From Stockholm to Härnösand... a day of travel in Sweden

It seems that when we traveled in Sweden, we often found ourselves traveling the highways in the rain. Some of the time, we got lucky and found ourselves stopping during lulls in the rain... other times we battled the rain when stopping to visit sights we wanted to see. Our day of travel from Stockholm to the High Coast town of Härnösand was just such a day... and we weren't always lucky as you will see! (reminder, just click any image to view it larger... or view them all as a slide show if you prefer)

There are two reasons you won't see an image from me of the exterior of the Uppsala Cathedral, the tallest cathedral in Sweden and one that has survived fires and had multiple renovations over the years to reach its present form as a Gothic style cathedral. One is that there was no way to get far enough away from it during the short time we stopped in Uppsala en route to the High Coast... and the other is that the pouring down rain made me not want to even try! Meanwhile, this image is of just a few of the lovely stained glass windows... just look at that organ too!

Near the Uppsala Cathedral, the Holy Trinity Church is older and much simpler... and to my eyes, lovelier. The church was consecrated in 1302 and was decorated with paintings by Albertus Pictor, a famous medieval artist, in the second half of the 15th century.

The old buildings on the canal are fishermen's huts, houses and fish stores in the town of Hudiksvall, one of our stops en route to the High Coast from Stockholm. The church spires towering over the foreground buildings are on the cathedral in Härnösand, the only white cathedral in Sweden and also the smallest of Sweden's cathedrals. And the familiar (at least to Americans) golden arches barely visible on the building across the water is the McDonald's in Härnösand... it was an option for dinner that we did not take!

The street scenes are from our exploration of the older part of town in Härnösand. The town was chartered in 1582 and has been partially destroyed by fire 10 times over the years since. I don't know the age of these lovely wooden buildings in the older part of town which is very picturesque with the narrow streets. It was still quite light after 10 PM! The colorful painted doors caught my eye as did a distant view of the cathedral from another angle.

The pizzeria where we had dinner served OK food... not what I'd had in mind for dinner but that and McDonald's were really about our only choices during the midsummer holiday when almost everyone takes vacation. Another view of the church and yet another view of those painted doors which I liked so much! The tourists waiting for the photographer to stop playing with her camera are my sister and brother.

Sometimes it seemed that there was brilliant color everywhere we looked! Two shop windows and these flowers caught my eye while we were having our after dinner stroll in Härnösand.

Continuing our wandering, we saw still more flowers and a colorful building whose purpose I've since forgotten (maybe city hall). The other building (lower left) housed a pub on the first floor where we spent some time having a drink before heading back to our hotel. It seems the clocks in Härnösand's public spaces (the ones I noticed anyway) had not been set for daylight savings time. It was after 11 PM when the photos of the building and the clock tower were taken.

I think I'm getting the hang of putting these posts together a little more efficiently. I sure hope so anyway because I absolutely MUST finish reporting on this journey before my next adventure begins in mid-September!