Home!

And we are home! Real quick - two things I forgot about yesterday. When we were in the fen these fighter jets kept flying overhead. Not sure why, but it was fun trying to spot them as they flew by! We also saw some roe deer in Sweden! At first I saw some in a field and was like what are those?? They were so tiny then I realized they were deer and looked them up and Sweden apparently has a lot of Roe Deer! Then we saw some by the side of the road and I pointed them out to Raymond and the first thing he said was “oh! They are so tiny!” Because they were! So that was fun.

Today we got up early to try and catch the early ferry from Gedser to Rostock. For some reason I thought it was about a three hour drive home from Rostock, so I wanted to catch the earlier ferry so we weren’t home too late, but it was only two so we had plenty of time! We woke up and it was so foggy I wanted to get going as soon as possibly as I didn’t know how long the fog would last and how slow it would be driving. I’m glad we did as there was a lot of fog and it was hard to see so we did have to go slow almost the whole way to the bridge across to Denmark, but then it cleared up and was sunny and gorgeous! We had plenty of time to make the ferry so while we waited we started packing everything up in bags and boxes so it would be quicker to unload when we got home.

The ferry ride was really nice. It was a perfect day for it! Almost no wind, the water was so calm, we had a light breeze and it wasn’t too cold. Still had a hat and such on once we got going, but it wasn’t bad! We sat at the back of the boat and it was fun watching the gulls fly back and forth behind us then soar up and along side the boat! They were so close to the people! The boat also partially used a rotor sail to power it which I had never heard of. When we were waiting to get on Raymond was like what is that giant white pole sticking up from the middle of the ship? And it rotates?!? So we looked it up and I don’t really understand completely how it works, but still interesting. Never seen that before.

Then it was just drive home. We did stop in a small town to dump our waters (for some reason Germany doesn’t have many places to do that. Most other countries we have been to have places at some rest stops and such so it is much easier!) and got home pretty quickly. We unloaded and unpacked just in time for dinner. Now to relax :)

Oh we also saw a bunch of ring-necked pheasants in a field in Denmark which was fun. And on the drive to Berlin we passed so so many common cranes in fields! Like tons of them! So much fun!

This was a really great trip. I loved it so so much! If we hadn’t been in this camper that was cold I would have wanted to stay up north forever (or until it started getting too dark…I don’t know that I want to live in no sun for over a month…). It was interesting as when I was researching for the trip everything was like the Lofoten Islands are the most beautiful place ever! And when we got there I was like yes, this is stunning, but so is the rest of the country! The rest is just at stunning as this! This is just more of the same, and I love it so I didn’t care, but odd that that is the one place so many people go when you could really go just about anywhere and see just as amazing scenery! I read an article while we were there about how Norway is going to stop advertising for tourists and in the comments someone was like well they only go like three places and everywhere is gorgeous maybe they should advertise for the other places! And the Norwegians in the comments were like no!!! Leave the other places to us! Don’t let the tourists know!

We definitely will have to go back and explore more. Since we were trying to see the northern lights and Lofoten was like the best apparently I focused the trip more there, but man there are so many places I want to go back to farther south! That first scenic drive we did outside Flåm is still one of my favorite days and I could have spent much more time there! It was all just so so so gorgeous! I want to go hike in all the mountains and see all the things!! My pictures really do not do it justice. At all. It was way more stunning than they look.

We also will need to do a Sweden trip as southern Sweden had so many things I wanted to stop at, but we didn’t have time. And a far north Finland/Norway trip as that northern part of Finland were drove through was one of my favorite parts of the trip. Understate, but so beautiful! So we did see all the mountains, got to see so many nights of northern lights! And had the best time. Raymond agreed this was our favorite long trip. Though I cannot imagine going there in the high season as that would be a nightmare. The popular spots had a lot of people when we were there, but not a crazy amount. Driving on this narrow windy one lane roads with a ton more cars? No thanks. For the most part we were by ourselves and not much traffic which was perfect.

A couple odd things Raymond noticed while driving (he drove the whole time as he said I drove the whole time in Croatia so it was his turn, which worked out since I planned everything and can get us where we need to be). 1) there are like no stop signs in Norway. We didn’t see a single one. Maybe there are some somewhere, but we only saw yield signs instead (or traffic lights if we were in a town). And 2) they don’t put up recommended speeds for curves in the road. Like hairpin turns? No sign saying to go slower or recommending what you might want to drive it at - just keep going 80 (the speed limit outside towns). Which is odd cause as an outsider who doesn’t know the roads you don’t know if this is a sharp turn and you should slow down or not. But it really wasn’t that bad and Raymond did a great job of driving us all over!

I thought driving the narrow windy roads was going to be a lot worse and more nerve wracking than it was. It was fine as there are so many places to pass cars it wasn’t an issue.

There are also so many tunnels in Norway! All the tunnels! And we drove by them building more! Some days it was just tunnel after tunnel after tunnel! Wasn’t expecting that. The car ferries that are part of the road were fun! And all the rainbows! I would have to go back and see the first day we saw one, but since then until the day after we left Norway we saw at least 2 every day! Which I liked. It always made me happy.

So yeah. This was our Norway adventure! Loved it so so much and can’t wait to go back!Read more