Full day

We spent the morning together with our guide at Ölands "Alvar" to see the many kinds of orchids that grows here. During early May we've had a lot of cool weather, even frost, which makes everything stop for a while waiting for milder temperature. we saw four or five different kinds of orchids but also four or five plants that are on the red-list in danger of extinction. 

Todays extra shows one of them: "Alvar klofibbla" Asteraceae Crepis tectorum pumila, a long name for a small plant but actually it's only the last bit that describes this particular plant, only found in one place on  earth -on Öland. It felt special to get the connection between the plants and their surroundings explained by our fantastic guide.

In the afternoon we went for a small trip by car to see places in the southern part of the island. One place reminds us of the violent prehistory of Öland during a period between 400-550 AD, when it was ruled by clans and small kings who lived behind thick walls, traded with Lithuania and other places around the Baltic sea. They gathered lots of gold and consequently also fought each other to take their women as slaves and kill the men. That happened in the fortress "Sandby borg". It was attacked early in the morning by unknown attackers, everyone in the place was killed and left lying where they were killed. Nobody lived in the fortress since then. 

Todays archeological excavations tries to bring evidence to what happened that day 1500 years ago. They also found big treasures within the area which might mean that the attack back then was only a slaughter expedition to wipe out that particular king and his power.

When we reached the area the fog had drifted in and the wind was biting cold and unpleasant, a fitting background to this place of tragic events. The fortress is just by the beach and I thought these rocks, that must have been there when it happened, could tell us about the enemy, who are thought to have come from the sea.

It's been a day filled to the brim with impressions.