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Norway
  • Jen Ritchey
  • Jen Ritchey

Norway

Un’avventura di 32 giorni di Jen Leggi altro
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  • Jen RitcheyNorwayViaggiatore

    Hamn Lighthouse & Trollveien

    28 settembre 2024, Norvegia ⋅ ⛅ 5 °C

    Next stop was a walk to Hamn Lighthouse which I thought was going to be a quick, easy walk out to there…only it was like all the trails here and super muddy, rocks to climb over, etc. It was short, but not as easy as I expected! But it was a really nice walk and I loved the area we are in! Plus it was a gorgeous day!

    After that we stopped at this place that used to have the world‘s largest troll but it unfortunately burned down in 2019. there was a sign saying they are hoping to reopen next year, but we still had a wander to look at the trolls! And found an odd mushroom too!    Leggi altro

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  • Jen RitcheyNorwayViaggiatore

    To Bergsbotn Viewing Platform

    28 settembre 2024, Norvegia ⋅ ☀️ 5 °C

    After trolls it was time for lunch which we had by the bridge which was really nice. We wandered a bit there and spied on the birds in the water (some Red-breasted Merganser and some mystery birds were could not find via my app or by searching the Internet!) then off to Bergsbotn viewing platform. The drive there was gorgeous through lots of snow covered mountains! And the viewing platform was fun - very wavy!Leggi altro

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  • Jen RitcheyNorwayViaggiatore

    Tungeneset

    28 settembre 2024, Norvegia ⋅ ☀️ 7 °C

    Then it was on to Tungeneset which was so much fun! It’s a viewpoint for the spikey rocks across the water, but you can walk out on some pretty fun rocks! And watch all the waves crash over them! There was a sign warning that the waves were dangerous so we stayed way back from where the rocks were wet, but of course we saw some people standing right on the edge of the wet rocks and the waves almost got them…but the rocks were really cool and we spent a lot of time there enjoying them and the water!Leggi altro

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  • Jen RitcheyNorwayViaggiatore

    Mefjordvær & Ersfjord Beach

    28 settembre 2024, Norvegia ⋅ ☀️ 7 °C

    Then it was on to Ersfjord Beach, but it was pretty nice and we thought we would camp there so we headed on to the last stop - Mefjordvær which was gorgeous! Just surrounded by jagged snow covered mountains! I loved it, but it was so cold! We went through a tunnel to get there and on one side it was 8C, over there it was only 1C! Plus it was still all frosty/frozen as the sun never made it to that side of the mountains! It is odd as sunset was 6:24 today, but by like 1 it feels like it is so much later! Like I am like ah! We need to do all the things and get to camp cause it is getting late!! Then I realize it is not that late. I think it is because the sun never gets that high in the sky and sunset is moving up by 5 min every day which is a lot. There is no slow adjustment.

    After spying there we headed back to Ersfjord Beach and parked for the night before going to spy. It was really pretty and the sand was starting to get hard from the cold! Fun! We also found a pretty crab shell, but not many others. It is mostly just sand! No little rocks or shells. We can see out over the water from the car which is nice, but another cold night! Last night wasn’t too bad with the heater which is good. I was thinking about it and I think part of the problem is this car doesn’t seem to be as well insulated as the one we took to Iceland. Oh well, we only have another week before we are home!

    I am really enjoying Senja, the general area where we are. It is gorgeous! We didn’t actually drive that far today, but it was constantly gorgeous views! And it feels different from everything else. It still feels like we are up in the mountains instead of at the bottom of the giant cliffs. It is fun. The one photo of all the brown mountains - one of those we are going to attempt to hike tomorrow! I was trying to figure out which one, but couldn’t so we shall see!    Leggi altro

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  • Jen RitcheyNorwayViaggiatore

