9547 km later...

...its back home. It has been a wonderful trip and I enjoyed all of it, the camping, the great light in the north, the midnight sun, all (well almost all) of the 6000 miles we did and, looking back, even the cold rain and miserable weather we had on very few days added some charm to it, I don't want to miss.

We reached our goal


















Crossed that Arctic Circle a few times















Some of us did crazy things..


















We were always on the look for good roads















And guess what - we found them :)



We've met nice people, seen great things and all in all, had a nice little adventure. I think, what I enjoyed most up there was the loneliness of the roads and land. Driving through woods or tundra for miles without meeting a car is quite special for a guy coming from slightly overpopulated Switzerland.

oh, and if you would like to see some more pics, just go to http://www.schnydrig.ch/Nordkap there you'll find... some more.

Oh, and for those who were worried about my plants - they all survived, even the plastic bush ;)

As usual, as the end of the trip came closer, we started to think about where to go next.

French Alps maybe... some nice curve dancing on the bike.
Or the mediterranean islands of Sardinien and Korskika... always good food.
But then we've also heard that Rumenia could be nice.. a bit wild as well with bad, lonely roads...

Waiting for the ferry

So it's about time to leave Norway. A beautiful trip is coming to an end, all that is left now is to drive home. We'll take our time doing this and most likely avoid the highways (I hate the German highways with their lunatic high speed junkies), so it will take us about 4 days or so. I just hope, the weather is better on the mainland. Here in Norway, the drizzling rain found us again this morning as we were driving to the ferry.

this entry has been sponsored by McDonalds in Kristiansand :)

A rainy day

What a lousy, miserable weather. It started with drizzling rain in the morning and then got progressively worse. The rain even managed to find a way into my rain gear and soak my sweatshirt. Even worse, it somehow got into my bag and soaked my sleeping bag. It was so wet, my bike even got mossy, as the picture proves. I really hate these rainy days when you have to be on the bike all day. But at least it stopped raining now and maybe we are more lucky tomorrow. And sorry, no pretty pictures today, as our cameras are not waterproof ;)

We are heading home now and will probably take the ferry back to Denmark on Wednesday.

Back to Norway

Well, we finished our crossing of Sweden and passed the Arctic Circle twice, once in Sweden from South to North and then again a bit later in Norway from North back to South on the E6 with all the other tourists.
Not much to tell about today, so you get some pretty pictures from today instead.

Camping in Sweden

Today's camp ground is a bit special. I am actually not even sure, if it is a campground at all. On our way back to Norway, where we crossed the Arctic Circle two times (once going south, once again going north) we decided not to drive all the way Norway. We saw a little sign that announced a camp ground and left the road. When we saw a place with two trailers, we stopped and asked the man there how much it would be for a night. He looked a bit puzzled first and then told us he would charge 50 Kronen. He was even so kind to accept Norwegian money as we have no Swedish cash.
After we installed our tents, we realized that the place rather looks like a farm with guest houses. So it looks as if we would camp in the farmers freshly mowed field. But we don't complain at all, its a lovely place.

Friendly people these Swedish folks!

Finland

Finland... Take the biggest forest you can imagine. Then add some trees. More trees, much more trees. Then add some lakes and swamps. Swamps, where all the mosquitoes breed and happily grow up. Intelligent mosquitoes even, as they are clever enough to avoid the roads where they would be killed on the windscreens of the cars that drive through the forests. Instead they wait in the grass until tourists stop. And then it takes them about 3 minutes to locate you and gather for supper.
When you have all that, add some roads. Some of them with tarmac, some without. Not too many roads, just enough to connect the few villages and towns in the land. Got it? Well, that's Finland.
Oh, and when you want to tell your children, where Rudolf, the Reindeer is... He's here in Finland, visiting his family.

We were first a bit afraid to drive here, as we thought it would be very boring to drive for hours through the woods on endless roads. But actually, it is quite nice and doesn't look all the same all the time. But we just drive through it never the less. There are really too many mosquitoes to stay and camp more then one night.

From Russia with Love

Well, I admit, I am a bit disappointed. I definitely expected more. Something like a tall guy with fur cap, having his kalaschnikov machine gun strapped to his chest. And maybe a few tanks, barb wire and a few helicopters, yes helicopters would have been nice.
Or at least a black limousine with one or two guys wearing dark sun glasses inside who stare at us, only waiting for us to do one false move.

But the Russian border station looks pretty much like any other border station I've seen so far. Well, I guess cold war ended up here in the north as well.

At least the weather is a bit Siberian today, cold and a bit of rain all day. And the thermometer outside the cabin says it is -4 centigrade. But that one is probably as much
exaggerating as Toni's usually is. That one reported optimistic 16 degrees earlier today.