Luleå - Råneå

This morning Nicolas goes shopping for all kinds of treats (blueberry and chocolate muffins, cinnamon bun, etc.) at the Coop in Luleå, which we then eat together for breakfast in the hotel room. Then we pack and check out. We go for another walk through Luleå and see the famous crane at the old harbour, which used to be used to load containers onto ships.

Trade through the harbour was and still is Luleå’s most important trade route. That is why we can also see several nuclear icebreakers, which are still used to clear the metre-thick ice in the sea so that merchant ships can pass. Since these icebreakers are lent out between all the Scandinavian countries, some of those we can see have already been to Greenland and the Arctic.

We drive on to Luleå Gammelstad, the original founding site of Luleå. In the 15th century a massive Catholic church was built there (which still stands today) to impress the Russians, who kept showing an interest in this area, and to mark a Swedish presence. Annina buys postcards there and we look at the open-air museum from the outside. We cannot go into the buildings at the moment, as the main tourist season has not yet begun.

We would like to have lunch by a lake, so we pick out a nice spot on the lake and want to get some takeaway. We go to a MAX fast-food restaurant and order two larger salads and chili cheese nuggets. The pothole-ridden road we planned to take to the lake gets narrower and narrower. But we do not turn back and keep driving until we are standing right in front of the lake. There we eat in the warm, dry car, since it is raining outside by now, but still with a view of the lake and a feel of nature. On the way back along the gravel track we see a wild hare hopping along in front of us. Pure “aww” feeling.

Next stop is Villa Melderstein Herrgård in Råneå, where we spend the night today (and yet it is the cheapest night we have had here in Sweden so far).

When we arrive, we are already expected. The lady of the house walks straight up to us and shows us our room and the shared kitchen. We would actually have had a shared bathroom too, but since nobody but us has booked here at the moment, we now have our own private bathroom after all.

We go for a walk around the large estate and come past a rushing river that used to supply the estate and other houses with hydroelectric power. Back then the turbine did produce a respectable 50 horsepower, but it is no longer in operation because it was not reliable enough. In winter the river is usually completely frozen, which of course rules out generating electricity from hydropower.

We only have to pour hot water over the ready meals we bought earlier, and can then eat them in our room. We have a beautiful view of the surrounding fields, and towards evening it suddenly turns properly sunny, before thick fog rolls in, which together with the red of the sunset creates a mystical mood.

We keep editing our photos and play a few more rounds of Mastermind. When we go to bed, it is still light. It feels as if it is either only 5 pm or 7 am, totally confusing for our natural sleep rhythm.