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Norway 2026
  • Jen Ritchey
  • Jen Ritchey

Norway 2026

Jen tarafından 24 günlük bir macera. Okumaya devam et
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  • Gezinin başlangıcı
    18 Eylül 2026
    Jen RitcheyNorway 2026Gezgin
    1

    We’re off!

    18 Eylül, Almanya ⛅ 18 °C

    Today we headed off on our next adventure - Norway! This time we are going to start in the north east corner and work our way west and see what we can see in Finnmark!

    We picked up the van yesterday and…it is really beat up. So much stuff is falling apart (mostly the blinds…and the button to light the stove), but we are making it work. I threw everything we needed into the car yesterday, then when we got up this morning the last bits, had some breakfast and off we went! We headed up to Rostock for the ferry to Gedser (this is the first time taking it this direction!) and we got there with plenty of time to have lunch and organize the van.

    The ferry ride was not too bad - it’s somehow always warmer than I expect it to be. We did have some stormy looking skies, and a few minutes of rain, but then it cleared up and was sunny and gorgeous! Our rain gear had dried off again by the time we got to Gedser.

    Then it was just a long drive to where we are parked for the night (a rest stop off the highway just north of Värnamo Sweden). We can hear the cars a little bit, but not that loud so hopefully it will be a good night sleep.

    We did stop at Max burger for dinner, but I was so hungry by the time we got it I forgot to take a photo. We also took the food down to the marine to fill up with water before we headed on as I thought it would take a while so we could eat while we waited…and it took like 2 minutes. It was super fast! The last photo is from where we got water and ate dinner. We did drive through lots of rain once we got off the ferry and it is supposed to rain a bunch tomorrow too so we shall see what we get up to. The plan is to drive as far as we can so I don’t know that I will have many photos, but we shall see.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Jen RitcheyNorway 2026Gezgin

    Long Drive Day 2

    19 Eylül, İsveç 🌧 14 °C

    Today we got up and drove and drove and drove! A long day of driving!

    Last night I slept pretty well and somehow this bed is longer than normal which is great for me! Normally I have to make sure to scrunch up towards the top of the bed so my head is almost touching the side and then me feet will just fit touching the other side (and I normally wake up in the middle of the night because I had scooched down in my sleep and my legs had to go at an angle and so then I have to scrunch up at the top again. Last night thought? I didn’t move up to the top and laid down…and my feet don’t touch the other side! If I really stretch out I can just barely touch both sides. I really have no idea how that is possible as we have had this same van before, but somehow the pop-outs are slightly wider! No waking up and having to move up to make room for my feet! That is great!

    So we got up, ate breakfast, and headed on our way. I hadn’t planned stops for the day as we are trying to just get up to Norway asap and we tried listening to an audio book this morning (Moby Dick which we are loving!), but for me that makes the time pass so slowly! I don’t know why but I’m listening and then like okay well a half hour had to have passed and I look at the time and it’s been a few minutes. So we switched over to music this afternoon and that was much better. That and the scenery started getting nicer as we drove. More hills and we are far enough north now what the trees are changing colors which I love!

    Our first break stop was at this rest stop right before this bridge which had a nice little path down to walk under it a bit. So that was fun. Then as we were driving through Jönköping there was a lot of art on the side of the road (my favorite was what looked like a giant paper mache long neck dinosaur head. He was really silly) so since I kept almost missing them I tried to search on the map for more fun things and found a rock on top of a tree trunk so I was ready to take a photo of that! And then saw a plane too!

    Lunch was at a grocery store parking lot so that wasn’t much fun, but our afternoon break was at a rest stop by a lake where you could walk along the lake a bit (and swim if you so wanted. We did see someone getting out of the water…it was a bit too cold for that for me!) and it was nice to stretch our legs a bit.

    We got dinner out (burgers again as they are so good!) and then drove on to the rest stop where we are staying the night. It was overcast and a bit drizzly/misty all day, but after dinner it was raining so hard! Got to where we stopped a bit later as there was so much water in the road in the “divots” from the wear from cars driving on it so I had to try and drive a bit farther over close to the middle line…and luckily there wasn’t that much traffic so it worked.

    Oh the other thing - it was dark just after we ate dinner, but we drove on another 2 hours and the high beams on the cars and trucks are so bright! You could see when they were turned on farther away the whole sky/all the low rain clouds would light up so bright! It was crazy! Ours are definitely not that bright…but it was fun watching it.

    It was a really long day driving and we have another one tomorrow…though I might look and see if there is a short hike in the afternoon and just not go as far. It’s been a while since we have tried to go so far in one go (Spain would have been the last one and that want as far - that was more like 2.5 days instead of 3), as normally we would have arrived wherever we were heading today so that’s fine, but three long days of travel is a lot. I told Raymond that if I suggest doing this again to tell me no! Add an extra travel day in! Hopefully the weather is a bit better tomorrow, though it looks like this first area we are going to normal gets a lot of rain so…we shall see! But tomorrow night will be spent in Finland which is kind of exciting.    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Jen RitcheyNorway 2026Gezgin

    Long Drive Day 3

    20 Eylül, İsveç 🌧 10 °C

    Today was a great day!! So much better than yesterday! Yesterday really was too much driving so today we were more relaxed, but still went pretty far. This morning the first stop was a grocery store in Sweden as it was a bigger town and we would be heading into more remote areas so maybe not as many options and the store had so many things! We got all the cookies and fun things to try!

    After that we headed on and I was looking for other fun things we might see (after passing more artwork on the side of the road) and found what was voted the nicest rest stop in Sweden every year! That is the first photo (only took a photo from the road as I forgot about it by the time we got there…but I know I said we stayed at rest stops the past two nights and I should say that the rest stops in Sweden and Norway are so much nicer than anywhere else we’ve been! Usually off the road a bit with nice nature around and some paths to walk and really great which is why we stayed at them).

