Tag Archives: EU

Taking Time Out in Scandi-Noir Country

Off-Season Relaxation in Ystad, Sweden

Needing a break from art and design museums, we decided to get off the highway for two nights in Ystad, Sweden after we crossed The Bridge (yes, the one in the Scandi-Noir television series) and headed south from Malmo.

Just as we were leaving Aarhus, Denmark, the skies turned dark and ominous and we drove through heavy burst of rain and hail. The green-tinged sky looked as if tornadoes could drop out of it at any moment.

Fortunately, the weather cleared by the time we reached the border of Denmark and Sweden and we had a pleasant drive for the rest of the day.

©Deborah Harmes. Tornado-like clouds forming outside of Aarhus, Denmark in autumn.

©Deborah Harmes. Signs on the E20 heading into Copenhagen, Denmark, then across “The Bridge” into Malmo, Sweden.

Below is the Oresund Bridge — the one featured in the Swedish-Danish co-production television series The Bridge. Some tips for those who travel this way, there is a Border Force booth that is manned by police at the end. For the first time since we’ve been travelling in mainland Europe, we were required to produce our passports — and the fee to cross the bridge is over €50. That was a bit unexpected!

©Deborah Harmes. The Oresund Bridge — just under 8km or 5 miles long. This structure spans the Oresund Strait, a body of water between Copenhagen, Denmark and Malmo, Sweden. Best known to fans of the Scandi-Noir television series “The Bridge.”

I needed to catch up on some writing and photo editing and a couple of days by the Baltic Sea in the off-season sounded quite relaxing. It was — and we ended up staying for five and a half days, not two.

Fatigue had caught up with us. After two-plus weeks in England, we had crossed the North Sea on a Stena Line ship, debarked in the Netherlands, and driven on to Germany. Our next stops were in Kolding, Denmark for a visit to the Trapholt Museum and to Aarhus, Denmark and the AROS Museum.

Getting in and out of the van multiple times a day, whether to have a meal, see one of the sights, or just stretch our legs, was getting really tiresome.

The cottage I had rented more than met our expectations — it exceeded them with the attention to detail that the owners had paid when they renovated it. We had a fully-equipped kitchen and could cook for ourselves, removing the need to go out to restaurants or bring back sandwiches or salads. The beds were comfy, the neighbourhood was quiet, and the hot tub on the back deck was a genuine bonus.

©Deborah Harmes. Cottage in a seaside setting in Ystad, Sweden.

For someone who is so research-minded, I had done ZERO research into things to do in the area. So it was a very pleasant surprise to discover that there was a movie and television studio in Ystad — Ystad Studios — where the 40-plus episodes of the Scandi-Noir crime series Wallander had been filmed. Portions of the series The Bridge were also produced there. Some of the sets from each of those shows, plus some movies we had never heard of, had been preserved to form a tour. What fun!

©Deborah Harmes. The main Film iSkane building of Ystad Studios in Yestad, Sweden. This was the headquarters for the 40+ episodes of the Swedish crime series, Wallander.

Off-season travelling often means less-crowded conditions. But we never anticipated having the entire studio tour area to ourselves. Below are some images from that tour. And yes, I know it’s cheesy, but we both enjoyed sitting in one of the leather chairs from the Wallander series and taking pictures to capture the moment.

©Deborah Harmes. Wallander’s Mail Slot at the Ystad Studios tour in Sweden.

©Deborah Harmes. Set of the Police Meeting Room for the crime series Wallander. Ystad Studios in Sweden.

©Mark Harmes. Deborah Harmes sitting in the fictional crime detective Kurt Wallander’s chair at the studio tour in Ystad, Sweden.

©Deborah Harmes. Part of the small display for The Bridge-Bron at the Ystad Studios tour in Sweden.

©Deborah Harmes. Signed scripts and photos from the cast of The Bridge-Bron at Ystad Studios in Sweden.

