Tuesday the 17th – Norge!! (Norway)!!

Today we head to one of the most northern points accessible by road. Parts of Alaska and Russia are farther north than Nordkapp, but you can’t drive there.

We got going a bit late (slept in, then made breakfast, and stopped off at our little parking lot where we can hack into wi-fi to ensure we had the right directions). The first part of the drive was through very rural and isolated Finland. We thought of Robert Frost—two roads diverged in the wood, and I took the one less travelled…and also not paved!!! There was a section of the road about 19 km (12 miles) that was not paved. It wasn’t too bad, and we only encountered one car and one huge bus! Then we got to another section that was paved, and in 30 km, saw not a single car! We did pass a few reindeer “farms” and some interesting landscapes. That, ultimately, was the most interesting part of the journey, that we saw SO many landscapes in the 8 hour journey that it never got “boring”.

 As we crossed into Norway, it was curious thinking that we were in a Kingdom (as we were in Sweden, too) and that it was no part of the EU (Sweden is like some partial member?). Even more interesting since there was no one at the check point, so we drove right through the border. Anyway, we got started learning our Norwegian. Recall that we “studied” our Swedish on the way to Ikea? Well, the book that we used, which helpfully had several pages of useful words and phrases in Finnish, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish, unhelpfully had some dramatic errors!! The Title on the page was “Swedish Translations” and the header in the table had “English—Pronunciation—Norwegian”. The page titled with Norwegian, likewise gave the Swedish translations. So, on the way to Sweden, we learned Norwegian, and on the way to Norway, we tried to learn Swedish. No wonder the folks at Ikea looked really oddly at us as we did our best Swedish (or rather Norwegian) pronunciations!! (No, there were no other reasons they looked at us oddly!)

At the beginning of the trip, the landscape was much like Finland, and had thin birch trees and some coniferous varieties. According to Theresa, it was a green palette. Then, amidst the trees, small and later very large rocks nearly covered the area between the trees. Probably these boulders were left behind by glaciers, but you could not till the soil there without tremendous work to clear boulders. In some areas, the ground was nearly all rock, and the trees disappeared. The grass and moss laid over the rock like a blanket, sometimes just reaching the edge of the rock, sometimes draping slightly over it. The “palette” then changed to reds (according to Theresa). She thought it was striking, amazing, etc, and I thought it was “dark” just like before.

We of course, saw more reindeer, and some herds as well. (Pictures later).

Very soon after crossing the border, it started to snow. We saw snow in lots of places, not quite melted, but this was new, as it was fresh, light, and white. In some areas the snow was a light dusting, and in other areas it was a thick blanket. The lakes in Finland frequently had ice and slush on them. But, in Norway, we found several lakes fully covered with ice or slush, and then snow on top of that. Several were still completely frozen over, too.

Not quite clear road

Later, we came into a “valley” or a gorge, with steep hills on each side, and a river below. The stream or river was partially frozen, and had rapids in places. We came out of this area into broader areas which resembled fjords. The body of water became wider, and due to the mist, often we could not see the other side. The snow came down softly, almost in a mist. Along the way, we went through a few tunnels, the longest of which was almost 7 km. They had a radio station broadcasting inside of it, so we actually were able to listen to the radio a few hundred feet under a mountain!

About 30 km past Alto, we stopped for a little break. We found a little coffee shop, and got a coffee and a waffle, and some Norwegian Kroners (change for our Euros). It was a nice break. We also found out it is “National Day”, which explains the many Norwegian flags we saw flying at homes, and on cars. But, the girl at the counter, who was wearing a ribbon (with the colors), couldn’t tell us more as she was Finnish, and didn’t seem to care about their holiday.

During the drive, there was a section that had a gate, and was sometimes “closed”. Fortunately, it was open. But, less than a mile or two into it, we noticed a light snow drift over the other lane of the road. It was kind of neat, and a little amusing…right up until we saw a large drift on our side of the road!! Well, initially, I suspected it was thin as it appeared on the other side, but as the tires crunched in, and the front started veering, I quickly realized this was not light duty!! The snow slowed me quickly, and coming to a stop, I put it in first, and started crawling back out. I drove on the other lane for a few hundred yards until oncoming traffic eliminated that option. I managed back over and in low gear crunched through until I came out about a half mile later. The rest of the road was clear (on our side). Then we saw a snow plow coming to clear the road. A little too late!

We arrived about 6pm at our Hostel outside of Hollingsvåg. It’s nice, though we have communal baths/showers. Everything is decorated in IKEA, which we find amusing! We had our most expensive meal of the trip (about $80, we believe, based on the exchange rate). Bill had the rumored $12 Norwegian beer and we both had some fresh seafood. Theresa took a nap before we set off for Nordkapp about 10:30pm for the Midnight sun. The drive was interesting…well, partly. Unfortunately, there was a storm, and visibility was minimal, and it was snowing, and high winds. So, after a few miles, it was decided that our path through the mountains was not safely passable. So, we went back to our hostel, a little defeated.

At the docks where we ate dinner.



PS - Posted from the Admiral's Club in Chicago - back in the USA!