What Are Some Landmarks We've Seen on Our Road Trip?

[fuzzyfelt]

To "pitch" a tent, or "set up camp" works, I think.

 

[Borek]

OK, we are back, a little bit earlier than expected, after making 8600km. But I have no internet at home, it should be fixed in 48 hours

 

[Andre]

Welcome back Borek. I hope you get settled soon.

I've had that problem too once, Came home, and meanwhile they had increased the internet speed to above the specifications of my old modem.

 

[Borek]

Finally everything works as it should.

Landmarks from the last few days:

We are still fighting the mess created when we unpacked the car, but I am slowly getting to the point when I will be able to browse the pictures and post more about the trip. As of now - short summary. 8600 km (5340 miles) in 27 days - that means 318 km (197 miles) daily on average, at 6.55 L per 100 km (35.9 mpg). Surprisingly good, but that was in Scandinavia, where they drive pretty slow, and without AC, as it is rarely hot that far North. Trip to the southern edges of Europe won't be that economical. We did more and faster than expected, but I feel like that was a mistake - we should stop more, especially in the first two weeks.

 

[fuzzyfelt]

WB Borek and Marzena! Look forward to reading more about it! Is the second one down from Alta again?

 

[Borek]

Is the second one down from Alta again?

No, it is about 1400 km away from Alta.

 

[arildno]

The stone carving might be from the Vitlycke Museum in Sweden, or possibly, Undersløs.

Stone carvings are quite common in mid/southern Sweden, and also in south-eastern Norway.

 

[Borek]

The stone carving might be from the Vitlycke Museum in Sweden

Vitlycke Museum it is. But I am quite surprised you have not named the first place

 

[arildno]

Vitlycke Museum it is. But I am quite surprised you have not named the first place

As for the first, it MIGHT be a portion of some stave church, but it could also be a portion of Frognerseteren Restaurant (if my memory doesn't play me a trick..)

 

[arildno]

Strangely enough, if it IS a stave church, it looks a bit like Borgund. But surely, you weren't there??

Perhaps Lom stave church?

Arrgh, I dunno, I think I'll stick with my restaurant here in Oslo (or, possibly, the stave church at Bygdø Folklore Museum??)

 

[arildno]

NO!

I think I've got it!

You Poles stole a Norwegian stave church from us back in the 19th century.
It is located in Karpacz (or whatever).
It is probably that war booty from the Polish-Norwegian war (1837-1843)

 

[Andre]

This one?

 

[lisab]

NO!

I think I've got it!

You Poles stole a Norwegian stave church from us back in the 19th century.
It is located in Karpacz (or whatever).
It is probably that war booty from the Polish-Norwegian war (1837-1843)

How do you steal a church ?

 

[arildno]

How do you steal a church ?

Ask the Poles. They know how to steal..staves.

 

[Andre]

I guess they used this ship for that

Ales stenar

 

[lisab]

Things I've learned so far today from this thread:

• What a stave is.
• Norweeds can veeeery sensitive about their staves.
• Norweeds don't forget about stave stealing quickly.
• Sometimes, a church is actually war booty.

 

[Borek]

Strangely enough, if it IS a stave church, it looks a bit like Borgund. But surely, you weren't there??

Why not?

A little bit to the side, but that made our trip just 700 km longer.

As for the Karpacz - I have heard that that the church was sold - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vang_stave_church

I can't say I remember anything about Polish-Norwegian war, in the years you have mentioned there was no Poland on the map of Europe, I think you got it wrong

And not surpirisingly Andre is right about Ales stenar.

 

[arildno]

I can't say I remember anything about Polish-Norwegian war,

It was that squabble over the silver ware Jan Sobieski sent to Norway for safekeeping, before his trip to Vienna.
It was honestly LOST, and you didn't have the right to take it back, with interest.

in the years you have mentioned there was no Poland on the map of Europe, I think you got it wrong

Neither did Norway exist back then; that detail didn't stop you from going to war against us.

 

[Borek]

Trip summary, or where we have slept

(Stena Baltica picture found somewhere on the web)

 

[hypatia]

I love the little cabins and your tent looks like a fine home, away from home.

 

[Marzena]

Browsing the pictures:

 

[Borek]

Diary, as promised. Path is incomplete due to hardware (Garmin) and software (my head) problems.

