Day trip to Gävle

Reflections in the Plaza, originally uploaded by Let Ideas Compete.

Gävle is about 100 miles north of Stockholm. I went there to visit a factory. However, I did have about a hour to walk around and take some photos (go to my Flickr page or click on the title under the photo above). Gävl is famous for two reasons (that I knnow of). First, it is the home of Gevalia coffee which is a global brand. The coffee itself is imported, of course, but the processing is done here, or used to be. I think the main Gevalia headquarters is still here.

The second reason for fame, at least within Sweden, is a tradition of building a large "Christmas goat" in town which every year gets burned down. The story says the police can't find the vandals even with video cameras except for one year an American thought he'd uphold the tradition of burning the goat. But being a "dumb American" stood around to watch it burn. He was caught and served some jail time. So goes the story.