End station

Shortly after I moved here one of my students, who moved here from somewhere, said in a resigned tone that Kalmar must be the end of the world since this is where the railroad stops. I confirmed that but said that you could also look at it in another way and say that this is where the world begins, the start of everything. We laughed about it for a while but I thought it was actually true not long ago when Kalmar was the most important harbour in the country. Ships from The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and the Baltic countries came here and it was the lifeline of Sweden, only five hundred years ago. The castle was one of the important strongholds when the border to Denmark was only a hundred kilometres south from here. The Swedish Kings often lived here to make sure the border was safe and the trade with the Hansa cities worked as it should.

The castle is still here, renovated and a tourist magnet but these days the harbour and trading isn't the big thing. Now tourism is one of the main incomes for the city and the "Linné university" is now spreading the power of knowledge around the world instead of war and fear of the Kings power. 

My reason for being at the station, admiring the view of the castle is that I have left my car at the garage to get my AC fixed and has to take the bus home. I just hope there is going to be some heatwaves left this summer as a compensation for the AC not working all of July.