From frozen ice to hot bikinis

July 7, 2006
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We’ve had gorgeous weather in Scandinavia this week and we sure do know how to appreciate it! My regular readers have seen how the Nordic countries have changed from dark and cold in November last year and today I’m going to take you to the hot sandy beach of summer. From -20C (-4F) in December to around 30C (86F) the last few days. We’ve even been warmer then 20C (68F) at midnight, which we call tropical nights in the Nordic countries. Add to that a late sunset and early rise and you can tell it is an eldorado for romantic evenings or nights :-) I took some pictures around the area where we have our summer house and more are shown in my previous post, gone golfing. I’ve saved the best for this post though, let’s start at the hot sunny beach.


All pics taken with my Nokia mobile phone – click to enlarge!

Since we don’t have it all year around, the Nordic people go crazy when a hot sunny summer day comes along. The streets and the malls are empty and all the people are enjoying a refreshing cool down in the sea. Four months ago they were walking around in snowsuits, hats and gloves. Everyone was skiing or skating and enjoying the winter time. Today they wear as little as possible and are crazy about getting a tan. Some even drop their tops, which is fairly common and not that noticed in Scandinavia.

These two pictures were taken in the beginning of April and you can see the same beach and pier in the background as in the first picture above. If you look at the picture on the left and see the first picture in this post, you might get an idea of why we love the four seasons. It might be cold and icy for a while, but the nature never betrays us, as we know their will be days like this in the months ahead.

Here is another example from another nearby beach taken at the same time. I take it you can tell which of them are from which season :-)

I’m still “gone golfing” (see my post below!), so let me give you another example of the significant seasons from the course. At left a photo from April, and at right from yesterday. Yes, you see me putting without my club shirt (sorry if you fine this offensive!) and yes it is against the roles, but my wife are entitle to some excitements too you know:-)

Some of you have commented before that you could survive the summer time in Scandinavia, but not the winter and the cold. You might have missed the point here. Winter with snow and ice are fun! Besides, there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes. I would not miss skiing in the mountains or a skating trip on the lakes. The nature and the opportunities are great at that time too (just see some post in the archives from January or February!)

But now it is the hot summer and we know how to appreciate that too:-)

Summer, Winter