Finally, after three months of waiting, the bedroom got new wallpaper. During the inspection that was done before we started to rent the apartment, it was decided that the wallpapers in the bedroom was too bad (as you can see to the left). We had to call the landlord a few times before anything happened.
The second day of this weekend it was time to move the body too, but today with help of the bikes. We biked along the Ume River on the Ume Trail ("Umeleden").
First stop: Backen's church. The first church was built on this place already during the 12th century, the current shape is from the 1500's.
Close to this area was Umedalen's sculpture park. We didn't find a map over the area, so we probably missed some of the sculptures, since they were spread out around the houses.
On the south side of the river is Umeå Energy Center, with Klabböle power station which was the first hydro power station in this area (decommissioned since the end of the 50's due to the building of a much larger power station upstream).
We spent some time at the quite dried out river bed, on this stretch of the river most of the water flows in a tunnel underneath from the larger power station. Some people were swimming in the river, but we just dipped our feet.
Back home we biked on the south side of the river.
After some more kilometers we could see Umeå city again, and the Church bridge across Umeälven.
Towards the end of the 19th century, one of Europe´s largest sawmills grew on the islands of Norrbyskär. The sawmill company bought the island and built a steam powered mill, but also housing for the workers. This was a community on its own (at most 1200 people); the workers were drawn with good salaries and houses (with electricity!) and good education for their children (the future workers), but were also expected to be very loyal to the work place.
The mill was in operation 1892-1952.
We took the 9:30 ferry from Norrbyn to the harbor on the island closest to the mainland.
First we went to see the street with wooden workers' houses. Most of them were split into four apartments, evidently the apartment on the first floor closest to the street was the most popular. There were also some larger houses for the foremen. The social classes were much more obvious during these days.
On the way we passed the remains of the (electrical) railway on the island, used to transport all the sawed boards. Next stop was the remains of the harbor where everything were shipped from the island.
On the easternmost island, YMCA/YWCA ("KFUM") has some activity, among other things an adventure course, several kinds of small boats and confirmation camps. We went up to the northernmost part of this island, where a breakwater was constructed of stones. This was a nice place to have some snack and with the sun shining nothing to complain about.
Next to the island there were some ships left in the water. We are not sure exactly what these were used for, either for moving boards or sawdust.
Back on the middlemost island, we went down the street past the school. In this area, some holiday houses were built already during the sawmill days.
Back through the woods, we passed the place were the big planer was situated. The only remnant now was a tiled floor, it was really hard to realize how this place looked only about 50 years ago. The trees do a good job taking back the nature, if you let them be.
Close to this place, we thought that the dirt on the ground looked strange, until we realized that it was sawdust that we walked on. Pretty long decomposing time for this matter!
Right after we arrived on the island(s) during the morning, we just passed the museum since it was closed. Now on the other hand it was time to pay it a visit. 
A lot of artifacts and photos told about life in the sawmill society, but the most interesting part of the exhibit was the scale model of Norrbyskär during its high time. Piles and piles of sawed board everywhere.
Next to the museum there was houses built in scale 1:3, all prepared for the kids to get a view of the daily life of the early 19th century.
We finished our trip with a visit to "Kalmar'n", the place where all the sawdust from the sawmill was transported to with cable cars and then shipped to the mainland.
The workers' houses here were in same style as the other wooden houses, but made of bricks instead.
Next to here was the big house for the manager. He had his own house, with stables next to it. The area was marked with a fence, so that the workers wouldn't come too close.
Today we decided to visit Gammlia again - the open air museum that is not far away from where we live. We joined a guided tour, that among others featured two farmer's buildings from the 1800's. The houses are original, but moved to Gammlia (from northern Sweden) and the museum is about showing how it could have been 200 years ago. The houses are filled with old furniture and tools.
To make it more authentic, the guides were dressed in time-traditional clothes. The wooden fence around the yard helped to keep the hens within the farmhouse area. The forge ("smedjan") was usually placed outside the yard, for security reasons.
"The butter box" ("smörasken") was built as a bank house in 1877. Later it has been used as library and school, but is today office for Umeå Energy.
In the west parts there are still some old wooden buildings, but in the city center everything was destroyed in the big city fire 1888. Many of the old houses are today protected under the Heritage Conservation Act, so only restricted renovations are allowed.
Already 1764 the first hospital in northern Norrland was opened here in Umeå. The big yellow wooden house was built in 1785 and is today the oldest building in Umeå. Nowadays, the buildings have changed to offices. The building to the right was built 1893 to be the surgery, but the hospital moved to larger buildings just 10 years later and the house hosts the office of our landlord today.
Just after she woke up, Maria took some pictures of the island. If you compare with the landscape on the west coast a month ago, you will notice a big difference in the amount of vegetation. Much more grass and brushes on the east side of the country, while the other side is more rugged.
