The Long Way Home

The plan was to hang around Luleå for most of the day before heading to Stockholm on an afternoon flight.  Sadly, the Norrbotten Museum was closed, so we just drove around a bit before heading out to the airport.  Spent the night in an airport hotel in Stockholm.

When we woke up the next morning and checked the weather for the coming days, we realized we would be landing in Denver in what they were calling a "bomb cyclone", which didn't appeal to either of us.  So we got to the airport a bit early, checked in our bags and then contacted Icelandair to see about changing our tickets to a different day.  Turns out, we could have done this easily, BEFORE we checked in our bags, but now the whole series was "active" and no changes could be made.

As soon as we had retrieved our bags in Reykjavik (where we had planned to spend one night), Sheila got back in touch with Icelandair through their very useful Facebook app.  We decided that we'd leave enough time for the predicted chaos at DIA to work itself out, and stay until Saturday (four nights, rather than one).  It wasn't a cheap choice, but we were very happy we made it.  Our original flight left on Wednesday, about 30 minutes late, and landed in Minneapolis.  It didn't leave for Denver until well into Thursday afternoon.  We were much more comfortable at Erik the Red, where there were luckily rooms available.

So....extra days in Reykjavik.  On Wednesday, after a tasty lunch at Kornið bakery, we joined the Free Walking Tour, led by a very entertaining local comedian, who kept the whole crowd with him despite ever-increasing snowfall.  We got some exercise, and learned some history.

On Thursday, we walked over to the National Museum.  We'd been to it before, but it had been about 6 years, and we hadn't really seen everything.  Plus, it was a lovely day for a walk...one of the things we like about staying at Erik the Red is that it seems to be about a 15-minute walk from almost anything you might want to see.

Bronze clasps for aprons or dresses

Viking-age jewelry

Drinking horns

Drinking horn

Women's jewelry

Icelandic folk costume

 

Yarn holders for knitting

Lady's side-saddle

Friday, we rented a car and, following the advice of the Birding Iceland FB page, drove out to Seltjanes Peninsula on a beautiful sunny day, to see what we could see.  Nothing earth-shattering in terms of rarities, but all birds we don't get to see at home.


After a couple of hours on Seltjanes, we went back through Reykjavik and out to Álftanes.  We didn't have a lot of luck in terms of birds out there, but it was a good excuse to be outdoors, and we got some nice views of Reykjavik from a distance, and even Snæfellsnes Peninsula off in the distance.


Saturday, our flight wasn't until 5, so we kept the car and went to Gardbæer, where we didn't see any birds except a few eiders in the distance, but Sheila enjoyed the walk through the lava field.  Lars has seen and walked through many lava fields, so he was less impressed by the experience.


We had to turn the car in by 11, and since it was such a lovely day we decided to walk back over to Perlan and take advantage of the clear sky for some better shots of Reykjavik. 


Ended up cutting it a BIT close getting out to Keflavik (the shuttle bus was late....), but made our flight home to Denver, where there were few signs left of the "bomb cyclone".  Happy not to have had to spend any nights in airports!  We are now slowly recovering from the jetlag.

Arvidsjaur

And finally, off to Arvidsjaur, or Árviesjávrrie in the Northern Sami language!  We've been really looking forward to this part of the trip, out into Swedish Lappland, only a few miles short of the Arctic Circle.  The pictures of one of the ski areas, Vittjåkk, were especially appealing.

There's a sporting goods store a short block from our hotel here in Luleå, and they rent skis, so we were on their doorstep as soon as they opened on Thursday morning.  We got our skis...the same sort of Fischer Twin-skins Sheila liked back in Bruksvallarna....tossed them into the car and set off on the (theoretically) two-hour drive.  As is often the case, it took us somewhat longer.  Despite being a sunny day, the roads were rather icy....I don't know when it was last above freezing here, but it has apparently been a while.

There has been some commentary, that we came such a long way for it to look so much like Colorado.  See pics later in the post to dispel this idea.

Once we arrived in Arvidsjaur, we had some time to kill before we could get into our AirBnB apartment, so we drove over to look at the closest ski area, Rymmarstadion.  We stopped in at a nearby campgroud / youth hostel, Camp Gielas, to ask about trail passes, and discovered that all the cross-country trails are free!