    Hesten Hike

    29 settembre 2024, Norvegia ⋅ ☁️ 3 °C

    Today we woke up to sunny and gorgeous! Sunrise is getting later and later so we actually catch some of it. We got ready to go and headed over for our hike for the day, Hesten. Now I thought this was going to be a very difficult hike even though it wasn’t very long as all the reviews I read made it seem really difficult/we might not make it that far…but it ended up being one of the easier hikes we have done! We started walking and it was gorgeous, but when we were most of the way up it started rain/snow/sleeting! It wasn’t windy so it was okay, but then the trail got very steep and muddy and I was literally sliding backwards down the hill so we were almost at the ridge at that point and there were no good places to stop so we got up to the ridge, ate a granola bar, and headed back down since you couldn’t see much as the clouds were getting low. Even with that it was one of the easiest hikes we have done. It was so cold and wet on the ridge we were freezing! But luckily once we got down a little bit it was much warmer. The way down wasn’t that bad as you could see a path that wasn’t so muddy which was good. I thought once we get past this steep bit it will be fine as it was going up…but the rain and sleet made the lower part a muddy mess! Less steep so just sliding all over the place but not falling, but it wasn’t like that going up.

    We got back to the car at noon (lunchtime) so we headed on to a viewpoint to see if we could see anything and to relax a bit as we didn’t really take a break on the hike. The rain/sleet/hail kept rolling through, but finally seemed to stop around 3 so we headed off to do some chores.    Leggi altro

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  • Jen RitcheyNorwayViaggiatore

    Yesterday vs Today

    29 settembre 2024, Norvegia ⋅ 🌬 6 °C

    When we headed off to do our chores this afternoon we drove to the one town we went to yesterday to get more water, where we could see the mountains we were hiking in this morning. As we were driving I was wait…are those the same mountains from yesterday/this morning?!? Because there was so much snow!! Like at noon when we left there was no snow on the ground there, there was no snow yesterday, but all the snow today!! I was thinking about doing another hike in the area tomorrow, but it is supposed to be very steep and maybe have some sketchy parts and we are not equipped to hike in the snow so I think we will skip it. I just couldn’t believe how much snow was on the mountains in such a short amount of time!

    Then there was not water where we went so we went backwards to where we were yesterday in search of some since it kept saying there was some down the road and ended up going by the beach we camped at yesterday and there was more snow there too! Then back to the fun rocks we walked around on and more snow! So the first photos of the post are from yesterday, the second today at about the same spot. Such a difference! We are camped by the fun rocks so the last photos are just from here, but crazy all the snow! So tomorrow will be a drive and spy day instead of a crazy hike day.

    The last two photos are the lights from last night! At 9:30 I spied and saw nothing so was reading my book and by 10 I was so tired. I peaked out the door before going to bed just in case and the lights were so bright!! I wanted to just jump outside and watch, but it was WAY too cold to just go out in what I was wearing like I would do before. I needed layers!! So we bundled up and headed over to the beach and watched the lights. It is always so much fun even if the show wasn’t as good as the last one I still love it! We watched until it got faint and I was freezing and then headed to bed. So much fun!! I don’t think there will be any tonight as it is so rainy/sleety off and on so probably too many clouds, but you never know!    Leggi altro

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  • Jen RitcheyNorwayViaggiatore

    Ørnfløya hike

    30 settembre 2024, Norvegia ⋅ ☁️ 3 °C

    Today we had a ferry to catch, and when planning the trip I thought the first one was at 2pm. I didn’t have much planned for the morning, but I was saving exploring the last little town for today as there wasn’t much else to do…well last night I went to double check the ferry times and there was a ferry at 9:45! I thought that would be too early if we wanted to spy on the town and catch it as we camped about 40 min away from the town and the town is 20 min away from the ferry…and we usually get going like 8:30/9. so when I woke up at 7 and Raymond was already awake I said we could get going quickly, put our tea in our travel mugs instead of drinking it now and head out to try and catch the early ferry if we want, so that is what we did. And I am so glad we did! We were off by 7:30! So quick! Waiting for the 2pm ferry would have been a lot.

