Sweden 22 December 2023 - 7 January 2024
We spent Christmas holidays in Sweden at Yasha and Magda's place. We flew to Skellefteå in the evening of 22 December and stayed for two weeks. Lova joined us from Germany. We were very lucky with the weather. There was plenty of snow. We skied every day and some keen skiers even skied twice a day. We had both cross-country skis and touring skis. We spent one day at a downhill ski resort. In the beginning it was relatively warm and it snowed all the time. Then it got very cold, the snow stopped, but there was sunshine. Overall, we experienced enough winter and snow for the whole next year.
Skellefteå и Varuträsk
This time we stayed at Magda's grandmother's cottage in Varuträsk, near Skellefteå. We celebrated Swedish Christmas and the English Christmas (the following day) at Magda's mum's house, also in Varuträsk.
The blue, red, black, yellow and green lines show our tracks on the 23, 24, 25, 27 December during the day and in the evening. Shift-click on the track link will open it in nakarte.me.
Inger's house. During the day we went cross-country skiing in the Skellefteå ski park, and in the evening we came for dinner.
This is one of the houses we passed every day. The houses here are all very nicely decorated. Each window has a light or a paper star. This one has a fire on a tripod at the entrance. On closer inspection, it turned out to be electric rather than real fire.
Snow dusted the window like they used to draw on Christmas cards.
Yasha rented cross-country skis for us, and Inger borrowed back country skis for everybody from friends and acquaintances. We are going out for a ski trip around Varuträsk.
It was warm and cloudy, with light snow. There is a cross-country ski trail around the village. Part of the trail is even lit up in the evenings.
We break our own trail so as not to mess up the trail for narrow skis.
A hut complete with a mailbox, a birdhouse and moose antlers in the middle of the forest. It is unlikely that anyone lives here now.
We made a fire in a shelter by the lake, and roasted sausages.
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Lova is keeping Luna warm. |
The chimney nearly fell into the fire, it had to be repaired. |
By the fire.
Our lunch. We had a Swedish Christmas in the evening and an English Christmas the next day.
A trip around the golf course
No-one plays golf here in winter, and we didn't see any skiers either.
It snowed all night. Everything is white and fluffy.
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Magda, Yasha and Victor.
The young trees resemble a graveyard.
There is quite a bit of snow in the sparse forest.
We made a fire in this hut and had a snack. We had to go home and prepare Yorkshire Christmas dinner.
Lova and Sonya were our chief cooks, and then everyone decorated the biscuits.
The heart-shaped biscuits turned out well! Inger won first place for the skier on the slope (second row from the top).
Storklinta ski resort
The next morning we all went skiing together in Storklinta, a ski resort about an hour's drive from Skellefteå. It was freezing, but very beautiful.
It is a very small resort: one lift and two pistes.
Sonya.
Lova.
Magda.
Victor.
Yasha.
The sun never broke through the clouds, but the sky was red-orange all day.
It's a lot of fun to ski off piste through the forest.
A cabin on tall stilts at the very top.
You can get buried in the snow among the trees.
And then laugh while watching the video.
There is a lot of snow in the forest.
Down through the woods.
The most important thing is to avoid trees and rocks.
The daylight hours at the end of December in northern Sweden are very short: 4-5 hours. It looks like there's sunshine in the distance. In fact, it is the lights on the piste.
You can rent a cabin here and stay for a few days.
It got dark very quickly. Of course one can continue skiing on the lit piste, but we decided that we had enough for today.
We returned our rental skis and headed back to the car.
Around Varuträsk
Sonya stayed home the next day to study for her exams, and we went to explore the neighbourhood.
We went to the Östra Lillträsket lake.
A moose on the wall of a barn.
A bridge over the river next to the grandmother's cottage. Even in very severe frosts it did not freeze completely.
Rocks in the river.
We're fighting through the forest.
This must have been a sign.
Here is the Västra Lillträsket lake where we had lunch a few days ago.
There were many moose tracks.
They cut down forests in Sweden just like in England. Logging looks ugly everywhere.
Sunset at 3pm.
