This entry however is focussed on my recent trip to Sweden. I went to attend a Winter School in Göteborg. I was there for five nights and the temperature was about what I expected. It’s spring, but we had days where the low was -6 C. The highs for the week were probably around 2 or 3 celsius. The killer was the windchill though, I had to wear a scarf to prevent it feeling like my head was going to freeze off my neck. The best (most interesting) photographs in the album are of the city. We spent one evening as the guests of the city mayor in an opulent palace with magnificent chandeliers. It was quite a surreal experience.

The Winter School was being held at a private university called Chalmers which is where we spent the majority of our time. It was a really quite nice place, lovely campus with bright open spaces and a lovely dining area. The only thing I’ll say is everything was incredibly expensive compared to back home, but I think that was partially me not having the exchange rate completely sorted. It also wasn’t a fault of the institution, prices were generally rather high everywhere we visited in the City. There was a distinct lack of eating establishments as well; we wondered if maybe we’d come during the off season… if cities have off seasons.

For one of the afternoons we were able to escape to look around the city centre. The place has a massive shopping centre full of shops I’d never heard of which I thought impressive. It also has a beautiful harbour with a number of interesting permanently moored boats. There was a tall mast ship named Viking which was being used as a hotel and restaurant. Also along the front was a maritime museum with interesting naval vessels, including a submarine. Sadly the museum wasn’t open so I could only look at them from the side, it was still a nice walk and out in the sunshine the cold was much less uncomfortable.

Much of the rest of that afternoon I spent wandering around the historic buildings and marveling at the architecture. The city was actually very interesting in that respect, lots of incredibly impressive buildings, which for the most part I have no idea what they did. The photo album contains quite a number of shots of architecture in the area, perhaps I got a little carried away but I wanted to take with me a proper feel for what the city was like. In some ways I wish I’d taken my SLR with me, but on reflection I think leaving it at home for University trips is the right thing to do. I get worried enough about my suitcase, let alone a camera bag.

So that was Sweden, if anyone has any questions about the place I’ll do my best to answer them.

The first thing I found on my walk was a lovely housing estate, really quiet and quite well to do. I’d quite like to live there I think. Then the path crossed the railway line and I found a house on the edge of some wide open grass with an old iron gate in the garden that had been taken off it’s hinges and left there at some point. I think it had been taken from the fence next to the house, but I can’t be sure. Anyway the more interesting thing was the sign attached to the old gate, a sign for “Royal Albert Hospital” in true NHS brown. I can only guess that when the hospital was open, the grounds started at the edge of the railway line, which is pretty amazing. At this point the hospital was merely a tower in the distance. I’d been intrigued by the hospital buildings before now, it’s yet another amazingly impressive gothic mental asylum in Lancaster, this one built in 1864. All I can think is that Lancaster must have had an awful lot of people deemed by the local authorities to be crazy given the sheer amount of provision for locking them up that existed. The hospital operated as a school for people with learning disabilities, and a secure premises for others. It closed it’s doors in 1996. I found a fantastic website dedicated to chronicling the hospital and it’s history – Unlocking The Past. Some of the stories on there are really interesting, for example the hospital had it’s own scout troop for the boys being held there, who used to go on camping expeditions in the grounds! It’s now being used as a islamic girls boarding school, so I couldn’t really go trespassing on the ground to take photos. There are plenty around on the Internet though if you go searching.

Moving on from there I went across the road to look at a derelict boarded up building which seems to have once belonged to the NHS. “The Derby Home”. There are references to a Derby Home on the Royal Albert website, as being a ward for “higher-grade” male patients, but I am not sure this is the same place, it seems strange it would be so far away from the rest of the hospital. It was quite an nice building to look at though, I’d love to know what’s still inside.

My next stop was the cemetery, which was a large and eerily peaceful place. I found a gravestone from someone who died in the “Blackpool Sea Tragedy” in 1983, a member of the Lancashire Constabulary and that led me to researching the event when I got home. Very sad, but something I am glad I’m at least aware of happening I suppose, I don’t think I would have known otherwise. After that I headed home, all in all a very rewarding walk, and a few interesting photos though not very artistic.

