The Journey – Lichtenwörth – Gällivare – Ritsem

At 4:15 Sissy & Karl, who our loyal readers know well by now, pick us up and take us to the airport. Our large and heavy backpacks (well, that can be cheerful!) have to take the big luggage counter again. The AUA plane to Stockholm starts on time at 6:45 and we arrive in Sweden after a quiet flight. In Stockholm we bring our luggage as usual from one terminal to the other, whereby we use this time a luggage trolley for the transport, which requires all my attention at short notice. Fortunately everyone remained unharmed … 😉

We take a quick breath of fresh air, withdraw 2000 Swedish kronor, eat a snack and discuss ways to modify our house in the next few years. So the time flies by and at 13:00 we already start towards Kiruna. Also this flight is on time and our luggage is completely here!

The shuttle bus takes us to the bus station in the center of Kiruna. Around the corner there is the very nice Safari coffee house where we eat cappuccino after dragging our big backpacks inconspicuously through the café to the 1st floor. Here we already chat with our first hiking colleagues, who have already completed their journey.

The free shuttle bus takes us from the bus station to the train station where our train to Gällivare leaves at 16:47. Without a smartphone, you’re in trouble: there’s no way to buy a train ticket on the spot. We get in touch with the train attendant right away, no problem, she will sell us the necessary tickets on the train.

In Gällivare we march to our accommodation, the Bed & Breakfast Gällivare. The lady of the house greets us friendly, we tell her about our planned route and she seems quite amazed what we are planning in the next weeks. We reserved the room a few weeks before and asked in advance how to get our gas cartridge for the camping stove. During the greeting she immediately explains that we get it at the Coop, which is about 1.5 km away. She also asks us if we have seen any more hikers, because she is expecting a couple.
So we take an evening walk to the Coop, buy some chocolate next to the gas cartridge and eat burgers in the adjacent Frasses Grill.
We march back, take a shower, read a bit more and soon fall asleep, a little sad in two single beds that can’t be pushed together.

After a pleasant night and a good breakfast we pack our things. We talked to the lady of the house and realized that she hadn’t checked, that we had reserved and then said that we actually had a much bigger room with a double bed … so apparently we were the couple she was waiting for yesterday.

We will take the bus of the “bus gods” Bussgods at 8:55 to Ritsem with many other hikers. We are here earlier and take some pictures.

As usual we have one hour stay at Stora Sjöfallet, where we treat ourselves to cinnamon snails and coffee. The last coffee for a long time! We always have a look at the bus, so that no one can get our backpacks out.

In Ritsem the bus first stops down at the boat dock and then goes up to STF Ritsem. We buy crispbread and a lighter, change the backpacks to hiking mode and start at 2 pm! 🙂 🙂 🙂