    We drove until lunchtime where we parked for a shirt hike. We had driven through a lot of rain before that so I was like we shall see what it is like and if it is not too rainy we can do the hike…well after lunch it was just sprinkling a little bit so off we went! And the viewpoint was so nice!! It overlooked the water and some islands and I loved it! And so many rocks up there! But the trail to get there? Well in the photo of Raymond hiking down? That stream? That is the trail! We have had so much rain there was water everywhere! So we tried our best to hike nearby, but not in the way too deep to walk in water. Then in the third photo after that one with all the rocks? There is a tree with a red band on it - that photo was taken from the tail and the red tree is the trail marker! So much walking up/down rocks! Then once you got down farther it was just a path through the woods.

    Then we headed on and saw our first reindeer!! And a white one too!! I remember we saw a white one last time in Norway and I looked it up then and the Internet said white reindeer were rare, but we actually saw 2 today!! The second one was also in the woods by the side of the road, but we didn’t see him until we were almost driving by so no photo. So the Internet lied or we are really lucky! There was not much traffic and no other cars when we saw the furst ones so we were able to slow down and say hi! What fun!

    Then we crossed over into the Arctic circle! I didn’t think there would be a marking for it as I couldn’t find one on the map for the road we were taking. Raymond was like did we stop here last time? We did not, but the other road we were on last time had the same sign! And then we saw more reindeer! This time crossing the road in front of us!! And that kept happening! We saw all the reindeer! We had some cross the road 4 different times, then there was a group on the side of the road we drove by very slowly as they looked like they were going to cross, then at least 4 different groups of reindeer in the woods! All the reindeer!!

    We also got north enough that all the leaves were colorful! Or gone already! Yesterday it was mostly green leaves just turning, but today we were nearing the end of the fall foliage! It was really pretty driving around!

    We also crossed over into Finland which was exciting. And pretty much right away it was very different in parts! Different trees, and smaller trees! So that was fun. And we passed someone cross country skiing training on the road! I was like today was so much fun!! We also stopped at the grocery store in Finland to see if there was anything fun for us to try and found all these birds in the trees outside - I think they were Bohemian Waxwings and they had a bright yellow band on the end of their tail!

    We headed on and everything was great, but then the road we were on suddenly turned into a dirt road with lots of potholes…which was not great. I will say Raymond was driving all day and he did do an amazing job of missing them if he could! But I was like what is this?!? and looked on the map and it looked like all the roads we would take until Norway would be dirt…and that would be many hours which yeah we didn’t want to do that. It was a bit of a panic, but I found a way out and around that added at least 2 hours to our drive tomorrow as it was paved, but was not very excited fir that extra driving…and then we turned onto another dirt road…that suddenly became paved! And then it stayed that way! So we were like well we will see if the road we were going to take is paved or not (I did search online and could find no info!) and luckily it is paved so no extra driving for us! We are parked off the road by some water - I think - it is incredibly dark out! Complete cloud cover and there is absolutely nothing else out here so no light at all! Completely dark!! We will see in the morning what it looks like, but it is completely quiet!

    All in all this was a great day with a slight hiccup. But all the reindeer!!    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Jen RitcheyNorway 2026Gezgin

    Kirkenes Part 1

    21 Eylül, Finlandiya ☁️ 8 °C

    Today was amazing!! We got up and got going and drove the rest of the way through Finland which was pretty nice. Lots of lakes and water and the trees. We stopped at a small grocery store by the border as I asked my friend who lives near Helsinki and is also vegan if there were any vegan Finnish things I should try and she gave me a giant list! I wish I would have thought to ask before we left, but I only did after we went to the grocery store yesterday. We only found one of the things she suggested, the first treat in the photos, this like rice pudding in a pastry/bread thing? It was…not bad, but not amazing either. Kind of odd, but fine. She was like well x you are not going to like, it’s kind of boring, but you should try it because it is Finnish and super popular here for everything she recommended which made me laugh. We will be by the border again in a few days and there is a larger grocery store there so we will go by and see if we can find some other “boring” Finnish foods.

    The people we saw here in Lapland were also super friendly. Like we passed some in the grocery store parking lot yesterday when they were going out and we were going in and they all smiled and said hi. People at the gas station. This morning we noticed a guy filling up drinking water at the small grocery store and that was one of our chores for today so after he was done I went over to fill up a container and the guy came over and showed me how to turn it on (you needed a key thing that was hanging there that I hadn’t noticed, but I also didn’t have time to try and figure it out as he came to make sure I knew how to do it) and he was super friendly and smiley. It was odd, but nice!

    So yesterday and this morning I was like why didn’t I plan a Sweden or Finland trip instead? Like we were driving through some nice areas, the hike we did yesterday was really pretty, why did I decide to come back to Norway? Why not explore a new country? Well, we crossed the border and started driving in Norway and pretty much instantly I was like oh, yeah, this is why. Because Norway is so unbelievably beautiful! Like everywhere we have been has been stunning. The photos today do not do it justice at all, but oh, it was amazing! Like everywhere we went was just gorgeous! I took so many photos as around every corner was another amazing view! It is still holding that this is the most beautiful country we have been to. When planning the trip I did think this might not be as nice as our last trip as the photos only looked okay, nothing special and maybe by the ends of the trip we would get to the really nice places, but man it is amazing here. I thought it was going to be super flat as that is what the internet said, but at least here it is but at all! But then again it was really difficult to find info on places up here. When planning looking for park maps or ferry times or anything was so frustrating as I could not find the info! So maybe I missed the not-flat memo, though I think it will get flat as we go by the biggest plateau in Norway…

    Last time I was like just driving through the country is so nice and today I was like if the whole drive up would have been like this I wouldn’t have minded it so much!! But then again we might have stopped more to look at all the things! Plus I think this is like the perfect time to be here. The fall colors are almost over, but there is still so much left. These pops of very bright orange and yellow and red are just so so gorgeous. Oh, today was amazing!

