Sweden - Becky Ohlsen [219]
Statens Järnväg (Swedish Railways; SJ; 0771-75 75 75; www.sj.se) trains run as far north as Härnösand; beyond there the line darts inland to connect to places further north and on to Finland and Norway, mostly via night train. Länstrafiken buses (bookable through the SJ website) fill some of the route gaps.
Due to be completed in 2010 or 2011, the Skr13.2-billion, 190km Botniabanan (www.botniabanan.se), a single-track railway being laid from the bridge over Ångermanälven north of Kramfors via Örnsköldsvik to Umeå, will speed travellers along at up to 250km/h.
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GÄSTRIKLAND
GÄVLE
026 / pop 92,000
Infamous among certain naughty youngsters because its name sounds a lot like a Swedish curse word, Gävle is a lively industrial centre and university town with several things to see and do. It’s situated about 175km north of Stockholm, along the newly improved E4 motorway.
The university has some 13,500 students, and this fact may account for the city’s affection for cheesy theme bars like Church Street Saloon, but it also adds a certain energy to the parks and street life. Gävle is home to an important regional museum, which (perhaps because of the city’s large student population) is extra hip. The city seems to have a sense of humour about itself, judging by the oft-repeated legend of the Julbock (Christmas Goat); ask for details at the tourist office or look for signboards around town retelling the story.
Information
The tourist office (14 74 30; www.gastrikland.com; Gallerian 9:an, Drottninggatan 9; 10am-7pm Mon-Fri, 10am-4pm Sat, noon-4pm Sun) is inside a shopping centre on a pedestrianised street.
Banks and services line Drottninggatan and Stortorget. The public library (Slottstorget 1; 9am-7pm Mon-Thu, 9am-6pm Fri, 10am-3pm Sat & Sun), near the bridge Rådmansbron, is a cool hang-out, with an internet cafe and a regular cafe as well as local information (and books).
Sights & Activities
Founded in 1446, Gävle is officially Norrland’s oldest town, but not much of its original incarnation remains. A fire in 1869 wiped out most of the old wooden buildings that formed the town’s core. Today the little cluster that survived the fire is preserved in the rickety jumble that is Gamla Gefle, just south of the city centre. It’s fun to wander through and surprisingly easy to get lost in, considering its tiny size. One of the houses is now Joe Hill-gården (61 34 25; Nedre Bergsgatan 28; admission free; 10am-3pm Jun-Aug), a museum marking the birthplace of the US labour-union organiser. Hill was wrongly convicted of a murder and executed in Utah in 1915. Some of his poetry forms part of the memorial here.
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OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES
Åre for hiking, biking and skiing
Höga Kustenleden for hiking
Jämtland Triangle for hiking and fishing
Skuleskogen National Park for hiking and fishing
Rogen Nature Reserve for canoeing
Helagsfjället for hiking
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The county museum, Länsmuseum Gävleborg (65 56 00; www.lansmuseet.se; Södra Strandgatan 20; adult/child Skr50/free, admission free Wed; 10am-4pm Tue-Fri, 10am-9pm Wed, noon-4pm Sat & Sun), has beautifully designed exhibitions on regional culture through the ages, from the ‘golden era’ (mid-19th century) to modern times, with recreated sitting rooms and shopfronts, the life stories of key figures in Gävle’s history, and multimedia augmentation (a speaker plays recordings of a Swedish ship trader’s love letters; a video screen shows old advertisements for Läkerol pastilles starring Björn Borg). Gävle’s porcelain factory played a huge role in local industrial development, and you can see some of its finer specimens here. Temporary exhibits are more cutting-edge; a recent one spotlighted graffiti.
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INLANDSBANAN
Until the early 20th century, Norrland’s rich natural resources had been left largely unexploited. The Inlandsbanan (Inland Railway) was intended to change this by opening up the northern forests and mountains for colonisation and development.
Digging ditches, excavating gravel,