Gamla Gefle, Gävle Slott, and the River

This afternoon, I took a walk through Gävle’s old town, Gamla Gefle, eyeballed its old castle, Gävle Slott, and walked along its river, Gavleån.

It wasn’t as pleasant as it could have been. When I checked the forecast this morning, it indicated that it would rain intermittently throughout the day. Nevertheless, my morning activities escaped the rain completely. There were even a few blue patches in the sky. Not so in the afternoon.

It was raining steadily after I finished lunch. But I leave tomorrow morning for my next destination, and I was determined not to waste the afternoon. So I donned my trusty rain jacket, opened my equally trusty umbrella, and set off.

Oh, I don’t want to keep you in suspense, but before I go on, allow me to inform you that because I leave tomorrow, you should expect to see a Gävle summary at the end of this post. And your expectations will be met.

Gamla Gefle

Gamla Gefle is Gävle’s old town. If you read my post on Gamla Uppsala, or if you speak Swedish, you know that “gamla” is Swedish for “old.” But what the heck’s up with “Gefle” in “Gamla Gefle.” Good question. I wondered that too. So I investigated it.

I’d seen elsewhere during my time here that Gävle got its town charter way back in 1446. Wikipedia confirmed that for me. Furthermore, it said that back then, the town was known as Gävle-ägarna, which means “Gavel-owners.” Don’t ask me why. Did the people here own a lot of gavels back then? Didn’t anyone anywhere else own gavels?

The name was eventually shortened to Gävle, then Gefle, and finally back again to Gävle. I wish they’d stuck to Gefle because, without any nonsense over the letters, like an umlaut, it’s easier to type. I assume the Gamla Gefle name refers to the period when the name was Gefle.

There’s not a lot to Gamla Gefle. It consists of two parallel streets about two blocks long. A cross-street runs between the two, and another street perpendicular to one of the longer streets runs off it and away from Gamla Gefle.

My guidebook describes the streets as cobbled. When I read that, I thought of cobblestones, which didn’t form an image in my mind that matched reality.

Gamla Gefle’s streets are paved with discrete, unworked stones embedded in sand. By unworked, I mean that there was no attempt made to chisel the tops of the stones to make them flat.

There is also a single row of narrow paver tiles down the street, which makes walking more comfortable if no one is coming the other way and if couples or groups don’t mind walking single file. This wasn’t an issue for me today because rainy Gamla Gefle was almost empty this afternoon.

The buildings in Gamla Gefle are all one-storey, wooden residences. The colours on the buildings varied considerably. Most were pastel, but even where they weren’t, the colours weren’t glaring.

My guidebook said there is an occasional cafe and craft shop. I didn’t see any. Maybe they’re closed on Mondays (today is Monday), and their signs are so small and discreet that I didn’t notice them.

My guidebook also said that, in the summer, window boxes are brimming with flowers. It’s June 9th. I guess summer hasn’t started here yet. Not only did I not see any flowers, but I didn’t see any window boxes either.

The above sounds negative. I didn’t mean it to be. Gamla Gefle packs a lot of old-time charm and quaintness into a small space. And this might be a rationalization, but lacking cafes, restaurants, bars, and shops, it certainly can’t be accused of being too touristy.

Gävle Slott

If you read my post on Uppsala Slott, or you speak Swedish, you also know that slott is the Swedish word for castle. (Before I know it, I’ll have a complete grasp of a great many Swedish words that are unlikely to be of any help whatsoever if I need to speak to a unilingual Swede.)

So, Gävle Slott is Gävle’s castle.

Maybe, but it looks nothing like what I conjure up after having the word “castle” foisted upon me. It looks like a fairly modern, simple, boxy, but quite attractive building.

Despite not looking at all castle-like, I was indeed looking at Gävle Slott. I had two pieces of solid evidence confirming this hypothesis.

First, I had already seen a picture of Gävle Slott, and it matched the picture.

Second, there was a sign at the entrance to the grounds announcing it as Gävle Slott.

My guidebook told me that the public is not allowed inside. When I read that, I figured that the castle was so dilapidated that it was unsafe for visitors. One look at Gävle Slott, and particularly the modern lighting and furniture that’s partially visible from afar through the windows, puts the lie to that theory.

The sign at the entrance to the grounds also has two information panels, one Swedish and one English, that explain this.

Gävle Slott is owned by the Swedish state and used mostly for offices, not for entertaining tourist riff-raff. (The sign didn’t state the tourist riff-raff part. I extrapolated that.)

The sign provided some other interesting information as well. For example, it told me that work began on the castle in 1583 and it was completed in 1597. The original castle had spires and ornamental gables, just as you’d expect from a self-respecting castle.

“In 1727, the castle was devastated by a huge fire. The chapel was left in ruins, and the upper floor was reduced to ashes. Just over a decade later, the decision was made to rebuild the castle.” And the rest is history, and present.

