The latest in my series of posts about my holiday in Sweden.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the next installment in my series of posts about my recent holiday in Sweden. In this post my account of the Inlandsbanan experience continues.
MUCH MORE THAN JUST A JOURNEY – A RAILWAY EXPERIENCE
In my previous posts about my journey along InlandsbananI have been concentrating on the route followed by the trains as they move north. However, Inlandsbanan is much more than a railway journey (though it is certainly among the most scenic of those). It is a railway experience, and the scheduled meal stops, one on the Mora-Ostersund leg at the Asarna Ski Centre and two on the long northward haul from Ostersund to Gallivare, the one which I am using as the base for this post at Vilhelmina Norra and a later one at Vaikijaur. Keen followers of this series will remember that Asarna I opted for Moose burger with jacket wedges. Here is a picture showing the two menus from which this day’s food choices were made…
For this meal I went for the Meat sandwich, while my choice for the Vaikijaur stop was the Reindeer burger.
Why have I opted to cover this aspect of the trip at this point? Well, these little critters who I was able to watch while consuming my meal had something to do with that decision…
With the meal stops being of generous duration I had plenty of opportunities to augment my collection of photos…
The latest in my series of posts about my recent holiday in Sweden, still covering the northward journey along Inlandsbanan.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the latest installment in my series of posts about my recent holiday in Sweden. Just before moving on to the details of this post, Anna and her fellow residents of Trosa are locked in battle with greedy/ corrupt local politicians over plans to build a new road that the area does not need or want. I urge you to visit this post, which was put up yesterday and offer your support. As a veteran of the King’s Lynn incinerator affair this touches a particular chord with me. For the rest of this post we are continuing the journey north along Inlandsbanan.
THE JOURNEY
As we left Ulriksfors behind us, I was temporaril back to photographing from a moving train.
Not long after passing the house pictured above I was able to get this picture of an old locomotive:
Here are the remaining photos I got before arriving into Vilhelmina…
The stop at Vilhelmina was not a long one, as the stop at the next station along, Vilhelmina Norra, was the first of two designated meal stops, but I did get these pictures…
Beyond Vilhelmina but before Vilhelmina Norra, which I have decided to give a whole post to itself, I managed to get a few more photographs from the moving train.
There will be a further three posts about my journey along Inlandsbanan, one covering Vilhelmina Norra, one covering the stretch from Vilhelmina Norra to the arctic circle, and the final post covering the journey from the edge of the arctic circle to Gallivare, summing up the whole experience and setting the scene for subsequent posts by explaining events that transpired in Gallivare that had a considerable effect on my plans.
The next stage in my account of my travels around Sweden. Read, enjoy and please share.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to this latest installment in my series of posts about my recent holiday in Sweden. My previous posts about the journey along Inlandsbanan can be found here.
THE JOURNEY
With the train from Ostersund to Gallivare leaving at 7:20 AM it was necessary to leave my accommodation early (not that many would have been tempted to linger in the Pensionat Bjornen anyway!). I arrived at the station in good time, and this not being Britain so did the train.
Settled in my seat, seat 40 (I had booked the same seat number on both the Mora-Ostersund and Ostersund-Gallivare trains), I was ready to do my best to capture the scenery that was visible through my window…
This being a fourteen hour trip there were two scheduled meal stops. My order for the first was the smoked pork collar sandwich.
Shortly after crossing the bridge through whose metalwork I took the picture above we arrived at Ulriksfors where we were stopped long enough for me to identify our whereabouts, and hence where the first part of my account of the journey from Ostersund to Gallivare ends.
The latest in my series of posts about my holiday in Sweden.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the latest installment in my series about my recent holiday in Sweden. This post brings us to the end of the second leg of the journey north on Inlandsbanan and sets the scene for third and (by a very large margin) longest leg of the journey, the 14-hour trip from Ostersund to Gallivare.
THE JOURNEY
The food stop at Asarna, where my last post ended, comes near the end of the journey from Mora to Ostersund, but there was still plenty to see…
I was glad to get this spectacular rainbow on camera.
