Happy August to all my friends and readers
New Calendar picture with this
beautiful watercolour painting by Frank Koebsch
"Match Race bei der HanseSail"
"Match Race at the HanseSail"
August has started and a lot of my friends have gone on holidays. Since many go to the North or Baltic Sea from the area we have lived before and pass almost by our house, we were happy to great a few in our house. Still very careful not to catch Corona, always keep our distance. And keep our masks on in public. Luckily, this is mandatory in Germany.
* * *
I love the sea and I love sailboats even though I'm not a big fan of that sport myself. But it always looks so calming (at least from the outside). Frank has given us a wonderful picture of a race between some beautiful sailboats that takes place at his home town every year. The Hanse Sail in Rostock is the largest maritime festival in Mecklenburg and one of the largest in Europe. Ever since the German reunification when they first started, this has been a very successful event with about 1 million visitors every year.
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Talking about sailboats and the Baltic Sea, Malaga and Göteborg (Gothenburg) are the 2020 European Capitals of Smart Tourism. The initiative recognises "outstanding achievements by European cities as tourism destinations in four categories: sustainability, accessibility, digitalisation as well as cultural heritage and creativity."
The latter has been on our list for this year since our son just finished his master's degree there. Unfortunately, this was not to be, Covid-19 didn't like the idea. However, that doesn't mean I can't dream or talk about Göteborg.
Göteborg also received an award for their outstanding achievements in the category "Sustainability" together with Breda (Accessibility), Ljubljana (Digitalisation) and Karlsruhe (Cultural heritage and Creativity). With a little over two million inhabitants, Göteborg is the second largest city in Sweden (and the fifth largest in the Nordic countries after Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki and Copenhagen, all capitals) and there is a rivalry between them and Stockholm (where there are more than double the inhabitants). The harbour town on the Kattegat advertises with the slogan "Västküsten är bestküsten" (the Western coast is the best coast). I guess that says it all.
The city was named after the Göta älv, called Göta River in English. Since 2015, the city has developed a more "international" way of spelling their name on logos etc. by turning the "ö" sideways: "Go:teborg".
The only problem my son has with the town (or Sweden) is not that it gets too hot or too cold, he doesn't mind extreme weather conditions. It's the fact that you only have six hours of sun every day in winter. You get them back in the summer when you have eighteen hours every day but that doesn't make up for it in his opinion (and probably in mine, as well). Other than that, the city is full of parks, lovely Neo-classical and National Romantic as well as modern architecture, and most important of all, a beautiful harbour. And there is a lot of culture going on with museums, concerts, theatre, festivals. A nice place to live. And - to get back to our original topic, one of their twin towns is Rostock.
After all the pictures I have seen, this is definitely a city worth visiting. And we will go once this Corona tragedy is over.
* * *
Have a happy August with this beautiful watercolour painting by Frank Koebsch. And stay safe!
You can find many more wonderful pictures on their website here.
You can also have a look under my labels Artist: Frank Koebsch and Artist: Hanka Koebsch where you can find all my posts about them.
New Calendar picture with this
beautiful watercolour painting by Frank Koebsch
"Match Race bei der HanseSail"
"Match Race at the HanseSail"
August has started and a lot of my friends have gone on holidays. Since many go to the North or Baltic Sea from the area we have lived before and pass almost by our house, we were happy to great a few in our house. Still very careful not to catch Corona, always keep our distance. And keep our masks on in public. Luckily, this is mandatory in Germany.
* * *
I love the sea and I love sailboats even though I'm not a big fan of that sport myself. But it always looks so calming (at least from the outside). Frank has given us a wonderful picture of a race between some beautiful sailboats that takes place at his home town every year. The Hanse Sail in Rostock is the largest maritime festival in Mecklenburg and one of the largest in Europe. Ever since the German reunification when they first started, this has been a very successful event with about 1 million visitors every year.
* * *
Talking about sailboats and the Baltic Sea, Malaga and Göteborg (Gothenburg) are the 2020 European Capitals of Smart Tourism. The initiative recognises "outstanding achievements by European cities as tourism destinations in four categories: sustainability, accessibility, digitalisation as well as cultural heritage and creativity."
The latter has been on our list for this year since our son just finished his master's degree there. Unfortunately, this was not to be, Covid-19 didn't like the idea. However, that doesn't mean I can't dream or talk about Göteborg.
Göteborg also received an award for their outstanding achievements in the category "Sustainability" together with Breda (Accessibility), Ljubljana (Digitalisation) and Karlsruhe (Cultural heritage and Creativity). With a little over two million inhabitants, Göteborg is the second largest city in Sweden (and the fifth largest in the Nordic countries after Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki and Copenhagen, all capitals) and there is a rivalry between them and Stockholm (where there are more than double the inhabitants). The harbour town on the Kattegat advertises with the slogan "Västküsten är bestküsten" (the Western coast is the best coast). I guess that says it all.
The city was named after the Göta älv, called Göta River in English. Since 2015, the city has developed a more "international" way of spelling their name on logos etc. by turning the "ö" sideways: "Go:teborg".
The only problem my son has with the town (or Sweden) is not that it gets too hot or too cold, he doesn't mind extreme weather conditions. It's the fact that you only have six hours of sun every day in winter. You get them back in the summer when you have eighteen hours every day but that doesn't make up for it in his opinion (and probably in mine, as well). Other than that, the city is full of parks, lovely Neo-classical and National Romantic as well as modern architecture, and most important of all, a beautiful harbour. And there is a lot of culture going on with museums, concerts, theatre, festivals. A nice place to live. And - to get back to our original topic, one of their twin towns is Rostock.
After all the pictures I have seen, this is definitely a city worth visiting. And we will go once this Corona tragedy is over.
* * *
Have a happy August with this beautiful watercolour painting by Frank Koebsch. And stay safe!
You can find many more wonderful pictures on their website here.
You can also have a look under my labels Artist: Frank Koebsch and Artist: Hanka Koebsch where you can find all my posts about them.
Thank you for this post about Sweden. People in Gothenburg always say that they live on the front side of Sweden facing the world, leaving Stockholm in the back!
ReplyDeleteIn Karlskrona where I used to live, they have had the Tall Ship Race for many years. It is wonderful and impressive to see the old sailing boats.
I have loved Sweden ever since my first visit in 1980. It's so beautiful there.
DeleteI love the seaside, so having lived in Karlskrona must have been wonderful. Mind you, Malmö has a harbour, as well, so I'm sure that's also great.
I loved what you said about facing the world. It's so funny to see the bickering between the towns. You have that everywhere but I believe the people in Göteborg have a point. LOL
I once had a friend from Goteborg who was studying in the US, but we lost track of each other when she went home. I agree that sailing looks lovely but I get seasick so I have only been twice.
ReplyDeleteHappy August!
Unfortunately, that happened a lot in previous times. People moved, someone lost the new address and/or it never arrived. I've lost friends like that but found a couple again now with the internet.
DeletePoor you. Getting seasick is not nice. Hubby suffers from it. I don't tolerate a lot of transport options (bus is the worst) but luckily, I can go on the sea and not feel anything. Weird, right?