Sweden – Norrland East and Jämtland (Umeå, Östersund) July 25-26, 2019
I came from Trondhiem Norway on E14 and crossed into Sweden.
Tännforsen Waterfall. 50kms from the Norway/Sweden border turn north for 8.2kms to reach the parking area. Reach a lake, then a long cascade to the falls over a a slate bedrock lip, the remnant of a Scandinavian mountain range 500 million years old. The falls are 37m high and large volume over a crest 6om across. They fall into a pool and then a gentle cascade into another big lake.
It has been a tourist attraction all year around for 150 years (and before that, pilgrims passed on their way to Trondheim). During springtime, as much as 740 cubic meters per second pass when the snow melts. In the winter, there is not much water but the falls becomes a giant ice sculpture.
There were a lot of backpackers here and I talked to 3 young Germans to find out what was happening. They were on one of the five pilgrimage routes to Trondhiem Cathedral. This one starts in Sundsvall, Sweden – they started part way along the route. One had done the Camino Portuguese and another had walked ~3000kms from Germany on the Vezalay route through France to Santiago. I don’t meet many people who have walked more camino than me.
ÖSTERSUND
I stopped by the arena, a gorgeous modern building. The county all-star under-15 hockey team was practicing as part of the selection process for the national under-15 hockey tournament that involves all 24 counties in Sweden. I talked to one of the parents who shared all the same issues we had as hockey parents.
I was able to scam a shower in one of the change rooms.
Jamtli, Östersund. This Open-Air Museum traces local history from 1785 through relocated farms, guest houses, cabins, crofts, a bus, service station and homes dating to modern times with a 1975 home.
The associated museum has Sami culture, Vikings (Overhogdal tapestries from 1040-1170), traveling to market, ancient hunting, and stories from 1750-1850. SEK 290, no reduction
ÅRE (pop 1,500)
25% of the municipal industry is based on tourism, most notably downhill skiing and biking resorts in Åre, Duved and Storlien. The growth in tourism has resulted in the development of hotels, recreational and shopping opportunities in the area.
Åre Bergbana is a funicular railway located in Åre, It is 790 metres (2,590 ft) long and runs between the town square at 398 metres to the Fell Farmat 556m. The funicular was built as the first fixed link up to the fell by Von Roll from 1908 to 1910 at a cost of 230,000 SEK. The funicular itself, the two log station buildings, a park and The Cave — the street going from the town square station to the old railway station are listed buildings.
Access the bottom in the town below the highway (the funicular passes under the highway). The funicular is a single track with a double by-passing track half way. This has unusual dates and hours: June 21-August 11 and from 10am to 3pm. SEK60 up and down.
Åreskutan is a 1,420-metre-high (4,660 ft) mountain at Åre. It is one of the better-known mountains in Sweden. The mountain (and the village of Åre itself) is easily accessible by train. The mountain massif has Sweden’s largest ski resort. From February 3 to 18, 2007, Åre was the host for the 2007 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships. In 1999, Åre was the host of the UCI Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships.
Västanåfallet. The falls are located about three kilometers south of the village of Viksjö, on the Eksjöåns River, and have a height of 90 meters. The river then joins the Mjällån river. The Västanå ironworks opened near the falls in 1744, and operated through 1867, and some remnants of those operations remain on site, including an old smithy building dating from the 1700s.
The falls are in a 17-acre nature reserve established in 1978 with an old lodge with exhibits about the history of the site and area, and also hosts popular local events. This waterfall is not so spectacular as it is a small creek that cascades down a hillside. Around it is the Kultur Centrum, a nature trail with signs describing local animals, a stage with log seating and a large grassy area with many picnic tables. At the bottom, the creek is directed through several channels and sluices.
Alnön is an island in the Gulf of Bothnia just outside Sundsvall. It has an area of 67.79 km2 and a permanent population of 8,298, although its summertime inhabitants are about twice that number. Most of the island’s inhabitants work in Sundsvall and other towns on the mainland.
The island is 15 km long and 6 km wide on the widest spot. It is connected to the mainland by a 1,042-meter-long (3,419 ft) bridge, which was the longest bridge in Sweden when it was opened in 1964.
The island saw a population boom in the second half of the 19th century, due to the development of steam-driven sawmills. In 1850 the island had 950 inhabitants, mainly farmers and fishermen, but by 1900 the population had grown to almost 7,000, following the establishment of 18 sawmills between 1860 and 1897.
