Sweden is divided in 25 provinces. These provinces have no administrative or political function but may have identical borders with the administrative regions. In the previous two blog entries we wrote about what we did when we travelled in ngermanland Province and in Jmtland Province. This blog entry will include stories from mainly the provinces Hlsingland and Medelpad. But we will also include a story from the province Uppland.
Skokloster Castle is no more than one hour by car from Stockholm. We were passing by on our way north in Sweden and decided to stop there since Emma hadnt been there before. Skokloster Castle is large and impressive. Supposedly it is the largest castle in Sweden that has been privately owned. We would rank it among the ten best castles in Sweden. It is open for public and is today essentially a large museum. It has some interesting features worth pointing out.
a grand ball hall but either they changed their minds or they ran out of money. Today the hall stands empty and unfinished.
It is only the intended ball hall that is unfinished. The rest of the castle is in good condition and richly decorated.
The Dragon Gate is a Chinese business and culture centre outside the town lvkarleby. The actual purpose of this project is unclear and we seriously doubt that the original plans for it have been met. We wanted to see this place for ourselves because when it was constructed there were a lot of controversies around it.
When does a town go from small to medium sized? When 10,000 people live there? Well, in Sderhamn there live almost 12,000 people so with that definition it would be a medium sized town. We stopped in Sderhamn because they have one of the models in the Sweden Solar System project there, namely the one of the planet Neptune. We have written more about Sweden Solar System in a previous blog entry if
Jrvs is neither a small nor a medium sized town - it is no more than a village. For Swedes Jrvs is known as the village the singer and actress Barbro Svensson, an icon in the Swedish entertainment business, came from. Torg is a small square named Jrvss most famous inhabitant.
In Delsbo, also no more than a village, there were two things we wanted to see - Pluto/Charon and Dellenbanan.
=> Pluto/Charon is one more of the models in Sweden Solar System. Throughout Sweden there are at least 20 models that are part of Sweden Solar System. You could probably make an interesting Sweden tour by visiting all of these models one after the other.
=> The defunct railway line Dellenbanan is today used for draisine rides. The tour starts from Delsbo train station and we can guarantee that it is good fun for young and for old. We really loved this!
The small lake Grntjrn has three interesting features - it is picturesque, the in- and outflow of water
is via underground streams and that it can differ up to 13 meters between the highest and lowest water level in a year.
This phenomenon can occur because the lake is in a small depression and surrounding terrain consists of massive amounts of sand and gravel that was deposited when the ice melted in the end of the last ice age.
Harsa is a small place popular among cross country ski enthusiasts. In summer skiing is not an option though, but it was a good place to stay for two nights.
As of 2020 there are a total of 15 world heritage sites in Sweden. One of those is the Decorated Farmhouses of Hlsingland. Many farmers in Hlsingland Province were in the 19th century very well off. They were outright rich and wanted everybody else to know it. The way they displayed their wealth was to erect lavishly decorated farmhouses. Building large houses, or even mansions, when you have a lot of money is not new. What made the farmhouses in Hlsingland unique is that they didnt live in these houses. They built them solely
Another highlight is the unfinished dance and party hall. They planned on building a grand ball hall but either they changed their minds or they ran out of money.