    So all of the photos before the first treat were taken on the road/at a rest stop. Then our first official stop was a hike to Appelsinstein, a large rock with views over the area that was one of the things to do in Kirkenes (and I could not find a map with info on how to get here even though it was listed everywhere as a thing you should do!). It was a really nice hike with views over the water and the town and all the rocks! It was really great. And we could see rain in the distance on either side of us, but it wasn’t raining on us…until we were almost back to the car it was sprinkling a little bit and I took the last photo at the same spot as the first of the hike and you can see how stormy it had gotten! We ate lunch in the van when we got back and as we were eating it really started to rain and low clouds came in and you couldn’t really see the mountains anymore! I was like we got really lucky with the weather there! I had original planned on doing our day the opposite way we ended up doing it and I’m glad we did it in the order we did as the weather worked out for us all day and we would have been hiking in the rain with no views had we done as I had planned! So that was really nice we didn’t get rained on on our hike and we got to see everything!

    We also found some berries to try on our hike - some bog billberries (european blueberries) which were super tasty and tart, and crowberries which look like blueberries, but on a conifer like bush. Online it said crowberries are a little sweet and bitter but most people find them bland. I was like how can it be bitter and sweet and bland at the same time? Well we tried one and it is somehow an accurate description! Somehow it was bitter and a little sweet, but also super bland. We only ate one because it was like eating something with no taste, but also bitter? It was really strange. So that was fun trying the wild berries! I looked into it before we got here so we made sure to know how to identify them and what we can try!    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Jen RitcheyNorway 2026Gezgin

    Kirkenes Part 2

    21 Eylül, Norveç ☁️ 10 °C

    After our hike we drove over to the Russian border crossing to just spy into Russia. The first three photos are all from the parking lot at the border. I was way too excited to stop by here. Like if things were different then Russia would be top of my list for places to travel to…but as it is I will probably never go because you know all the things there. So it was fun spying over into the country even though you couldn’t see much.

    Then it was up to the Kirkenes Snow Hotel to spy on the rooms and grounds. Now I was pretty excited for this as well, but mainly because they had sled dogs that you can visit with! Plus snow/ice hotel sounds fun! When we first got there it was sprinkling a little, but stopped after a few minutes which was really nice. We went and saw the reindeer first, the light one did not like people! He came right over when we were there and started kicking at the fence (and we saw him do that to other people too!) so we left him alone. The others didn’t care about us.

    Then on to sat hi to the pups and oh they were so nice!! And super calm. The lady at reception was like if they jump on you it is just because they are excited to see you so you might get dirty since it is wet today, and I was like okay I will try not to get too dirty. But the pups were so sweet and chill and just came over and wanted pets and were just super friendly and I loved them! We visited them a few times and walked around and said hi to the pups that wanted us to (they said to only interact with the ones that wanted to so I waved to them and said hi and if they came over they got pets and scratches!). The one pup was being silly the one time and sitting half in half out of his house. Oh, I loved it (even though the pups were a bit wet).

    Then it was on to the hotel to spy and…it was super dissapointing. Like yeah it was cool it was made of snow and ice, but…it felt really run down and cheesy and not very nice. Like I think it is over 400 euro a night to stay in one of the rooms and…it is definitely not worth that. The beds didn’t look very comfy or nice and yeah. There was a lot of dipping so that would be annoying trying to sleep. It was just not what I expected. It took like 5 min to walk through the whole thing and take photos. Definitely not worth it to stop by just for that. By the pups? Pups were worth it for me! They were such good pups!

    Then there was supposed to be a trail you could walk along down to see the views by the restaurant and cabins (the cabins looked WAY nicer than the snow hotel!), but we couldn’t find it and finally asked someone and it was not what was listed on the map and didn’t look very nice and was all muddy from the rain so we skipped that and had coffee and kuchen at the restaurant outside (hot chocolate and a cinnamon bun) instead! The hot chocolate was just hot water and cocoa powder and sugar you mixed yourself and was fine for something warm, but the cinnamon bun was really good! Oh! And next to the outside seating at the restaurant there were some insulated pipes on another building that the birds had gotten into and tore up and built a nest in!

    So that was the snow hotel. Without the pups I would have been super disappointed, but they were so sweet!    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Jen RitcheyNorway 2026Gezgin

    Kirkenes Part 3

    21 Eylül, Norveç ☁️ 10 °C

    After the snow hotel we headed on down the road towards our stop for tomorrow to fid somewhere to spend the night and man it was gorgeous. We stopped at the rest stops to spy and take photos, stopped at Skoltefossen which was so loud! So much water!

    The photo after the waterfall with the picnic table was probably the most beautiful stop of the day. That photo does not show at all how gorgeous it was! Oh it was amazing! And when we were at that stop I was like we didn’t see any reindeer today! Then I realized we saw the ones at the snow hotel, not no wild reindeer…and as soon as we headed on down the road we saw two different groups of them!

    The last 6 photos are where we are camped tonight which is so nice! Like we got here around 5, sunset was just after 6, and it stayed light until 7 so we had lots of time to relax and enjoy the views! It is weird as by 4 it felt sort late and like the sun was going to go down any minute, but once it actually did go down it stayed light forever! I know the sun is going to rapidly start setting earlier and earlier so it will be interesting to see how the light changes through the day (ands if it still started light at long after sunset). I remember last time by the time we were heading home it felt like it was almost dinner time at like 1pm which was so strange.