The sign goes on to say, “The interior reveals more of the original castle than the exterior might suggest. The cellar and the ground floor have retained their 16th-century character, and the layout of the upper floors still bears traces of the original castle, including a space for the former chapel at the centre. The façade of the castle was restored in the 1990s, with the aim of recreating the appearance of Harleman’s 18th-century design as faithfully as possible.”

Well then, why not let tourists and locals in to see that revealing interior? Harrumph.

That, too, sounds negative, and this time it was meant to. I didn’t think much of the castle. There are some grounds with gardens that the public can walk through. They probably look gorgeous on a sunny, midsummer day when the flowers are in full bloom. On a rainy, late-spring/early-summer day? Meh.

Gavleån

It was still early afternoon when I left Gävle Slott. I decided to walk to the river and see if there’s a river walk heading downstream. There is one on one side of Gävle’s river, Gavleån.

I walked along it. The surface of the path was of varying materials and qualities. Some portions had a pleasing row of trees along them; many portions did not. But it was a continuous walk with one exception, where I had to walk up some steps, cross a road, and walk back down again to the path.

Beyond that bridge, the river widened out somewhat, and there were some small marinas with a few pleasure boats docked at them.

Farther along, on the other side of the Gavleån, there were a few ships docked. They weren’t huge ocean-going cargo carriers by any stretch of the imagination, but they were well into the ship side of the boat/ship divide.

There was one ship in particular that intrigued me. It had two masts, one in the front and one in the back. They didn’t look like the kind of masts one could rig a sail to. There was also a lifeboat on the deck and a cylinder of unknown purpose (unknown to me). But none of that dominated the deck. What dominated the deck was a large lighthouse affixed to it. Except for the light and the glass in front of it, the lighthouse was bright red.

I’m not the least bit nautical, so there’s probably a perfectly good explanation that escapes me, but why do you need a lighthouse on a ship? It wasn’t a spotlight as far as I could tell because there was glass 360° around the light, like in a lighthouse.

Were they worried that an errant rocky shore might accidentally steer into the ship if it didn’t see the ship? Or was it like Ratso Rizzo (the Dustin Hoffman character in Midnight Cowboy) when he jaywalks in front of a taxi and screams at the cabbie, “Hey, I’m walking here!” as the cabbie almost hits him? Does the boat want to be able to take a right-of-way on the water that doesn’t belong to it, but then use the lighthouse to do the nautical equivalent of screaming, “Hey, I’m sailing here?” I don’t know.

Not much beyond that, I came to the mouth of the Gavleån, where it empties into a big bay. It’s a long bay with a curve in it, so I couldn’t see the sea. But being an appreciator of alliteration, I was pleased to pronounce “big bay,” “see the sea,” “appreciator of alliteration,” and “pleased to pronounce” all in one paragraph.

The big bay would probably be more attractive if there weren’t some heavy industry around it. There is. But I felt a sense of accomplishment having explored up to the mouth of the Gavleån.

That accomplished, I turned around and headed back to my hotel to end my activities in Gävle.

Gävle Summary

Despite the above description of this afternoon, I very much liked Gävle. It’s a very pretty city that gives more than a nod to pedestrians. It gives them their full due. I’ve mentioned this in previous posts, but there’s a street with a generous linear park down its centre. Another has a wide sidewalk with a double row of trees down the centre of it. And the other sidewalls are mostly of a generous width too.

There are also lots of small and a couple of large parks scattered about.

The buildings are primarily mid-rise, and the city is at a human scale. On my walk along the river today, I saw a few of what I think pass for skyscrapers in Gävle. I didn’t count their storeys, but I’m fairly certain that none of them were taller than 20 storeys.

I should say that everything I said above refers primarily to the centre of the city. For the little I ventured beyond that, I found it okay, but kind of meh.

There are not a lot of tourist attractions in town as far as I can tell. (“As far as I can tell” is doing a lot of work there. Only one of my guidebooks gave more than a passing mention to Gävle, and I’m not sure that the one that did told me about all there is to see.)

There are three small museums that I know I didn’t get to. Two are open only a few days a week, none of which were days I was here. The other one opens only one day a week, and even then, the guidebook said to call them first because whether they open that day depended on whether they could get volunteers. The guidebook gave a link to a webpage, which turned out to be a Facebook page, which also provided the suggestion of calling first because opening depended on the availability of volunteers. None of that mattered because the one day it was open was Saturday. I arrived on Sunday.

Were the two nights I booked here the right amount of time? I was afraid you’d ask. I’m undecided. There’s not a lot to “do” here, but it’s a great place to be.

If I were to do this trip again, I’d definitely keep Gävle on the list, but I’d agonize for days, and maybe weeks, about whether to add another day to my stay in Gävle. I’m old. I haven’t got time to agonize for days or, especially, weeks.