Lost in Sweden

Finally!! Vacation!! After some last packing, stuffing the car and sorting out the house we are ready to embark on a 3,5 week vacation to Norway, Denmark and Germany. The weather in Gothenburg seems ok, there are just some dark clouds drawing in when I realize that the cards for our European Health Insurance had expired a month ago. I realize it in time though and we decide to drive by the insurance office to see if they could print out a paper stating that we are insured. I really don’t want to take any chances considering the fact that my eye still isn’t all good. We are very relieved when we see that the office actually is open, something that can’t be said about many official institutions in Sweden during the summer months. There is no queue either, but unfortunately there is no possibility to get a paper or something from them. The friendly lady assured me though, that I won’t have any problems in Scandinavia and in case I got sick in Germany the doctor would have to call the insurance in Sweden. Well, nothing to be done about that; we are hitting the road again and the sun comes back. In Norway we are ending up in a traffic jam and pouring rain and since most roads have a speed limit of 80 km per hour it’s getting pretty late until we are arriving at the campground in Otta just outside Rondane National Park. At least the rain had stopped so that we can put up the tent and snuggle up in our sleeping bags, as the temperature surely can’t be more than 8 degrees Celsius.

The plan for the next day is a hike to Per Gynts hytta in Rondane National Park. The weather is coolish and grey, but the

sun tries it’s best to break through. 

Unfortunately those attempts become less and less successful the higher we come. But we are prepared with a set of rain gear that I recommend anyone that wants to travel in Norway to bring. When we start the hike we have a bit of a drizzle and occasional sunshine, so it could be much worse.

 

The landscape in Rondane is reminding a lot of Laponia with it’s Tundra vegetation consisting of mostly heather and dwarf birch. Soon we are completely above the tree line and look out into a completely open and undisturbed landscape. Everything is green, yellow and brown and I really love it. The terrain is perfect for a first day hike, not to steep or difficult. We think. Until we suddenly stand in front of a river that we need to cross in order to proceed to Per Gynts hytta. There is no other choice than to take off them shoes and socks and wade through the ICE cold water.

 

Honestely I’ve never felt water as cold as this ever before. But it is kind of fun and exciting, I feel like an explorer or something. Before we arrive at Per Gynts hytta we are passing a beautiful gorge and then have our sandwiches at the cabin.

 

The way back to the car is a lot easier and we arrive early enough to drive all the way to Åndalsnäs.

 

On the way we cook our first camping dinner; pea soup with frankfurters that could have been really yummy if it hadn’t been for a bit lack of planning and non bubbly water.

 

Our splendid idea to use the water from the sausage can, serves the purpose but makes the soup quite salty.

Anyway, with a filled belly and new strength we stop by an amazing waterfall and get the tent put up in Åndalsnäs just before the rain sets in. Luckily it’s a short summer rain that we can wait off in the car and we even get the chance to take a little evening walk later on.

On Friday morning we wake up in bright sunshine and therefore decide to take a little trip to the coast and then stay another night at this camping. On the way we are passing the first fjords and take the first of many more to come ferries to cross them.

My guidebook recommends a little off the beaten path hike to a cave with an underground waterfall. It sounds really interesting and the 4 km each way sound fair enough to manage in 2-3 hours. Prepared with a flashlight and good hiking boots like the book strongly advises us, we start this hike that makes us climb 800 m on a 4 km distance. That’s steep. And it’s not a normal path, we are walking on very slippery stones and through some small rivers again.

Makes yesterday’s adventure seem like a piece of cake. But worse is to come. When we finally arrive at the cave we note that we’ll have to walk through/climb a long an underground river through this pitch-black cave to get to the waterfall. But when we finally make we get rewarded for all our efforts. The sight of the waterfall with the light coming in from above is just plain beautiful and no picture will ever be able to reflect this kind of beauty.

The way down is a lot easier but still quite straining. Before continuing our trip to Atlanterhavsvejen I have to exchange clothes since I gotten a bit wet in the cave.