Day fourth (July 5^th)

Fast but not easy (no navigation, no city map) trip to the old city center (to see Ostra Brama - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gate_of_Dawn) and Rasos Cemetery (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasos_Cemetery). On the way back to camping navigation becomes useful again as even if it is not displaying the correct map, it shows correctly trace of our earlier route, which makes trip back to camping much easier. We pack and leave in the general direction of Riga, but we don't plan to get to the city yet - we leave around 3 PM and we are 300 km from the target, that could mean getting there late. Instead we plan to stop at camping in Bauska (N56 24.516 E24 10.057) - that's already Latvia, Baltic states are tiny. On the way we go through a series of thunderstorms, with torrential rains, and I have to slow down (Marzena is not driving on the trip - in general car and tent are my job). In Panevezys it was raining so strong that streets looked like rivers and in some places I have seen water going up as fountains from drains. Somewhere in these rains we passed first 1000 km point, but because of side trips of Saturday it doesn't mean we did 1/6th of the planned distance. Camping in Bauska is small and very nice, apart from us there is only one other car (VW Transporter adapted - probably by its NL owner - to a caravan). Quiet place with almost everything you may need - however, no trees so it may be difficult to survive during really hot and sunny day.

Gate of Dawn:

Rasos Cemetery:

Somewhere in Vilnius:

 

[Borek]

Day fifth (July 6^th)

Luck is with us - when striking camp something interrupted me while folding the tent poles and we were very close to leaving two of them on the camping, but Marzena spotted them before we left. My (quiet) plan was to get to Saaremaa island. First we drove to Riga, to take pictures of Old City and cathedral, one that I used some months ago in landmark thread. Unfortunately, our Garmin was playing its tricks again - this time in Riga. I had to navigate using my nose and general awareness, luckily it worked. We spent about two hours walking in the Old City, then we got to the car, drove out of the city, navi got on the track so I keyed in target of the next part of the trip... and I was told we will be there half past eight, when I hoped for seven. It turned out day earlier we misjudged the distance between Riga and Kuressaare and we have almost 100 kilometers more than I expected. Not good, but somehow we made it, even if we got to the camping place half past nine (nuvi didn't took ferry time into account). As I have finally access to internet I am posting first pictures from the trip of the PF and asking for the help with nuvi on Polish garniak (Garmin Maniak) forum. Around midnight another thunderstorm starts.

On the camping something impossible happened - we meet a talkative Finn So far I have seen only silent models, speaking 5 to 7 words a day on average. This can be at least partially explained by sex - those silent models were males, our talkative Finn was female. Her English was ery limited, still we managed to exchange some information and she suggested which road can be more interesting for us when we get to Lappi.

Riga cathedral:

Riga - old city. Obvious with whom they did bussines back then, isn't it?

Just a view of the old city.

 

[Borek]

Day sixth (July 7^th)
(when we meet Suur Töll and his wife)

We were lucky again - while it was raining through the night it stopped early in the morning, so tent was dry and ready to fold. But we decided to first make a small side trip to the Sääre Lighthouse - and we both felt in love with the place. Hard to tell why, and pictures don't tell everything, but definitely a nice place and worth visiting. Then back to the camping and luckily before leaving I decided to check garniak forum - bingo! Map is divided into small sections that you have to select when uploading. What I have missed was that some cities have their own sections - and it is hard to spot that they are not selected, as they occupy just a few pixels unless you zoom in. Three cities with their own sections in the area are Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn - bad luck that all three happened to be on our way. Selected everything, uploaded again to the device - and later in Tallinn we had no problems. Before leaving the island we saw two other places - monument of Suur Töll (yes, again we are visiting places from the landmark thread) and Kaali meteorite crater. I have seen pictures from Kaali before, but they were not good enough to show the size of the crater - it is much larger than I expected.