The station at Ostersund Central
OVERNIGHT IN OSTERSUND
I was booked into the Pensionat Bjornen for the night. It was here that my failure to pick up my phone on departure from Stockholm first adversely affected me (a day later it would do so again). I had not realised and there had been nothing on booking.com to tell me that I would need to make a mobile phonecall to collect my room key. Thankfully someone else booked into the same establishment arrived not long after me and did have her phone with her, so we were both able to get our keys. The Pensionat Bjornen is an annexe of a hotel that sits on the opposie side of the street, and it was to this latter establishment that keys had to be returned in the morning. For a single night stay with an early start it was an acceptable place, and was the cheapest accommodation in a non-shared room that I had anywhere. I conclude this post with a jpg of my official booking.com review of the establishment:
The next installment in my series of posts about my recent holiday in Sweden.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the latest post in my series about my recent holiday in Sweden. This post continues the northern journey along Inlandsbanan that started here.
INLANDSBANAN PROPER BEGINS
As those who read my previous post will be aware, although Kristinehamn to Mora is part of the official Inlandsbanan route it is not run by Inlandsbanan stock – for that you have to wait until Mora. Here is an Inlandsbanan train:
This makes it obvious why seat reservations made on the Inlandsbanan website give you a seat number but nor carriage number – there is only one carriage.
Inlandsbanan trains also feature a ‘train host’, who checks tickets, sells refreshments to those who buy them, takes food orders for the official food stops and provides information about noteworthy points along the route. For this journey, from Mora to Ostersund, of which I am currently covering the first part our train host was a young woman named Emma, and she did a magnificent job – she got a round of applause as we approached Ostersund.
Here are some pictures from the early part of the journey…
Just after I had taken the picture above we arrived at our first major landmark, a river that was considered impressive enough for the train to stop so that photographs could be taken more easily…
It was not long after this that food orders were taken for the official eating stop at Asarna Ski Centre…
My food order – 1 Moose burger.
Then it was back to taking pictures from a moving train for a bit…
We then had a station stop that was long enough for folk who were travelling on to get off and have a leg stretch…
This map was on the train. At the end of this series of posts I will put up a special post about maps.The full Inlandsbanan timetable.
Then it was back to taking pictures through the window for a little bit…
Then we reached Asarna, where we had our scheduled food stop, and where this post ends (the moose burger and wedges made a very satisfactory meal by the way).
The first of three hexagonal display cases full of medals awarded for ski-ing feats.
A fine campanological display – I also have a close up of three bells in the middle of the display.
This shot of the train at rest makes it clear why only one of the two sets of doors opened for this stop!
Looking back at the bridge through whose metalwork I had earlier taken some shots (I have a zoomed in shot immediately following this one)
This will feature in more detail when I do my special post about maps.
The start of the story of my journey along Inlandsbanan, a sub-series within my series of posts about my recent holiday in Sweden.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the start of the story of my journey along the Inlandsbanan, a sub-series within my series of posts about my recent holiday in Sweden.
ROUGH GUIDE TO SWEDEN FAILS
Before getting into the main meat of this post, a few brief comments about The Rough Guide to Sweden, with which I had been equipped. My relationship with this tome got off to poor start when my very first attempt to locate information, about the town of Trosa, where one of my fellow bloggers lives drew a complete blank. Thus I was already less than impressed when I scanned the index for information about Inlandsbanan to see what they made of it and for the second straight time drew a blank. Although subsequent visits to the pages of this book were less marked by failure, there was no real chance that the book would recover in my estimation and at best in reviewers terms it merits one star.
A BRIEF NOTE ON THE PHOTOGRAPHS
Many of the photographs you will see in this series of posts were taken through the windows of moving trains, and for both the second and third legs of the trip my seat was facing against the direction of travel. Therefore, remember when viewing these pictures that I was not able to capture by any means all of the things I wanted to.
THE JOURNEY
I was making two trips this day, first the subject of this post, and then after half an hour at Mora the journey onwards to Ostersund. The journey from Kristinehamn to Mora is part of the official Inlandsbanan route, but not run by Inlandsbanan stock – for this leg we travelled in an ordinary multi-carriage Sveriges Jarnvag train.
I settled into my very comfortable window seat (even second class on a Swedish train is quite luxurious to one used to British public transport) with my camera at the ready to take whatever pictures I could and other than my attempts to capture interesting sights the journey was uneventful until precisely at the scheduled time the train pulled into the platform at Mora to conclude its journey…
The long-awaited resumption of my series of posts about Sweden. This one sets the scene for a number of posts about my travels on Inlandsbanan.