The 8 km drive over all these bridges out in the Atlantic is gorgeous; the sky is clear blue and the evening sun drenches the landscape in this special Nordic light.

I just love it. We have another dinner; this time a little better prepared and just take in the tranquil atmosphere. On the way back to the campground we stop by the beautiful Fishing village Bud and are able to watch a beautiful sunset over the Fjord from the ferry. On Saturday morning we take down our tent and hit Trollstigen, a road with icredibly many hairpin curves down to Geiranger fjord.

 

When we arrive on top of Trollstigen we reach a mountain plateau with an amazing view, where we have our breakfast. It’s so lovely just to sit there and take in the beauty of the surroundings.

On the way to Geiranger we buy the most tasty and sweet strawberries I’ve ever had and look at another waterfall before we reach the Eagle’s road that offers the most breathtaking views on Geiranger fjord.

It’s soooo beautiful.

 

We then take a 60 minute ferrycruise  from Geiranger to Hellesylt and then proceed to Ålesund where we are lucky to find a beach campground where we have our dinner and enjoy a glass of wine while watching the sunset. 

 

On Sunday morning the sun is a bit undecisive wether to shine or hide away. We take down the tent and skip breakfast, because we are in a little town afterall and it should be nice to take in the atmosphere while having breakfast in a sidewalk café or so. Due to the fact that it never gets really dark this time of year even in southern Norway we usually wake up quite early and this Sunday is no exception. At nine o’clock we are ready to stroll around the city and have our breakfast in a nice café just to find out that the Norwegians are big on sleeping in on Sundays. Ålesund is a pretty and special little town as it had been rebuilt completely (almost) in Art Nouveau style after a big fire in the beginning of the 20 th century. 

 On this Sunday the city is completely empty though, just some American tourists are spottet. If at all the cafés open at 11 am. ‘kay everybody knows that exercise before breakfast is an efficient way to burn fat, so we decide to climb up the 400 something stairs to Mount Aksla then. The undecisiveness of the sun proofs to be of clear advantage, since it is a quite exhausting climb and Jörgen is very heat sensitive. Furthermore this peculiar light situation makes the view onto Ålesund somewhat surreal. I really can’t describe it and the picture only remotely reflects it.

After admiring the view we are lucky though and the owner of the café on top of the mountain has some sympathy with us and we get some overpriced coffee and ice cream before the regular opening at 11 am. Not really the breakfast we had had in mind, but we are flexible. After our climb down the stairs we stroll around town a little more and then get back on the road to our next destination, the Vestkapp. On our way we have to cross two fjords and hop from island to island which makes the 100 km drive a 3 hour endeavour and gives the sun a chance to finally come out. While we are approaching Vestkapp the landscape changes dramatically. Again. The guidebook literature on Vestkapp is a bit negatively coloured since they are marketing a place as the westernmost place of Norway that actually isn’t and take an entrance fee of  € 5 per person if you want to walk around there. I’m glad I didn’t pay to much attention to that as I find it definitely a place worth to see as the scenery is breathtaking.

If everything in Norway would be as cheap as € 5…but that’s another story. We are completing this beautiful day by having a coffee at the Vestkapp Café and continue our drive down to Selje, a remotely located little fishing village with an equally small and nice campground. We decide to have our dinner there and then take a little evening walk around the cute place.

Monday morning sees us already pack up again as we plan on making our way back inland into the mountains. But not without visiting one of the lighthouses along the coast. We decide to visit Kråkenes fyr where we are having a coffee and a waffle with strawberry jam and sour cream.

I have to admit that this is quite an unusual taste combination, but the quality of the dairy products in Norway makes it easy for our taste buds to acquire a taste for this regional specialty. We walk around a bit at the coast and are just about to leave when the rain sets in.

Considering the general climate in Norway with its often very sudden weather changes we can still consider us very lucky with the weather we’ve had during the past days. On the road again we are driving along the shore of Nordfjorden which offers us some stunning views.