After leaving the island we went to Tallinn to ferry. Plan was to check departure times and then decide whether we stay for night somewhere near Tallinn or whether we go directly to Helsinki. We got to the terminal about hour and half before the departure so we decided to not wait, bought tickets and boarded. That was a little bit risky, as ferry arrives at Helsinki at 11 p.m. so we could be not able to find a place to sleep, that also meant we have not seen anything in Tallinn. But again luck is with us (this starts to be disturbing, how many times you can draw GOOBF card exactly when it is needed?). We left the ferry around 11, but we are so far north that it was still quite bright and in Finland you can put your tent almost everywhere (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allemannsrett#In_the_Nordic_countries). We drove west till it looked like the city ended and then we looked for a place to spend a night. Turned out to be quite simple. But the situation was absurd - it was middle of the night, it was bright, and regardless of being relatively far north (Helsinki are around the same latitude as southern Alaska) temperature was so high that I was sweating after pitching the tent in a t-shirt.

Sääre Lighthouse

Kaali meteorite crater - for the scale, note people on the right.

Suur Töll and Piret

 

[Borek]

Day seventh (July 8^th)

Actually there was no night, so it is day seventh by calendar only Two places to see in Helsinki - one is Sibelius monument, second - I planned to visit offices of the Finnish publisher I cooperated with 10 years ago, we haven't seen since then. I thought about saying hello to Juhani, the owner, but decided not to - not without a shower after sleeping in the wild. So we just drove through Helsinki and then north we go again. I zoomed out map in nuvi, put my finger somewhere to the north and touched "get us there". Nuvi obeyed, and when we got "there" we started to look for a camping. Found one about 6 km from the place we were standing, in Leppavirta. Did I tell you luck is with us? About an hour after the tent was standing another thunderstorm started. We met some Poles working in Finland, they got to the same camping for short vacations and told us few (probably) valuable things about the further trip. There are special facial masks against mosquitoes that can be bought in shops here. We already have DEET based repellent, but these masks sound like a good idea, especially for Marzena - she attracts mosquitoes much more than I do.

Sibelius monument (or just a part of it - it was almost impossible to take a good picture of the whole monument, there were so many people around, and the buses with Japanese tourists were coming one by one).

 

[Borek]

Day eighth (July 9^th)

To some extent day without a history, just with 350 kilometers. Early in the morning sky was covered with clouds, it was not raining, but the tent was wet. I have found many years ago that shaking the fly sheet helps to remove the water and speeds up drying - it worked this time as well. Besides, in the meantime clouds went away and the sky was clear (it was hot again), which helped. Today's target was selected in a similar way as yesterday, we just decided to stop anywhere, not necessarily on some camping place. Driving today was basically boring - most of the time road was going through a forest. Nice forest I must admit, with picturesque lakes opening now and again to the left and right, but flat and with no specific places to visit to take pictures we were just going and going. The only "attraction" today were clouds of black flies that attacked us when we left the car to pitch the tent. We were told to be afraid of mosquitoes, but black flies were not mentioned. Interestingly, they were quite furious outside, but right now I am sitting inside, typing, and two or three dozens just sit over my head on the internal side of the fly sheet and pretend to be not hungry. No idea why. It is getting chilly, first time since we left Poland I feel like I may need to put some more clothes on.

Somewhere in Finland (actually this picture was not taken on July 9^th):

 

[Borek]

Day ninth (July 10^th)
(when we learn what "to bike" means)

When it is bright all the time night and day loose its meaning. Doesn't matter if you are going to bed or getting up, everything looks about the same. We woke up relatively early today, packed and took a short walk before moving away, trying to take some pictures. We couldn't walk much longer, as all insects around have learned about a free meal and tried to get their shares - and Marzena decided she is not interested in pursuing a career of a bug fodder. So we got back to the car and... north we go again. This time we have a well defined idea - we want to visit Santa Clause Village close to Rovaniemi. It is mostly just a tourist attraction, thing that we usually prefer to avoid, but Santa Claus is a Santa Claus We bought original Santa Clause gifts for Junior and his GF, we bought a bell to sound it on Christmas and we took pictures of ourselves at Arctic Circle. That was enough so off we went to a camping place in Sodenkyla. Few kilometers after Rovaniemi we have seen our first pack of reindeers - just four of them, they were walking on the road ignoring cars. We couldn't take pictures at this particular moment, but later we met one large (probably male) and we were able to stop. This was quite funny - reindeer is not a small animal, this one had a quite large antlers, but when it was walking on the tarmac it was making a funny clapping sound, as if made by some other animal. About 30 kilometers before Sodenkyla it started to rain, At the same time temperature has fallen to about 14 deg C, the lowest since we started. But then we expected temperatures in this range at this latitude, if not lower. (That's actually a problem - we have mostly warm clothes, but almost nothing to wear during a heat wave.) It was still raining when we came to the camping and I had to pitch the tent during the rain, but later sky became clear.

