Pepparkakståget

Today I'm following with a train to a special event - the annual inauguration of the Gävle Goat, which is the world's largest straw goat.

Stockholm C

First a trip to Uppsala

Uppsala

The train I will take from Uppsala to Gävle, is a special arrangement by the railway museum in Gävle. It's called Pepparkakståget - which means Gingerbread train.

The train has some old cars from the museum

And the locomotive painted as ginger bread

The locomotive is a Da 820 manufactured in 1953

The trip with this train is taking about 2h, which is much longer than a regular train.

Onboard there is a first-class car, which got filled very quick

3rd class cars are nice too

Smoking allowed!

Information about the car

There are cars with both compartments and open seating

In the WC one can see the rail tracks

The train calls at all stations along the line

At Örbyhus there are many passengers waiting for this train

At Tierp there is an extra-long stop that lets faster trains pass by

X55

Wish list for Santa

Marma

X52 9064 at Älvkarleby

Another long stop, now at Skutskär

A glimpse of Baltic Sea, or Gulf of Botnia

Gingerbread is greeting the train at Gävle C

The Santa Clause is here as well

Here it is - safe and sound

There is an unofficial tradition of burning the goat right after the inauguration, but now there are guards and cameras around, so it's almost impossible to do that.

The old town in Gävle

The inauguration includes a concert with Swedish pop stars

At the city museum, there is an exhibition of gingerbread constructions which local citizens have submitted

This year's prize goes to Margareta Persson

I'm taking the same train back