Underground, part II

I love stuff like this, proof that there were real people here. This is an instruction sign, how to operate some of the machinery and the title of the page is: "Save your own cunning method. Do like this instead." Irony, huh.

On these contraptions shells were transported to the cannons on top of the fort.










I love how these soldiers walked by, slightly faster than the other visitors, as I was taking the picture. You get the impression of ghosts passing, haunting the place.

The newest-looking part of the interior was the doors to the ammunition rooms. And yellow is the colour that signals danger. What a good thing that the rooms are empty!

On top of all the dehumidifiers were small notebooks, the same kind we used to have in school, practising our English vocabulary, among other things. I love such details.

I did feel some kind of regret going out into the sunshine again, at the thought that we will be the last people to see this mountain from the inside. Unless some team of archeologists dig it out in some distant future, like Howard Carter exploring Egyptian tombs.

It really would have been rather difficult to get in at the time. Now, with no one standing guard, the wires are cut and adventurous kids are entering. And I have heard there are pictures posted on the internet, perhaps from this very fort.

There were several deep trenches dug into the granite outside the entrance, which we were also free to explore. The forrest had already begun to claim them, but some clearing had been done recently, perhaps for our convenienc.

There were some royal autographs on the walls near the entrance. These were from 1903, when Prince Carl and his Danish wife, Princess Ingeborg, visited. Carl was the son of Oscar II, whose name is also on another wall, probably being the first royalty to visit. Ingeborg´s grandfather and Carl´s uncle were Karl XV, so they were cousins, once removed. Or some such relation.

There are also the names of King Gustav VI Adolf and his English wife Louise, and our present king, Carl XVI Gustaf.

One would think that shells like these should litter the ground up there, but this was the only one I saw, just inside the gates. Perhaps they were more focused on the big guns.