Latitude: 65.6° north
Weather: -20, feels like -28
Sunrise: 09:49 Sunset: 13:22
We left Kiruna under a pastel-pink sky for the 4-hour train ride south east to Luleå. I’m loving the rhythm of these empty winter trains, which trundle gently through snowy landscapes with no sense of fuss or urgency. I’ve resolved not to sit on my phone as we travel, and am enjoying the sense of time and space that a train window presents when you’re not trying to be busy ‘doing’.
Along the way: red summer cabins beside vast frozen lakes, mile after mile of forest pines and tall silver birch. A cloud of white-tailed ptarmigan taking off from a field and – briefly, magnificently – a moose standing and watching us. Small, deserted stations in the snow and an orange sunset sky with the merest tip of the setting sun over a distant mountain. Heaven. My soundtrack for today was warmer, in keeping with the return of the light, turning to Swedish composer Elfrida Andree, whose music I already know and love.
And so to Luleå – a handsome city on the Gulf of Bothnia with a thriving tech sector, steel industry and shipping harbour. First impressions, aside from the lovely Christmas lights: blimey, it’s cold! With a biting wind coming off the frozen sea, we didn’t linger on our way to the hotel, briefly clocking the sense of sparkle and Christmas lights as well as wide, well-managed central streets. Definitely a ‘real’ city, not just a tourist hub.
At this time of year, Luleå is all about the ice. Everything is frozen, with less snow than we’ve seen further north. Slick ice on pavements, thoughtfully gritted to keep Luleå on its feet. The sea is frozen, thick and solid, and becomes the city’s ice playground. It’s quite the sight to look out from the harbours onto – quite literally – a sea of white, and watch people walking dogs and skating across the bay. We learnt that the seawater here is the most diluted in the world – it’s 4/5 freshwater from the major rivers that flow in – and that’s why it freezes so hard and strong every year
As soon as the ice is thick enough in December, the city ploughs a 10km-long ice track around the harbour, for skating, walking, sledding and fat-biking. Across from the south harbour, Gråsjälören island is a favourite walking and skating destination for locals, with a cafe which hoists a flag to signal when it’s open. Later in the season, ice roads for traffic are tested and marked out, allowing you to drive across the sea to the islands of the archipelago.
We enjoyed a thoroughly lovely and memorable New Year’s Eve in Luleå. We bagged the last two seats in lovely restaurant Bistron, sitting at the bar to eat a superb meal while chatting to the friendly staff. I’m sorry to admit that we did both choose reindeer, which is perfectly fitting this far north, but still feels deeply unkind to Rudolph so close to Christmas.
At midnight we joined the friendly, relaxed crowd in the south harbour square for a stunning firework display set off over the frozen bay. It was -20, with a ‘feels like’ temperature of about -25, and the cold definitely bites hard here. You certainly have to think carefully about which photos you really need when they involved whipping off the big gloves – these temperatures cut through the thin inner gloves in minutes. Glammed up a bit for our NYE dinner, my mascara appeared to freeze right off my eyelashes, which was definitely a new experience. Even the wet wipes in our rucksack froze when we were out walking, and drinking the tea in my keep cup meant melting through the ice around its rim each time.
New Year’s Day brought us our first sighting of the sun since we left home. Sunrise is just before 10am at the moment, by which stage we’d found our way out onto the frozen harbour to explore the bay. Brilliantly, Luleå provides free kicksleds for the ice track. First come, first served, but since we seemed to be the first out on the ice today, we were able to bag a very shiny purple one for our morning fun. One of you kicks – standing on one runner, kicking with the other leg. The other sits and enjoys the ride! It’s hard to find a rhythm, but when you do and the sled glides sweetly, it’s a wonderfully feeling. We headed for the island (no flag up – we brought our own coffee) and enjoyed having the frozen bay and white frosty trees to ourselves as we watched the sun rise, warm orange light reflecting off the white sea.
Luleå also has an amazing network of public barbecues. Similar to those we’ve seen in New Zealand and Australia, but with added snow! There’s a handy map that shows you where to find them and tells you which have firewood provided. This afternoon, we set off for a walk in the dark (sunset was not long after 1pm) on a well-gritted, well-lit path around the bay, slightly sheltered from the biting sea wind by the trees. There weren’t many people out so it was peaceful and calm, just the crunch of our Yaktrax on the gritted ice.
We bagged a barbecue looking out across to the island, still half-lit from earlier visitors, and Tim did a great job of coaxing it back to life with the help of the pages of a local newspaper and logs from the giant communal wood store. It started to snow as we started to cook, adding to the unreal sense that we must be in some kind of dream here. Stamping feet and holding gloved hands over the fire to keep out the cold, we cooked sausages and toasted rolls over the fire and ate them looking out from the snowy beach over the frozen sea, gentle falling snow spotlit by the street lamps against the dark sky.
Luleå has given us a different kind of winter, harder-edged in the harshness of the astonishing cold, but with a warming glimpse into the way a city can embrace the ice into its lifestyle and create magical experiences designed not for tourists but instead for those who live and work in this warm, sparkly northern city. I won’t forget this new year in a hurry.
