A special treat this morning, black pudding! The Swedish variety is a bit sweeter and doesn't have the herbs (penny royal, I am told) than our favourite Bury variety but it is an acceptable substitute. This set us up well for doing the laundry, which we then festooned all over the boat to dry, which it did very quickly in the stiff breeze.

After lunch, we set off to see the rest of Västervik . Our main goal was the other, older church, St Gertrude’s, which was constructed in the years 1433-1437, when the inhabitants of the newly-founded town were given four tax-free years in which to build a church. As we walked over the bridge towards the town, I noticed that there was quite a significant flow of water from the eastern side of the fjord to the west (see picture). Now the Baltic has little or no tide but what can result in quite significant water level changes (a metre or so) is the effect of prolonged or strong wind, or both of course, as had been the case with us. Now that the westerly wind had slackened, the water was busy rushing back from the east where it had been blown, resulting in the current that we witnessed.



Before we got to the church, we covered the water front area, assisted by the excellent English pamphlet produced by the tourist office. It really is a pretty town this, with nice pastel shades to many of the wooden buildings and of course, the whole town is clean and graffiti-free, as I have, I know, pointed out on numerous occasions in past blogs . It seems that the UK is peculiarly cursed with a subset of the population who are hell-bent on making the place look a mess, I really have no explanation why the same sort of behaviour is not as prevalent elsewhere, such as in all the Baltic countries we have visited.

When we got inside the church, we were welcomed by a lady who, it transpired, was a volunteer guide and she proceeded to give us a history of the building. After 30 minutes or so, I must confess we were losing the will to live but it was really sweet of her to spend so much time, so much!, with us. To précis, it was sacked several times by the perfidious Danes and lost its’ status as a church in 1905 when St Petri’s was consecrated. It was subsequently used as a store room for nigh on 30 years, including for grain during the first world war, when the starving inhabitants killed a soldier guarding the store and broke in, only to find that all the grain had gone musty and was ruined. In 1933 it was re-consecrated and subsequent renovations have rendered it rather a fine building, with some lovely woodwork eg the pulpit and some of the ceilings.

Education over, we headed off back to the boat, where I spent an hour or so lagging one of the cupboards in the forepeak, to try to prevent or reduce condensation forming drops of water which coalesce and run down the sides of the boat, potentially making clothes damp. Normally, condensation is only an issue in early May and late in the season, but this year it has been a problem. Incidentally, we have been told that the Swedish Met office have said that this has been the coldest first week in June since 1927!

Finally, we had dinner of boiled ham & vegetables and Julie was able to get another Holby fix.