VISIT TO SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES DESCRIBED

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27909, 5 March 1956, Page 2

VISIT TO SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES DESCRIBED

NEWS FOR WOMEN

“We were at Ostersund in the far north of Sweden on the longest day of the year—June 21—and there was no night; the light at night was as brilliant as in the day time,*’ said Mrs L. W. McCaskill, who was the guest speaker at a meeting of the Lincoln College Women’s Group, at which Mrs M. M. Burns presided.

Mrs McCaskill showed members coloured films, which her husband, Professor McCaskill, had taken of their travels in England, Scotland and Europe. She and her husband had been too late to see the tulips in Holland, but in Sweden they had seen beautiful beds of tulips in full bloom. Azaleas, laburnums and rhododendrons that were a blaze of colour in Sweden in June, which was mid-summer there, said Mrs McCaskill.

In Scandinavian countries, as in many other countries of Europe, the open-air flower markets were colourful centres of attraction in the summer. Retailers bought their flowers at these markets, said Mrs McCaskill. While in Sweden she had been interested to see large rectangular glass showcases, arranged in groups in a setting of lawns, and flower beds, and with colourful fountains playing nearby. In the showcases were exhibited samples of Swedish handcraits. They included beautiful hand-printed textiles, weaving, pottery, jewellery, silverware, and the glassware and crystal for which Sweden is renowned. The showcases had flat roofs as a protection against the weather. Someone had asked her if there was a special guard near such valuble exhibits out in the open, but she had not seen anyone on guard, said Mrs McCaskill.

In Norway the silverware was particularly beautiful, as it was allied with enamels in spoons and other articles. In Denmark also the silverware was most attractive, and inset in some of the jewellery were pieces of amber, of the milky type—not the clear amber that is seen in New Zealand.

The people of Scandinavian countries made the most of their short

summer, and had much out-door entertainment in the evenings. In Sweden there were large openrestaurants that were well patronised, and orchestras entertained patrons as they dined.

The modern Swedish homes had an air of spaciousness about them, but the oldei homes retained their older type furniture.

In Denmark, in a large retail store near the Copenhagen railway station she had seen beautiful hand-made furniture in the Permanent Exhibition of Danish Arts and Crafts. The furniture was mainly, she thought, of spruce, pine, ash and silver birch. It had a lovely finish. In Sweden, she had noticed that the silver birches which grew wild there were particularly picturesque with their silver trunks shimmering in the sunlight. White travelling in Europe, she and her husband had become accustomed to the Continental breakfast of coffee and rolls, and it was not till they got to Holland that they were offered eggs for breakfast. In the hotels in Sweden a smorgasbord arranged for breakfast offered a tempting variety of food. Some of the films shown were of the Matterhorn, which her husband had obtained when they ascended the mountainside on an alpine railway from Zermatt. The trip, effortless on their part, took about an hour as the car crept slowly up the mountainside.

The cows had been taken to the higher alpine pastures, and at an altitude of 8000 feet or so, said Mrs McCaskill, they 9 found that the cows were pasturing on the beautiful carpets of small starry gentians, primroses, anemones and violas, and apparently relishing them. They saw the big blue gentian and the eidelweiss growing when they ascended from Interlaken to the Jungfrau. When they visited the alps in early June, the Swiss guides were not busy with tourists, as at that time of year there was danger of avalanches.

One of the films Mrs McCaskill showed was of Milan Cathedral, which has a statue on each of its many pinnacles.