    Today was such a great day. I love love loved driving around here! I still can’t get over how gorgeous it is. Just unbelievable and my photos really do not do it justice at all. Plus the weather was perfect and i got to pet all the pups! Tomorrow we head on to start driving one of the national scenic routes which were all super nice last time so I can’t wait to see what we see!    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Jen RitcheyNorway 2026Gezgin

    Varanger NSR Part 1

    22 Eylül, Norveç ⛅ 7 °C

    Today we woke up to sunny and gorgeous weather! We were both like what is this sun?!? It feels like we haven’t seen it in forever! So that was really nice.

    After breakfast we headed off to drive the Varanger National Scenic Route! We could see where we would be driving from camp last night and honestly I wasn’t expecting it to be amazing, but the drive there was another gorgeous drive just like yesterday! So nice!

    Then we got to the scenic route (the photo with the sign with a knot thing?) and it was still nice! Different from yesterday, but still beautiful! We had a stop at a rest area (the photos before the church - we saw a seal pop its head up a min before dissapearing), then on to Nesseby church (they were filming inside so we couldn’t go in) where we saw so many fun birds! The close up photo of the sand/rocks if you zoom in you can see some common ringed plover! They were all over the beach, but hard to see unless they were moving as they blended in with the rocks. It was a really gorgeous area and a great start to the day!    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Jen RitcheyNorway 2026Gezgin

    Varanger NSR Part 2

    22 Eylül, Norveç ⛅ 9 °C

    After the church the next stop was Mortensnes Archeology area which was a large area to wander around and see all the locations where Sami people used to live 10,000 years ago! I posted some of the signs to see where the indents were from the houses, by there are also a lot of circle indentations in the ground that are where they were in some of the photos!

    There is also the Cod-liver Oil Rock (it was coated with cod liver oil for good luck fishing), and after walking through the sheep we got to see a Sami turf hut! It was a communal building with animals and a fire place inside which we were able to go in and spy on which was fun.

    Then it was a walk along the water to a large burial site in the rocks! It just looked like a ton of rocks, but once we looked you could see the holes where people were buried which was really interesting. And the rocks were super cool and a really pretty area!

    The last stop there was the sacrificial site, but they did not give nearly enough info there! What did they sacrifice??

    After that wander it was on to a bird blind (no birds!), ate some lunch and tried to decide what we wanted to do this afternoon. I had thought about spying on the largest birding cliffs in Europe (which would be the next stop on the list), but we decided to just drive to the end of the road and see what we could see and then work our way back tomorrow.

    The next stop after that was Domen pass (not very high! And apparently where witches would have their meetings with satan!) which has a fun pink glass shelter! From there we could see the town of Vardø (also the last photo), which we will visit tomorrow. Prior to the pass it got pretty flat and wide open areas! It reminded us of Iceland!    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Jen RitcheyNorway 2026Gezgin

    Varanger NSR Part 3

    22 Eylül, Norveç ☁️ 10 °C

    After passing Vardø we turned onto a smaller road for the drive to Hamningberg which was amazing!! My photos really really really do not do it justice! I think some of my photos I took didn’t save as I do not have as many as I know i took!! Plus they just don’t look as amazing as it was driving through there! I was thinking most of the day was really nice, but I still preferred yesterday views wise, but the road to Hamningberg? Oh, that is at least as awesome as yesterday was. It was so cool, so many sheets of rocks sticking up out of the ground all over the place, the road was very narrow driving through them all, the water was gorgeous when you could see it, it was so so so nice! I went through my photos uploading them for this post and when I got to my town photos here I was like where are all my cool rock photos?!? I guess some of them you could zoom in to see the rocks better, in my town photos as well, but…it looks nothing like what it was like driving that road. One of my favorite things we have done!! So I will see if I can take some better photos tomorrow, but there really aren’t any turnoffs so it is just car photos so who knows if they will be any better. But it was an amazing drive! And it is not open in the winter so you can only see it before it gets snowed in/after the snow melts!Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Jen RitcheyNorway 2026Gezgin

    Varanger NSR Part 4

    22 Eylül, Norveç ☁️ 10 °C

    We finally arrived at the end of the road - Hamningberg, and abandoned fishing village! The first two photos are the views from where we are parked (of note there are 6 other campers and they are all parked to not take advantage of the views! I was like do other people not care about this?!? Because I am always like where is the best view from my seat inside the car and that is where we will set up! I want to see the views!!)

    Once we got settled we walked up to the top of the hill where the Hamningberg Battery was and saw the old remains of the bunkers and guns that were up there and also could see all the views! There were also rocks everywhere which were really cool!

    Once we came down from that we walked through town to the bird blind on the water which was pretty fun! Yellow windows this time! And another bunker! We sat and watched the water for a bit as it was getting rougher waves which I love! We saw a small lemming on the rocks by where we were sitting! All the fun!

    Once we started to get cold we headed back to the van. It was odd as around 4:45 it started to look like sunset with some color in the sky, but sunset was not until 6! It’s so interesting that the light is so different even if sunset is not that early! The sun sets before 6 in winter in Berlin, but it is not like this. I told Raymond I will probably comment on this every day as it is so odd for me!

    Overall today was an amazing day! I can’t wait to drive through the cool rocks again tomorrow and see what else we see along the way!    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Jen RitcheyNorway 2026Gezgin

    Varanger NSR Day 2.1

    23 Eylül, Norveç 🌬 9 °C

    Today we woke up to light rain and windy! But we parked well last night and the wind wasn’t hitting the van which was nice. There was a built up grassy area we parked next to and I didn’t think that would be enough to stop the wind since we could see over it, but it did! You could hear it, but not feel it rocking the van! I don’t know how long it was windy but the forecast was to start in the early morning so it was nice it didn’t wake us up :)

    By the time we got out of bed it wasn’t raining any more, just the wind, which was great for us. Like I don’t love strong wind, but we can wander in that for a bit. I don’t love light rain, but we can wander in that for a bit. Bit windy and rain? That is just miserable and that would be stay in the car weather for me! So we got really lucky that the rain stopped!

