Blogs from Northern Norway, Norway, Europe - page 37

These were our last days in Lapland. We first visited Karajosk, which is Sami Norway's capital. Here you can find the Sami parliament, in the shape of a Sami tent. From there we drove to the beginning and end of our journey: Rovaniemi, the capital of Lapland. We visited the Santa Claus Village, where you can meet Father Christmas all year round. Rovaniemi has the most northerly McDonalds in the world, so we decided to taste some of the burgers over there ;-) The last thing we did was visiting the Arktikum. This complex contains both the Provincial museum of Lapland as the Artic Centre. From there we went to the airport.... read more

The next day we drove from Tromso -along the fjords- to Storslett and Gildetun. The day after we stopped in Alta when we were heading to Hammerfest. The rock carvings at Alta (a Unesco World Heritage site) are definitively a must-see. There you can see stone-age carvings estimated to date from 6000 to 2000 years ago. There are multiple themes to see: hunting, beers, reindeer, boats, fertility symbols,... The carvings are highlighted with red-ochre paint. At the nearby Alta museum, we saw an exhibition on Sami culture, the northern light and the military history of Finnmark. On the road to Hammerfest (and also in the city-center), we saw quite some reindeer. Hammerfest was the first city in Northern Europe with electrical streetlights. It is also known for a its undersea pipeline, transporting natural gas from the ... read more

The next three days we drove through the Lofoten Islands, the soul of Northern Norway. Henningsvaer, Nusfjord and Reine were some of the villages we visited. We stayed two nights in a typical rorbu cabin near Svolvaer. A rorbu is a kind of fishing hut, with the characteristic red color. The hut is entirely made of wood, which made them smell typically. Though you wouldn't expect it, the comfort-level was quite high. The Lofoten islands is wonderfull place to see. It impressed us a lot! A perfect mixture between mountains, fishing villages,... and stockfish. Stockfish is unsalted dried fish (mostly cod). You can see the fish on wooden racks (hjell) where dries by cold air and wind. On pictures the fish looked rather small, but in reality the fish were quite large. In the past several ... read more

Yet another ferry! They didn’t seem to run regularly. If you didn’t arrive just at the right time, you might be sitting for up to an hour. Finally, after 4 days above the Arctic Circle, the sun began to fight its way through the clouds as we approached the fjordlands again. ... read more

Lapland, Lofoten islands & The North Cape, overview trip In 2006 my pregnant wife and I travelled 12 days exploring Lapland, the Lofoten islands and the North Cape. Here you can see an overview of our trip: Day 1: Belgium - Rovaniemi Day 2: Rovaniemi - Kiruna Day 3: Kiruna - Narvik - Lofoten Day 4: Lofoten Day 5: Lofoten - Svolvaer - Vesteralen Day 6: Harstad - Tromso Day 7: Tromso - Gildetun Day 8: Hildetun - Hammerfest Day 9: Hammerfest - North Cape Day 10: Honningsvag - Saariselka Day 11: Saariselka - Rovaniemi Day 12: Back to Belgium... read more