Through the Eyes of a Woman

  I love bridges. They fascinate me. There are old stone bridges that have been there for centuries, some even thousands of years. How did their builders manage to construct a bridge in challenging places without the tools and machines that we use today? Sometimes we cross a bridge even without realizing that we are on one. There are a lot of bridges in need of repair on our European motorways. They have to be maintained. Some were even beyond repair and had to be replaced. We are shocked when a bridge collapses. Engineers who construct bridges have to be highly skilled people, considering the risks involved. A bridge can be an obstruction for other means of transportation. That is why drawbridges are needed in some places so that all traffic can continue unhindered. Bridges need to be built according to the local needs. Whether they are old bridges built of stone or the newest feats of modern engineering, bridges connect places, and people can cross from one side to the other.

  Every time we have passed through Sweden I have wanted to visit the little town of Gränna that is famous for its sugar candy called  polkagris , but we never left the motorway built along the shores of Lake Vettern above Gränna. There were always good reasons for bypassing Gränna. I had been there as a little child and wished to see the home of the  polkagris  again. As it happened, we finally visited the town built on the steep incline of the lakeshore last week. There was not much to see. Just one street, named after the 17th-century founder of the town, Count Per Brahe. The quaint old houses were pretty and the shop windows displayed all kinds of  polkagrisar  and invited passersby to come for a taste. I just wanted to make a few snapshots and continue on our way. Then I discovered a frame that told the story of Amalia Eriksson, the inventor of the  polkagris . Amalia (1824 – 1923) was an orphan who at the age of ten became a domestic servant to a family that moved to Grän