Monday 20/5/2019.
Our plan for our final day is to visit Ramunderberget. We couldn’t sleep last night as two of our cats, Storm and Ripley, hadn’t come home. Cat woke in a panic because her text alarm hadn’t gone off, meaning they weren’t home. She got up and fell over. Hello, Sertraline side effects. She fell over again by her phone then nearly fell in the bathroom. When she got back to bed, Selma joined her. Finally a bed buddy! Storm came in at 12:30, Ripley at 1:15.
Can’t believe it’s our last day! It’s been a different kind of holiday. One, because we’ve been working almost every day, and two, we’re used to going to famous cities with lots of touristy stuff to see and do. This has been more of a relaxed place with no famous landmarks, but we’ve enjoyed it just as much.
Cover Models
Our first port of call was the corner shop to buy a copy of The Folkbladet. The journalist, Pattrick, messaged us to say we were in it. And we’re on the front page! The shop didn’t have any, so we went to the Bokhandel to meet Thess. She bought books for her boyfriend, so we met her there to sign them.
We were going to the supermarket to look for the newspaper, and Thess was going there too, so she accompanied us. Just as well, as we would have got lost. We found the paper and bought three copies. Luckily the cashier kept them folded so didn’t notice we were buying three copies with ourselves on the front page. That would look a tad egotistical. We called it at the Bokhandel to retrieve our suitcase that we’d left there then returned to Christina’s.
Our next job was to visit Christina’s colleague, Jerry, who’s designing our banner for the Book Lounge next week. We picked our photos and font then went back to the Bokhandel to film a short welcoming video for the Book Lounge. It took three tries until our Swedish was acceptable. We returned to pack but still had three and a half hours until we had to leave for the airport. The unexplored mountain, Ramunderberget, was calling us. We took a map, our rucksacks of food and drink, and a hope for adventure and set off. Pelle was going to come with us, but had to work, so we went alone.
Ramunderberget
Ramunderberget sits 70 metres above Söderköping and was formed 2-300 million years ago when an earthquake cracked the bedrock. The south part sank into a bay, the north part rose into a mountain. It gets it name from the legend of Ramunder. He was a giant who abducted a young nun, Ragnhilda and kept her captive on the mountain. She was set free, but was accused of giving up her virginity. Apparently, the only course of action was to burn her at the stake. There are clearly other options, but leaving her alone isn’t very entertaining. A spring burst through the ground and extinguished the flames. Really, people? It is not physically possible for a woman to have sex with a giant. The most he could do is wear her as a penis hat.
We walked the 318 steps to the viewing point. It was worth it. We wandered along the path, with Lynx being convinced we were heading for the hill fort walls. It turned out she’d located the wrong viewing point on the map and we were nowhere near the hill fort walls. We turned around and headed for Gallows Hill instead. It wouldn’t be our holiday without finding the creepy parts.
Gallows Hill
The walk was beautiful. There were countless picnic areas and no rubbish! We haven’t seen litter here at all. It’s a refreshing change. We sat a picnic area opposite Gallows Hill and listened to the birds singing. Pollen floated through the air and it was so peaceful. We’ve missed being in nature. But Gallows Hill wasn’t going to photograph itself and we weren’t sure how long it would take us to get back. Sadly, we didn’t see any of the smooth snakes, squirrels or foxes that live on the mountain. If you’re ever in Söderköping, definitely make the effort to walk to Ramundersberget.
Christina’s friend drove us to the airport for our flight home. The airport was practically deserted. We had forty minutes until our check in desk opened, then that was late. We got to security and spotted cuddly moose in the shop so ducked out of line and bought out niece a moose purse, and our sister and brother in law keyrings.
The plane was delayed and priority line ridiculously long, so we joined non priority. The plane had been delayed from another flight, so the time we were due to take off, the other passengers hadn’t even exited the plane. We were two rows apart but happened to both be sitting next to two friends, so we switched so they could sit together and we could sit together. Landed, got through the airport and found our way to the Jetparks stop. Got on the bus and headed off. Unfortunately, our good luck ran out and we missed our stop and had to go round again. Then the roads were closed so a 3 hour journey took 3 hours 45 minutes. We got home at 3:35 a.m.
Day 5: Number of Elk/ bears/wolves/snakes/squirrels/foxes seen: 0. Number of alpaca: a surprising 2. Also saw many horses, cows and sheep. Number of dogs patted: 1. Number of cats patted: 3.
Read Day 4.