There are two kinds of people here - those going to Nordkapp and those going back. We have met a guy from Belgium (take a peek at his travelblog at www.travelblog.org/bloggers/peeke/[/URL] - in Dutch) - he is on his way up, just like we are. The difference is he is riding a bike, makes around 90 km a day, and his trip will take over 100 days and at least 8000 km. We are bikers as well, but there are moments when it is better to pretend we don't know what bike is :shock: Right now we are sitting in the camping kitchen, he writes about me for his blog and I am writing about him for PF and we are both surrounded by electronics and cables. O tempora, o mores :wink:

Rovaniemi (Santa Claus village):
[ATTACH=full]135549[/ATTACH]

:smile:
[ATTACH=full]135550[/ATTACH]

Clap, clap, clap:
[ATTACH=full]135551[/ATTACH]

 

[Borek]

Day tenth (July 11^th)

In general it was a pretty good day. We passed 3000 km mark, and we entered zone where the Sun shines all the time, we have seen several nice places and went for a two nice walks. Initially road was very similar to what we have seen up to now - forest, forest, forest, lake, forest - but as we proceeded north forest was getting less dense and lower, and it was obvious that trees are struggling to survive in the climate - they look crippled with twisted branches. Less dense forest means that you can peek deeper, so you see more of the terrain, today not only lakes but also marshes. Then there were reindeers. Every ten or twenty kilometers pack of them was walking in the middle of the road. They completely ignore passing cars, as if the road was theirs, sometimes it takes several minutes before you can pass them and accelerate.

At lake Inari we visited a "museum" of local customs and a viewing point tower. Museum is just a few old boats, few old engines, old snowmobile, old sledge and a fisherman's cabin (not an old one, but one built to look like they did many years ago). Can't say it was very interesting, but one thing was - they were making tar from wood, using original process. This is done for many years in the same place - they dig a hole on a slope, put a tube at the bottom in such a way that it sticks out of the ground few meters below, then they put wood into the hole, start the fire, cover the wood with gravel/sand/moss and wait. Actually trick is not to just wait, but to observe the process and either make additional holes in the cover to allow more air inside, or to step up on the cover to tamp it. That's necessary to keep a correct temperature in the pit - and they check it observing color of the smoke, it must be just the right shade of gray. Tar drips from the tube, mixed with a water phase (most likely water-methanol mixture if you ask me) - and they are separated in the barrel. Tar was used to impregnate boats. Simple and effective.

Seems like we may have a problem. Back in Warsaw idiots in bank in which I have my main account failed to reissue my credit card (it was valid till end of June), despite me asking them to speed up the process since May. Actually they reissued the card, but sent it to the wrong address, I will spare you the details. I have an account and a card in other bank, and Marzena has her cards with her - but these are all Visa Electron cards and they were all issued by the same bank (different than the one mentioned earlier). And for some reason they are not correctly processed in Finland (even if they worked perfectly up to Estonia). That is they are processed in the readers that don't read the chip on the card, just the magnetic bar. We still have some € cash, taken just in case, but if the problems persist we have not enough cash to get back home.

At some point we left road E75 and turned left into 92. After few kilometers we have named it a roller coaster road. It is straight in long sections, but goes up and down, and slopes are quite steep, so sometimes you can see several hills ahead of you, and sometimes when you approach the top you can see just about 20 meters of the road ahead. Plus on each top there is this short moment of weightlessness (well, not a complete one, but you know the feeling). That was quite exciting.

We stopped for the night in the wild, close to the road.

Yesterday we bought kind of mosquitoes masks - they look like a blouses with hoods and nets in front of the face. Judging from the reactions of clerks it is a thing sold to tourists to make fun of them. But today I found a hat with a net folded in its top part - you can wear it just like a hat, or pull the net outside and it covers head and the neck. And for the first time in a few days I had no problem with mosquitoes - long sleeves, hat and hands covered with DEET repellent, I was preparing the camp and unpacking the car in a buzzing cloud - and they were only making noise, I wasn't biten even once. But the truth is it was first time cold enough for a long sleeves, up to now it was too hot each time I pitched or folded the tent.