Due to the glacier melting water that empties into the fjord its water has this very intense green colour; it’s very beautiful.

It doesn’t take long until we can spot the first glaciers from a parking lot and we decide to walk a bit further and take a closer look. It’s pretty late again when we arrive at the campground in Gaupne, so we just make some pasta for dinner and go to bed.

Tuesday is having a next big adventure in store for us: we are going to join a guided blueice tour onto the Nigaardsbreen glacier.

We are given clamp- ons for our shoes, an icepick and gloves before we all get lined up and hooked onto a rope to start the walk.

It is amazing to actually be able to walk on hundreds of years old ice. The blue colour of the ice is beautiful and since we make a pretty fit group the guide decides to take us on some detours through icecracks. It is just awesome.

After 3 hours on the glacier we take the boat back to the car and proceed on RV 55, a National Touristic Route, up north. In the beginning we are following the shore of Lusterfjorden but then again a quite dramatic change of landscape is awaiting us. Since Norway is situated that high up North on the globe the vegetation borders and tree lines are located at much lower altitude than for example in the Alps. So one can literally go from a picnic in the sun at the fjord to a snowball fight in the mountains in less then half an hour. The weather is not the greatest when we pass the mountain pass of Sognefjellet as you can see in this picture. Mind that this is in the end of July.

Once again we are lucky with the weather, since the rain stops while we are driving down the mountains and by the time we reach the little tourist town of Lom the sun breaks through. We are putting up the tent on this really fancy campground, have dinner and even manage to use the sauna before we go to bed.

We are planning on having a lazy day this Wednesday when we take down the tent in Lom. The weather worsens by the minute so we think it’s a good idea to start the day with some indoor sightseeing at the stave church in Lom. 

We then continue our drive to Jotunheimen N.P., where we arrive around noon at the only campground of the area. Pity it isn’t just the only one but also quite unwelcoming; bad thing since we plan on staying there for two nights. Luckily the sun is breaking through again and we decide to take the short 4 km trip to Gjendesheim to check out the area of Besseggen and have our first restaurant meal of our trip. (Mc D in Ålesund not counted even though the price of the Big Tasty meal reached 13 € and qualifies well into the restaurant category). The salmon we are having is very fresh and tasty, but I don’t like the fact to have bones in my food. Jörgen loves it and lists this meal as the best salmon he ever had. We complete our lunch with some coffee and take advantage of the awesome view from the restaurant.

By 3 pm the sun is out completely and we take a short hike in the area.

Afterwards we just have dinner on the campground and finish the day with a glass of wine by the river.

Our alarm goes off at 6:30 am on Thursday morning. We take a quick shower and hit the road to Gjendesheim to be sure to get a parking space for the car and a place on the 8:00 am boat to Memurubu. The weather is very promising and everything works out well. Good thing we’ve been checking out the area the day before and got warned about the lackage of parking spaces. It would have hurt badly having to leave the area without having done the hike that made us come there in the first place plus having had to stay on this not so great campground for nothing. After the 45 minute boat tour we arrive in Memurubu and start taking the first quite steep climb up the Besseggen ridge. The view we have from up there is so awesome and makes the effort definitely worthwhile.

But oh how wrong we fools are that had thought that the worst part of the hike is over. We reach areas were we really have to climb up 60 degrees for quite a distance.

In total the hike was supposed to be 17 km, but counting all the ups and downs it is definetely longer. Anyway, as I said before, all efforts are worthwhile to be able to enjoy the view from up there; if the weather is nice that is. After the worst part of the hike is done we are above the vegetation border and walk through a complete stone dessert. It’s windy. it starts to rain; as I said weather changes are sudden in Norway, so always pack smart.

Here I’m really having a low and every step I take is heavy. On the way down the sun comes back though and I’m able to finish this 9 hour hike in a good mood. This has been one of the most amazing days we had in Norway. Back at the campground I am so tired and lazy that I can just sit in the camping chair and do nothing after having taken a quick shower. Jörgens hunger motivates him to cook some pasta that we have with a glass of wine; I’m just able to stumble into bed right after dinner.

