29 August: Almö - Svängsta

1904.5km in 111:40, (56*16'52"N, 14*45'18"E)

Hjotahammar

Between Torhamn and Karlshamn there are a lot of old graveyards (one stone or groups) and today, I visited one of the biggest cemetery of the old time: it is north of the island of Hasslö and is called Hjotahammar. The graveyard is situated close to an important harbor already in roman time (between 0-400) and viking time (800-1050). It counts today about 125 stones. Unfortunately my Swedish is too bad to understand the rest of the story. But they describe the kind of graves (in form of a ship, in circle or triangular) which is typical to south Sweeden. Most of the time, between 500-1050 A.D. the dead were cremated and buried with some personal belongings (knifes, ...). Today you can see some sheep grassing between the stones and hear the cars driving on the road which is very close. I saw the sheep only when I left the place and the cars were not really a problem: I just felt the power of the place and dived back in an other century. There are some places where you can feel the power of the earth and it was a place where I could feel it.

Reality brought me back on the wheel and I went to Karlshamn (the port of Karl) following the small bicycle paths (going up and down and right and left... During the car way just goes flat and straight). The city of Karlshamn is much smaller than Karlskrona but the port is impressive (ok, it is far away from the size of Rotterdam, but don't forget that I was lost 2.5 months in Scandinavia: it's like admirating an insignificant church :-) I notice that I slowly reintegrate and rediscover the culture of human being. There are nice and crazy things too! Maybe you know the raffinerie of Cressier (NE, Swiss): one of those big monster which is polluting a whole region... but if you look at the building, juste the building it is just amazing to see how it is built: a real piece of art! And when the night comes it gets illuminated and you can see a big ship. Well I am dreaming again!!! But this is part of my journey too :-)

My trip or the road I left behind me... For the moment!