    We were driving to the town and could see storms all around, and there was some snow on the side of the road in places! To get to the small town we turned off the main road and started heading up over a pass and the road super quickly turned from wet to slush to snow & ice! Like the photo is the slush road and we kept going and when it got to snow and ice Raymond was like we need to turn around. I could see him gripping the steering wheel trying to keep it straight and not go off the side of the road so yeah, probably a good idea. So we turned around and went to the ferry dock to wait for the ferry.

    The ferry was pretty rocky for some reason even though the water didn’t look that bad! But it was a quick ride and it looked like we were going to go through a storm, but we didn’t. The other side was a much nicer day! Sunny and gorgeous, but still freezing cold.

    First up was a hike up Ørnfløya - it is only like 100m high so it was a nice, quick, easy hike. The views were amazing! All these snow covered mountains surrounding us on the way up, then the island of Sommarøy from the top! So nice! Really there will be a lot of photos of these mountains from today as we didn’t go far so they are always there! But it was gorgeous!    Leggi altro

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  • Jen RitcheyNorwayViaggiatore

    Sommarøy Part 1

    30 settembre 2024, Norvegia ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

    After our first quick hike we headed on to Sommarøy and a quick 2km hike around the one part of the one island. The hike was so nice! It went from tiny beach to tiny beach and was gorgeous! People keep saying that all the beaches up here are like tropical beaches which this far I haven’t really seen, but some of the ones today did look like it! The water was gorgeous and the sand so nice! The first beach had so much coral, the second was mostly just shells! Really there were lots of cool shells and colors I haven’t seen before! We spent so much time on our short hike! But it was a lot of fun.Leggi altro

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  • Jen RitcheyNorwayViaggiatore

    Sommarøy Part 2

    30 settembre 2024, Norvegia ⋅ ☁️ 6 °C

    The end of the hike was along the road which was still nice. By the time we got back to the car we were frozen so we drove to the other beaches in town and then on to find a place to camp for the night. Along the way we saw some reindeer along the road!! So much fun! We went up and over another pass and most of the parking was covered in slush. All the snow! We are camped on the other side of the pass and head into Tromsø tomorrow…though it is supposed to be super stormy so we shall see how much we see. Then we are going to start towards home as the weather is just a bit concerning. All this snow (it is forecast to be snowy in Sweden where we will need to drive through) and we don’t want to get stuck up here in a big storm…plus all the cold. I know we are in the Arctic, but man is it cold. Feels much colder than the temp so that and the car not staying super warm I think we both are ready for some warmer temps! I do have a couple small hikes in Sweden we could do if it is nice, or else we will just have shorter driving days which is also fine. We shall see what we get up to on the way home!Leggi altro

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  • Jen RitcheyNorwayViaggiatore

    Arctic–Alpine Botanic Garden Part 1

    1 ottobre 2024, Norvegia ⋅ 🌧 4 °C

    We got up this morning and by the time we were ready to go the wind had gotten crazy! Luckily there was no wind last night, but also luckily we parked perfectly so the wind was almost hitting us straight on, but it was still rocking us around a bit and sleeting and just a mess. The one side of the car is covered in little pieces of leaves that were blowing up against it! At first Raymond was like it is fine! We can still go! And I was like a) do we really want to go walk around in this?? You just opened the door and it was crazy out. And b) this wind is way too strong for us to drive in! Like we are tall and I remember from Iceland not to drive in wind this strong with a tall vehicle! I remember video of a camper being blown over on the road! I don’t want that to be us!

    So then he looked at the forecast and was like yeah…this wind is way too strong. I think he wanted to just go as he is really worried about being stuck up here as he had some work things that came up while we were gone that he will need to deal with after we get back, nothing bad, mostly good stuff, but some things that need done, so I think he is a bit stressed by the snow and wind and everything as he worries we won’t make it out of the mountains (I’m much less worried about being trapped…we might have to go slower at times but we have so much time we will make it south! And the forecast now is not as bad, but the forecast is not the most accurate). The wind forecast was for crazy wind until 4pm so we were like well we will just hang out and see what it is like this afternoon. I said we can always camp near Tromsø and go spy in the morning if need be…I didn’t have much on my to do list for Tromsø so I didn’t think it would take all day and it would be fine.

