Thursday, July 16, 2009

On a roadtrip to the Arctic Circle

Follow us along our 3000 km long journey through Sweden. This summer we took mum and niece (Lenas mum and niece that is) and drove to Juoksengi to visit dad and other relatives of Kenneth. We stoped to visit friends and saw a lot along the way but foremost it feels like we spent a lot of time in the car... We started of on July 2 at 11pm taking turns driving and sleeping. We followed the cost to Sundsvall and then went inland by Helgum, Lapplandsveckan, Vilhelmina...

It is for sure a beautiful country we have!

At 5 a'clock in the morning this our first night we were climbing (with our car) up the Vätteberg (Vättemountain) and was for sure enjoying the view we got from up there with the soft morning light and Indalsälven below.




After 7 hours in the car we were happy to see a bed! This bed was prepared in a chapel in Helgum, the village of peace as it seemed to me. We decided not to spend anymore nights driving but to stay the night in Helgum. So after a couple of hours of sleep we had a beautiful day with friends, swiming, some prayer and just a relaxed, nice time.
At this time we still had nice weather, later on we got some rain and greay clouds (quite nice considering the hours spent in the car).



So we stayed in the chapel over night before moving on.
A backyard that someone made into a tractor museum :-) there were plenty of them, mostly old ones though and quite rosty but beautiful...

Norrland have some beautiful scenerys! Here is midnight at Volglake in Vilhelmina and the roaring river Storforsen. Storforsen is the biggest free rapid in Europe



In Boden Lotta and Hans (sister of Lena) joined us for our time in Norrbotten, they had had a shaky night on the train but was soon enough ready for some sightseeing of the surroundings.
We got to see some young Sand Martins (Back Svala) when visiting
Gammelstad. Oh how cute they are.

As a lover of "Karl-Bertil Johnssons julafton" (Christopher's Christmas Mission) we had to visit "Bodens fästing" when beeing in Boden. In this film a Matchstick picture of the fort of Boden is given as a christmas present(in english one of Taj Mahal in sunset. So I guess that has to be our next visit). One may wonder what this picture really looked like though, the fortress consist of five different forts and I don't know how many hundred other locations around the city, the city of Boden is in fact the actual fort.
Anyway, as visiting our relatives in Boden we went on a tour of this military installations in the mountain.

One may think it's quiet and boring in Juoksengi, a village with only 401 inhabitans in the middle of nowhere.
But when we came there we had to fight to find time for recreation and spending time with dad. There was an market (in the rain) with everything from plastic tools to handcrafted knifes with carvings in reindeer horn and there was carbingo that gathered hundreds of cars, honking when getting the right numbers and my favorit, cowbingo :-) where we where hoping for the cow to do a poo in a surten number...

Then of course we had to make our way to Finland that's just on the other side of the river, to enjoy and shop some finish design.

And so after 8 days with lots more happening than we mentioned here, we were going back home again. With some more friends and family that we visited along the way.

And then, finally, home sweet home :-)

Borta bra men hemma bäst.