Visit to Gammelstad, Lulea SWEDEN

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A far better day today in every way.
First of all the weather was fantastic which always makes everything good.
We showered in the Tandy, after lugging several containers of water from the sanitaires, as it was obvious that the campsite showers were unlikely to be free. Went down at 9am and amazingly they were closed for cleaning. Great timing.
Bob got the scooter out of the garage and we drove to Gammelstad a few miles away. This is the original location of the city of Lulea which was moved to the new site, 8 kms away on the coast, when the water levels dropped / the land rose in the 1600s, leaving Gammelstad, once an island, without any water in its harbour.
Gammelstad is a Church town, now designated a Unesco World Heritage site as the largest remaining example of this unique way of Swedish life.
The centre of the town is of course the church, which has some wonderful internal decorations especially on the font.
Surrounding the church are the church cottages. These are all made of wood, most are really small and comprise a single living / bedroom, a tiny lobby and a wood store. The cottages were only inhabited on Church meeting occasions when the farmers from the area had, by law, to attend church but needed to stay overnight as it was too far to travel from their homes.
The cottages are now all painted in the now familiar dark red we have seen all over Sweden. They are laid out in streets, but often in a seemingly random pattern so there seem to be little red cottages everywhere. Delightful.
We had a really lovely time walking round, popping into the little shops, mainly local arts and crafts and had lunch at the beautifully presented outdoor museum at the bottom of the village. It was very good indeed to have the opportunity to visit this unique site and see something of another type of Swedish life.
Back at the campsite, after checking, at reception that it was open, we changed and went to the pool. This is a small version of a water-park with a wave machine and big water shoot. Fortunately the wave pool is 2 meters deep at one end so there was space for us to have a proper swim before we settled on sunbeds for a bit of very welcome sun- worshipping.

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Photos

Me and a well
in Gammelstad