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The Big Trip Report Number 6 - Mon, 29 Jul 2002
Coming to you from the middle of the North Sea, 14 degrees centigrade and cloudy.
Lets hear to for the northern European summer! But to be fair, since we last
wrote from Stockholm, we have had some good weather.
Stockholm is known as “the Venice of the North” along with all the
other cities that claim to be the Venice of somewhere or other. A pretty city
indeed, although not a gondolier to be found. We did however find a Viking longship
in which to tour around the archipelago, while we drank mead and ate “Viking
quiche”. Continuing with the nautical theme we also saw the Vasa, an immense
17th century warship that was to be the pride of the Swedish naval fleet, if
it hadn’t tipped over and sunk 200m from the dock on its maiden voyage.
Raised from the sea floor and restored in the 1950s it is an impressive sight.
From Stockholm we moved onto Uppsala where Sue’s brother Tony lives. We
had a relaxing few days, saw the sun again and managed to capsize a couple of
kayaks (well the men did anyway!). Picking up a “hitchhiker”, Sue’s
mum (who joined us for the rest of the Scandinavian tour), we headed over to
Oslo, Norway. We persisted with the nautical theme by visiting the Viking Ship
and Kon-tiki Museums. The Norwegians, both ancient and modern, are obviously
better boat builders than the Swedes. : ) We spent the weekend in the countryside
with Sue’s cousins Inger, Einar et famille (thanks for the great BBQ).
The lake was too cold for us, however it didn’t prevent our intrepid Viking
relations from swimming. Brrrr!
We then drove to Trondheim to pick up the Hurtigrute coastal steamer, which
would carry us up to the Lofoten Islands in the Arctic Circle. Land of the Midnight
Sun! We made some new friends, Jan, Marit et famille, who very kindly looked
after us during our stay here. This included a midnight hike up a mountain to
admire the views and pick cloudberries. It never got dark. Cool! It was worth
the long trip up to the north to see these fantastic islands, with their green
mountains soaring out of the azure sea. Then, as we made the journey back south
by car, we encountered yet more incredible scenery. Norway is the most visually
stunning country we have been to so far on this trip. However, on the flipside,
the ridiculously low speed limits and numerous speed trap cameras make driving
long distances torture in slow motion (maybe its to make sure you appreciate
the views). On the way to Trondheim we literally went to Hell and back. Hell,
Norway should go down in English history next to Bastardo, Italy and Condom,
France (all real places we promise).
In Trondheim we were (re)introduced to an astonishing number of Sue’s
Norwegian relatives and ate an astonishing amount of cream cake. We climbed
to the top of the ski jump to work it off, but it would take a damn sight more
than cake to make us jump down it. Those people must be mad!
We then continued south towards Bergen through more amazing snow-capped mountains
and turquoise lakes and fjords. We made a detour to the Nigardsbreen glacier,
an awe inspiring, and immense river of blue ice towering above the gawking tourists.
This is part of the largest ice sheet in the Northern hemisphere outside of
the Arctic, totalling 800 sq km. This was a day of record breakers, as drove
along the highest mountain pass in northern Europe (1,400m), as well as through
the longest road tunnel in the world, 24.5km!
In Bergen we boarded the MS Jupiter, along with hundreds of Norwegians in search
of cheap(er) booze, bound for Newcastle. From there we will head north to Edinburgh
and Scotland.
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