Sweden - Malmo to Stockholm

The only way to get from Denmark to Sweden if you don't want to go on a ferry is across the Oresund bridge. So we crossed and stopped briefly in Malmo for a snack.

We decided that where possible we would travel across country rather than just race up the motorways. However these were not exactly busy - this is the usual amount of traffic. You can see the trees are changing colour and although it is sunny the temperature is in single figures. Driving through Sweden is really beautiful, lovely forests, pretty houses and churches.

We drove to a campsite at Almhult and stayed near a lovely lake.

Almhult is where the first Ikea was born and so we had to go and visit it. There is an Ikea hotel, their Cultural Centre where they train all their management - basically it is a small Ikea town. I bought some fabric - each roll had 50 squares of 20cm x 20cm.

From Almhult we travelled up to Jonkoping on the edge of lake Vattern, the second largest lake in Sweden, calling in at an Elk sanctuary on the way. We had passed loads of warning signs on the road. Apparently over 4,000 are killed on the roads every year and they usually destroy the car.

After Jonkoping we moved up the lake to a place called Granna - famous for its candy. It looked just like our striped peppermint rock

On our travels we saw more windmills.

We also saw lots of lovely houses.

There are also very grand houses.

Here are a selection of photos featuring the van - the first is a view from where we spent the night in Nykoping (you can just see a hare on the grass), the second is the van hiding in the countryside and the third is in a seaside town called Trosa.

We are now on the Baltic Sea coast and moving up to Stockholm.

Copenhagen via Kerteminde

Before leaving Bork Havn I went back to the Viking village to find out about the 'knitting'. It is actually called Naelebinding and predates both knitting and crochet. It is created with a single needle and only short lengths of yarn. Having acquired some wool the next task will be to try and master this technique.

We drove up the west side of Ringkobing Fjord, calling in at the entrance to the fjord Hvind Sande. There was a market there, similar to a 'flea market' and I found these wonderful plaited reed shoes.

We also managed to get some more smoked eel - here is my lunch for that day.

We then drove eastwards from Jutland to another island called Fyn where we stayed in the marina at Kerteminde. Here you can see the van hiding behind the harbourmaster's hut.

As it is a marina it had loads of beautiful boats but I preferred the older fishing boats.

Kerteminde also had lovely buildings

 Leaving Kerteminde we drove across a wonderful suspension bridge 'Storebeltsvej' from Nyborg to Korsor and from then on to Copenhagen.

We went to a wonderful exhibition in the National Museum (which was free)

 From top left: reproduction clothing for a chieftain and his wife. The second picture shows a blouse and cord skirt found in a burial site. Because everything has been preserved in bogs you can see the actual clothing - it was not possible to take photos of these as the lighting was very low. Vikings decorated stones to give information, there were some lovely examples in the museum and the last picture shows a golden crucifix.

Again Copenhagen had some beautiful buildings, some reminiscent of Amsterdam.

We also visited Christiania, an independent state within the city but were not allowed to take photographs.

There were some amazing spires and domes to be seen ...

... and of course, we saw the Little Mermaid.

Denmark - via Holland and Germany

After leaving Amsterdam we decided to travel along a huge dijk that reduced the coastline of Holland from hundreds of kilometres to tens. It is called the Afsluidijk and is 30 kilometres long and 90m wide. On one side is the sea and on the other fresh water.

On this map the thin red line at the top with a monument is the dijk. The darker grey areas are reclaimed land.

We stopped at the monument and took the following picture:

We are standing on bridge crossing the road. You can just seen the van parked. The view in the other direction is very similar.

We moved to a campsite in rural Holland (48ft below sea level), surrounded by forests, huge fields of grass (cut for turf) and ancient megaliths. There was also an inland beach.

Needless to say we saw lots of windmills.

From here we moved into Germany, stayed overnight and then drove into Denmark.

We are staying in a small fishing village called Bork Havn in West Jutland in Denmark. It is on the edge of a large fjord and is apparently where the Vikings sailed from.
This wooden jellyfish sits on the harbourside. Strangely it has cotton lace attached to it.

We visited a viking village. Many of the buildings and artifacts have been reproduced.

In the village hall there was a large embroidery - rather like the Bayeux tapestry.

They had clothes for children to try on - I am quite small ...

I had always thought they wore knitted hats, but having watched a video showing lots of crafts (unfortunately in Danish) I realised they only used one needle. I shall have to learn this technique.

As well as the embroidery and the 'knitting' the vikings also made felt.

I loved the carvings and have a wonderful collection of photographs.