    Then we started our drive back along the national scenic route. My friend wrote me the temp in Berlin as it was really cold and it was colder than here!! Though it got way warmer there through the day, here it went from 9-11C. Still strange it was colder there this morning!

     Today I was like I am going to get better pictures of driving through the rocks!! And I think I did. Still not the same as driving through, but much better! Though I was going through my photos and I was like I’m picking different mountains to post, but they all look the same! It looks like only photos from one place even though they are all different spots!

    Our first stop on the way back was Sandfjordneset beach which was really nice. It had a lot of parabolic sand dunes which the sign said are rare for the area. And lots of gulls on the beach.

    Then we headed off to continue our drive through the rocks. It really is a gorgeous drive!    Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Jen RitcheyNorway 2026Gezgin

    Varanger NSR Day 2.2

    23 Eylül, Norveç 🌬 9 °C

    These first photos of the rocks include all the houses in the rocks. I loved how they just kind of put buildings wherever they would fit in between them!

    Once we got through the rocky area it was back to the flatter wide open areas which are also really nice to drive through! We stopped at a bird hide there, but we didn’t see any birds (and it was very windy so we didn’t stay long!)Okumaya devam et

    Çeviriyi gör
  • Jen RitcheyNorway 2026Gezgin

    Varanger NSR Day 2.3

    23 Eylül, Norveç 🌬 10 °C

    Our next stop was Vardø which is an island! We took a tunnel under the water and parked and wandered around.

    One of the main attractions is Steilneset, a memorial for the 91 people found guilty of witchcraft and burned at the stake here. It is the long white thing which looked like cement or something, but then we went in and realized it was canvas. Inside was not what I expected (it was really dark inside. My photo/video look brighter than it was) and was really interesting. They had booklets in different languages so you could read about the people and what they were accused of (the signs on the walls were Norwegian) so that was nice they provided that. I was really surprised by how many men were burned as witches. I don’t think I’ve ever hear that happening to men too so that was really interesting to me (update the next day - i just started reading the booklet and had missed the explanation pages at the front, with more info about the witch trials and added photos of that if anyone else is interested)

    Then in the black box at the end (in the outside photo) was the chair on fire with these giant oval mirrors surrounding it in the air and that was also super interesting. The whole memorial was way more impactful than I imagined it would be. I’m going to read about all the people when I get time on this trip. I’m ready glad we stopped and saw this. I included the video of inside as it was so windy it was a little crazy.

    Then we wandered by the fort and saw a Least Weasel! He was so tiny and darting back and forth across the path!

    Then out to the fun sculpture on the water (we’ve been listening to Moby Dick while driving and we were both like is that him? Is that Moby Dick?? Of note - we finally got to the part where they try and get their first whale and I guess I never really thought about how they went about it, but it is crazy to me that they would go out in little row boats and try and harpoon the whale from there! Those people who were whalers are crazy!! Also this book is so funny I love it. I asked Raymond how he was enjoying it and he was like I had no idea it was so humorous! It is a lot of fun!).

    After a short break we wandered back through town and found some fun sculptures! We ate lunch when we got back to the van and while we were eating it started raining! Not very hard, but still it was perfect timing for us! Then stopped by the grocery store to get some things we needed and found some vegan Christmas cookies already! We tried one and I really love them! Not very sweet, kind of like a mix between a sugar cookie and a scone. I will have to keep my eye out for more!

    Then it was on down the road to our next stop and when we got to Domen pass 2 reindeer crossed the road in front of us! We didn’t see any yesterday, so that was fun.    Okumaya devam et

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  • Jen RitcheyNorway 2026Gezgin

    Varanger NSR Day 2.4

    23 Eylül, Norveç ☁️ 11 °C

    Our last stop on the NSR was Ekkerøy Bird Cliff. We drove through a lot of rain, but once again we were lucky it had stopped by the time we got there! Now these are the largest birding cliffs in Europe so I was excited to see the birds! Apparently a ton is Kittiwakes breed there, but we found out today they leave in August…so we saw some cormorants and up above in the plants/rocks we saw some snow buntings flying around (they were so bright white when flying!). We also went by an old fort. So disappointing bird wise, but it was really a gorgeous walk! It was on to of the cliffs and so pretty! Very pink and green and saw a bit of a rainbow in the distance on the horizon! And on the way back to the car we saw a tundra vole! It was so quick we only saw it for a second!

    Then on to finish our drive and the weather turned gorgeous! Sunny and hard to see with the glare reflecting off the water. The water today was also a gorgeous color! All day it was a light green blue which was so pretty, then this afternoon a bit darker, but still gorgeous! We headed over to Finland again to spy on that grocery store and it was so much better than the last one we went to! We found lots of things to try, some seitans, some cheese my friend said was good, some puddings or something she said to try, all the things! It wasn’t that far out of the way and I am glad we stopped! The border there is also the northernmost point of the EU and Finland which I didn’t realize until we saw the sign! So that was fun! And again the people in the grocery store were super friendly and said hi and smiled. So nice! As compared to the one we went to here in Norway where everyone just stopped and blocked the aisles to talk to people and would just look at you and not move…or when we went to pay the lady in front of us had one thing and once she paid she would not move so we could get our things…Finland was so much nicer! Really I don’t remember Norway being bad, I think it was just Vardø where the people were odd and just did whatever.

