie (Town Hall) just around the corner from me for the ceremony. The hall is really lovely, and the whole thing reminded me of one of my long term goals; to become a licenced marriage celebrant. One day...

4 May

My friends Paul and Sheila went home to Australia, and lent me their car while they were away. So, of course I had to take advantage of the opportunity and freedom to get out and about. I looked at the map one Saturday and thought "which direction haven't I really gone?". I decided to head to Macon for the weekend. No real ideas what there was to see in Macon, but only one way to find out eh?

So off I went. Once I reached Macon and wandered around a bit, I discovered that the Abbey of Cluny was not far away. So I decided to just fly through Macon and go to Cluny. I do need to go back to Macon though, because there was this to be seen:

Macon, France

On the way to Cluny I saw in the distance Berze le Chatel and decided I needed to drop in there on the way back on Sunday, I also dropped past a gorgeous chapel, but sadly couldn't get inside. It is the Church of St Andrew of Bage, and apparently is the finest example of the Roman Art of Burgundy in the Ain County. It was built in the middle ages, but nothing remains of the original 9th century chapel, and was extended in the 11th and 12th century.

I arrived at Cluny as the sun was setting and started searching for a place to stay. There was no room at any inn, but at one of the restaurant hotels, they directed me to another town where I eventually found a place.

Cluny was actually not as amazing as it looked at first glance... :-( While the buildings are mostly in good condition they are pretty much empty shells. There was a really rather cool lcd screen set up that showed a digital creation of the parts of the building that were gone, and you could move it around and the image moved around with it... very funky.

I decided it was time to go back to Berze le Chatel. I arrived in time to enjoy a bite of lunch on the grass and wander around a little enjoying the amazing views and colours of the countryside. They really were this colour!

The tour of the castle was mostly on the outside, but that was spectacular enough! We did get to go into the chapel, which they think was once a pagan grotto, so that was pretty groovy. The colours of the trees with their glorious purple flowers, against the flourescent green of the grass was quite unbelievable, and I can only hope I managed to capture it a little with these photos. Well worth a visit!