Well, hello and welcome to Sweden and to my city Umeå. We're in the north, only a few km from the sea and surrounded by wonderful lakes and beaches at the sea. Summer is the best time to visit as the sun never sets and everyone is outside. At one am you can walk along the river and see groups of people bbqing, playing games or just sit down in groups enjoying life. Why sleep when there's still light out?
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loginNydalasjön to the right is a wonderful place for recreation. On the north side there is a beach. Bathing is for free, but if you want a pool it's right next to the beach, and you can enter for a small cost. There is also a beach (better in my opinon) on the south west part with less people (It's kinda a need to know place). There are walkways all around the lake and on the eastern side there are plenty of places to sit down with benches, tables and fireplaces completed with wood all for free for anyone and everyone to use. There are also bridges out to the water so you can dip your feet on a hot day (or take a bath). You can rent tramps if you want to experience the feel of the lake and you can purchase a card which allows you to do some fishing.
If you're on the more cultural side I would say we go to Västerbottens Museum. The museum is as it is (rather boring imo), but right next to it we have Gammlia which is an old farm completed with outhouses as they used to be in Sweden in the late 1900, early 20th century. During summer there are a couple of animals there as cows, chickens and horses etc. I am particularly fond of the baby goats. They also bake the most delicious flat bread there is. Celebrating midsummer here is a most, the place transform kind of into a fair complete with musicians and dancers and markets.. just wonderful.
https://www2.visitumea.se/en/to-do/a470539/vasterbottens-museum/showdetails?filter=t%3DV%C3%A4sterbottens%20museum%3Bc%3D24264If you look at the map above, the city center is located where it says Umeå. If it's a lovley day I'd say we take a walk along the river to this place on the pic below which happens to be Museum of the Image on Öbacka. We can also take a peak at the HUUUUGE clothing pin which was purchased as a cultural decoration for the small cost of 3,5 million sek (421 437, 95 usd). A proof of how crazy our politicians are....... But the museum is nice.
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loginIf we conitune to walk we'll end up here. Whis is our local Movie Theatre (aka my job) and it's law to walk in and say hi to my coworkers. Especially if you travel with me
. This building used to be a firestation and powerhouse. It also contains a café with delicious fika which sells really great picnicbaskets during the summer which we can buy and bring out to the nearby park. Yaaay!
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loginIf we walk upwards on the left side of the building we are right on the city centre for some great shopping or more fika (like 8 cafés within minutes from each other) but I suggest we walk a bit farther along the river to the west. Or even better, we take the bike. Look at all this lucious green!!! A long this way are lots of bushes with wild berries such as raspberries and if they're edible it's ok to make a stop and munch some.
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loginAnd we're following this beautiful overflowing river.
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loginBut enough with the water, we turn northwards when we arrive at Umedalen and look at the Sculpture Park. Here are some pretty awesome figures of various tyles and shapes. Google car smudged out one figure while passing as it looked like a real man
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https://www2.visitumea.se/en/to-do/a470424/umedalen-sculpture-park/showdetails?sorting=aa&filter=t%3Dsculp%3Bc%3D24264Eventually we'll arrive in Baggböle, which is a mansion turned café with a beautiful arboretum with plants and trees from allover (name is on the map above if you wanna check where we are). Here you can within a few miles travel from North America to Siberia to China. It's huuge and it takes hours to walk through it all. This down here is a Japanese garden.
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loginIt's a new day and I have brought a car. We're gonna go a couple of miles in to the country to a place called Bjurholm and a elk farm. Cool hu?
https://www2.visitumea.se/en/to-do/a470550/algens-hus-europes-first-elk-farm-with-tame-e/showdetailsAnd of course, as it's where I grew up, we can go back to Umeå and travel 90 km north to the place where I grew up. Here is a 1800th century piece of town left and a 1600th church to check in. We also have Bjuröklubb which is a wildlife preserve with a lighthouse, café (of course, we swedes love to fika), and some beautiful archaeological sightings and one of the best beaches I know of. Unfortunaly, the websites don't have any English pages... But here are some pics of the old town and church.
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loginOf course Umeå is filled with bars, restaurants with diverese food and other things to see (like our guitarmuseum) but I am a nature- and history nut so there'se where my focus is. But I hope you enjoyed your visit and you're welcome back for more
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