That was Marzena's observation - no spiders here. Lots of mosquitoes, some other insects, but we haven't seen a single cob web.

I have a feeling we raced through Finland much too fast - omitting many interesting places. But I love to drive.

Somewhere near lake Inari:

Making tar: on the left the collecting bucket, up right you can see smoke; no idea if it is the right shade of grey, or not.

That's the picture everyone driving through Lapland has to take:

 

[Borek]

Day eleventh (July 12^th)

Initially road goes through a low birch forest - quite surprising, I would rather expect some kind of coniferous trees. We were sleeping just a few kilometers from the Norwegian border, so we get to Norway very fast. For obvious reasons landscape doesn't change, but after half an hour we see first difference - much less reindeers walking free. In the first larger settlement we try to get some cash from an ATM - and it works, so we are not doomed yet. After about an hour drive we see first mountains on the horizon, and in Porsanger we reach the sea - and that's completely different view from the forests - high or low - that we have been seeing for the last few days. Shore is already impressive with steep slopes rising above water, but I have read somewhere on the web to not take pictures here yet - it is a waste of film, true fjords are farther west. Well, perhaps it was a waste of film 10 years ago, but bits are much cheaper, so we stop several times to fill memory cards. Close to the evening we get to Magerøya island, just to take our first lesson about what "expensive" means in Norwegian. Tunnel to the island is a toll road (192 NOK for a car with one passenger) and camping is 180 NOK for two person in tent (plus 5 NOK for 5 minutes of hot water in the shower - cold showers are free, air temperature is about 14 deg C, water is much colder). We need an onion for a supper so we go for a small shopping in Honningsvåg. City looked like a post stamp accidentally attached to a large cruise ship (Costa Luminosa) in the harbor, there are more people aboard than the whole city population, luckily people from the ship are crowded around souvenir shops. In the first market there are no onions sold by weight, just packed - 4 onions, around 700 grams, if memory serves me well for 35 NOK (around $5), Crazy, but much more crazy is fact that they were grown in... New Zeland. Globalization in its most absurd version.

When we meet Peeke we were impressed, but it seems like he is just one of many - next tent sleeps a guy from Switzerland, doing similar trip, and judging from the number of bikers we see Nordkapp is a relatively popular destination. Meet Poles from the cruise ship and talked a little bit about Norway.

Airfield in Honningsvåg (Valan):

Honningsvåg, but in fact similar picture can be taken anywhere in northern Norway - houses built on a thin strip between water and slope.

 

[Borek]

Day twelfth (July 13^th)
(when we fight the wind and finally reach the target)

Around 5 or 6 a.m. Marzena woke up to take a shower (she is an early bird type) and when she gets back to the tent wind and rain starts together, making enough noise to wake me up. Tent shook quite heavily, but after about half an hour it got quiet and I caught some more sleep. Around 8 it starts again, but we hope it will eventually stop - wrong idea. Rain stopped, but the wind is getting stronger and stronger and soon we start to be afraid about losing a tent. We pack in an alarm mode, just throwing everything into the car, but even that was not fast enough - before we were able to start striking the tent one of the pegs was already pulled out twice or thrice, even if I blocked it putting on it a large stone. Tent shook so vigorously that it even overturned our table and everything that was not yet in the car landed on the ground. I was trying to strike the tent as fast as possible, but it was not that easy when it tried to fly to Murmansk. There were few really nervous minutes when Marzena knelt on the fly sheet trying to keep it down so that it doesn't fly away and doesn't rip, while I am fighting poles and lines. Final effect - fabric survives, but two of the segments in one of the poles split (edit: actually three have split, but one only partially and I found it much later). It doesn't make them useless, besides, we have one spare and duct tape to repair, but that was close. We want to spend another day on the island, so we decide to rent a hytt (cabin). 570 NOK (around $100) for one night - two beds, table, bench, fridge and stove, all in one small room with cold water only. Once it is settled we transfer some of the things to the hytt and drive to Nordkapp. Wind - especially in high parts of the island, which means most of the route - is so strong I feel it when driving, it tries to push the car to the side, and when we stop to take pictures we have troubles standing. I don't remember seeing such a strong continuous wind. Gusts - yes, but not the wind. It was so strong that taking pictures was quite difficult at times, as it wasn't possible to keep the camera steady to compose a shot.

