Norway!

[deeaa]

Hey y all,

We're just back from a trip w/the wife...here's a bunch of photos from the trip if you're interested:

https://picasaweb.google.com/aepheikki/20110715Norja_2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCJiquqvJz8uc0QE

What we did is we drove thru Finland's Lapland to Norway and visited mainland Europe's northernmost place, Nordkapp, and drove back thru Hammerfest and Alta...almost 4000 kilometre drive :-) also popped in Sweden for a short while. Slept either at a cottage, the car trunk for 2 nights, or once in a hotel. Five nights in total.

Great sceneries...even better I have on video, I might post it to YouTube...almost an hour long though. I tried to narrate everything in English...but need to render it first etc. Normal camera was kinda secondary.

Sample pic:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/--4S39YqXwno/TiA138BlzOI/AAAAAAAAEEs/8tjJpBlThkk/s800/Norja_2011%252520079.JPG

[Eric]

That looks pretty sweet. My family went to Denmark, Sweden, and Norway back in '01 (sorry -- skipped Finland!), and Norway was easily the coolest scenery. We have relatives that we visited in Sweden, so I was kind of hoping that would be the highlight, but Norway was the star. Nice pictures.

[Tig]

Beautiful scenery! That must have been a nice trip.

Also, Norway attacks France and wins...
World Champion Norwegian Thor Hushovd wins today's stage 13 in Le Tour de France! What makes this special is this was a mountain stage, and sprinters like Thor usually fight just to finish within the time limit.

http://cdn2.media.cyclingnews.futurecdn.net//2011/07/15/2/000_dv999630thor_600.jpg

[deeaa]

There were some interesting sights. One was that once we drove the car as deep into the forest as we could (we slept in the back of the STW) and later I found there were old trenches there etc. and two russian orthodox crosses. Walking past them, we found a gravestone of unknown Russian soldiers. It had been a site of a battle in the war obviously.

[syo]

Very nice Dee. Norway's a beautiful place. Nice you can have such an adventure so close to home. It would be cool to see some of the video too.

[deeaa]

Here's the first part of the trip, on the way there:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuGRvIy346Q

[otaypanky]

Cool!

[syo]

I love road trips! Thanks Dee. Would love to see more of it.

It's fun to tag along and see some of the scenery. Your family cottage/land is fabulous. Beautiful place right by the lake. You're very fortunate to have it.

[deeaa]

Here's the Norway part of the video:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSvHcik0MnQ

[Spudman]

Speaking of Norway...two Norwegians are winning stages in this year's Tour of France. Boasson Hagen just won stage 17 by himself.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/54166000/jpg/_54166510_54166509.jpg

[deeaa]

Dunno if it's related, but I saw a LOT of cyclists there. A LOT of them. Both motor and pedal. Seemed to me to be borderline suicidal to drive bicycles on those very narrow roads; when a truck or a bus sometimes came the other way in a bend, there seemed to be hardly enough room for the cars even, let alone someone on a bike at the same spot. I saw dozens of bicyclists, and half a dozen of them drove those strange bikes where you basically lie on your back when driving. I thought it has to be hell to cycle as there were such climbs...long ones, like 3 miles of relentless, steady 11 degree climb before even a stretch of flat or downhill.

Loads and loads of bikers too, mostly Harleys etc...a very common roadside sign was like 'Mc special discount in our hotel' and 'free coffee for MC's' and such. I later heard that a couple of my buddies who have Harleys drive to Nordkapp basically every year, it's such a great ride and there's lots of fellow bikers.

[syo]

Great Dee! Thanks for sharing your continuing journey. Makes me really want to hit the road for awhile.

Last Friday, my wife and I stayed at a hotel on the top of a mountain about a 25 minute drive from our home. Drove up at 7:00 pm, had a great dinner, then drove home to put the birds and dog to bed and back to the hotel by midnight and back home at 10:30 the next morning. That is what constitutes a road trip for me nowadays. I think this is why I'm particularly enjoying yours!

[marnold]

Reminds me of the end of the "Norwegian Party Political Broadcast (http://arago4.tnw.utwente.nl/stonedead/tv-series/sketches/fc-40/norwegian-party-political-broadcast.html)" skit from Monty Python's "Golden Age of Ballooning" episode.


Highlights of that broadcast will be discussed later by Lord George-Brown, ex-Foreign Secretary, Mr Sven Olafson, the ex-Norwegian Minster of Finance, Sir Charles Ollendorff, ex-Chairman of the Norwegian Trades Council, Mr Hamish McLavell, the Mayor of Wick, the nearest large town to Norway, Mrs Betty Norday, whose name sounds remarkably like Norway, Mr Brian Waynor, whose name is an anagram of Norway, Mr and Mrs Ford, whose name sounds like Fjord, of which there are a lot in Norway, Ron and Christine Boslo . . .