When we wake up on Friday morning we hear the rain drumming on our tent. Severe rain. We manage to pack everything in record time and hit the road. How lucky were we actually with the mostly sunny weather we had yesterday when it really counted? On our drive through the mountains we don’t see much at all, it’s that heavy a rain. When we come by a cosy, little mountain lodge we have coffee and a waffle before we continue our drive to Aurlandsfjorden. By the time we arrive there the weather has cleared up a bit and we can take some photos.

We are having an overpriced lunch someplace along the road, as picnic possibilities are clearly limited with the ever changing weather. On our way to Hardangervidda N.P. we drive through the world’s longest tunnel: Lerdalstunneln. It’s 26 km long and has colour displays that simulate a sunrise installed, to make the drive less boring. I really wanted to see this tunnel, but it’s not that great. Don’t drive there particularly for this. After having passed the rainy Mountainplateau of Hardangervidda we pass by the huge waterfall, the Voeringfossen.

We have seen many waterfalls on our trip, but this one is still something special. When the time comes to find a place for the night the rain still hasn’t stopped. We ask about a cabin at the campground but they are all booked. With the help of the lovely lady at the campground we manage to find a cute little and reasonably priced B & B owned by a Dutch couple. They are so nice and even let us hang up the wet tent in their garage so it can dry overnight.

On Saturday morning the rain still hasn’t stopped. We drive to the mountain farm of Kjeåsen that’s clinging to the rocks above the fjord.

We’ve been recommended to check out this place, but it wasn’t really worth the fuzz of driving up there in my opinion. If you’re in the area anyway, do it, but don’t drive there extra. After this little dissappointing visit we still haven’t given up hope for a hike in Hardangervidda so that we drive up some narrow roads again just to realize at the top that hiking really won’t be fun in this kind of weather. It was a nice tour though. It’s raining the whole time on our drive to Bergen and when we arrive and look for a cabin to stay over the night, we have to find out that everything in a radius of 100 km + is booked. We call the Tourist information to find out about hostels and hotels. All the hostels are booked as well and the hotels in town have prices that make you dizzy. 300 € per night for example. The lady recommends us to check a patient hotel at the hospital though which would cost only 100 €. It’s for relatives of patients but we don’t have another choice but to check in there toghether with dussins of other tourists. We find a gratis parking spot closeby to avoid the hospital garage that would have cost another 25€ per day and walk downtown. On the way we find a little pizza place owned by a nice French guy that makes one of the best pizzas I ever had. Jörgen and I share a huge family pizza and continue our little stroll through the city. When we are completely soaking wet we decide to go back to the hotel.

Sunday morning doesn’t have to offer any sunshine either. We have a long breakfast at the hotel and then walk downtown.

We stroll around the city with its cute wooden houses, the market and visit the Hanseatic museum which is really interesting. Bergen was one of the 4 foreign offices the German Hansa had and the area where the Germans lived; Bryggen, is on the UNESCO world heritage list.

If you ever go to Bergen go see this place. Into the afternoon the sunny periods between the heavy showers get longer and longer so that we decide to take a trip up the mountain with a cable car and then walk down. And boy, by the end of the day we have a blue sky and sunshine and I get a little sad that we had decided to stay at the hotel.

But this proofs to have been a good decision anyway as we wake up to the same old rain on Monday morning. So we have another big breakfast and then watch TV in our room until we have to leave for the ferry around noon. What follows is a pretty boring 18 hour ferry ride. We shop at the tax free, get a bite to eat and sit and read before we go to bed quite early.

On Tuesday morning we are driving off the ferry into bright sunshine and decide to head for the island of Römö just North of Sylt at the North sea coast. The advantage is that this island is connected to the mainland by a bridge so that it doesn’t cost anything to get there. We’ve also already been to the German Nordfriesian islands of Föhr and Amrum before so that it is nice to see something new. When we arrive on the island we have no rain but storm which makes it impossible to go to the beach as we get tons of sand into our eyes. But a good storm at the sea is still quite a special experience. We decide to avoid the sandstorm though and take a little walk inland through the heath and dunes.