©Deborah Harmes. Kenneth Branaugh in the BBC English language version of Wallander.

©Deborah Harmes. Mark Harmes on the set of a children’s sci-fi series at Ystad Studios in Sweden.

An added bonus to staying put for several days was that Mark finally had a chance to ride his new bike someplace other than the congested roads of Essex in England!

©Deborah Harmes. Mark Harmes riding his bike through the woods and beachside roads of Ystad, Sweden.

NEXT UP — some views of the Baltic seacoast at Ystad, Sweden.

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©A Wanderful Life 2007-2022
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Art, Design, and Autumn in Aarhus, Denmark

48 Hours In A Lovely Small City

After leaving Kolding and our wonderful visit to the Trapholt, Museum, we took a less than two-hour drive north to Aarhus to see yet another Danish museum that is primarily dedicated to modern art and design.

Before our arrival, we hadn’t known that Arne Jacobsen, one of our favourite Danish designers, was one of the architects for the City Hall and Clock Tower opened in the early 1940s in Aarhus during World War II.

We had intentionally chosen an apartment that was a short 7-minute walk to the museum, allowing us to park the car and not worry about driving in the city. Mark took a few early morning walks while I was still sleeping, so a sprinkling of his pictures are included below.

The AROS Museum’s contemporary interior is housed in the 2004-built fourth version of the museum. The original was founded in 1859. Due to copyright issues, you will notice that I have not included any images of the artwork within the galleries.

The ring of coloured glass on the top of the building is a walkway that allows you to have a full view of the city all around you.

The exterior of the AROS Museum in the heart of Aarhus, Denmark.

Coloured glass rooftop walkway at the AROS Museum in Aarhus, Denmark.

Stepping through the doors of AROS, we were presented with an array of levels and lashings of bold phrases painted on the walls.

Interior of the AROS Museum in Aarhus, Denmark.

Accessibility is never an issue within this museum since there are glass elevators as well as curved ramps of easy-to-use stairs.

Spiral ramps connect the interior levels of the AROS Museum in Aarhus, Denmark.

AROS also has a multi-area cafe and shop on the ground floor.

Entry to the restaurant inside the AROS Museum in Aarhus, Denmark.

As we left the museum that evening, I turned around to see what the building would look like when it was lit up at night. It was equally as delightful as during the daytime.

Night view of the exterior of the AROS Museum with its landmark coloured glass walkway atop the building.

Below are some of the wonderful discoveries that Mark made on his morning walks. Enjoy!

Public art in Aarhus, Denmark. A metal sculpture of a man in a suit with his bicycle.

The near-empty canalside streets of Aarhus, Denmark in the early morning.

A wonderfully funny pedestrian crossing light with an illuminated Viking in a helmet carrying a battle axe and shield.

©Deborah Harmes. Painted signage — “it’s over” — on the wall of a passageway leading to an exit.

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©Deborah Harmes 2007-2019 and ©Mark Harmes 2007-2019
©A Wanderful Life 2007-2019
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A-Wandering We Go!

We’ve lived in France for over five years — and that has given us so many benefits and blessings — things that we are quite appreciative of. I did the hard slog of paperwork required to get our plastic ID cards that prove we are EU residents in good standing — and I even obtained an EU driving license. Since we’ve been ‘in the system’ and eligible for health care and energy rebates and so forth — why change things now?

We’ve been living in a pretty part of Brittany and we’ve made some wonderful friends over the last few years. But picturesque settings and pleasant folks aside, we feel like our time in France may be coming to an end. To determine if our feelings are accurate, we’re currently on a long driving holiday in northern Europe.

Our mindset about life shifted rather dramatically this year when Mark’s father died a few months ago. Having such an anchor presence, one that you thought would always be there, disappear within weeks of your last visit to England impacted us both rather sharply. We grieved deeply — and then we realised that we needed to decide how we felt about France as our long-term home.

We first went to England for two weeks and spent some time with my mother-in-law whilst getting ourselves prepared to travel again. It’s been a year since we took our last long trip to Italy for two months.

