Nimis (Nov 11)

Today we visited another 'country' the micro-nation of Ladonia which was proclaimed in 1996.

The area came about thanks to a Swedish artist, Lars Vilks, who constructed wooden structures on the beach near Mölle in the Kullaberg nature park and named them Nimis (latin for too much) and Arx (latin for fortress) in 1980.

When they were discovered two years later, the council wanted them torn down as buildings were not allowed to be constructed on the nature reserve.

Vilks continued to protest and appeal the decisions but the final ruling was in favour of the government.

Two artists, Chriso and Jeanne-Claude purchased, Nimis and declared it a micro-nation in protest.

The nation of Ladonia is ruled by a Queen and President.  The current Queen is HRH Queen Carolyn, who resides in America and the president is selected tri-annually.  Vilks still serves as the state  secretary.

The micro-nation now has 17,752 registered citizens, all who live elsewhere.

More information can be found here.

It is quite difficult to get to Nimis - it is not signposted and is on a secluded beach.  We drove to the Kullaberg nature park, through Krapperup:

Krapperup

From there, we followed what was intially an easy bush walk, following the yellow 'N's painted on trees and rocks:

An 'N'

"Follow the Yellow N Road"

Looking through the trees at the beach

After a while, the way became much rockier and steeper.  We were lucky it hadn't been too wet because even with the slightly damp leaves, we had a few slips:

Heading down

When we eventually got near the bottom we were greeted with a tangle of wood that looked a little like the next of some enormous crazy bird, but eventually resolved itself into a staircase, tunnel and a couple of towers:

Tunnel

Heading down

Tomas makes his way down

View down to the towers

It was an interesting walk and a tight squeeze in some places

Nimis and Arx

Nimis

Towers

Alana and Cam exploring

Nimis from the beach

The beach

Arx - the Fortress

Exploring Arx

Cam and Alana made it to the top (Cam is the smear of blue)

The scarecrow

Tom at the top - red jacket

Cam with his walking stick

Alana and her stick

Alana and Cameron exploring

Climbing

Tom at the top

After Nimis, we headed back up the hill - it was a worse trip up but we made it in one piece.  We then decided to head out the the Gekås superstore at Ullared to get some clothes for the kids.  By the time we got there it was 2pm, we shopped until 4:30pm.  Since it was a Saturday near closing time, the lines were crazy!  There were over 30 checkouts open and each had at least 50 people waiting.  On top of that each person had an oversized trolley (at least) filled with a stack of shopping, so it was slow going.

By 7pm I took the kids outside to get some dinner, while Kris stayed in the line.  We ended up leaving around 8:30pm and arriving home around 11:00pm - it was a fun (well except for shopping and queues) but very long day.