Around the Vindeln rapids

After lunch we drove to Vindeln to show the rivers of Norrland for our guests. We parked the car to take a shorter walk, at least we thought so.





But the area was so nice, so we continued over a bridge and the other bridge didn't seem so far away. Anyway it took longer time than planned, so the "fika" (coffee and some buns/cake) tasted delicious when finally came back to the car.

Looking around you, there were clear signs of the fall being on the way. Some trees started to turn into yellow, otherwise the whole spectrum of fall colors are not here yet.



On our way we passed the longer Renforsen and Degerforsen shortly after. Around the rapids we saw several traces from the time when timber were transported on the river.




When we came back home it was high time for dinner, today we decided to serve stir fry chicken. Maria's parents liked this course, even if it was more unusual food for them.

Farmers Market also here

After breakfast we went downtown, to show Maria's parents that part of the city.
We also passed the Farmers Market ("Bondens egen marknad"), which is arranged during Saturdays in August-September. Hard to compare with Farmers market in Madison (WI/USA), which we have been used to, this one was much smaller. But at least there were several sellers of seasonal harvest, as well as other traditional food (one seller even made the flat bread oven fresh).


The colorful cauliflowers and unusual broccoli were a delight for the eye.

Our first visit from the South

It took most of the Thursday for Maria's parents to drive up to Umeå (over 11 hours). Not much more than time to show the apartment, before it was time to arrange the extra bed for our guests. Good we've some free floor in the office, even if the mattress made it hard to reach the office table.

Friday was a quite day, since Maria was at work. After lunch we all met at Gammlia, to take a walk around the old houses. Unfortunately, the museum is closed for the season so we couldn't enter the houses. When passing the part with classical Lapp cots, we noticed more had been built up this summer.
In the evening we went for a walk after dinner.

Nice Tuesday evening

As in the spring Olle is away for choir singing during Tuesday evenings.
So after work Maria has started to go to IKSU, the big sport center here in Umeå. She like to get really tired at Aqua power (one of the harder group water exercises) and afterward she reward herself with some time in the steam sauna. When coming home to the apartment, she has another hour for herself before Olle comes back.

Two interviews with two different consultant firms

Olle interviewed with two different consultant firms in four days: Last Friday and today. The interesting thing was that the client company that they think I am suitable for is the same in both cases. That company cannot employ anyone itself due to employment rules (you have to search for employees within the company first), but apparently you can consult at them anyway. It will be interesting to see which company that calls back first, if any.

Universum Science Center

For the last night at the conference (we will leave Thursday, the conference end Friday) we joined a tour to Universum Science Center, with the whole evening sponsored by one of the large companies having their mass spectrometry factory in town.
The whole building is filled with interactive exhibits. More than 250 stations invite the visitors on a fascinating journey through the topics Mankind, Earth and Cosmos. Time to play/explore like a kid again :-)

A paus needed

Going to seminars all day long is really tiring, so today Maria skipped some seminars and walked in the nearby park instead.





Within the park a nice-looking hotel were placed, not a choice for me though (double price compared to were Maria stayed). A little further in the park Maria saw another cute house, probable an old farm or so. At that moment she didn't know she were going to have a really good tree-meal dinner in the evening. Good though she didn't had to pay, some nice salesmen invited us (we have bought an expensive instrument from them).








In the afternoon Maria sneaked from the poster session, for a (last) walk downtown. Today she walked closer to the river. There were some old sailing ships, nowadays restaurants.






As well as some other party boats.

IMSC 2009

Visiting the International Mass Spectrometry Conference meant long days. The first seminar started already 8 in the morning, and followed by a poster session. You needed to study the list of poster titles in advance, since it's impossible to look at all the 400 posters, which were changed to new ones in the middle of the week.
Then 10am-12pm were seminar session with five different seminars in parallel. All again make a choice which ones will be the most interesting, not too easy. People were constant on the move between the lecture halls.
During the lunch breaks Maria went for another seminar hold by some of the sponsor companies. The motivation to go there, except hearing about the newest instrument on the market, was that the listeners got a lunch bag (sandwiches, water, fruit = free lunch).
The afternoon followed with another 5-parallel-seminar session (2-4 pm) and another poster session.