    So we were hanging out and all of a sudden at 10 the wind just stopped. We sat for a few minutes and it didn’t start up again so we jumped up and got ready to go and headed out while we could! First stop was the Arctic–Alpine Botanic Garden at the university as I like botanical gardens. I thought this one was pretty small so it might take a half hour to wander through…but two hours later we got back to the car! There was so much to see!

    This is the world’s northernmost botanical garden and it was so much fun! There were all these rocky paths to wander through and look at things. There were a lot of flowers that were dead now, but still plenty alive to look at! And all the pretty colors! Lots of super tiny succulent type plants and larger interesting things. I loved it! I have two posts of photos just cause why not?    Leggi altro

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  • Jen RitcheyNorwayViaggiatore

    Tromsø

    1 ottobre 2024, Norvegia ⋅ 🌬 4 °C

    On the sign at the botanical garden there was a note on how to get to the geology walk so of course we had to go spy on that! I enjoyed that as it showed the geology of Norway and then there were lots of rock samples to look at. Such fun!

    After that we went downtown to see what we could see. It was sunny when we parked and Raymond almost left his rain pants in the car, but it was good he didn’t as by the time we started walking the wind had picked up and was blowing little ice pieces in our face! It was not fun…I was just about to say I’m done, let’s just get out of here when it stopped so we kept wandering. There was a little stand selling hot dogs that had vegan ones so we got some topped with fried onions, pickled onions, and beets! So tasty!

    Then off to spy on the Arctic Cathedral where it started blowing ice in our face again, which hurts! so I took a pic and we headed on to camp!

    Tomorrow we go to the other side of the big mountains so I think Raymond will be able to relax a bit and not worry so much once we get over there as it is less likely we will get trapped. I do have a couple fun stops planned so we shall see what we see!    Leggi altro

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  • Jen RitcheyNorwayViaggiatore

    Heading towards Home - Finland!

    2 ottobre 2024, Norvegia ⋅ ☁️ 1 °C

    Today I slept in! Till 7:45 which is really late for me! It was good cause I needed it. So then we quickly got ready and headed off for the day. We had a bunch of chores to do that we should have been able to do at the same place, but like something wasn’t working every place so we had to go to a bunch of places which took up a lot of time…but we still got everything done and had a good day!

    Driving from where we parked last night was gorgeous - giant snow covered mountains which I love. Our first real stop was at a waterfall which was pretty nice. You could walk along the river to the base of it and so that was a nice break from driving!

    Then we headed into Finland which up there was gorgeous! It was so nice in a different way than the giant mountains. We were driving in these giant valleys around seemingly smaller, rounded mountains. And there was snow all over!! We even had bits where it was on the side of the road and we saw a snow plow out! I loved it. Everything had some snow on it and it was so pretty!! There was a second waterfall to walk to which we did and the path was snow covered and amazing!! I wish we would have had more time as I would have loved to walk around a bit more (even though it was freezing!).

    Then on the way to the highest point on Finnish road we saw some reindeer! Then just down the road two moseyed across the road in front of us! The smaller one only had one horn so he looked like a unicorn! Such fun! Driving through Finland was so nice and there was like no one else out there. Every once and a while a car would pass by, but it was so empty! Much more so than anywhere else we went. Then it was on to Sweden!    Leggi altro

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  • Jen RitcheyNorwayViaggiatore

    Heading Towards Home - Sweden!