To get to Nordkapp we have to pay again - 470 NOK for two person. Our plan was to save on this expense and take different approach (see below), but wind is so strong it again forces us to spend more than planned. We do what all tourists do - take pictures of the globe and several other things, read about sinking of Scharnhorst - and that's about all.

In the meantime it seems like the wind gets weaker so we decide to try to execute our initial plan. Trick is, Nordkapp is not the most northern point of Europe - that happens to be on another peninsula, several kilometers to the west. It can be reached only on legs, so we leave the Nordkapp (in terms of cost per minute AC/DC concert was much cheaper), drive about two kilometers, and start the hike. Unfortunately, terrain is very difficult (no set trail, just general direction on stones and moss) and the wind is still very strong, so after about a kilometer seeing like Marzena struggles I decide to abort the idea - whole trip is about 18 km, at normal pace it could be made in about 4 hours, but seems like it may take twice longer, and we are not prepared for such a long walk. Sad, to some extent this hike was what I came here for

It was to late for a hike, but it is not to late to see Skarsvåg - said to be the northernmost fishers village in the world. Actually everything around here is claimed to be the northernmost. Marzena took pictures of probably the northernmost calico cat in Skarsvåg and a little bit earlier, at Nordkapp, I took my northernmost pee. After that we get to our hytt to eat something and - as it is unusually early - post some part of the trip diary to PF. But obviously wind has blown our luck away, after we eat internet connection is dead.

Speaking about bikers - today we have seen two older guys (older the we are, and closing fifty we are not necessarily the youngest around) on their bikes, trying to get to Nordkapp. Actually I hope nothing wrong happened to them. When we were going to the Nordkapp we have seen them struggling with the steep slope at the very beginning to the last 27 kilometers, when we were getting back they were still going pushing their bikes. Wind at the top of the island was so strong that it was difficult to stand, walking with a bike can be next to impossible; hopefully at some moment they made the right decision and got back down to try later.

Kings Oscar monument, at Nordkapp:

Fighting the wind atop the Magerøya island:

Been there, took picture, didn't bought even a lousy t-shirt:

 

[Borek]

Day thirteenth (July 14^th)

Internet is not working also in the morning, it is cold (7 deg C) and raining. We pack and move, there is nothing to see. Can't say I will remember Magerøya island with love, I feel we were treated by weather and circumstances like pest. Well, we are tourists, and tourists - especially in crowd - are pests, so somehow I can't say it was unjust. We pay once again to leave the island and for the first time since we left home we are going south. Weather still refuses to cooperate, so we even don't stop to take pictures, at least not before we get to Alta. In Alta we stop to see stone age rock carvings. We need to pay to enter the area (did I wrote that Norway is insanely expensive? It is cheaper to spend whole day in Louvre than an hour - which is enough to see everything - in Alta Museum). After seeing everything we move again.

Interesting - while Norway is generally expensive, while there are much less reindeers walking the streets, reindeers antlers are much cheaper here than they were in Finland (50 NOK vs €20, something like $8 vs $27). We buy a gift for a family

Plan for tonight was to find some place to put our tent in the wild (to save, while we are still well within our budget, we hoped to save something for a winter trip in yet unknown direction), but the longer we go the more obvious it becomes that this plan has one serious drawback - there are no places where the tent can be pitched! We are driving in the fjord, that means steep slopes, rock and stones, and each flat place that looks like it may be possible to put pegs into the ground is already occupied by city, village or at least a house. Fact that our tent is rather large (it was bought with several days stay in one place in mind, not for a 'move each day' trip) doesn't help. So, we decide to look for a camping - and lo, there is one, just two kilometers later. Trick is, is is exactly at the end of a fjord, and wind blows exactly along the fjord, right into our direction. And it blows quite strong, which means we are afraid of pitching the tent, which means we again rent a hytt (much cheaper than at Nordkapp, still more expensive than planned). Damn. Later some people pitch a tent just behind one of the hytts, so that it is hidden from the wind, but our tent is much larger, so I am not sure it would work for us. Besides, it is still below 10 deg C outside and we have a heater inside.

After we were ready for the night I spent some time with Map Source and navi, trying to plan next two days. It turns out it is possible to enter position in the deg min sec format, but you have to change the format for whole program. Navi allows selection of the format just when entering the position. My guess is that's what happens when two programs using the same data and sold by the same publisher are written by separate teams, which don't exchange ideas to unify user interface.

