Month: August 2018

Nordic Countries

Tromso

As we arrived in Tromso, we came across some unique sights. We only had a 55 km drive from Sommaroy but with a few stops at interesting places, it took us most of the morning. This is clearly an arctic area – stunted trees, tundra and more craggy mountains that remain snow-capped for much of […]

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Nordic Countries

Senja – Saving the Best Until Last

I read in the Lonely Planet Guide that the North coast of the island of Senja would rival Lofoten for its scenery – deep fjords, high peaks with razor ridges and mountainous scenery with peaks and waterfalls. We found out how true that was today as we drove around the coast to catch the ferry […]

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Nordic Countries

Hamn I Senja

When we arrived at Hamn on Senja Island last night it was pouring with rain and we were soaked after trying to find the  hotel reception, dragging bags in from the car and then having to park the car 200 metres away in the hotel parking area. Today has been a different day. It was […]

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Nordic Countries

Above the Arctic Circle

We are well above the Arctic Circle at Andenes on our way to Senja, Norway’s second largest island. We are waiting for a ferry that will take us across from the mainland – a 1hr 45 min trip. Our latitude here is 66.19 degrees. That’s almost 3 degrees above the Arctic Circle. Each degree is […]

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Nordic Countries

The Lofoten Peninsula

How long do you think it takes to drive 118 km on Lofoten? That’s the distance we traveled yesterday to get to Svolvaer, the largest city (9,000 people) on this peninsula. The weather forecast was for rain in the morning and then fine weather in the afternoon. We delayed our departure from Reines for as […]

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Nordic Countries

Reine at Lofoten

Reine is a fishing village and the administrative centre of the municipality of Moskenes in Nordland county, Norway. It is about as far out on the Lofoten Peninsula as you can get. It’s a tiny village – only taking up 1/3 of a square-kilometre. The rain has come back and we have spent the day poking […]

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Nordic Countries

Getting to the Lofoten Peninsula

We had a lazy start to the day on Stott. Breakfast wasn’t until 8:00 am and we weren’t going anywhere until later. It was a bright sunny day with no wind and the temperature was forecast to be 2OC. This is one of the nicest days we have had in Norway. Our transfer back to […]

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Nordic Countries

A Fine Day at Last at Stott

Yesterday, we had a much nicer day as we drove along fjords to Ornes where we caught a boat out to there island off Stott for our overnight stay. It wasn’t raining and occasionally the sun came out. We began with a ferry from Kilboghamn to Jertkvik. This took about an hour and we sailed […]

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Nordic Countries

Oscar Brygga at Tonnes

Today turned out to be something of a rest day for us. I was awake at 7.30 am and looked out the window to see that it wasn’t raining, although there were a few small rain squalls coming through from the north. A nearby island was lit up by the sun and it seemed such […]

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Nordic Countries

More of the Atlantic Coast

We made a change to our plans yesterday. It was Sunday and still raining. Our itinerary was originally to go out to the island of Lovund which is reportedly a very scenic island and the home to many puffins when they breed in summer. They return to on a specific day in April and then […]

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Nordic Countries

Vega – The Eiderdown Centre

I wasn’t expecting to have much to say about the last few days. I looked at the weather forecast and rain radar before we left Rorvik and found that virtually all of central and southern Norway was covered in rain. The rain depression is also moving north so that meant that we would have rain […]

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Nordic Countries

Travelling North to Rorvik

I was surprised at the amount of traffic on the road on which we travelled north from Trondheim today. Now that I have Googled it, I am not at all surprised. (You can find out almost anything on Googhle). It turns out that Route E6, on which we were driving, is the main north-south road […]

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