Saturday, August 30, 2008

Livin' la Vida Linkoping

I was first introduced to this town through an American's blog, Linkoping Livin'.
It was cold and rainy and a Saturday I think when we took a walk to get out of the house and came upon this gated courtyard spilling with music. It was a small operetta with a mixture of Verdi and Gershwin and more. Apparently the mayor's wife is an opera singer (in the fur coat) and the mayor joined in as well (in the black hat behind her).
The best part is that there was a small orchestra who was first in one room of this building, and then moved from room to room to change the sound and emphasis of action. Interesting concept, especially since it was cold and REALLY rainy.
This is the fella who did something galant to create this settlement of Linkoping. Look at that face! I'd run too.
A really old building.
Directly above these bikes is a speaker system. Every hour, it plays the sound of a Jackdaw bird, dying a terrible death. Yeah, like the soundtrack from The Birds. These birds have made a mess of the town squares, in particular this one and the only thing that seems to keep them at bay if this awful sound. Of course, I was sitting here alone, wondering what the hell??? I didn't see any birds and couldn't figure out where the sound was coming from. When it was explained to me I thought, okay, how bad can these birds be?
The next week, at sunset we were walking towards the square and saw masses of these large, raven like birds it honestly, it WAS scary. We changed our path down a side street to avoid confrontation with the feathered masses of menace.

Here, a mixture of the old, next to the new architecture.
A lovely cafe to enjoy, but oh, the stairs!

1 comment:

Aunt Kathy said...

Wow that's funny about the birds. Wonder who thought of that idea to keep them away?