Gammelstad Church Town

It was a beautiful day out - plus it was Sunday, which meant everything including the shopping district was closed except for the supermarket - so Mel and I thought we'd go to Lulea's most famous site - Gammelstad Church Town - 10km away from town.
To get there we had to wait 49 mins for bus number 4 from the university to the centrum, then from the centrum we had to wait another hour for bus number 9 to go up t0 the church town. But it was so worth it as I can't get enough of those traditional Swedish cottages with the white trimming. Plus the church in the centre of it all was just gorgeous to say the least.

We got a guided tour for 50 Kronor (thats like SGD$10) and our guide Majlis (Mai-lis) was so nice, she even offered to help me look for a church with an English service near the university. We also made friends with a guy from Turkey who joined us fro the guided tour. It was just 3 of us and the guide so it was nice and cosy :)Gammelstad, as in the pictures will look far more spectacular in the winter when the roofs and the ground is white, but even now in the summer it is so lovely becuase of the contrast between the clear blue skies an dthe deep copper red of the cottages.We were told that this church was built in the 1600s by the then Swedish king as a fortress to ward of the Russians who wanted this part of Sweden for themselves. Then small cottages were built for people who travel here for church festivals and to spend saturday night there before going to church on Sunday. And this tradition continues as the cottages are still passed down from generation to generation within families that own one (and you must be from Lulea to own one). However, there is no running water in the cottages and no open flames are allowed, and you are only allowed to spend one night in it at a time. So everything is well preserved.

The church is also a living church as many baptisms and weddings still take place there and they have Sunday services there too. It is so popular that if you wnat to marry there, you need to book at least a year in advance, and they can have as many as 6 events going on in one day in the church! And really, a church wedding here would be so grand, considering the architecture of the church and the altar piece!
And just like it was hard to get there, coming back home, included wiating 2 hours for a bus. And it would not have been so bad if the shops there were open, but it was a Sunday there was no where we could go but the bus stop as even the cafes had closed by 4pm. Such is life in charming Lulea.
I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves :) More are up on Facebook!