My main memories of the park were first of all the Polo Tower, then the cable car, then the ‘Texas Tornado’. As you can see the Polo Tower is still there, its in dreadful shape once you get close. My parents took me to the park, sometime when I was in high school, late 90s I would guess. They bought me a wrist band for unlimited rides, and on that particular day it also got me a free Polo Tower ride. The bit you ride in was a bit strange, quite claustrophobic but on the whole it was great. It rose slowly upwards and then stayed at the top for a while, where there were great views of the bay. The cable car was over near the log flume, I remember it took a path from the back of the park, towards the front over lots of buildings, nothing very appealing, sort of dirty, some people had dropped shoes on the roof. The ride went over the main road, and on to the sea front, where it turned around and came back. From what I could see in the park there was nothing left of the cable car, including at the far end over the road. I’m sad about that, I remember one of the cable cars had a life size plastic model of ‘Frontier Fred’ the park mascot, and as we were queueing to get on there was a bunch of three lads waiting in front. The operator made one of the lads get on the car with the plastic dog, and his friends were absolutely dying of laughter. Lastly the Texas Tornado coaster! I remember queueing to get on it, or more accurately, waiting on my own. I must have gone on that ride about 10 times in a row with my unlimited armband because each time I got off, there was no queue and I just cut through to the front again. It was a tame ride really, but good fun, lots of trees in the way as you went around. I did a bit of a research and it seems that ride was one of the first to be demolished in 1999, since no one would pay the £100,000 they wanted for it. A shame as it was a good historic roller coaster, orginally called the Cyclone and imported from Paris in the 1930s.

All in all the experience was a bit weird, hence the longer than average blog entry. Plus the fact I haven’t updated this page in forever, its been a while since I’ve taken any photographs of note which is a sad thing. I found walking around underneath the Log Flume, surrounded by broken up toy trains quite surreal and definitely creepy. I know I am a wuss about these things, I have a love/hate relationship with fallen down or disused things, I find them fascinating but they frighten the life out of me. Especially stuff thats sunken in water, so finding the sunken toy train was.. interesting. I definitely love the entrance signs we found, my Dad and I had great fun piecing them back together like a jigsaw. Its sad to think that they’ll probably soon be gone and there wont be anything left. I’m sad I didn’t come and do this longer ago, when there were more rides left standing, and more interesting things around, alas these photos are better than had I never come and it certainly brought back some great memories.

This is a picture of the new accommodation for Furness (in the foreground) and Fylde, with the corner of what was inner Fylde accommodation up until about three weeks ago. Its strange that it’s finally gone, they have been knocking it down ‘during the summer’ for the whole time I’ve been at uni, even getting as far as soft stripping the interior before realising they needed to house students in it the following year and having to put it all back in. What was more amusing was they let the previous occupants redecorate the whole building in whatever styles they wanted as part of a competition, so everything needed redoing, I bet it cost tonnes. All flat now though. Well almost.

The other pictures I have to talk about are ones from the annual air show in Windermere. I have to say I didn’t get any great pictures this year, we were constantly in the wrong place at the wrong time; behind trees, on a boat, on a train, in a pub. Some are interesting though, this one is off the Army parachute display team, the Red Devils who were amazing. I definately would not like to be falling from the sky attached to 3 other men.

On a side note, thank you for the comments – I didn’t realise I had comment moderation turned on and have only just noticed somewhat belatedly, but its nice to know people have been looking and that some of you have found it interesting. I’ll try to keep finding nice things to post.

I remember it being open, as I have said in the gallery infact. My memory is of sitting just to the left of the entrance (as we’re looking at it in these pictures) with my feet in a smaller pool made for sailing toy boats. I was fascinated by the turnstyles on the door, the old metal kind that fairgrounds used to have (and Chester Zoo if my memory serves me) and I really wanted to go inside and swim. I must have been about 7 years old. Its a very dim recollection. If only as a child I’d had the forethought to photograph everything. Or infact owned a camera.. Ah well. Here’s one of the only pictures of the Lido in its former glory I can find. I don’t know when, but it looks like a good day out.

I may try writing to the council to ask about going inside to make a proper record of what it was like, but I have a feeling they would say no. They are a sneaky council and would be suspicious of me. At least if I had tried to ask permission it might look less bad if they caught me having scaled the wall.

The second lot are just some photos I took whilst wandering around Haworth. Mostly shots around the graveyard where the Bronte family are buried. The village itself is lovely. I also discovered some old electrical equipment behind one row of houses. I put pictures in Miscelaneous because they had to be shown. I don’t think you’re meant to leave such things out to get wet, but never mind.

Theres also some random photos up, mostly from 2004 as thats the year I have sorted through so far. The picture to the right was taken at the war memorial in Grange Over Sands on a beautiful summers day. The rest cover topics and locations to far and wide to completely list here, but if you have a question regarding a particular photo in any set just leave a comment and I’ll try and remember. Oh for cameras with built in GPS !

It’s difficult to get any closer pictures of the grounds than I managed here, because there is 24 hour security – you can see their little office in one of the pictures. What I did notice however, is that inside the door of their office are lots of photographs pinned to the wall and I’m sure they are of the asylum. Makes me wonder whether they give people permission sometimes to wander and take photos. I keep meaning to look into it.

The place is fantastic to walk around, I wish I’d been in Lancaster when it was still acting as A&E, actually seeing it trying to function as a modern NHS hospital would have been brilliant. Some parts of it still appear to be used – certain sections seem to have been taken over my NHS work men for storing equipment and vehicles. There’s also an active cricket club somewhere on the grounds, but I didn’t see a cricket pitch.