Friday, July 28, 2006

Remarkin' about Brunnsparken

As I have mentioned in a previous post, just to the west of BTH lies a wonderful park/forest called Brunnsparken. It was voted Sweden's best park in 2005. You can read more about it at http://www.ronneby.se/publicweb/templates/WidePage.aspx?id=4809 but I will attempt to give a quick guided tour in this post, again from the comfort of your own monitor.

I had heard that there was a flea market at the pavillion there every Sunday during Summer. So, I went to check it out. I hadn't really been to a flea market before, so I didn't know what to expect. There were many sellers there, but not many buyers. And they didn't seem to be selling anything that I wanted or needed. So, I just had a quick stroll through, long enough to take this photograph.A pleasant surprise was finding that there was a museum (called a naturum) just next to these stalls. Even better, it was open on Sunday afternoons! It's basically like a big old hall, with a small film screening room located on the northern side (but I didn't watch the film as it was in Swedish). Below is a view inside the building taken just inside the western entrance. Closest to the camera is a fancy model of the buildings in Brunnsparken, and in the distance you may be able to make out a display of the different timbers that can be found in the forest.
Here is a closer view of the miniature model.
Thankfully, the naturum had some free (I hope they were free, because I didn't pay :-P) detailed maps of Brunnsparken. Armed with this and my camera, I set out to take some photographs of the main attractions. Just near the naturum is this hedged garden, which is rather pretty.
The next photo is of Directörsvillan, which is the first building one comes to heading SW from the naturum. You can find more info about this building at http://www.ronneby.se/publicweb/templates/WidePage.aspx?id=4803
Heading along the path past Villa Emma, you can see the tennis court. In the distance is Ronneby Brunn water park, which I could tell was packed with people on such a lovely day.
The main body of water in Brunnsparken is named Trollsjön, or Troll's Lake. This sounded intriguing and/or dangerous. I decided to have a look. It seemed rather innocuous, quite idyllic really. The water was very blue. There was even a jetty. The two photos below are of the lake, one taken from a distance and the other taken on the jetty.

Continuing westard along the path, I saw this rather large rock. I decided it was photoworthy. After comparing this with the giant rock out the back of the apartments at Hjorthöjden, the one at home is actually bigger, but this one was still impressive.
Towards the western edge of Brunnsparken there are several farms, basically located in the suburb of Risatorp, if my map is correct. I thought this design of fence was quite interesting. Normally, the poles are parallel or perpendicular to the ground. Instead, these ones were on about a 20 degree angle.

Heading northward now, I looked across the pond to see some of the houses on Risatorpsvägen.

Travelling back through the centre of the park (as opposed to going around the edge as I had been doing) one comes to two of the main gardens. The first is the Scented Garden, which has a lot of trellises. A photo is below.

Right in the middle of the park is the Japanese garden. This was very well presented. The dirt beds had been raked meticulously - you can see this in the photo below. The rock at left was definitely different, like it was only partly finished being carved.

The view below is really stereotypical Japanese I guess. I was very tranquil and very cool and shady there. The stone carving at the back was some kind of bird bath I think.

Here's where I decided to head a little off the main track. I had completed a full circuit of the park and wanted to make my way to the edge again but without going over old ground. So, up in the northeast corner, I found this notice about a cairn. It was a big pile of stones which apparently covered a huge burial pit. It was quite old, so thankfully there was no smell of rotting flesh and bones.

Closer examination of the stones comprising the cairn revealed that this place gets used for orienteering courses. This was apparently stop number 16.

Travelling out along the ledge a little, you can look eastwards down to the flat plain below. I was told that during Spring, a giant display of white flowers was made here, in beds which spelled the word Fred. No it's not some obscure Flintstones prank. Fred is Swedish for peace. You can see the remains of where the flowers once were in this photo.

Here are two more views from the ledge. The first looks basically northeast towards the town, and the second basically southeast towards the water park.

As a final 'cutesy' photo, here is a duck with a few ducklings, taken in front of the ponds at the northwest corner of Brunnsparken. I had to be REALLY quiet when taking this photo, as she was understandable very protective of her young.

Until next time,

Bruce.