SUNDSVALL (52,000)
History. The town was chartered in 1621. It has a port by the Gulf of Bothnia, and is located 395 km north of Stockholm. The city has burned down and been rebuilt four times. The first time, in 1721, it was set on fire by the Russian army during the Russian Pillage of 1719-1721.
Swedish industrialism started in Sundsvall when the Tunadal sawmill bought a steam-engine driven saw in 1849. In the early 20th century Sundsvall was an even greater centre of forestry industry in Sweden than it is today. The first large Swedish strike was the “Sundsvall strike” in 1879. The industrial heritage makes social democrat and socialist sympathies more prevalent in the Sundsvall region than in Sweden as a whole.
In 1888 on the 25 June, strong wind and dry conditions contributed to the Sundsvall fire was the largest in Sweden’s history. After the fire, the decision was to rebuild using stone. Sundsvall’s centre was later nicknamed Stenstaden (the stone city). Today Sundsvall is not only dominated by the pulp and paper industry, and the aluminum production but there are also banks, insurance companies, telecommunications administration and a number of large public data-processing centres such as the national social insurance board. The main campus of the newly established Mid Sweden University (Mittuniversitetet) is also located in the city.
Sundsvall Museum. The museum is in a spectacular complex of 4 buildings all covered by a large glass skylight. The temporary exhibit was the Swedish photographer Paul Hansen with wonderful photos of some of the troubled spots in the world: Haiti, Kenya, Congo, Afghanistan. The permanent exhibit upstairs shows Sundsvall history. Free
DECORATED FARMHOUSES OF HÄLSINGLAND
A Hälsingland farm or Hälsingegård is a farm or former farm in Hälsingland, Sweden, with preserved cultural and historical value.
History. The farmhouses of Hälsingland are a cultural heritage and an example of traditional Swedish construction technique in the old farmer’s society in Hälsingland. The magnificent dwelling houses of the farms have become symbols of the term Hälsingland farms, although the farm as a production unit, including out buildings and land, is what constitutes a Hälsingland farm.
The Hälsingland farms reflect the rural construction techniques, using only wood, and are an expression of the popular architecture; the farmer’s way of building as it evolved when means flourished. To depict a general idea of the Hälsingland farm is difficult as they vary between parishes and periods of time.
The uniqueness of these farms lie in the farmer’s ambition to build big. Nowhere in the world is such a collection of large farms as in Hälsingland.
The farms have large and elaborately decorated dwelling houses, often two or three, sometimes housing several generations, whereas some houses were used only for festivities and others for sleeping, so called ”bed-cottages”. Most often they were two stories, but there are also examples of one story cottages with room for two families.
The well-constructed dwelling houses, often lavishly designed with profiled roof-bases, elegantly profiled joinery work around windows and beautifully decorated doorways, mainly represent the construction style of the 19th century, but there are also older farms with low, unpainted houses built in a square shape around the yard, as well as start-of-the-20th-century buildings with rich ”carpenters joy” and large porches.
For periods of time, each parish had their own style of constructing, mainly shown in the lavish front porches and otherwise elaborate entrances. Some areas, foremost the coastal parishes, lacked front porches entirely; instead they had more costly doors and door fittings.
Inside the farms houses of Hälsingland are magnificent and well-preserved interiors with art painted on the walls, stencilled wall decorations, and expensive wallpaper. Biblical motifs were transformed into Hälsingland milieu, funny stories and cautionary tales mixed in the artwork with the decorative style of the wandering painters from Dalarna, characterized by religious motifs, ribbons and large flowers. Expensive, imported wallpaper was combined with popular painting into something entirely new, and the stencilled paintings in many places flowed onto walls, ceilings and fireplaces. The amount of well-preserved interiors kept in its original site, is unique in the world.
With the farms in Hälsingland also came a large number of out buildings, freely placed outside the courtyard. Grand barns, large log cabins, smithies, breweries, grain storage houses, stables and liveries all give a picture of the system of many outhouses, which by the end of the 19th century was replaced by large multifunctional buildings that housed many functions under the same roof.
Often the farms of Hälsingland are connected to other buildings such as mills, water works, and summer farms, providing us with a glimpse into the culture of Hälsingland. The farms are placed in village structures of the olden days, with roots in prehistoric times, only partly changed from the original 19th century sites.
