.... that if I kept plugging away, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow would appear and sure enough, it did.

Our final cultural trip was to Kosta, home of the Orrefors glass factory. Acres of glassware in factory outlet shops spread out over the site. We watched a glass blowing demonstration - something I hadn't seen since a visit to Venice as a child - and tried not to bump into anything as we went up and down the aisles of stuff-you-can-live-without.

We gawped at all the art glass in the gallery; one piece priced at £100,000 - we gave that a wide berth. But the real prize find was a painting, executed in the 60's by the glass artist and designer, Vicke Lindstrand, probably when the gallery was built. It was a mural about 15' long and 7' high, depicting glass blowers at their work.

Unfortunately, I couldn't take a picture of the whole wall because there was a curtain forming part of the glass exhibition, covering the left side of the artwork. Surprisingly, the gallery were pretty casual about the mural and I thought that covering it up for an exhibition of art glass seemed a bit of an odd approach. If they'd thought to reproduce this as a postcard or poster, it would probably be a major source of income. If you're an art lover and find yourself in this part of Sweden, don't miss it.

Staying with an art theme, this bronze bicycle rack was a good spot - at least I think it's patinated bronze; it's certainly not painted. Update - It certainly is painted, perfectly obvious when I put my glasses on.

Then some wallpaper in the hotel we've since moved to. It had some very grand reception rooms; highly decorated in the Napoleonic style ...

.... though it's a pity this theme had been largely erased from the rest of the building. Interestingly, this hotel had the best water of all the hotels in Karlskrona. With the fashion for water softeners and various treatments that fill the water full of air, it's very difficult to get a decent shave. The water here is relatively hard so I've had the first decent shave in 20 days! I must also get a travelling soap dish so I don't have to use the slimy gels that are the staple of most hotels.

The temperature had dropped over the last few days of our Swedish sojourn and on our last day, as the sun dropped low in the sky...

 

... the Maersk Connector sailed away and we packed up and, rather thankfully, headed for home.