Mark bought a new off-road bike and he did test runs around Canvey Island and other nearby spots before we set off.

Mark’s Boardman orange bike in front of a ruin on Canvey Island, Essex, England.

A variety of boats along a narrow waterway in Canvey Island, Essex, England.

Then Mark fine-tuned some things on the van, decided how many bikes he was taking along for the trip, and exactly one week ago, we arrived in Harwich just before sunset where we stopped for some photos before enjoying a lovely dinner.

A few hours later, we sailed away on a beautiful Stena Lines ship to the Hook of Holland. We had a wonderfully comfortable overnight trip and a good breakfast the next morning before we disembarked.

Cabin on the Stena Line sailing from Harwich to Hook of Holland.

Breakfast on our Stena Lines trip from Harwich to Hook of Holland.

After arrival, we went through the long lines at passport control (proudly showing our EU cards as proof that we live in Europe and are not overseas tourists with a limited-time status!) and away we drove towards Germany.

Our first stop for the night was in a tiny spot near Bremen called Ganderkesee. The country house hotel was gloriously old-world and the food at the evening meal and huge breakfast the next morning was excellent.

Exterior of the Hotel Backenkohler in Ganderkesee, Germany.

Most of our destinations will be all-new territory for us. We’ve been to the Netherlands and Germany several times, but we’ve never ventured further north into the Scandinavian countries. We have so many places to see, photos to take, and new experiences to have.

Next up — our two days in Kolding, Denmark!

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©Deborah Harmes 2007-2019 and ©Mark Harmes 2007-2019
©A Wanderful Life 2007-2019
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All rights reserved.

Refresh — Regroup — Relaunch

You may have noticed a significant absence of posts for the last three months — and that’s because Mark has been working away like a busy little bee over in the 1400s house. And I’ve been carefully building a base of clients for my writing and editing business.

We took a much-needed weekend escape at the end of February — over to the far western side of Normandy in beachside Brehal. We didn’t do a lot — ate, slept, read, watched movies, and had a few outings in the icy cold weather. But it was a good break and we came back feeling refreshed.

Mark looking out to sea in Brehal, Normandy, France

A moules (mussels) farm at the seaside in Normandy, France.

On an afternoon drive along the seacoast, we stumbled upon this medieval chateau ruin from the 14th Century in Regneville sur Mer and had a quick walk around. It’s a tiny but very pretty village facing the sea.

The corner of a 14th Century chateau ruin in the seaside village of Regneville sur Mer, Normandy, France.

What was meant to be a short hop back over to England for Mark’s parents’ 40th anniversary party ended up being a two week visit instead. It’s always wonderful to visit with them and see all of the other assorted family and friends, but everyone in the house ended up sick as could be with whatever lurghi was hanging around England at the time and I ended up in A&E getting meds for a chest infection when our local GP couldn’t see me. Aarrgghh!

Margaret & Brian Harmes at 40th Anniversary Party

We arrived back in France exactly 4 weeks after our icy cold visit to the seaside in Brehal — and everything here at the farmhouse in Notre Dame de Fresnay had burst into bloom!

View of the Normandy countryside through the bedroom window in Notre Dame de Fresnay.

Daffodils beside the old well.

Down by the duck pond.

We’re preparing to move on from here in three very compressed weeks. But we’re headed to the OTHER large house belonging to the owners of this house — and we’ll be there for 6 weeks whilst Mark does renovation work on it. I’ll send pictures of that project as it progresses.

The REGROUP and RELAUNCH part of the title refers to us regrouping, going over to England for several weeks at the end of June, and trying to decide if we want to settle down or continue to work and travel for awhile longer. That’s a longer stand-alone post about the turbulent social and political factors at play here in Europe right now, so we’ll save that for another time.