Alta stone carvings (or the guy with the model glider):

Weather is interesting, but not necessarily cooperating:

 

[Borek]

Day fourteenth (July 15^th)

Cold and rainy in the morning, but later Norway showed that it can be beautiful - it stopped raining, clouds disappeared, sun started to shine and what we see is a completely different country. Today we passed 4000 km, with have an average a little bit over 300 km per day, higher than expected. Most of the time we were following E6, but at some point we tried a shortcut through the main land - and we hit the bulls eye, not only road was empty and curvy (so no boring driving) also views were simply incredible. Partially that's because that was exactly the moment the weather has changed. We stopped to take pictures in Bardu Bygdetun - kind of an open air museum, with several old Norwegian buildings. While we aim for Lofoten I wanted to see Narvik, and especially Rombaken fjord where Polish destroyer Grom sunk in 1940, so we had to go there and back, as it was not exactly on our way. Again we had problems stopping in the wild, and we stopped at the camping - but finally in the tent. There is no wind and place is stunningly beautiful, over a lake, with mountains around - and Sun that is not going to set down (although it will most likely hide behind the ridge during so called night). No internet access again.

Bardu Bydgetun:

Another picture from Bardu Bydgetun, this a typical barn in Norway and northern Sweden, with a ramp to the upper floor, modern ones are built the same way:

If you stop for a moment and you can't hear nor see a waterfall or two, you are no longer in Norway.

Picture taken in Rundhaug, while driving through the shortcut:

We can't see the Sun directly, but it is there - this picture has been taken several minutes past midnight:

 

[Borek]

Day fifteenth (July 16^th)

Yesterday Sun did hide, but not behind the ridge. Around 11 p.m. clouds came from over the Norwegian Sea. Initially there was just a thin line that covered the Sun, but it grew with each passing hour. When we woke up almost whole sky was covered, but it was still relatively warm and dry. Around noon it was already raining, and even if Lofoten are said to be beautiful, we had to believe those that told us about, as all we have seen was clouds, fog, and wet road. We did over 100 km without stopping even once to take pictures. The only moment we stopped was at Adolfkanonen in Trondenes - but even there we didn't see anything, as gun is in the military zone and there are guided tours three times a day - but not at the time we get there, and waiting sitting in the car in the rain was beyond our patience. Trondenes - through windows - looked like a nice place to take a walk and take some pictures, but not in the rain. But obviously what we were hit by was a moving front, with precipitation zone - and we were moving in the opposite directions. At some moment rain was already weaker, we got into the tunnel, and when we left the tunnel on the other side of the mountain, there was no precipitation at all, even tarmac was almost dry. That allowed us to take some pictures, hopefully we will be able to prove we have been to Lofoten. We passed Lofoten cathedral (click) and Viking museum (click) but visited neither. And it was getting better and better, when we finally came to Moskenes where we want to board the ferry to Bodø, it was almost sunny. Almost, as Moskenes is in a shadow of the mountain. We took some pictures today and hope for more tomorrow. But it seems we won't take the picture of midnight Sun again, even if we could see Norwegian coastline in full Sun from our camping. No internet again. Basic plan for tomorrow - ferry to main land, then go east, to Sweden.

Marzena's eye is swollen again - this time she was biten by something. We were both biten many times (strangely, I was biten mostly in the right leg, most likely by black flies on day eight or nine), but her reactions are much more severe.

Lofoten cathedral:

Just Lofoten, we stopped several times to take pictures. Unfortunately, in most places the best view required to take pictures in the direction of Sun, that never works.

 

[Borek]

Day sixteenth (July 17^th)

Finally we were at the right place and at the right time to have time to see something in a nice weather. Ferry to Bodø goes several times a day, and we hoped to leave Moskenes at 2 p.m. At first we went to Å and Hamnøy to take pictures, then got back to Moskenes, left the car in the line and went for a walk. All the time it was sunny and warm day, so we have finally managed to take pictures that may prove Lofoten are beautiful - unless they wont. You never know till you see the pictures on a good monitor.