INTRODUCTION
It has been a long while since I last created a post, but I am now ready to go again with my accounts of my trip to beautiful Sweden. Having spent a very enjoyable few days in the company of my cousin and his fiance (see here for more details) it was time for me to make use of my one-country inter-rail pass, allowing up to eight days worth of rail travel in Sweden.
THE PROLOGUE TO INLANDSBANAN
My first journey on my inter-rail pass was a short hop of just over two hours from Stockholm to Kristinehamn where I would stay overnight before experiencing Inlandsbanan on days two and three of this part of the holiday (the distance from Kristinehman to the northern outpost of Gallivare, pronounced yell-ee-vara, is 1,364km which converts to roughly 850 miles).
At this stage I had not booked anything in advance, a mistake that I learned from after the experiences both on the train and at Kristinehamn, where I paid far more for a room than I ought to have done. Indeed one of the things I did in my room in Kristinehamn was make use of the wifi to book seats on three legs of Inlandsbanan and rooms in Ostersund fot the following night and then for two nights in Gallivare, although this latter did not work out, of which more anon.
The difficulties caused by my failure to reserve a seat on the train notwithstanding, I did get some pictures on the journey…
KRISTINEHAMN
I did some exploring in this pretty little town once I was settled. Here are my pictures from Kristinehamn…
Many Swedish stations feature this kind of diagram somewhere.
Having produced this little post I will start, probably tomorrow, on a succession of posts detailing the Inlandsbanan experience…
The first post about my travels in Sweden, with lots of photographs.
INTRODUCTION
This is the first in what will be a series of posts about Sweden, where I am currently on holiday. If you enjoy this post I recommend that you make Anna’s blog your next port of call.
AN EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES
Although I have only been in Sweden since Friday night, I already have a huge number of stunning pictures to share. For this first part of my stay I have been in the company of a cousin and his Swedish fiancee Ida. My cousin met me at Stockholm central bus station (Skavsta airport, where my flight landed is too far out of town for him to meet me there, so I got the Flygbussarna into town on Friday night. On Saturday we travelled to an island that has been owned by Ida’s family for some time. This journey entailed a bus to Stavsnas, a boat out to the nearest island reachable by commercial boat, and a walk across said island, on the other side of which we met Ida who rowed us across the sound to the island on which we would be staying. Here are a few pictures from this part of the stay…
These first couple of pictures were taken through the window of an aeroplane from high above.
The remainder were taken either from the bus to Stavsnas or the ferry.
The Island
This Island has no flushing toilets, and save for the main house no running water. It only got electricity in the 1940s. The sea is lovely to swim in, as I can attest from personal experience. We start with the house itself…
Here some pictures from inside the house…
I will be looking at more detail at the insect life I have encountered in a future post, but to whet the appetite here is a rare butterfly whose English name is Apollo…
Now, some general pictures taken while on the island…
As a lead up to the next section, here is a map of the Stockholm Archipelago.
SAILINGTHE STOCKHOLM ARCHIPELAGO IN AN OPEN BOAT
Richard and Ida had too much stuff to take back to their flat in Stockholm for the way we had reached the island to be appropriate, so we were escorted by private boat, along with Ida’s brother and his daughter. Here are some pictures from the Stockholm Archipelago…
Lars (skipper of the boat), setting off on his return journey to the island from Stavsnas
Stavsnas to Stockholm
The last stage of the journey to the flat in which I write this, before heading off later today to catch a train to Kristinehamn, southern terminal of Inlandsbanan was by bus and tunnelbahn (the Stockholm Undergound, which I will be covering in a later post) yielded a few more pictures…
These last six pictures feature central Stockholm, as seen from the bus as it approached Slussen.
A somewhat delayed account of Monday and Tuesday, with plenty of photos.
INTRODUCTION
A few brief commenst and some pictures.
