Jack thinks Maisie is getting a bit grumpy these days. She’s
always looking for something bad about to happen. She needs to look around her,
‘needs to see what’s cookin’!’ he says.
He drags her out the door. She says she doesn’t
need a walk and he says, yes she does. They cross the road and walk up a
residential street. It’s peaceful, the sun shines on Maisie’s face. Jack
notices that Maisie’s smiling. ‘You
see,’ says Jack.
‘Now what I wanted to show you was this. You see all these
lovely wooden houses? You see what a peaceful neighbourhood this is? These
houses have been around for nearly a hundred years, and – you know what? –
they’ll probably be around for another hundred!’
Maisie looks doubtful. ‘Well for quite while then…’ says Jack. ‘This is
outside the immediate area of subsidence isn’t it? At least for the forseeable future. These
lovely streets won’t be knocked down, this part of Kiruna will stay just the
same, at least, for a while…’
The area is known as ‘Thule’,
and was built in the 1920s. Right from Kiruna’s earliest days there was a town
plan, and these streets were planned right back then in 1907. (68 degrees is from
the same period.) They were houses for a several families, with space for large
backyards and outhouses, in those days for horses and other animals. Some of
the old wooden buildings were designed as flats. All the buildings have a
simple elegance. It’s all very calm.
He’s right, thinks Maisie, it isn’t all bad here.
Jack then leads them into a very different area where there are
blocks of ‘modern’ flats, probably from the 60s. She recognises this. It’s where a few years ago they knocked down a couple of old tower blocks because
they’d been empty so long and no-one thought they would be needed. Now there’s
a shortage of flats, and they’re building them up again.
There’s a huge crane hanging over the edge of the hill –
building work has begun on the new tower blocks. The view is breathtaking, with views of Jukkasjärvi in the distance, and far
below them between here and there they can see the area where they plan to build ‘the new Kiruna’.
Round the other side of where they’re building there are
views out over Luossavaara, the mountain which a long time ago was a mine too.
Now it’s a downhill skiing slope, an area for cross country skiing, and a place
you can walk with distant mountain views.
‘You see, ‘ beams Jack, ‘lots of good things are happening
in Kiruna, you just have to look for them’. Maisie has to admit he’s right.
Perhaps she’s been too gloomy about it all.
Details
All year round activity
Walking, or Spark
Free
Walking directions from Lynne and Rolf