    2 ottobre 2024, Finlandia ⋅ ⛅ 5 °C

    Driving through northern Sweden was nice, but not as great as Norway or northern Finland. It had flattened out so much and the snow went away (even though it was still freezing), but there were a lot of lakes we drove by. Most of the driving was through forested roads though which was nice, but not mountains or snow! When we first crossed over to Sweden we drove through a town and it was like the apocalypse happened and we didn’t know about it. There was no one in the town…there was a school and houses and grocery stores and all the things, but literally no people. It felt like a ghost town for a long while…and then there started to be life around once we got farther into Sweden. A bit different than no one around in Finland as there we didn’t really go through any towns or anything. It was so strange!

    We stopped at a stone arch bridge in the one town and a rest stop with a nice place to sit out on the water. Then we came back across the Arctic circle and are camped just below it! It feels so much colder here than where we were in Norway which makes no sense to me! We walked around the camping area a bit as it is in the forest and there is a river nearby by and it was so so so cold! I forgot to take a photo of where we camped when we got here, which was just after sunset as it is so early, so the only photo is the one after dinner in the near dark :) tomorrow we continue on through Sweden and I have a few short walks to do so we shall see how far we get! I’m glad we took this extra day as it has been really nice getting out of the car and walking around a bit. Plus not driving till late is great. We stopped in time to make dinner and relax a bit.

    Driving today was sunny all day and so it was really noticeable how the sun did not get very high in the sky. It felt like it was so early forever, like 1pm it felt like 10, until it suddenly started feeling late at like 3pm. It’s been fun seeing all this up here, but I don’t know that I would like living so far north!    Leggi altro

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  • Jen RitcheyNorwayViaggiatore

    Heading Towards Home - Day 2

    3 ottobre 2024, Svezia ⋅ ☁️ -1 °C

    Last night was the coldest night we have had! Below freezing this morning and frost everywhere! But luckily the car stayed warm enough - it just takes forever to warm up. We got up early and got going!

    First stop was the northernmost point of the Baltic Sea! I did not realize it went the whole way up here so that was exciting.

    Then lots of driving down the highway. It is mostly a two lane road with sections with a second lane to pass all the big trucks and slow cars. I don’t know why but the people here in general drive slow which frustrates Raymond (and me sometimes as they like to fly by us when it is a passing lane then slow way down so we are stuck behind them which makes no sense). But there wasn’t really a ton of traffic just a steady stream of cars and trucks. We also saw a ton of wide/oversized load trucks going the other way. We must have passed 30-40 which is a lot! Normally we don’t see any…or maybe one or two so that was interesting. There is also a lot of large art on the side of the road we drove by - lots of large objects like the cheese slicer and some just art.

    We were going to go out to this park on the water and walk to some mermaids next, but it was 30 min off the main road which is too far! That’s would be an extra hour which we didn’t want to add so we drove on and stopped at a rest stop for lunch. I like the rest stops here as most are on a lake or in the forest and you can have a nice walk to stretch your legs. The lunch one was in a forest so we wandered through the woods and of course found some mushrooms!

    Then off to Skuleskogens National Park for a short hike. It was so nice there! Most of the pathway was wooden boards and it led to a viewpoint which was pretty nice! It was a quick walk, but definitely on the list to go back to when we explore Sweden!

    There was the rainbow glass thing on the way into the park and I read the sign on the way out and you are supposed to stand behind it and look through the colored glass and it is like being in ice…which not sure I got that myself, but it was pretty.

    Then we kept seeing signs for this place Max and the design of the name made it look like a hardware store or something so when I kept seeing signs showing how much farther to Max I had to look it up because do that many people need hardware stores? Well it is a fast food burger place so I looked at their menu and they had a lot of vegan options so we went there for dinner so we could drive farther and not have to cook. And it was surprisingly good! Like I would definitely go back and get something there again!

    Then on to the rest area where we are camped for the night which is on a lake. These rest areas are so much nicer than other places we have been! I love it! And it is back from the road a way so you can’t hear the traffic very much which is nice.

