Basses and Mountains: Walks in Uppsala

Saturday night, April 8, Ingrid invited us out to dinner along with her friend, Christer. We went to a Turkish restaurant called Sommarro which, to Ingrid's horror, I pronounced as rhyming with tomorrow. She said "Your pronunciation is... " and paused until I said "terrible?" and she had to agree. The correct pronunciation, it seems, is soom-are-ooh with slight roll to the r and a rising pitch on the ooh.

We had a great time talking to Christer who is a mathematician, linguist, and raconteur. He has had a long career as a professor of mathematics at Uppsala University, has spent a lot of time in France and, at one point was at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (you know, where Einstein worked!). We heard about his many mathematical "daughters" and "sons", i.e. graduate students he has advised and helped launch into academic careers. He has been everywhere and has met everybody from famous mathematicians to heads of state. You don't often meet a person like him and we appreciated every moment.

Afterwards, we walked through the City Forest to Ingrid's house where we had homemade cookies and homemade ice cream and talked some more.

Earlier in the day, CJ and I took a walk through the City Forest to a place called Norby. A sign said there were runes on one of the rocks in the nearby field but we couldn't find it. We did see a few romping dogs though.

Norby

On Sunday, we took a walk to the Cathedral and heard part of a choir and orchestra rehearsal for a performance that evening. It reminded me of the many times I have played in church services but... surprise! Churches in Seattle don't have the same acoustics, much less the atmosphere, of a 13th century cathedral!

Across the plaza from the cathedral, a flag was at half mast because of the recent terrorist attack in downtown Stockholm.

Museum Gustavianum

Here are some pictures from the rest of our walk. The day was probably the warmest day in Uppsala since last fall. I think it hit 60 degrees fahrenheit.