Jeff & Greta arrived at about 12:30. They'd had a reasonable drive down but were quite tired due to their delayed start. Of course Julie and I had been asleep but the deal was that they call us as they approached, so that we could put the navigation lights on on the boat and they could find us. It was great to see them but most of the catching up and chatting could wait until the next day; we had a quick nightcap, sorted out their sleeping accommodation and off we went to bed.

Despite the late night we were up at the usual time, showered and breakfasted by 09:00 . It was threatening rain whilst Jeff and I drove the 5km to the airport to drop off the hire car and indeed it did rain a little. The airport was tiny and apart from one helpful airport employee, deserted but we were able to leave the car and catch a bus back to the harbour with minimal effort and were back by the time the rain stopped.

By now, the crowds were gathering for the boat show (precious few boats, power boats only but lots of booths selling chandlery) and we knew we could spend (or at least I could) a pleasant couple of hours mingling with them and browsing. However, we first had some sightseeing to do.



Kalmar boasts a very fine castle, only a short walk from the marina. There have been fortifications here since 1180, when the first defence tower was built to protect the area from marauding ne’er do wells. By the 1300’s it was a very sophisticated building and very modern for the period . Of course, this was Danish territory then, it only became Swedish in 1658. Perhaps the most significant event that occurred during its’ long history was the signing of the Kalmar Union in 1397. This was a formal agreement between representatives of Sweden, Denmark and Norway to attempt to set up an alternative power centre to the now very powerful Hanseatic League, centred in the City States of Germany. The mastermind behind this was the formidable Queen Margaret of Sweden, the Scandinavian equivalent to Eleanor of Aquitaine, I would suggest. The Kalmar Union lasted until 1523 when it was formally dissolved.

In the mid -16^th Century, there began the transformation of the castle to the Renaissance building that we see today and thanks to the efforts of past renovators, there are some sections that evoke those times, including some magnificent ceilings and a marvellous four-poster bed all of which we saw and enjoyed over a couple of hours. One completely unexpected find for us was a whole room dedicated to the work of a Danish artist called Karen Bit Vejle, who cuts paper . Now when I say cuts paper, she does so exquisitely, some of the work is quite fabulous (see photo) and I’m told the formal word for this method of artistic display is called psaligraphy . Here is a URL if you’re interested :-

http://abduzeedo.com/amazing-paper-artwork-karen-bit-vejles

Then it was back to the boat for lunch and the opportunity (for me) to wander about the boat show, accompanied more or less willingly by the others. In fact, we did a bit more than wander about, we bought 4 boat cushions for a very reasonable 129SEK each (about £11.50), I found the elasticated warps – a VERY unreasonable 1000 SEK (do your own maths!) and finally some stainless attachments for a kedge anchor (I’m looking for a 15kg Bruce anchor to deploy from the stern) but no anchor and I tried to find some charts but was not successful. We also joined the Swedish Lifeboat organisation –a bargain at 500SEK for the year, this gives you the insurance of having a charge-free rescue should we ever require it and obviously we hope very much that that is never the case!

During the late afternoon, we set off to see the other main historic building in Kalmar, the church but sadly it was closed. Then it was aperitif time with Mike & Sue and dinner consisted of a chilli, c/o Julie.