Last Wednesday a friend here at the University invited Graham and I to go on a tour of Gävle to find out about its history and see some of the hidden gems. It was great! We got a nature walk through a park we had never been to, and learned the Swedish names for the flowers.
We found the local iron works, an old heritage site where iron ore was shipped in from surrounding areas (lots of it from boggy spots, side note to Leif). The owner of the works lived in a great big mansion, with smaller houses for smanagers, supervisors, and other workers. We have lived in Gävle since September and had never been here!
Then we went for a great homemade soup in Lars-Torsten´s garden. His place is amazing, also on the bruk grounds with original mouldings and fittings inside. Lars-Torsten is probably 6´3´´, and he and I both had to duck through the 5´10´´ doorways inside his place.
We then rode out towards the harbour to hear about Gävle´s shipping history. It turns out many fo the immigrants headed to North America came from this port. There was also a lot of shipbuilding, international trade, and export of iron items form the bruk.