The Stone City of Sundsvall

One of the beautiful stone buildings from the 1800s

One nice thing about visiting a friend is the change in style and the momentum of travelling.  Not that the time has not been busy, it most certainly has.  Combine that with the lack of darkness and I am longing for some early nights to bed and long sleeps.  But I am not complaining.  Every morning and sometimes later in the afternoon, Lottie, Mike and I go to the lake, which is just across the road, for a dip.  How perfect is that.  Also around the lake is a 3.2 km trail.  I ran it twice the other day using my vibram 5 finger shoes instead of my running shoes and my calfs are still so tight I can barely walk.

Some of the fun going on at Sundsvall's Gatu Fest which has been on all week.

But also, as amazing as it is when you have the hospitality of friends, it is also nice to give them a break of your presence – especially mine since I can be such high energy.  Anyway, I decided on Friday to go into town to explore the architecture and to wander around the Gatu (street) Fest – talk about good timing for my visit.  It’s almost like I planned it.

The beautiful fountain in Vangavan Park

Sundsvall was first established in 1621.  It was mostly just a number of small communities.  By the mid 1800s Sundsvall was a small provincial town built of wood and populated by abotu 3,000 people.  Fires had often been a problem for the town.  In the early 1700s, the fire was caused by the Russians.  Another fire occurred in the early 1800s.  But is was the fire of 1888 that destroyed all the wooden buildings in Sundsvall except for one, which is now the casino.  Because of that the building code dictated that buildings must be built of stone and iron.

The Hoppets Hars Hotel

During the rebuilding, architects drew from every epoch in the history of architecture.  They blended Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque as they saw fit.  Today Sundsvall’s Stone City consititutes the best conserved and most genuine city from the 1890s that can be found in Sweden.  There is also a strong influence of the Renaissance style influenced by the Germans and the Dutch.

The Kulturmagasinet building

It is not a big town, but with the Festival going on it certainly was hopping.  Unfortunately many of the stages and other temporary structures were blocking me from being able to take better pictures of some of the more significant buildings.  But I saw them nevertheless.

Gustav Adolfskyrka - the main church

On Friday night, I was invited to go along to dinner at Lottie’s father’s house.  There I got to meet Lottie’s sister Caroline, her husband and children, and Lottie’s father’s wife and two of her grandchildren.  The meal was excellent and the hospitality and entertainment fabulous.  I had a wonderful time.  Towards 11 pm Lottie’s Dad and My-son (not spelled correctly but how it is pronouced) – his wife – convinced us to play lawn darts.  They were quite flabberghasted when I told them that lawn darts had been deemed illegal in Canada, or even North America, sometime in the 80s because they were considered dangerous.  I remember even having a set as a kid.  I think it is actually a reflection on how pathetic North American attitude is that such a game is banned.  What, you can’t teach a child how not to throw the darts at someone?  But guns, now their legal – PLEASE!!!!

(from the left clockwise) Lottie, Mike, Ulf, Caroline, Per and My-son (in light blue)

Mateus (Lottie's sone) plays big cousin with Caroline's daughter on his back guided by Emma

Lottie in mid throw as Mike looks on

All in all, a good day.  Then Saturday Lottie and I went back down to the Festival to watch the Beach Volleyball finals.  Nothing like watching good looking men and women in summer clothing batting a ball about.  The team that I had decided I liked (because the guys were cute) won.  So I was quite pleased.  Then there was some audience participation stuff which I didn’t understand because it was all in Swedish but it was awfully funny to watch.

My winning team!!!

I don't know what they were doing but they were making me laugh

Then later on Saturday night Lottie and I met up with her sister to watch some concerts.  They weren’t cheap to attend but we had a really good time.  And since it wasn’t dark, walking home at 2 am was a cinch as it felt like it was 7 am given the light and we had a box of popcorn to fuel us.  Again a great couple of days and great company.

The last band of the night and this is about 1:30 am