Road at the end of E10 in Lofoten is so narrow, in many places there is a place for car going in one direction only. There are lots of wider places where cars going in opposite directions can pass each other, but you have to be vigilant all the time. There are at least two bridges with just one lane, however, they have automatic system that detects cars and displays either red or green light. In a way this is funny. When we approached the bridge for the first time I have seen from the distance light changing from the red to green, then back to red, when the car in front of me entered the bridge. Light was red so I slowed down preparing to stop, but system decided I can go and changed light to green again, even if there were already cars waiting on the other side.

Villages in Lofoten are full of wooden racks uses to dry cods - that's how they produce stockfish. Surprisingly, stockfish is dried just hanging, not even protected from the rain.

At 2 p.m. we boarded the ferry and went to Bodø, then drove east to Sweden. From our calculations it seems like 5 days in Norway were more expensive then the whole earlier trip.

We found a nice place for camping in the mountains just behind the Norwegian border - we were not very high (624 meters according to GPS) so night was chilly. But the place was pretty nice, with peaks around, and noisy streams.

Again, just Lofoten - Reine

These racks are empty:

But these are full of stockfish:

Anyone interested in details?

One car waits, the other one goes.

 

[Borek]

Day seventeenth (July 18^th)
(marked with weather mishaps and lack of internet)

Just because weather was nice when we went to sleep doesn't mean we can't be waken up by the rain. It wasn't raining heavily, but it turned out place where we put the tent was about half an inch lower than surroundings - hard to spot without a lot of water, but there was a lot of water in the morning, and we were shown the lowest place in the area without any doubt. The only immediate effect was that my shoes were completely wet, as I have left them lying on side when entering the tent (in hurry, to block mosquitoes), still it doesn't make your life easier when you are surrounded by the poodle. Fortunately around 10 a.m. rain stopped and we were able to pack, but without folding the fly sheet too tightly, as it wasn't completely dry. During packing Marzena lost her shoes to water, so we both were one pair of shoes down. After driving for perhaps ten kilometers we stopped to check something and it happened that at the place we stopped there was a starting point for several hiking trails. Sky was completely covered with clouds, but it was not raining, so we decided to try to use our legs for an hour or two, instead of the car. We were at about 700 meters above sea level, almost no trees, just some small bushes, and rugged terrain, something like 10 meters up, 10 meters down, and occasional patches of snow. After about twenty minutes we have heard a thunder - a distant one. But I wasn't even sure if it was a thunder, as the sky didn't look as during a storm. About a minute later there was a second one, also far from us, but I started to wonder if we should not get back. My doubts were cleared before next minute passed - the lightning struck below the 300 meters range. Scary. We turned back but before another minute passed it started to pour. Interestingly, there were no more thunders to be heard nor lightnings to be seen, just a heavy rain. Long before we got back to the car we were soaking wet, at least from the waists down, as - stupid as we are - we are not that stupid to start a walk under possibly rainy clouds without raincoats. In effect our hiking boots were completely wet - that means we were both two pairs of shoes down. There was a toilet (well, more like a latrine, but in a nice shack) at the parking place were we have left the car, and it was the driest place around, so we changed inside. While it wasn't very cold (around 10-12 deg C) I put heating on max, blower on max and directed the air to the legs, and Marzena was moving our wet pants, shoes, hats and so on from place to place and from side to side so that they could dry as fast as possible. It was like driving a finish sauna, but it worked.

Somewhere around that time we passed 5000 km and arctic circle, this time in the other direction. And as usual, after the wet morning weather started to get better and better, and later we even took some nice pictures in Arjeplog. We stopped at a small camping near Storuman - judging from the signs and pictures its an ideal place for everyone loving fish, mosquitoes and berries, but not for those loving internet. In the kitchen we have found several guestbooks (Gastboks), dated back to early eighties. Mostly things like "been here, been bited, catched a fish, nice place, we are going north/south, will be back" and so on, as usual in such places, but since late nineties there were a lot of entries written by Poles. Seems like this place is used by our fellow-countrymen - they came here to make some money collecting berries and hjortron (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubus_chamaemorus). Risky business, as a lot depends on the weather and local prices, but some were quite happy - and some were quite angry. Night is still bright but it is obvious that the Sun settled down below the horizon. Not a single cloud on the sky, so tomorrow morning I expect beginning of the flood.

Church in Arjeplog:

Part of the camping in Storuman: