By Linda Thalman & Pierre Nagel |
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Norway
Sunday, 12 July 2009
On a hunch, we go to the west of the North Cape island to a small fishing village called Gjesvaer to find lodging. Still no rain. Brilliant sunshine! It was hard to find a room as the guide books only mentioned two places. We ended up in an executive boardroom office converted to a flat. Our digs has its own kitchen so we can save on eating out by cooking up our own food. And the landlord happens also to be the owner of half the village, the fisheries industry and the islands a couple of miles north which are the most important bird sanctuary of Northern Europe. He more than kindly offers to take us out in his enormous speedboat to view this fabulous scene of millions of nesting birds and eagles. A million thanks to Erling A. Walsoe for an unforgettable stay in Gjesvaer. From NordKapp we are Southbound. Direction le sud. We spent the night in Alta, with its 3000-6000 year old rock carvings. The red paint is 'new' so visitors can better see the figures. Following the north coast we drove around the Senja island before arriving in Tromso. This is where polar expeditions start off and used to be a big whaling center. They still have some whale meat in restaurants. Pierre ordered it; "It tastes like mild beef." "Oh horror that I would succumb to such a heretic act", he commented.
This was a 24-hour leg between Tromso and Bodo through the Lofoten islands, which are all above the Arctic circle so it was full non-stop daylight. One highlight was the Troll Fjord, a narrow and picturesque fjord, obscured a bit by clouds on our trip. Arriving in Bodo at two in the morning, a bit tired, we started our coastal drive along famous Route 17 with Elk. Yes, we finally saw three elk alongside the road in the morning mist. Splendid. Rounding a bend, both of us gasped as we saw a glacier going down to sea level. Route 17 is also "ferry boat route" and some of the most fascinating scenery of our trip. Back below the Arctic Circle we are able to get some sleep, and make the long drive to the big fjord region after Trondheim. We could not see all the fjords as we were in clouds, fog and rain most of the time. However we could see some of the spectacular cascades, especially through the twisty mountain road called the Trollstigen - home of the Trolls. Leaving the amazing route 17 we moved on to see Bergen and its Hanseatic past. It rained all morning in Bergen and the guide books do say this is a well-kept 'secret'. Bergen = rain. However, the weather forecast for Wednesday says we can enjoy bright skies for the famous Flamsbana train ride with incredible inclines from the 800 meter Myrdal station down to the sea level town of Flam on the Naerofjord. From there we take (another) ferry to Gudvangen and then back to the hotel in Voss by bus down 18% descents! This whole round trip started at 8:30 and ended at 14:30 when the rain resumed. We then started on the journey to Oslo. Finally after one more fjord we crossed over the high desolate Hardangervidda plateau of central Norway and down the Numedal valleys and its stavkirkes, wooden churches towards Oslo. There we visited the Nobel Peace center, which was a rip off actually, the fabulous Viking ships, the Fram, 19th-century polar expedition ship, and the Kon-Tiki. Then on to Stockholm Sweden. Linda writes:
It's 11 at 'night' and the midnight sun is really there. We've just returned from a boat ride around the local islands. Erling A Walsoe, owner of the flat we're in, kindly took us on his speed boat to see some of the 300,000 pairs of puffins, which are among the over 3 million birds in this bird sanctuary. We saw at least ten eagles, a seal, the puffins on the sea and in the air, crisscrossing the sky like crazed ants. The seascape is extraordinary. The islands are home to these birds and also where the best cloudberries grow in Norway Erling told us. The weather has only turned summer a few days ago. It was one degree Centrigrade and snowing a week ago; today it was 25 C and sunny when we arrived on the island of Mageroya = meager. You must take the 6-kilometer long tunnel, toll fee: 192 Norwegian Kroner - one way; same price to return to get to Nordkapp and Mageroya Island. Don't miss Gjesvaer - it's unique. Monday, 13 July 2009 The northern most point in Europe.. Nordkapp Norway.
Nordkapp is at 71 10' 21'' north latitude, named so by the English explorer Richard Chancellor in 1553 and we were there! Actually, the most northern place in Europe is Knivskjelodden, 9 kilometers from where all the tourists go, but, hey, we're close and the sun gods are with us... no fog, rain, hail, sleet or snow. Having had our spectacular private boat tour the evening before, we parked at the entrance to the fee-paying parking lot jammed with crazed tourists in buses, on motorbikes, bikes, on foot or in cars, campers, vans, trucks and said: we don't need to pay 40 euros for your scam. As suggested by a guide book we did NOT waste money here. Tuesday, 14 July 2009 The sky is dappled with lazy white clouds, the sun is lower in the sky but it won't really set. It's 20:15 and we're relaxing at a camping site in Svensby Norway. Being the second to the last car on the ferry from Olderdalen to Lyngseidet, 150 Nkr one way fare for car and 2 passengers, there was a loud sigh of relief as we rolled on the ferry and it started sailing almost before the ramp was up. We've ended up in an idylic place with a fiord and snow capped mountains all around just 400 meters from the Svensby ferry. It's 18C and no wind. No rain either, thankfully for that! No WiFi tonight and it's darn hard to find it above the arctic circle. We found exactly one restaurant in Honnigsvag with WiFi, another cafe hadn't had internet for a couple of days and our camping last night had been out of service for at least 3 days. Sigh.
Baltic Trip By Linda Thalman And Pierre Nagel
Email – Linda@wfi.fr
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We finish the day by driving to the northern most point of Europe in Norway.
The problem is hundreds of coaches from all over Europe also go there.
The next night we waited to board the MS NordKapp Hurtigruten coastal cruiser at one in the morning.
Gjesvaer Norway... we can almost see the North Cape from our apartment window.... unbelievable our
view on to the fishing port and the village of just under 200 people.
There's the northern most everything: camping site, cafe, bar, hotel, shop, village, picnic table,
reindeer, harbor, garage... you name it!
Paris