    And now we are camped by this bridge which is pretty nice! And we got a nice sunset that lasted forever! Really all day the horizon had color - orangey red like the sun was starting to rise/set which is still so strange! Like sunrise/sunset all day! In some of the photos in the first/second post today you can see it - especially by the bird blind. They were taken at 10 or later and sunrise was 5:45! So that was fun. Tomorrow we head on to see what else we can see!    Okumaya devam et

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  • Jen RitcheyNorway 2026Gezgin

    Drive to Silfar Canyon

    24 Eylül, Norveç ☁️ 8 °C

    Today we got up and saw that our weather luck was going to run out today. The radar showed a large band of rain right where we were going and it wasn’t really going to go away all day…so I planned a few shorter hikes instead of the longer one we were going to do as I don’t mind short jaunts in the rain, but longer ones? Not so fun. Only the weather wasn’t that bad at all! Raining most of the day, but only lightly or sprinkling. I was expecting it to be pouring based on the radar! But we were already on our way to the short hikes so off we went.

    Of course we stopped at all the rest stops/places to pull over that looked really nice (like the first two photos) and had short wanders. The drive was gorgeous! Through some mountains then up in a plateau where it leveled out and was so much nothing! Though we did see a big heard of reindeer up there (you can see them sitting on the ground in the one photo, though they are blurry)! Then down along the one fjord with some fun waterfalls and stuff along the way (I had had more trails marked, but some of them had no parking! So we had to just move on to the next). I absolutely love all the fall colors! And the water! And the mountains! Oh and we were stopped at a construction light for a bit and then suddenly some sheep came on the road! We were like where did you come from?? As it was just a mess of construction!    Okumaya devam et

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  • Jen RitcheyNorway 2026Gezgin

    Silfar Canyon to camp

    24 Eylül, Norveç 🌧 9 °C

    Just before lunch we got to our first official hike, Silfar Canyon, which was a pretty short one (1.5km). It was lightly raining while we were there, but the canyon/water was gorgeous! Raymond wasn’t very happy though…he kept saying I thought this was a short hike! And I was like it is…we were out like 20-30 min so that is pretty short! I think anything 45 min or under I would call short (we normally take a break after 45 min so no break = short).

    Then after eating lunch where we learned that these were the northern most pine trees, we headed on down the road. We had to drive the whole way in on the fjord to start working our way back the other side. There were a lot of nice beach/water stops until we got to our second official hike - Stabbursdalen nasjonalparkstyre cultural trail. This was a walk out to the water with a gorgeous view along the way! It also was barely raining by the time we got there which was nice. There are supposed to be birds, but we only saw a few out on the water, but it was still a really nice walk.

    Afterwards I had planned on doing one more hike, but it was getting later and if we did the other one we probably wouldn’t get to where we are camping until it was time to make dinner and I didn’t want to rush this last one…so we decided to camp early and do the hike in the morning which was nice. Had a few hours to relax and do nothing before dinner. And where we are camping? One of the best views!! It is so incredibly gorgeous! The last four photos are where we are parked (first two when we got here at high tide and second two later). I just stood outside forever enjoying it until I got too cold and now I am sitting in the van writing this while also pausing to enjoy the views every once in a while. Really gorgeous and a nice, more relaxing day.

    I think Raymond needed a light afternoon as he kept commenting that it was raining all day, but it was barely raining so…technically it was, but we only put our rain coats on on the longer walks just in case as it was just very very light. I was surprised by how light the rain was - looking at the radar I thought it was going to be pouring all day! Good to know and hopefully if we have more rainy days there are like this! The most it rained was at Silfar Canyon and our rain clothes didn’t even get super wet - not wet enough that we had to hang our pants up to dry and our coats weren’t soaked and hard to put on again…so not much rain! Just a sprinkle mostly so hopefully he got some rest and is ready to go tomorrow as we have our first “real” hike with elevation change in the afternoon!

    While we were eating dinner I was looking out the window and noticed sheep on the little island in the water! I was like how did they get there?!? Then noticed that the tide is going out as there is a lot more sand exposed along the coast and there is now a path to the mainland for them! And then they crossed back over. Such fun dinner entertainment! But then we had to have an after dinner walk to spy on the water! Such a fun day!    Okumaya devam et

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  • Jen RitcheyNorway 2026Gezgin

    Trollene i Trollholmsund Walk

    25 Eylül, Norveç ☁️ 4 °C

    Today we woke up to a gorgeous sunny day! And today was the day of weird shaped rocks! Our first stop was a hike to see the Trollholmsund rocks. This was the one we were going to do yesterday afternoon, but ran out of time and it was perfect today! On the way we drove down a small road with lots of sheep! They kept running away down the road away from us when we got closer until they jetted off into the grass. They were pretty silly, but I did feel bad they seemed scared.

    The walk out to the rocks was really nice along the water. We saw some cows and they were near the trail and the one was on the trail and I waved and it went running! I was like oh, no, I was just saying hi!!

