The last weekend of June I took a break from the heat in Munich and took a trip to Scandanavia.  My first destination was Malmö in the south of Sweden, and the country’s third largest city.  I didn’t get to spend a lot of time there, but it was nice just to go.  My last name is Sutherland, in my case coming from the Swedish Söderlund or south land.  Part of my family originates in the south of Sweden.

Malmö was a very green city with a beautiful town hall and a moated fortress-castle.  The city was also full of morbid statues.

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Copenhagen however is where I spent the majority of my time.  The north is expennnnsive so most of my time was spent sightseeing garden’s and different parts of the city.

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One of the more unique parts of Copenhagen is Christiania, a squatter commune of alternate-livers, unfortunately preferring not to be photographed.  The Freetown Christiania is located in an old army barracks near the harbor.  The city is full of some 850 permanant residents, a whole lot of wannabes, and even more tourists.  Many of the residents are artisans, selling their crafts or performing music.  There were several venues for art and music within the city, mostly along the main drag ‘Pusher Street’.  This street gets its name from the previously open sale of Cannabis product, despite its illegality.  Since 2004 police occaisionally patrol the area, and during the patrols it is no longer sold openly.  As a whole, this anomaly is unlike any other community in a major western city.

There were two things in Copenhagen I did pay for.  First was the Rosenborg Slot.  Originally built as a summer home for Christian IV, today it houses the Danish Crown Jewels and has a walking tour of the rooms.  Christian IV was the superhuman harddrinking warrior king of Denmark from 1596 to 1648 and has a lot of interesting anecdotes.  In one of his battles, he caught flak from an explosion in his head.  After the battle, it was removed, and he had it made into earrings for a mistress.

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Finally I spent money on the view of the city from its town hall.  This was a pretty long hike but the inside of the building was gorgeous.

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The way to and from Copenhagen I took the night train.  This was some 14 hours of uncomfortableness in both directions but the time went pretty quick.  On the way there I shared my cabin with a German with some real unusual questions.  We ended up talking for a lot of the trip.  One example: what we use for building materials in the states.  The way back my wagon had to be replaced in Hamburg because the speakers weren’t working… that was miserable.  I got back to Munich at about 9:30 in the morning, ready for a full day at work.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber is Germany’s medieval fantasy town.  Catering today mostly to tourists, the city has a pretty interesting history.  I spent this past weekend exploring that during a quick two day trip.

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This colorful history begins around 1200.  Rothenburg was one of the largest cities in the Holy Roman Empire at this time and one of the few free imperial cities of the empire, governing itself but ruled by the empreror directly.  During the 30 years war Rothenburg, although completely walled and fortified, suffered heavily.

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It was occupied several times during the war, most notably by Count Tilly, and afterward suffered plague.  These events cost the city most of its wealth and destroyed most of the economy in the surrounding area.  Rothenburg’s wonderfully preserved modern state is largely to thank for this, as the city was no longer able to grow.

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During the Second World War Rothenburg was bombed destroying much of the newer portions of the city and about 45% of the wall.  A final bombardment and attack was avoided, sparing the rest of the historic town.

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I did some site seeing in the city and as usual a lot of walking.  Highlights were climbing the Rathaus, seeing the carving in St. Jakobs Kirche, and a sweet walk through the Tauber river valley.  We found a real relaxed beer garden down by the river basically run off someone’s porch and situated in their backyard.  I could see spending a lot of time there!

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The Night Watchman of Rothenburg tour was one that was unfortunately a better idea to skip.  I’d heard great reviews, but on weekends at least Rothenburg is swamped with tourists.  The town receives about 2.5 million visitors annually and there may have but upwards of 100 people attending his walking tour.  The city was gorgeous and fun to visit regardless.  A nice escape to some hills and something a little greener than Munich.

Why do all cities in Italy have 3 or 4 names?  Either it’s because their beauty leave the visitor stammering in search of the word, or because these places all have a cultural heritage dating back thousands of years.  This past weekend I finally had the opportunity to visit Florence, a city filled with so much beauty it actually sickens people.  A friend of mine moved there a month ago so I had a place to crash and another friend had a car for the weekend.

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My weekend was spent immersed in the outward beauty of the city. I did a lot of slow walking, visited a lot of the famous monasteries and churches, and went for an afternoon hike in the hills surrounding the city.  The first photo below is of downtown Florence, taken from San Miniato al Monte.

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Visiting a friend who already has roots in a city can be one of the most rewarding things about travelling.  In addition to walking, I met a lot of interesting people from a wide variety of backgrounds this weekend.  Invariably talking with these people led to talking and walking.  This is how I had the opportunity to take that afternoon hike.

Surrounding Florence are hills I do not know the name of but this did not matter because once there I would not have been able to speak it.  Along the hike were some extremely rewarding vista’s of the city and the countryside of farmland, vineyards and olive groves that surround it.

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Each time I go to Italy I find the experience so personally rewarding that I wonder how I can keep leaving.  Someday I really am liable to visit for some number of years.  This time however I did leave, and I did it by learning to drive stick through the countryside.  Success!

On a more technical note, I’ve continued to work on my gallery.  I’ve also made an upgrade to WordPress and completed the integration of the Gallery2 software with WordPress.  I haven’t yet decided on the best way to link my galleries with my blog posts, sohe gallery for my trip to Florence is here.  Everything else works great though.  All of these photos are pulled directly from the gallery, with titles and all.  No more uploading wheeee!  Anyway, the plugins are the Lightbox for WordPress for image display and the WPG2 for pulling images into WP from my galleries.  This is my first experience using Lightbox, and I really like it.  I’ll probably be applying it frequently.