As I write this, we are on a ferry to Estonia. We have a couple of weeks to check out the Baltic countries including Latvia & Lithuania. Excited to see what we can and experience something new. We will get a ferry to Germany afterwards, saving Poland for next year. We often get parts for our truck from Latvia since they ususally stock them and are willing to ship, unlike other countries. Maybe we can even pick some up in person as we more through!
We only had about a week in Sweden as we always have the pressure of the Schengen visa to deal with and we spent all the time we could in Norway’s mountains. After enduring weeks of near continuous rain in Norway, we finally broke out of the clouds in Sweden and felt a bit of summer which was really nice. It’s hard to make a decision which to have- sun or mountains because by and large you can’t have both in these parts. As we bought our fire truck from Sweden back in 2018, it must have felt a bit like coming home and we tried to picture what it would have been like for it in Sweden during it’s other life.
Even before we left Norway, we could see the scenery gradually changing more to a flatter, less dramatic, wooded look with endless shallow ponds. We saw a moose in a recently logged clearing and a few deer which I guess is more than we saw in Norway although there are lots of moose there as well. But that’s how it looked- timber forest in various stages of logging and ponds. Flat.
We found bike paths on islands, we sat outside for happy hour (which was a novel thing) in shorts & shirt, had our camper door open until late because the air, for once, wasn’t cold. We spent a couple of days visiting the city of Uppsala. There, we went out for sushi, got ice cream cones, walked the flower filled streets along the river, went into a liquor store and found the best selection of IPA beers we’ve ever seen, walked through the Botanical Gardens, visited the cathedral and castle and biked all around the city and outskirts parks the following day. It felt free & easy. We nicknamed it simple pleasures. No drama. Nothing dramatic.
I had wanted to explore some of the Stockholm archipelago of islands so we got one in yesterday to the island of Lido. A short ferry takes you to this little park island with an old Inn and some waterside trails. It was a relaxing last day in Sweden.
The last time I wrote something here, we’d been in Norway for 2 1/2 weeks under incredible weather and we were keeping busy knocking off one iconic hike after another to make the most of it. It didn’t make any sense to spend time driving north because then we would miss those days. Well the door shut on that and my god, we had the most crap weather day after day; it was nuts. We kept saying who could live in those conditions all the time?! I think in hindsight, we should have pushed up to the famous Lofoten islands right then, but we weren’t sure we wanted to drive that far only to have to drive back again. We wanted to do more and drive less with the limited time we had.
We don’t really think about fuel costs in general because it is a part of our life and it takes time and effort to travel this way so best not to skimp on where we go. But it is true that the fuel prices reached $10/gallon. Ditto Germany right now. The part that is sick is that none of this is necessary. We are embarrassed to be where we’re from. Norway is pricy overall but offers a lot of top notch scenery and we’re glad we saw what we did even if I do wish we had gotten to Lofoten. So here are a few of the things we did in various states of precipitation and temps. It will be missing the location details because I don’t have any internet on this ferry.
Besseggen is a cool ridge where you take a ferry up into the park and then hike back on that ridge that separates a beautiful blue fjord and a lake. It had some really steep & narrow sections that aren’t favored by people who don’t like heights. We met up with Ivan on the summit after the narrow parts and hiked back down together which was nice.
We visited the town of Lom which has an old stave wooden church and some historic buildings with their characteristic earthen roofs. It is quite amazing how much can grow on these roofs! They still build new houses with this technique most probably for their quaint feel. We read that the town of Lom has a Sahara like climate and is usually quite dry but it was raining when we were there and we didn’t feel a bit of the Sahara!
It’s popular to have a cabin in Norway and there are many of them on the hillsides, often in groups. We’ve hiked up to some of them and while they don’t seem well used anymore, they are picturesque.
We traveled some beautiful roads together that showcased some colorful glaciers and hikers hotels provide trails to get up closer to the glaciers, lakes and waterfalls. We did one where we biked uphill to the hotel, had lunch inside out of the rain, did a little hike and then coasted back down. Near the hotel you could see the winter snowblower attachment and the track style people mover that we think took skiers up into the mountains to ski back down. Nordic skiing is so popular in Scandinavia and it would be interesting to experience it in winter.
Jon has stayed in touch with a nice guy named Dimitri with a truck like ours that he met off the Mercedes forum and it so happened that we were going to be driving right by his house on the Sogndalsfjord. He graciously accepted a couple of packages for Ivan and us so we stopped in for a night to meet him in person and have dinner together. I didn’t get any pictures unfortunately, but we had a really nice time sharing ideas on each other’s overland truck builds and his mom made a delicious dinner of shepherds pie.
We moved over to the western coast to explore some of the islands. The island of Runde has the largest bird cliffs in southern Norway and there is a puffin colony there. We pulled into a seaside campground there and explored but the wind was ferocious and it was hard to enjoy being outside even though we did it anyway. We never saw any puffins because at this time of year, they only come out around 9-11pm. And we’d had it with being wet.
We got our cruise ship town fix in the city of Alesund and it was a decent weather day. We walked around but it didn’t really do much for us which has been the theme of Norway’s towns. The natural aspects are the best in our opinion.
Now Molladen was a standout and we had a great day. From the trailhead campspot, you hike up about 3000 feet to a lovely circle of jagged mountains and lakes. You can climb steeper to look down and get great views. The reflections in the morning calm were really colorful as was the green color of the lichens.
Jon and I did another steep ridge hike out of the town of Andalsnes which has the popular Romsdalseggen Ridge. You take a bus up to the trailhead again and then hike back. It was an iffy weather day but the best we’d get and it worked out fine. When we first reached the ridge it cleared off enough to catch the view, then fogged in for the narrowest sections.
We explored Rondane National Park out of the town of Odda. I know this sounds really repetitious but this is our thing….. it is a popular thing to drive to a park parking lot, get on a bike and bike up to a mountain hut to then start hiking from there. I had a hike planned up to the tallest mountain in the park but of course the weather was crap and the fog layer was below the summit. But we still had a nice day climbing short of the summit.
And then it was time to start heading toward Sweden via Lillehammer. Popular because the Olympics were held there in 1994, you can visit the ski jumps and infrastructure built for the event and it appears to all be in use today because the whole town seemed full of young athletes working out. The clacking of theit road skis was like a metronome and we could hear it nearly the whole time we were there, at any hour. We spent a couple of days exploring the town and doing the trails there.
So, we enjoyed our time in Norway. It was great to finally see the fjords in person. The weather is mentally challenging and the whole vibe isn’t as warm and friendly as other countries we’ve visited. It does make a difference in how we feel as we move around a place. It was fun to add some stickers for Scandinavia to all the places our truck has taken us so far. And we’re glad to know this part of the world some now.
After meeting up with Ivan in late April with the whole summer ahead of us, it felt sad to see it come to a close and have to say goodbye. But we do have plans to travel together next summer too. I can feel the season changing. The birds are packing up and leaving so I guess we should too! So now, Estonia here we come!
