Gammelstad
توسط Stefan Geens
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Day 5: Luleå to Kiruna — I keep on running into World Heritage sites I've never heard of before. Today it was the turn of Gammelstad, "Old village", where Luleå was in fact first founded as a fishing village in the 14th century. In what is a most unusual catastrophe for a fishing village, the land kept on rising, at 90cm per century, and soon the harbour was too shallow for fishing boats. Read on...
During August 2008 I spent 17 days driving around Sweden in the single-minded pursuit of one good 360-degree panorama per day, posting the results daily to the Panoramic Sweden blog.
Gammelstad, listed on Unisco's world heritage objects, has one of the biggest and best preserved chur...
Gammelstad, listed on Unisco's world heritage objects, has one of the biggest and best preserved chur...
Sunset over Stadsviken in Luleå. Leleå, a town in the Swedish province of Norbotten have a population...
Luleå, a town in the Swedish province of Norbotten have a population of about 73000. It has been a ma...
Leleå, a town in the Swedish province of Norbotten have a population of about 73000. It has been a ma...
Luleå, a town in the Swedish province of Norbotten have a population of about 73000. It has been a ma...
This is a camping by the Gulf of Bothnia to the north of Baltic Sea. Swedish nature at its best. Ther...
Haparanda, a town i the Swedish province Norrbotten, is the easternmost town of Sweden. It is situate...
Tornio is a town in the Finnish province Lappland. It is situated by the Tornio river and is the by t...
In ebuary each year the town of Jokkmokk plays host to the largest Nordic Winter Market. Traders come...
Europe is generally agreed to be the birthplace of western culture, including such legendary innovations as the democratic nation-state, football and tomato sauce.
The word Europe comes from the Greek goddess Europa, who was kidnapped by Zeus and plunked down on the island of Crete. Europa gradually changed from referring to mainland Greece until it extended finally to include Norway and Russia.
Don't be confused that Europe is called a continent without looking like an island, the way the other continents do. It's okay. The Ural mountains have steadily been there to divide Europe from Asia for the last 250 million years. Russia technically inhabits "Eurasia".
Europe is presently uniting into one political and economic zone with a common currency called the Euro. The European Union originated in 1993 and is now composed of 27 member states. Its headquarters is in Brussels, Belgium.
Do not confuse the EU with the Council of Europe, which has 47 member states and dates to 1949. These two bodies share the same flag, national anthem, and mission of integrating Europe. The headquarters of the Council are located in Strasbourg, France, and it is most famous for its European Court of Human Rights.
In spite of these two bodies, there is still no single Constitution or set of laws applying to all the countries of Europe. Debate rages over the role of the EU in regards to national sovereignty. As of January 2009, the Lisbon Treaty is the closest thing to a European Constitution, yet it has not been approved by all the EU states.
Text by Steve Smith.
