OXLAEYNordkapp • Only 2000 Kilometers Away
Morning came quickly and I rode past Ales stenar (Ale’s Stones) a 1000+ year old kind of stonehenge. The massive rocks sit on a grassy cliff overlooking the sea. Together the boulders form the outline of a ship. How, 1000 years ago, did they manage to get each of these 1 tonne boulders up here in the first place? More amazing is the fact that the stones are exactly aligned with the sun. At the winter and summer Solstices, the sun slices exactly down the middle of the ship (boulders S15 and N14). What kind of unhuman patience made it possible for these ancient Swedish builders to set up this site with such precision – without machines, GPS or even a scrap of paper.
A few days later, Sweden’s medieval past pulled me to the Glimmingehus, built in 1499. This was the Ritz Carlton of the day, a stone house with a real fireplaces. Swarming the castle were kids, grandparents, tattooed and slightly overweight parents all with blond or dark-died hair. Their clean and fancy cars stretched far down the country road. In the castle courtyard, visitors squeezed sausages into their mouths and washed it down with beer.