We had thought we might ski a bit before going to the apartment, but decided it made more sense to go get some groceries before meeting Mady, the caretaker.  The apartment's owner, Sven, lives in Germany.  LOTS of Germans come here....it's a major center for automobile testing every winter.
For those who are interested, here is a link to the Winter Automobile Test Site. SPGA — Swedish Proving Ground Association . As you can see from the little map, the Test Site is at more areas than just Arvidsjaur, also Jokkmokk, Arjeplog, Älvsbyn and Luleå. All are within Swedish Lappland - rather a striking overlay of modern technology on the homeland of ancient reindeer herders. At Jokkmokk is a really wonderful museum of all things Lapplander -- Sheila and Lars spent a day there many years ago and Lars first visited the much earlier version of the museum decades ago.

The drive hadn't been too stressful, but we decided to just settle in for the evening.  We could see the lit-up ski runs across the lake from our apartment, and were really looking forward to getting out in the morning.

In the morning, our view was more like this....

....but we went out anyway.  There aren't many pictures of skiing in Arvidsjaur, as the temperatures were between 14 and 18F (-10 to -8C), and pretty windy, so the effort to take off gloves in order to take pics....well, it just wasn't happening.  Although there are lots of trails around Rymmarstadion, the trail map was confusing.  

The colors on Swedish trail maps indicate the LENGTH of the trail, rather than the difficulty.  And nobody had been out to set tracks, so it was our best guess where to go.  Someone had skiied earlier, so we opted to follow their tracks....which of course headed out on the 7.5k (longest) trail, which was clearly marked as a one-way.  So we decided to just ski around close to the buildings for awhile.  Breaking trail in 4" of powder gets a bit tiring, so we went back to the apartment (5 minutes away) for a break. We ate lunch at Hans i Hornet (Hans in the Corner), a little bakery/cafe that didn't look that great from the outside, but which had a delicious open-faced sandwich of shaved reindeer meat, mushrooms, and cheese.  We really like reindeer!  It's delicious!

After lunch, we decided to head for Vittjåkk, with the help of the car's built-in GPS.  Which proved to be a mistake.  We had gone a fair ways off the main highway on a snow-packed road, when the GPS said to make a left turn into a much narrower road.  We were suspicious, as the ski area had been well-marked up to this point, but made the turn anyway.  And immediately decided it was wrong.  But...in trying to turn the car in the completely white landscape, in flat afternoon lighting, we managed to pile into a snowbank.  And get stuck.  Lars was doing his best to un-stick us, using a ski as a shovel, when Sheila managed to flag down a passing vechicle on the wider road.  The exactly RIGHT passing vehicle, as it turned out.  It was a couple who lived up near the ski area, and the guy not only knew that our rental car HAD to have a towing hitch, he figured how how to deploy it (take off a panel in the rear luggage area and push a button....).  He then went home, got a tow-rope (still in its packaging), came back and yanked us out.  He said it happens a lot, which is why he owned a tow-rope.

Somehow, by this point we had lost all interest in skiing at Vittjåkk, so went back to Rymmarstadion....our earlier tracks were still visible, and we did a couple of short loops, sort of in the spirit of "get back on the horse".  Still snowing, still cold and windy.  We knew it would be, of course, and had brought the right clothing, but still not conducive to pulling out your phone to take pics.

The next morning, it was STILL snowing.  We went back to the stadium, where our tracks from the day before had almost vanished completely.  Breaking trail in 7" of powder is even more tiring than 4"!  And Sheila had the wrong combo of gloves, so her hands got VERY cold, so we made our same short loop and availed ourselves of the warming hut for about 30 minutes.  We got a couple of pics from inside. 

Then we decided we should head for the trees, in the hopes of getting out of the wind, and also seeing something more appealing than a biathon stadium.  And so you FINALLY get a few pics of skiing in Lappland!

We went back to Hans i Hornet for another renskav macka, although this time we split it....they're BIG!  And then had room for dessert.  Lars had a choklad bolle, Sheila got her favorite mazarin....one of the best ever.  We did a bit more grocery shopping, and decided we'd had enough skiing.  Seemed like a better idea to rest up before the drive back to Luleå, which was showing every indication of being a slow one, as the snow was supposed to keep going for yet another day.  We did go and grab some pics of the Arvidsjaur church, which is an unusual style.  It's fairly modern, having been built in 1908.

In the morning, we brushed the car off yet again, and headed back to the coast.  It was a bit slower, as expected, largely because any time a car passed us in either direction, we had to slow down until the small blizzard settled down.  The disadvantages of powder snow!  We snagged a few pics on the way back.

Ummmm....THREE tire tracks??  Shouldn't there be four????

YIKES!!!!

Not Colorado.

Nope.

Still not Colorado.

Not this, either....

This was sometimes the only way to be sure where the road actually was!