Still today, there are around one thousand farmhouses of Hälsingland preserved in the province, all with their own story to tell. Some of them have been nominated to UNESCO list of World Heritage.
The Halsingland farmers cutsotm of building large and decorating lavish rooms for festivities reached it speak in the 1800s. the rooms were used only for really important occasions like weddings. The farmer’s healty finances were based on agriculture and animal husbandry, linen and trading.
Listed farmhouses
Bollnäs Municipality: Gästgivars, Vallsta
Ljusdal Municipality: Bommars, Letsbo, Bortom åa, Fågelsjö, Kristofers, Järvsö
Ovanåker Municipality: Jon-Lars, Alfta, Pallars, Alfta
Söderhamn Municipality: Erik-Anders, Söderala
Kristofers, Järvsö. This has occupied the same site since the early 1800s, previously it was in the center of the village. The guest house is unique with many well preserved rooms on two floors. The renowned folk art painter Abders Adel decorated the interior in the 1850s with elegant free hand floral paintings. The farm has been in the same family for 14 generations and is still active in agriculture and forestry today.
The farm in privately owned and not open to the public. A tour must be booked www.kristofers.se or www.stenegard.se
Gästgivars, Vallsta. The farm has its origins in the Middle Ages, but the main buildings were built in the 1800s. The northernmost building, the large festivities building, was decorated by the influential Swedish painter Jonas Wallstrom in the mid 1800s. He imitated Wedgewood’s finest English porcelain and he developed a way of stenciling that spread to other parts of Sweden.
It is privately owned but open during the summer through Ardrä Handicrafts Society that holds tours, exhibitions and handcraft classes. There is a restaurant here.
Supposedly one is to book tours through the two addresses on the sign board, but I arrived at 3:30 and there was a tour at 4 that I was able to join. SEK 100 (but the credit card machine did not work, I didn’t have kronas and she wouldn’t take € so I went free).
The tour was very well done by a young woman who was quite enthusiastic.
Järvzoo, Järvsö. This zoo has Scandinavian animals: brown bear, muskox, red fox, lynx, wolverine, wolf, moose, deer, reindeer and several raptors including many kinds of owls. It is an a lovely wooded setting with boardwalk between all the enclosures. SEK 225, no reduction
GÃVLE (pop 101,000)
It is the oldest city in the historical Norrland (Sweden’s Northern Lands), having received its charter in 1446. However, Gävle is far nearer the greater Stockholm region than it is to the other major settlements in Norrland.
In recent years, the city has received a lot of international attention due to its large Yule Goat figure made of straw – the Gävle Goat. The goat is erected in December each year and is often subsequently vandalised, usually by someone setting it on fire. The goat has now become a symbol for the city and is being used for various marketing purposes.
Swedish Railway Museum.
NOMAD MANIA Sweden – Norrland East and Jämtland (Umeå, Östersund)
World Heritage Sites: Decorated Farmhouses of Hälsingland
Borders:
Norway-Sweden
Sweden (sea border/port)
Airports: Skellefteå (SFT)
Railway, Metro, Funiculars, Cable Cars
Åre Bergbana Funicular
Åreskutan Cable Car
Inlandsbanan
Norsjö aerial tramway
Sweden Intercity Railway Experience
Museums: Skelleftea: Skelleftea Museum
World of Nature
Björnlandet
Färnebofjärden
Hamra
Skuleskogen
Festivals:
Getaway Rock Festival
Umea Kulturnatta
Experiences:
Play Brännboll
Play/hear drejelire/nyckelharpa
Zoos:
Järvsö: Järvzoo
Lycksele Zoo
Waterfalls
Tännforsen
Västanåfallet
Caves
Hoverberg Cave
Korallgrottan
Ski Resorts
Åre ski resort
Tärnaby-Hemavan
Vemdalen
Open-Air Museums: Östersund: Jamtli
European Cities
GÃVLE
Railway Museums: Gavle: Swedish Railway Museum
SUNDSVALL
Airports: Sundsvall (SDL)
Islands: Alnön
Museums: Sundsvall Museum
UMEÀ
Airports: Umea (UME)
Museums:
Bildmuseet
Energicentrum
Guitars The Museum
Museum of Women’s History (Kvinnohistoriskt Museum)
Västerbottens museum