    The rocks are a dolomite formations and were pretty cool! You can read the Sami legend for how they came to be. It was really pretty and the rocks were really interesting. While we were there we saw a seal swim by! And a bunch of Black Guillemot were swimming in the water there and two popped up right next to us! That was fun! We sat on the rocks by the water for a while watching the birds and just enjoying the gorgeous weather! It was so nice and so quiet! We were the only people out there and it was far enough away from the farms that it was near silent! We sat until I started to get cold and then headed back. I’m glad we waited to go look until today as I loved sitting there and relaxing. Such a nice way to start the day!    Okumaya devam et

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  • Jen RitcheyNorway 2026Gezgin

    Drive to hiking

    25 Eylül, Norveç ☁️ 7 °C

    After our troll rocks we headed on down the road with another gorgeous drive! So much water and mountains and we loved it! It’s just so nice driving through Norway! Stopped at some rest stops and saw 2 groups of reindeer by the side of the road while driving (but no photos of them). The last 5 photos are from a short little hike we did up to a waterfall (which is next to the little red house on the lake. You couldn’t walk closer) and the last 2 from a really nice viewpoint nearby there. By the time we got to the waterfall walk it was really noticeable that the vegetation had changed. Almost nothing higher than a few inches except grasses! The photos look more full than it did there - it looked like a lot of nothing but brown rocks! And it felt like we were up high in the mountains which I love! Felt small in comparison to them. It was so nice.Okumaya devam et

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  • Jen RitcheyNorway 2026Gezgin

    Rishamntind Hike

    25 Eylül, Norveç ☁️ 9 °C

    Our last stop of the day was the Rishamntind Hike which was up on the plateau, but we still went up a mountain! This was one I was looking forward to as it looked gorgeous, but we almost didn’t do it! So the trail was marked with red T’s painted on rocks and we stared walking and dropped down a bit…and could not find the trail. Like normally even if you don’t see the trail markings you can see where the trail, or a trail, is, but here? Nothing as far as you could see, which you could see far, looked like a trail! Like the first photo? The trail is there somewhere…when we first where like where do at go?? I did have a slight moment of panic like we can’t see the car anymore if there is no trail it would be so easy to get lost…but then was like we are just below the car it is fine.

    We looked around and I saw a red T so we headed over to that to see if we could see the trail…and nothing. I had my map on my phone, but it was so strange! We were going to head back as we don’t want to just wander lost, but I wanted to walk down the hill a bit to see in the valley if you could see anything and by the time we got there we found the red T markers! So off we went. We had to keep looking for them, and Raymond is usually the trail finder, but today I was the one that kept finding the T’s! I don’t know that this is a popular trail as it was not that well worn in places that it would have been, but at least in some spots you could see where it was supposed to be.

    Part of the trail was through this area with these small mounds of dirt/grass. It was odd! Like instead of walking from rock to rock we walked from mounds of dirt to mound of dirt…and then it got very wet in between the mounds so that was interesting! I don’t think we have ever hiked through terrain like that!

    Then we got up to the ridge and there were all these really cool rocks! It looked like a lava flow that weathered cool until at got closer and it really was like fine quartz and black granules with larger rocks mixed in. It was also a little crumbly and was really strange. It was so cool. They were all different shapes and we spent a good amount of time looking at them even though it was so incredibly windy on the ridge and the wind was freezing! Still have to look at the rocks!

    When we got to the top there were really gorgeous views over the water and the other mountains and I loved it! So open you could see all the things! It really looked like Iceland, so much so that in the way back I thought we were in Iceland for a moment before being like wait no, we are in Norway! We didn’t spend that much time at the top because of the wind. It was so so so windy! We dropped back down a bit and found a spot with not much wind and had a break there.

    The walk back was easier to see the red T signs as it seems like a lot of the ones on the way up had fallen over or were turned the wrong way. Raymond kept fixing them so people who come later will be able to find their way. He’s always leaving the trail better than we found it :) Our first “real” hike of the trip and it was so much fun! Raymond loved that so much of it was kind of like just go wherever in this general direction. He was like we’ve never done a trail that was just kind of go wherever! No one mentioned/took photos of the cool rocks in the reviews I saw either so they were a total surprise! Such fun!    Okumaya devam et

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  • Jen RitcheyNorway 2026Gezgin

    Camp

    25 Eylül, Norveç 🌬 9 °C

    After our hike we headed on to Skarsvåg where we are parked for the night. From the boat photo onwards are photos from walking around town and the last two are from where we are parked by the marina. It is a tiny town, but pretty nice! Tomorrow we hike up to another fun rock by town and then along the ridge to see all the things! Should be fun!

    Today was a great day, sunny and gorgeous most of the day, but it did get windy while we were hiking. It’s still a bit windy and phew it got cold! Even this morning there was more of a bite to the air. I’ve been surprised by how not freezing it has been and the temp says the same as it has been, but it feels way colder now. We are camped near the northernmost point of Continental Europe so it makes sense it would be colder, but yeah. Super cold! Have to stay bundled up! And might have to keep the heater on tonight for the first time on the trip! We shall see!    Okumaya devam et

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  • Jen RitcheyNorway 2026Gezgin

    Northern Lights!

    25 Eylül, Norveç ⛅ 9 °C

    I had been hoping we would see the northern lights again as they were so cool last time! But last time was an extremely good time for them so I knew we might not. And it has been so rainy and cloudy there wasn’t much of a chance even if they were there. I downloaded some apps to get notifications to check, the one I used last time (Hello Aurora) and a few others just to see…and the others gave me no notifications! So I’m sticking with the good app from last time. But last night we went to bed at 10 and about 10:20 my watch buzzed that there is a weak aurora possible. I did get up and look out the window, but I was like I’m not getting all bundled up if it just looks like clouds and we can’t tell…and I saw nothing through the window so jumped back into bed. Then 10 min later I got another notification, this time for a medium one, so I got out of bed and looked again and you could see a bit of it! So we put on warm clothes as quick as we could and headed outside to see! It wasn’t nearly as bright as most of the ones last time, but still so much fun! They are so cool! Just the movement is so strange and fun! Where we were camped was not the best place for it - so many lights! But it worked. We were out about 20 min before they faded away. I had just earlier that day reconciled myself to not seeing them again and it had been cloudy when it got dark so it was an unexpected surprise!Okumaya devam et

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  • Jen RitcheyNorway 2026Gezgin

    Kirkeporten-Børnesfjellet Hike

    26 Eylül, Norveç ☁️ 11 °C

    This morning we got up and walked from camp to our hike up to Kirkrporten (the rock bridge) and Børnesfjellet - a ridge walk along the mountain by town. When we got up and stepped out of the van we were both like what is going on? It is not cold?! Like yesterday it was freezing, but this morning was much warmer so I was trying to decide how many layers to wear and luckily I chose correctly! Not many! Just one layer and my rain coat worked! Plus my scarf to keep my neck/chest warm when it got too hot and I opened my jacket! I did do better in my layering so I was warm, but not too warm. Yesterday I didn’t have the scarf and I was way too hot hiking up with my jacket zipped, but freezing chest/neck with it unzipped so I was both too hot and too cold at the same time…but scarf for the win!