    Tomorrow we drive on and have a few more short hikes if we have time. I‘ve really been enjoying having the time to take a 30min-1 hour break every few hours to stretch our legs. It makes the drive so much more enjoyable! Really we stopped about every two hours and walked a bit (once was through the grocery store as it was there and I love seeing what they have different places). Normally we would just drive and stop for 10-15 min when we need it and then continue on, but I think I will have to do this way from now on. Short walking breaks is the best!

    Driving through Sweden today was pretty nice. After not having all the snow and mountains to compare it to I was enjoying the fall colors and water. It really was just so much forest and lakes! All the trees! Where we are now is a bit more hilly which is nice too.    Leggi altro

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  • Jen RitcheyNorwayViaggiatore

    Heading Toward Home - Day 3.1

    4 ottobre 2024, Svezia ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C

    Today was so much fun and we learned all the new to us things! First Raymond got us up super early so we headed off and had time for more adventures. First stop was a forested path outside Stockholm that had so many spiderwebs in the plants! But it was a nice walk as it went by a lake and when we got there it was all foggy and spooky, though it quickly cleared up.

    Next stop was lunch, which was also by a lake, where we walked to find a nice place to eat and found all these volcanic lava rocks! We were like what are these doing here?!? So then I did some research and it is from a volcanic time in the Jurassic period. Apparently close-ish to where we are camped a lot of exceptionally well preserved Jurassic plant fossils can be found under an old Lahar! If we had time and it was closer I would definitely go check it out! That goes on the list for when we explore Sweden for sure!

    There were also fun paintings on the tunnel leading to the lake. All in all it was a pretty fun lunch break!    Leggi altro

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  • Jen RitcheyNorwayViaggiatore

    Heading Towards Home - Day 3.2

    4 ottobre 2024, Svezia ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    After lunch we headed on to another trail I had found (I just looked on my trail app for easy under 5k trails next to the road and picked one about the right distance away for a stop that had nice photos) and that quick stop turned into a long one as Raymond said. We were driving up to the hike and I was like where are we going to be walking?? Cause everything was so flat and farmlands and then we saw a small group of trees and we were like I guess in there…Well we walked around/through a calcareous fen, which I had never heard of! It’s wet all year and the water is rich in lime and other minerals, but not much nutrients so the plant life is very different than the surrounding as it has had to adapt to that. The sign at the beginning also said there were a lot of fungus and mosses so I knew we were going to be a while! It also has some special snails and beetles, though we didn’t see any of them. Oh and there are a few types of orchids that only grow here! Again we didn’t see them, but pretty cool! The fen is surrounded by woodlands that help keep it as it should be. So we wandered all over and found all the fungi! Some of it was really tiny and strange…some was so well camouflaged it took a min to find even with Raymond pointing it out!

    We also heard some woodpeckers and could feel the vibrations on the trees, but couldn’t see them as there were too many leaves in the way. So much fun! Such a fun stop!!

    Then it was on to get water and groceries and my goodness it was a mess! People just fly through the parking almost hiting people it was crazy! You would look and no one would be there so start to cross and all of a sudden a car is almost upon you! I did not like that…By the time we were done in that town I was like get us out of here!!! When we were looking for a place to move overseas we did consider Stockholm also as we both really liked it there, but today I was like I am so glad we ended up in Berlin! I like the nice, orderly driving there.

    Oh! I totally forgot! Yesterday we were driving and went by a rest stop that had a restaurant and there was no sign with a name or anything, but the word on Swedish that Google translate to „Human Food“ which made me laugh so much! Like what else would they serve? Seems suspicious they have to say it is for humans…

    All in all today was a great day! We are heading south so the sun is in our face all day while driving, but the stops were great and made it feel more like a vacation day than a travel day! We have also gotten far enough south that the leaves are just starting to change colors here and there.    Leggi altro

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  • Jen RitcheyNorwayViaggiatore

    Home!

    5 ottobre 2024, Svezia ⋅ ⛅ 4 °C

    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!    Leggi altro

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    6 ottobre 2024