2007-07-10 Lövånger-Övertorneå

374 km - Average speed 77 km/h

Diary notes

We woke at eight by the alarm clock. We had to get up because the breakfast was already paid for and they stopped serving it at nine. Very much mediocre and that was the last time we didn’t make our own breakfast. Elaine surfed a little Xinhuanet-news and then we took pictures of the miniature houses outside the restaurant. This Church village, that is one of three or four preserved in Norrland, dates from times when there was a duty to visit the church every Sunday or at least to the big holidays. As the families must travel far to get to the church in holidays every family built a little house where they could stay. We packed and left around 11 o´clock. This was a transport merely and we only made a stop to buy four music CDs to save us from listening to the local northern radio station in the car. We made a detour to “Pite Havsbad”. A gigantic establishment that was completely crowded with unhappy vacationers in the rain. In Haparanda we parked on the town square and were a little undecided whether to stay or not. We went to the City Hotel that was almost fully booked and she recommended us to go to the Tourist-office that was a joint office for Haparanda and Torneå and was on the Finnish side of the border. There were many people on the move because the weather was bad and they took the opportunity to visit IKEA and the ordinary group of appendage like H&M, Videoshops etc. The elderly lady in the hotel sounded quite proud in her voice when she said "Actually we have IKEA here now". In the Tourist-office they could only recommend Kukkolaforsen that was some 20 kilometers to the north. We went and looked at this broad long stream in the river Torne Älv. It was quite beautiful. They had a week with cultural event so it was absolutely impossible to get a room and she said that it probably was difficult to the south too so we went north towards Övertorneå. A new Finnish-Swedish Tourist-office recommended "Holiday Village" that was a combined camping site and cottage-village. We went there and rented for us a large cosy fully equipped cottage 50 meters from the river. After unpacking we went for a stroll and then on to the restaurant for dinner. Grilled salmon to Elaine and steak for me. Then a little TV and Elaine glanced through the brochures she had gathered. We fell asleep after midnight

Footnote (08-05-17) In the centre of Övertorneå is a house probably owned by an extremist rightwing party and they carry covert rasist slogans on their fasad. We had already booked our living otherwise I would never have stoped there at all. Still today I have a bad aftertaste of this experience.


Back


Parking in the old Church village


Miniatyr houses in Lövånger old Church village









Coffee break at Järva lighthouse








Passing "Pite Havsbad"


The Kukkolastream






Youth Hostel in Övertorneå with Torne river outside our window






Writing diary and planning tomorrows route..


..and all brochures are read..


..and then to bed.

Back