I have to be truthful, it’s one of those things that sneaks up on you a bit as you get older — the mental cushion of a home base. And right now our ‘home base’ is a huge storage unit full of our possessions in England — one we refer to far too often when we reach for something and then realise that it’s in the $%^&£@! storage unit!

In the next couple of months, we will be relaunching ourselves away from here. And I have ALSO just relaunched my personal website — but I’ll leave that for a follow-up post.

Back soonish!

Ending 2016 with Holiday Good Wishes

We’re feeling quite grateful this holiday season — grateful on several levels.

We are finally back in Europe and living in a country that we love — France. Mark’s health has returned, we are enjoying life again, and we are happily filling our days.

The past week was a bit chaotic, to be truthful — but we managed because we are both feeling more resilient once again — and now we’re having a quiet Christmas. Our household goods somehow managed to leave Australia at the same time that we did at the beginning of November and they arrived in the UK a mere 6 weeks from pick up at our house. That sort of time frame is a rarely-or-never kind of thing.

As a result, we’ve felt a bit roller-coaster-ish for the last 8 days. Last weekend we had the happy highs of the weekend wedding of dear friends — Polly and Vincent. Mark and I both took cameras with us to document the day (as requested by the bride!) — but gads — rather a lot of the photos ended up being either out of focus due to shifting light conditions or being constantly jostled by the phone-camera-clutching throngs who were packed into the Mairie (the mayor’s office) for the wedding. Those group shots where someone always managed to have their eyes shut were a bit of a challenge, too. (smirk!)

Polly Watt and Vincent Morel exchanging rings on their wedding day.

Mark with his camera inside the Mairie after the wedding as the crowd began to disperse.

Deborah, camera in hand, leaving the Mairie after the wedding ceremony.

Two days later it was a leaving-long-before-dawn race back to the UK on Monday, meeting the movers in England on Tuesday, doing catch-up errands on Wednesday, then heading back to France on Thursday. Whew!!! Are we tired? YES! But Mark went straight back to work the next day and part of Saturday and I sat like a little pudding doing editing. Yes — we ARE taking all day Sunday and Monday off though and we’re hoping it won’t be too soggy for some gentle rambles through the lovely Calvados countryside.

Here’s a few more pictures from the last wildly busy week. More soon!

Up and down the stairs between decks on the Brittany Ferry.

The Deck 9 wifi lounge on the Brittany Ferry.

During an afternoon crossing between England and France, Mark is buying 2 expressos at the bar on one of the upper decks of the Brittany Ferry.

Photo Of The Day: Brussels Streetscape in Black & White

Bright sun, deep shade — just made for black and white. Enjoy!

Man walks down exterior stairs in deep shade on a sunny day in Brussels, Belgium. B&W

Photo Of The Day: Tired Tourists in Brussels, Belgium

Today’s photo has an interesting twist. I was concentrating on the architectural shot of the historic Church of Saint Jacques-sur-Coudenberg on the Place Royale. There at the base of the monument to Godfrey of Bouillon, a crusader knight, were these two people sitting on the steps. I didn’t actually notice them as I was taking the shot, so it was quite a surprise to discover the ‘tired tourists’ when I downloaded the pictures from my camera.

The man looks quite exhausted! It may have only been April, but it was rather hot and extremely sunny on that particular day. I think I inadvertently captured two people who reached their fatigue level before I did on that Saturday afternoon.

Tired tourists rest at the base of a monument to Crusade knight Godfrey of Bouillon in the Place Royale in the heart of Brussels, Belgium. The Church of Saint Jacques-sur-Coudenberg is in the background.

This entry was posted in Building and Construction, Churches and Cathedrals, Europe, History and Archaeology, Photography, Travel and tagged Belgium, Brussels, church, Church of Saint Jacques-sur-Coudenberg, cobblestone streets, crusader knight, EU, europe, Godfrey of Bouillon, historic, hot, monument, Place Royale, resting, sitting, statue, sunny, tourism, tourists, travel on 24/05/2013 by Deborah Harmes.

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