Lund

I take a day trip to Lund, a university town in southern Sweden, to give a talk about how economists estimate the impact of climate change in front of meteorologists, hydrologists, biologists, and other non-economic scientists.

After the talk, I explore the town by following the Lund Tourist Office's walking tour route. Honestly speaking, I didn't expect anything from such a small city of 100,000 people. Lund, however, turns out to be quite pretty a city.

First, the cathedral (see the above picture), constructed around 1100, one of the oldest in Sweden. The light blue roofs match nicely in a modest way with white and black stones of the walls. The appearance from outside is rather attracting to me.

Then dotted across the northeastern part of the city are the cottages with walls of a distinct pattern: thick black grids on either white walls or red-brick walls. I've never seen such a pattern elsewhere.

And houses along the cobbled streets, especially on Adelgatan (see the photo below). They are very nicely coloured and do not intrude each other even though each has its own color. The color of walls nicely fits the color of window frames.

In addition, The Botanic Garden is likely to be pleasant during the summertime.

For dinner, I spot a nicely decorated restaurant serving seafoods in a Swedish style. At Klostergatans Fisk (Klostergatan 12), I have "3 flavors of Swedish herring with a small “Janssons frestelse”, boiled egg and cumin-cheese" for a starter. All of the three pickled herring taste very nice, especially the one with peppercorns and chopped onions. So does the Janssons frestelse, a Swedish speciality. And I manage to enjoy eating cumin-cheese even though I don't like cheese in general (unless it's melt).

For the main dish, I choose "Pan-fried monkfish with a grilled crayfish, orange flavored hollandaise and parmesan potato". Monkfish is amazingly juicy (it squirts when I try to slice it with a knife), and orange flavored hollandaise perfectly matches with the texture and taste of monkfish. The crayfish is good, too.

With a very pleasant waitress serving me, a glass of Chilean chardonnay Estampa, and a well-coordinated interior (light-blue candle glasses, black and light-blue abstract paintings covered blatantly with white paint on the walls, pitch-white table clothes, and brown chairs and aprons of waitresses), I have a fantastic dinner even though I am eating alone.