Of ores and muscle pain

We slept well and when we woke up it was clear. We should do some shopping before the weekend. There is neither a shop nor an open restaurant here on the mountain. So off to Gällivare, only about 10 km away. The place is characterized by the nearby huge iron ore mine in Malmberget. There is probably hardly a family in the city that doesn't have at least one member employed there. Iron ore was mined here for the first time in 1741. Since then, Malmberget has been shrinking as a place, as buildings and streets are often in danger of collapsing because the ore mine is constantly growing. Many buildings have already had to be “relocated,” meaning they were placed on a new foundation somewhere else. The photo comes from the mining company's website and shows a “relocation”.

Most people now move to Gällivare, not far away, which has not yet been reached by mining.

There we go to the big market (kind of like an Italian market with clothes stalls as well as stalls selling reindeer ham, cheese and other delicacies (especially sweets). We buy the indigenous people's flatbread (seeds) and reindeer ham and salami .

Everything tastes very good and is presented in an appetizing manner. We actually wanted to take a guided tour of the mine - but there are currently no tours (there are hardly any tourists...). So we drive back to our mountain, where it has now started snowing again. Given the weather, we decide to go cross-country skiing, which turns out to be the right thing to do: the cross-country ski trail is beautiful and the vastness of the landscape is impressive.

This way we get to our exercise sessions and can calmly enjoy our seed bread with its savory filling in the evening.

We should fill the next few days with sports or something similar, because our next adventure beckons on Tuesday... and it has to do with reindeer...