Onwards to Copenhagen ...

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Here are some images from my wanderings around Amsterdam.
From top left: flower market; clog slippers; tulips
bridge; canal; the 'skinny bridge'
raw herring (yum); fancy doors; cheese

Obviously whilst here we had to visit the Rijks Museum. The building was lovely, all cleaned and restored and it did contain some beautiful work, however I think we have more impressive museums and galleries in Britain.

From top left: printed fabric by Chris Lebeau 1911 - 1915; concentration camp coat worn by Isabel Wachenheimer; paisley shawls
Saint Vitus 1500; charger 1750-75; Saint Ursula and her handmaidens 1323
small horse sculpture; ceramic plate with lovely bird; delftware flower holder

Of course we had to do all the 'tourist' things, riding on the trams, taking a canal ride, eating raw herring and smoked eel. We have had a lovely three days but it is time to move on ...

Antwerp, Belgium

On the way from Bruges to Amsterdam we called in to see Antwerp. It is one of the fashion centres of Europe and there was a fashion museum that I wanted to visit called the Mode Museum.

Antwerp is famous for the 'Antwerp Six'. The museum featured an exhibition by many designers who have been trained at this centre since the 1960s. Each designer had selected a garment to be displayed.

After this we went to a print museum called Museum Plantin-Moretus. There were examples of printed documents from the 15th century until the end of the 19th. Many were really beautiful. They also had a variety of printing presses, many of which still work.

I also saw more beautiful buildings - I really like the shapes of the roofs and all the windows.

Bruges, Belgium

This is a really beautiful place to visit. What do you think of when you think of Belgium - lace, chocolate, beer ?

There were so many lace and chocolate shops - I had the best hot chocolate ever. There were also many places selling beer, and such a variety. We even found gluten free beer so of course I had to try one. Not sure how the horse fits in but it was covered with bits of old jeans and I had to include it.

It goes without saying that there are many beautiful buildings, I became fascinated with all the different shapes of windows. As well as a gothic influence you can definitely see the Dutch one, by the way most people seem to speak Dutch and all the signs are in Dutch.

These are three things that have inspired me - the soldier looks really fed up. I like the layout of the altar painting and the floor mosaic would make a good applique or quilting pattern.

We saw an amazing exhibition 'Colour Full People' by an artist called Mieke Drossaert. As well as painted canvasses much of her work was printed onto fabric and made into wool and silk tapestries. They were wonderful.

Lille, France

We arrived in Lille after an uneventful journey from the UK. Campsite is small but there is plenty of space between pitches. Weather was very hot for the journey so we had to sit and have a cold beer when we arrived.

On Friday we went to La Piscine (www.roubaix-lapiscine.com) an art and industrial museum that is now housed in a 1930s art deco swimming pool.

There was a special exhibition of fabrics and clothes by designer Elisabeth de Senneville. Most of the work was behind glass.

Part of the museum is in what was the Hannart Prouvost weaving mill. On display were fabric swatches and design books from this factory. I really liked the books and will have to do something based on them.

Ready for the off ...

We are just about ready to leave for our trip to Northern Europe. The route is planned (ish) and will take in many centres famous for their Textiles.

The van has been serviced and cleaned, is full of food, clothing etc. The only problem is what textile work shall I take with me. I could take my book inspired by Francis Pickering (see last blog) to complete and even make more, recording my travels.

Whenever I travel by plane, train or coach I take small hexagons (4cm across) to make patchwork.

I start by tracing round a plastic template and roughly cutting the hexagons out, mainly from recycled fabrics but also small pieces left over from making something else. This is completed before I travel and stored with needle, thread and thread cutter in a zipped washbag. Whilst travelling I fold over the raw edges of each hexagon and tack them down. I then sew ten together in a row. I would then sew ten rows together. In this way the work never gets too large to travel with. These blocks of hexagons can then be sewn together into whatever size you want. So far I have made two king size throws and almost have enough for a double one.

Something else I work on periodically is crochet. I have made all sorts of things: blankets, toys, hats, slippers, baby clothes, etc. After a trip to Sheffield with my daughter recently we discovered lovely crochet hooks with flat bamboo handles. These are really fun to use and so I started making small 'granny' squares.

I have about fifty so far but as they're only 6cm square I will need quite a few more.

I could of course take something that is put together but still needs quilting. The flowers and leaves are appliqued, with the designs being taken from the printed fabric. I plan to quilt similar shapes onto the plain triangles.

Of course it goes without saying that I have to take my sketchbooks, pens, paints, etc. Perhaps I don't need so many clothes ...