Learning Organic Mass Spectrometry

During both Saturday and Sunday Maria went to a short-course to learn how to interpret mass spectrometry spectra of different organic compounds. Unfortunately, the focus of were more on the old way of fragmentation, which is not the same in newer instruments.
During the first coffee break Maria started to talk to two English students (from different labs) joining the same course. They were alone as well for the day, their bosses would arrive later. We went for lunch together, as well as dinner in the evening. We ended up meeting some other Englishmen, from coworking labs to the other students, and went to a pub together with them. Food and local beers were paid by their boss, so just to enjoy the evening, which didn't end until after midnight.

Sunday afternoon the mass spectrometry conference (the main reason of the Bremen trip) started with plenary seminars. Afterwards, there were a welcome reception with some small food and free beer/wine.

Downtown Hansestadt Bremen

The city center is focused around the Town Hall erected 600 years ago, with the facade added in the 17th century.
Today it host the Ratskeller in Bremen, with more than 600 wines - all exclusively German.







In front of the hall is the Market Square with the famous Roland statue, the city's protector, being a symbol of trading rights and fredom since 1404.









Nearby were also St. Peter's Cathedral, with some parts over 1200 years old.








The bronze statue of the famous Bremen Town musicians (from Grimm Brother's fairy tale) were smaller than Maria expected.
Deutche bank house, and some other old ones.

Böttcherstrasse was a nice pedestrian area with some nice pubs.










Another nice area is Bremen's oldest district, the Schnoor quarter, earlier fishermen's houses (from 17th and 18th centruries) but nowadays a lot of cafés and art galleries.






The photos are a combination of Maria's walks Friday and Tuesday afternoons, as well as Saturday and Sunday mornings.

A week trip to Bremen

Most of this Friday Maria spent on the way to Bremen in Germany. Sweden-Germany might not seems like a long trip, but Maria needed three different flights to go from northern Sweden to a smaller town in Germany. Today she flew via Münich, before closing in to Bremen city. Good she had a nice book to read, since she traveled a day before her colleague.
Arriving in Bremen Maria took the tram to the central station, and from there she had just a few minutes of walk.
After checking in at the hotel (a small, but clean room), she went for a walk downtown. Nice to leave the jacket behind as well as using sandals, not what you do nowadays back in Umeå.

Enjoying the craft exhibition

The craft exhibition "Självklart - 100 år med Västerbotten läns hemslöjdsförening" (Eng.: "Of course - 100 years with the home craft association of Västerbotten county") ends early September, so today we decided to visit it again. When we were here during the opening day, there were so many people all over the place, but today we were almost alone. You can't do others than envy the handy people working with natural material.

The highlight of the weekend

During the night we woke up to rain, but we didn't get any inside the tent at least. The rain itself didn't last that long, instead the birches above the tent dripped for a while. That is, the sky was quite clear in the morning.

This morning we rose just after the morning weather report and therefore we were able to start the hiking around nine (even though we took a quick dip in the water first). The small "house" is where we bathed. As can be seen in the other picture, there are hardly any traces of the tent since last night.


Tavelsjöberget mountain far away, the sign was on the other side of the road.








View over Lake Tavelsjön. This stretch of the part was sometimes like a rock field.








Before lunch the hike was going both up- and downhill, past some smaller lakes with traces of beaver activity. The last stretch was mostly uphill to the goal of the weekend - the Tavelsjöberget mountain. Our legs were quite tired at this point.


An enjoyable stop was made at Vallberget mountain, where we climbed up the watchtower to get a nice view over the surrounding landscape.






We then walked on to the resting area at Tavelsjöberget for a sought after lunch break. Nice to remove the sweaty shirts and get the feet some air. We had lunch and relaxed for a while, well needed, but the break passed oh so fast. We chose path number two downhill the mountain, number one was too steep for heavy backpacks.









The road down the mountain took some time too. We took a (cold) bath in Lake Tavelsjön at Sand. The sign depicts the Lake Tavelsjö creature, that has been told to be seen in the lake.
While we were waiting for the buss that should bring us back to Umeå, we just relaxed after the weekends hardship in the evening sun. You can really feel that the autumn is coming, when the sun hid behind the clouds it got cold.
Back in the apartment we had to hang up the tent for drying, as well as airing the other equipment that had been packed during the raw air in the morning.