Exploring in the snow.

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, my courses started this week and the work has been a bit intense so the blog took a back seat.

My SLR decided to play up today and didn't want to take photos, so there is a bit of a mix in quality where I had to use my iPhone, hopefully it isn't too noticeable. Our first stop was the Cathedral, a Gothic looking building which really dominates the centre of the city.

One of the main sights inside the Cathedral is the Astronomical Clock which was originally constructed in 1380. It was in storage from 1837 until it was restored and put back in 1923. 

On top of the clock are two knights that mark the hours, the upper board is Astronomical and shows the different phases of the Moon and where the Sun sets. The lower board is a calendar which calculates where religious holidays will fall. In the middle is Saint Lawrence, the Patron Saint of the Cathedral. The present clock goes from 1923-2123, after this date another board must be made so that the clock can be used. 

The Cathedral is really warm and peaceful inside, you can look around freely and there are lots of places to sit, light a candle and reflect. The alter has an intricate mosaic ceiling and is surrounded by delicately carved choir stalls.

We were feeling brave so we also took a peek at the Crypt downstairs. It was so interesting to look at the ancient graves which had worn smooth after many years, there were also funny carvings on the pillars (one looked suspiciously like a man eating a baby??) 

Afterwards we popped off to the botanical gardens to wander around the tropical glasshouses and imagine we were somewhere exotic. I have already done a post on the garden so I won't bore you, here are a few pictures of things which caught my attention. 

This post is already very long so I will end it here, but keep checking for another post very soon (spoiler - it involves a lot of food!!)

Lund Botanical Gardens

Today a group of us decided to walk to the Lund Botanical Gardens. A university garden has existed in Lund since 1690 and today there are over 7000 species grown in the garden right in the middle of Lund. In 1974 the Botanical Garden was named a historical landmark. The gardens were close to town and free to visit so it was a good, cheap student day out! 

The snow is still sticking around and it was a freezing cold so probably not the best day to look around outside but the inside of the greenhouses were still a little tropical oasis. 

We quickly hurried inside to keep warm! I tried to get some good photos of the tropical glasshouses but the humidity made my camera lense steam up faster than I could clean it *blogging fail*. However I did get some photos of the humongous cacti (is that the word?) which were pretty impressive.

I don't think the others quite shared my enthusiasm for the gardens, they were just glad to get out of the cold! I really loved it though, something about the old greenhouses filled to the roof with tropical plants is fascinating to me. I think my obsession started when I was in primary school and we went to a botanical gardens near Oxford and were taught about all the plants, like cloves and sugar cane,  which go in to making Christmas pudding. 

One of the greenhouses was designed to be Mediterranean and had these gorgeous lemon and orange trees inside. 

It also had a little pond filled with goldfish which you walked over to get around. 

We were only there for about an hour but it was really interesting and I will definitely go back in the spring once the outside gardens are in bloom too.