When we got to Luleå, we realized that they had gotten even more snow than Arvidsjaur!  There is now a large mountain across the street from the hotel, that wasn't there 4 days ago.  And we had been wondering why the sidewalks in both cities were so wide....they plow them with full-size snowplows and/or skiploaders.  Here's one on the sidewalk by the hotel, as seen from our room.

We're back at Elite Stadshotellet, with a bit of an upgrade.  We're tired, and figured we deserve it.

And that's more or less it for this trip.  Tomorrow, we spend most of the day here (it's supposed to not be snowing, so we hope to be able to get out and see some more of the city), then fly to Stockholm, overnight near the airport, fly to Reykjavik, spend a day there, and fly home on Wednesday.  There might yet be another post, depending on what we get up to here and in Reyk, but the main events are over.

Luleå

Been a busy few days, so we’ve gotten behind again!

Neither of us had ever been to Luleå (LOO-lee-oh), so we opted to fly there and spend a couple of days, and then rent a car and drive to Arvidsjaur, though we could have flown on a teeny-tiny plane, to a teeny-tiny airport….but we wanted to see a bit more of Swedish Lappland, and driving is a good way to do that.  Lars took some pics of the coast as we were approaching the airport.  Luleå is at the very top of the Gulf of Bothnia, and the ice below made some interesting shapes and textures, perhaps depending on if the sea was calm or rough when the ice formed.

Luleå is home to a large technical university (Luleå Tekniska Universitet), and feels much like most university towns either of us have ever been in.  The main shopping street was pretty busy, for being –10C (14F), with a lot of the college-age kids dressed much like they would be at home….though it seems like a tough climate for the torn jeans look.  WE were thoroughly bundled up whenever we went out…a process somewhat complicated by the hotel we stayed at blasting hot air just inside the doors.  Approach door with coat unzipped, hat and gloves in hand. Go through door and IMMEDIATELY zip up and cover head and hands.  Reverse process on the way in.

We got a great deal from Norwegian Airlines on our hotel stay at Luleå's grand old hotel, Elite Stadshotellet.  They've done a great job of updating the rooms while maintaining the 1900s feel of the public spaces.

Elite Stadshotellet

Our room, before we filled it with suitcases

View from our room...Luleå Cathedral

Pretty fancy for a breakfast room---otherwise used for major functions.

Every breakfast room should have a chandelier....

Lounge as seen from 2nd floor

This brings us to the related point that every hotel room we’ve stayed in has had the radiators set at 20C (68F), which seems rather too warm when going in and out from much lower temps.  Sheila has developed the habit of immediately turning down every radiator she can find (they sometimes hide them….) to as low as possible, as soon as we come in the door on the first day.  So far, this has kept us at a comfortable temp for the entirety of our stay…the buildings are very well-insulated.

One very interesting feature of Luleå is its facilities for winter recreation.  Since the harbor is totally iced-in, they lay out skiing and skating paths all around the harbor and even out to some of the nearer small islands.  People go skating, skiing, or just walking on the sea-ice.  There are kick-sleds available at some locations, but it’s first-come, first-served, and we didn’t manage to score one.  We did go for a longish walk through town and down to the ice, but it was windy, so we didn’t spend much time actually on the ice.  There are a few points where windbreaks, grills, and picnic tables have been set out, and people were making good use of these.  We think the large blocks of ice indicate how thick the ice is!

Another tourist attraction in the area, the one people are most likely to ask if you’ll be going there, is Gammalstads Kyrkstad (Old Town’s Church Town), a UNESCO Heritage Site.  This is a few kilometers outside of Luleå.  Gammalstad is where the original settlement was, but it proved better for business to be nearer the harbor.  So Luleå moved, and the old town got a new name…Gammalstad.  The Church Town was a collection of small cottages owned by people from outlying villages, where they could spend the night, or even the weekend or longer, in order to attend church. The first map of the area was drawn up in 1817 (though the town was described as early as 1600), and it is believed that some of the cottages date from 100 years prior. The Kyrkstad has never experienced any large-scale fires or other catastrophes, and is the best-preserved site of its sort in all of Europe.  In order that there was someone left at home to look after the farm, there were alternating weekends for older family members and younger ones.  A lot of courtships happened at the latter!  We looked at some short films at the visitor center, and then went out to wander through the streets.  The cottages are still in use, for high church holidays and as summer homes.

Nederluleå Church, first opened in 1492 (!!)

Love me some nice hinges!!

Not in the church town proper, but at least someone knows how to have fun!