Trip to Norrland: Day 4 - Adventure and Wilderness

Taking farewell of Kalix and my friend Maria, the trip now turned back south and west. First, I felt that the last days relatively cold weather had made my children a little disappointed in the bathing department so I decided I would surpass them with the adventure bath in Piteå, Pite Havsbad, which they loved of course. The prices were quite impressive, a family ticket for four cost only 250 SEK and then the lock for the locker is included in the price. Five stars for value for price, and then Pite Havsbad really is zoo much more if you want to stay longer (super big sand beaches, entertainment, tivoli, spa, etc, etc), but we had to move on.
Next stop was Svansele, maybe 60 km inland from Skellefteå. Svansele Vildmarkscenter (Wilderness Center) is a kind of multitasking entertainment/conference/museum center that you have to visit to really appreciate. When we arrived the host (sorry forgot the name…) hade local food frying in the pans over the fire and rugs spread out at the sitting place. We used wood for plates and sat among the wild animal exhibition, an impressive diorama spanning 6 or 7 rooms and hundreds of animals, recreated in a believable setting by maybe Swedens best taxidermist, who grew up nearby. The Wilderness Cnter also  offer the newly built Knutes Hotel, with modern facilities (and great internet connection…), where we stayed for the night. We also took time to visit my (ex)-colleague who moved this week from Västerås to Böle close to Svansele. He moved back up here to become a principal in Norsjö municipality. His family has also owned the carpentry in Böle since 1923 (I think).

Trip to Norrland: Day 3 - Water, water, everywhere!

Todays theme was water. First we ate breakfast at Byske Havsbad, and then we visited Storforsen. Byske Havsbad is a splendid sandy beach north of Skellefteå. The weather was a bit to cold for bathing but we had a great time anyway. Storforsen ("Big Rapids") is one of Europes biggest rapids, and it is impossible to catch the massive power we felt close to it. It was like a mountainside continuously tumbling down. I really recommend this. After that we went to stay at my friend Maria's place in Kalix. This also means we reached our Northernmost point of this trip, after roughly 1200 km of road.