When it’s time for dinner we are lucky to find a place which offers an All you can eat buffet with Danish specialties. It is so yummy, they have all kinds of salads, smoked and fresh fish, meats, scampi, prawns, potatoe cassarole, lasagne and a great variety of danish desserts and fresh fruit. Yummy!! With a full belly we fall into our beds quite early.

On Wednesday the sun is finally back for real and the winds are calming down considerably. The perfect day for the beach. And boy, do they have great beaches there! They are kilometres in width and you can drive there with your car. Just be aware not to get tangled up in the straps of somebodys kite and don’t run over any kitebuggies! It’s a great feeling of freedom to drive along the beach!

We then take a long walk along the icecold water and through the dunes, cook some lunch at the beach and then have some coffee and icecream in the village later on. In the evening we play a round of Minigolf, are just silly jumping on a trampolin and finish this nice and lazy day off with a glass of wine.

Also on Thursday we are waking up to a beautiful day and have another walk at the beach before we continue our trip down to Germany. After going through some heavy traffic and bad rain in Hamburg we are arriving at Kim and Chris’ place in Bremen around 7 pm. It is the first time we are meeting in person, but it feels as if I know Kim for a long time! Kim and Chris are the sweetest hosts, that make us instantly feel really comfortable! We have a yummy Lasagne for dinner and just stay in the kitchen and chat for the whole evening. Not just, quite some bottles of beer are also opened and especially my man appreciates that a lot after a long drought in Norway

On Friday morning the sun has finally made it’s way from Denmark to Bremen and after a long breakfast with a lot of chatting we are taking the tram downtown and stroll a bit through the city.

Bremen is very beautiful, I really love the Hanseatic flair and architecture! We are looking at the mummies in the “Bleikeller” and walk over the market square with the cathedral and the city hall towards Böttcherstrasse.

Of course we are also passing by the statue of the Bremer Town musicians to hold the donkeys legs, both at the same time, for good luck! 

Time is flying and soon we make our way through the “Viertel” to Kim and Chris’ place where we have dinner. In next to no time we have to say Goodbye, but we make plans for Kim and Chris to come to Sweden! After this great day in Bremen we continue our journey to Thuringia, where we arrive around 10.30 pm. We have a little chat with my parents and then go to bed.

On Saturday we have brilliant weather again that we are using for a little trip to Mount Schneekopf that offers a pretty round view over the Thuringian forest. 

On Sunday is my Moms birthday and we are celebrating a bit with family. The rest of the week is spent with more walks through the forest, a grill evening, a daytrip to Erfurt and one to a Thermal Spa. 

We are taking it easy and have a great time with way too much of the yummy German food and drinks! Especially Jörgen is in meat and cold cut heaven again, but of course I love me my Bratwurst as well

On Friday it’s time to head back North again, but we won’t leave Germany without meeting up with 2 old college friends of mine in Hamburg. After enjoying a nice Mexican dinner and a cocktail at Sausalitos (we miss the 2 for 1 Happy hour by 10 minutes  ) we continue the night with a bottle of wine and a long chat in Katharinas kitchen. On Saturday morning Sabine is passing by as well and we have a great brunch in a Swiss Café in Altona.

We make use of our Buy 1 get 2 cupon from Bagelbrothers (their lox bagels are delicious) to stock up for the long trip and leave Hamburg at 3 pm which is way too late. Now our vacation is officially over. We stop by the Cittimarket in Luebeck and spend another 3,5 hours with the wine shopping for Huameis wedding. The reason it takes that long is the awesome service at that place. They let you taste the wine and offer excellent advise! Yay Germany! The rest of the trip I’ll rather forget about. Not only am I my usual sad self about leaving, but we spend hours in traffic jams and waiting lines for the ferry so that we don’t hit the sack before 5 am.