I just returned from the International Symposium on Graph Drawing and Network Visualization, held this year in Norrköping, Sweden. Norrköping was an early paper and textile milling town, set at the mouth of the Motala ström, a river that flows into the Baltic Sea. At this point of the river, a cascade of three waterfalls, Norrköpingsfallen, provided power for the mills. The old industrial buildings surrounding the falls have largely survived but been turned to other uses. The conference was held in the Louis de Geer Concert & Congress, at the lowest and biggest of these falls. Despite having long since been dammed and tamed, it was still spectacular.

Red multistory industrial buildings rise behind the tallest cascade of Norrköpingsfallen, a wall of water that in the photo appears to be taller than the buildings (it is not).

The biggest cascade was just upstream of the concert hall, with some lower cascades below it, forming a peaceful waterside park area that we had available for our conference coffee and lunch breaks. Or, if you stayed inside, the foyer to the conference room was still decorated by a view of the park:

Reeds grow in a backwater of the Motala ström, as seen through a window in a stairway of the Louis de Geer Concert & Congress. The rail of the stair cuts diagonally downward from upper right to lower left.

Here is another view looking towards the waterside park and conference rooms (on the lower park level) from near the falls just upstream.

The Louis de Geer Concert & Congress, as seen from near the falls just upstream. The building rises on the right side of the window, with a large glass bay window framing an upstairs dining room of the concert hall. To the lower left, a small grassy area surrounded by the water of the river holds a small square cottage shaded by a large tree.

The weather cooperated beautifully the entire time: we had crisp fall temperatures in the daytime, still above freezing at night, and mostly blue skies.

Looking upstream towards the falls from the park outside the lower level of the Louis de Geer Concert & Congress. The blue sky is reflected off the glass windows of the concert hall at the left, and off the river flowing towards the lower right. The falls are partly visible behind a concrete bridge. Rose-gold buildings rise behind them, center, while industrial machinery is still visible on the upper right.

For more of my pictures from Norrköping (in and around this part of the city), see my photo gallery.

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