AUGUST IMAGING
I havce made sure that nothing big has been left unimaged, with my flgiht out to Sweden now only three days distant. Here are a few imaghes from the last couple of days…
AN EMPHATIC ENGLAND WIN
Although for various reasons I did not catch much of the action in the second test match betwen England and Pakistan I congratulate England on responding in emphatic style to their defeat in the first match. While I consider the decision by Cook not to enforce the follow-on when looking at a first innings advantage of 391 to be bizarre, at least his team still managed to win. Possibly the most red-faced captain of all time over a decision not to invoke the follow-on was the Hon Freddie Calthorpe who in the final match of the 1929-30 series in the West Indies declined to do so with an advantage of 563 on the grounds that the match was scheduled to played to a finish. Unfortunately for him a combination of the weather and England’s return journey caused the match to be abandoned as a draw anyway. Six years earlier in a county game Calthorpe had suffered a different kind fo embarrassment when his Warwickshire side made 223 in their first innings, bowled out Hampshire for 15, and had them 177-6 after following on. Hampshire then made a spectacular recovery to reach 521 in that second innings, with Walter Livsey who had only reached even double figures three times in the course of the season before then making a century at no 10, and bowled a dispirited Warwickshire out for 158 in the second innings. Back to the present, and in the test match that finished yesterday evening Joe Root had the kind of match which had it been presented as fiction would undoubtedly have been laughed out of the publishers office – 254, 71 not out, four catches in the first Pakistan innings, and when given a bowl late in their second innings he picked up a wicket with his second ball!
SOME FINAL PHOTOGRAPHS
I conclude this post with a few non-work related pictures:
A brief account of a meeting of the West Norfolk Disability Forum and notice of a visit to Sweden.
INTRODUCTION
Most of this post is devoted to events that took place on Wednesday, but at the end of it I will have a small section looking ahead.
THE AGM OF THE WEST NORFOLK DISABILITTY FORUM
My invite to this event came from NAS West Norfolk Chair Karan, who was invited by councillor Squire. The meeting was to start at 2:30PM, but before then we were assembling at 1:00PM for a tour of Stories of Lynn in order to see what was right and what was wrong about it.
STORIES OF LYNN
I enjoyed seeing what this establishment had to offer, though I would have been under-impressed had I had to fork out the £5 admission fee because there si simply no way that what they have is worth that price. The main issues noted were that there is not enough seating in the building and that there is a lack of audio options for those who cannot read. Here are some of the pictures that I took at this stage of proceedings…
The four big portraits tell you about themselves (all were born and raised in West Norfolk)
The Pillory was abandoned as a method of punishment in this country about 200 years ago. A radical publisher named Daniel Isaac Eaton was one of the last to be subjected to this form of punishment – the populace delivered their own verdict by providing him with food and wine, and generally turning his spell in the pillory into something of a public triumph.
Now that’s what I call a board game!???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
The last room we saw is one where the exhbits will change periodically – this year is the 100th anniversary of RAF Marham, so at the moment that is the subject of the exhibits.Raf cap with cloth badgeRAF hat with cloth badgeThe beret to which this metal badge is attached was impossible to image properly.
THE TOWN HALL
Next door to Stories of Lynn is the Town Hall, within which the meeting was to take place. We were meeting on the first floor and given my own attitude to lifts and the lack of available lift space I used the stairs. We were very early for the meeting, but refreshments had been set up in the largest of the upstairs rooms, just outside the room in which the meeting would be happening.
The meeting room – visually spectacular, but as we to discover the accoustics were very poor.
During the pre-meeting wait the window panes within the main window that folk had marked to show when they had worked on it were shown to me. Yesterday I showed a single image that I had assembled to putting together all my indvividual images. Today, I present all the images plus a few others I took at the same time…
Here is the composite image as a quick reminder…I assembled a large frame by connecting together these individual images, including one of the whole window, as the single panes were not quite enough to do the job….
And filled the central space with an enlarged image of the whole window.
THE MEETING
The meeting began with the election of a chair and deputy chair (the former a councillor, the latter not). As newbies and therefore not qualified to form an opinion Karan and I both declined to vote.
Once council representatives on the forum had been appointed it was the turn of non-council representatives.
Then various matters were raised, including shop signs restricting access, the state of facilities at both the bus and train stations etcetera.
Proceedings drew to a close after just over an hour.
LOOKING AHEAD
This section is necessary because I am going to Sweden for a fortnight, leaving on Friday. During that period posting will be restricted for obvious reasons. Finally, to finish this post here are some more pictures…