    Looking at the trail yesterday from the ground I thought it was going to be a more difficult hike. There was a good bit of elevation change, but it wasn’t too bad! We had to walk up and over the ridge to see the rocks first, which was fun! The rock bridge is kind of hidden so you wouldn’t know it was there. We were walking and I kept looking for it and then suddenly there it was! Plus the other rocks nearby were fun! Also the land on the other side of the water is Nordkapp!

    Then it was back up to the ridge to walk along it till the end. This was so windy again! And cold wind! But not as cold or windy as yesterday for the most part. Just at the very end, the highest point, it was like take some photos, look around really quickly, then drop back down as the wind was too much. But the views were gorgeous!! I was glad we decided to hike up the ridge! I don’t know how many people actually do. We saw a couple groups of people hiking up to the rocks, but no one else went up the ridge. They are missing out!    Okumaya devam et

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  • Jen RitcheyNorway 2026Gezgin

    Nordkapp & Drive to Camp

    26 Eylül, Norveç ☁️ 11 °C

    After our hike we headed on to Nordkapp, the northernmost point in Continental Europe (well not really - the one point on the peninsula just next to it is slightly farther north, but to get there you have to hike almost 20km round trip and yeah. It is usually really windy and I don’t mind wind in short doses, but 20km of wind with no shelter? No thank you.

    Driving up to Nordkapp it was incredibly foggy! And when we got there it still was! You could hardly see anything. And was raining a bit and freezing cold and windy. We walked around quickly and saw what we could see and then went back to the van. It was lunchtime so we decided to eat lunch there and by the time we were done it had cleared up and you could as all the things! So of course I had to go spy again and it was fun! I’m glad it cleared up so we could see the rocks!

    Then it was off to an afternoon of chores and going to camp. On the way we saw all the reindeer! In one area there were two groups in them! Then in the next valley there was another group! All the reindeer!

    We also saw a bunch of people harvesting berries with big buckets. Well we saw two groups, 4 people total, but that is more people than we have seen out and about excluding tourists, and even then we haven’t seen many people out and about! There just are not many people out and about up here, though I think we are starting to get to more popular areas.

    We also saw a truck that was putting in new orange reflector poles! I had just been wondering how they did that as they are bendy plastic, and then we saw it! There is a part that makes a hole and puts it in and I found it very interesting!

    While we were driving this afternoon it was raining most of the time. We are parked at the last two photos - a viewpoint that is the start of the next scenic route we will drive tomorrow! And it is still raining right now, but it is supposed to clear up overnight so we shall see! Raymond was like it was nice we got all our hiking done before it started raining, which it was, but 10km before lunch was a lot! But it was a good day!    Okumaya devam et

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  • Jen RitcheyNorway 2026Gezgin

    Havøysund NSR Part 1

    27 Eylül, Norveç ⛅ 5 °C

    Today we woke up to another gorgeous sunny day! But very cold! After breakfast we headed off to drive the Havøysund National Scenic Route. The first part was through all these cool rocks. We actually drove by all of them and I marked places to stop on the way back to see them closer, but we got to our hike for the day (the wooden bridge photo) and…with the sun you couldn’t see the mountains very well! Plus it was still freezing so we decided to wait and do the hike at the end of the day. We were going to just head on, but I decided I wanted to go back and spy on the rocks instead.

    Raymond drove me back to all the spots I wanted to/could stop at and I wandered down the road looking at the rocks! And we saw another seal in the water! We also realized that there was a ton of micas in the rocks so they were so shiny and flaky! I didn’t notice that just driving by. And by the end of the day the floor of the van was so sparkly like we had glitter everywhere! So much Muscovite! So much fun!    Okumaya devam et

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  • Jen RitcheyNorway 2026Gezgin

    Havøysund NSR Part 2

    27 Eylül, Norveç ⛅ 10 °C

    After looking at all the rocks we continued on down the road. Next stop? One of the most disappointing rest stops. It had these three seats/bird blind looking things and it looked really nice in the photos I saw online…but in person? I was like this is it? Really?!? My photos look better than it was…when you are driving up they look tiny and you might not have even noticed it was a rest stop if there wasn’t a sign pointing to it. So strange as most of them are much nicer!

    Then it was up and over the pass where all the reindeer were! They were all over the mountain! Then down to another rest stop with a fun squiggly walkway down to the beach. This also was not as nice as I had expected based on the photos online, but the area was gorgeous so…and it was still fun walking through it even if it was much smaller than I thought it would be. And the sand was kind of pink in spots which was fun. And lots of coral and shells on the beach.

    Then on to the last stop - Havøysund where there is an art piece of two giant glass objects (according to the sign „The objects exude silence in a weather-beaten and beautiful corner of the world, where the variations of light - midnight sun, northern lights and winter darkness - are constantly creating new moods.

    The building that embraces and protects the art installation is an integral part of the artwork“). These were also not what I was expecting, but in a good way! I thought they were going to be tiny so bigger was fun!

    Then it was up the hill above town to see the views, which were gorgeous! And back to the squiggly rest stop for lunch.    Okumaya devam et

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