Baltic Bound and Around!!

Appendix 4 - Bob's Photo Selection

2011-06-11T22:56:00.000+01:00

Below are a selection of photos that Bob has taken during the drive. I've tried to keep them in date order. My thanks go to him for taking the time to select them from all the photos he has taken.

Appendix 3 - Fishing Trip Honningsvag

2011-06-11T10:07:00.000+01:00

Several days ago I said I would post photos from Eric's, Kenny's, Bob's and Ahmad's fishing trip off the North Cape. Well here goes with a selection of their photos.

All kitted out and raring to go!

The obvious comes to mind here: Three Men in a Boat.

Bob and Kenny with their catches of cod or pollock, I don't know which.

Back on dry land.

Ahmad and his cod.

Not sure the wheelbarrow was necessary but at long last we have found a use for Bob!!!

Back in John the fisherman's house, where he showed the guys how to fillet the fish. It was then cooked by Kenny, with French fries and onions.

Appendix 2 - Eric & Lynn's photos

2011-06-11T04:26:00.000+01:00

Over the past few days, I have mentioned one or two things that Eric and Lynn have done. Here are three photos they have taken.

First, the Hill of Crosses in Lithuania. The hill is covered by thousands of crosses put up by Lithuanians.

Next, one of the animals in the wildlife sanctuary they came across in the wilds of Latvia. I'm not sure what the creature is. Any ideas?

Finally, a photo Lynn took of Eric driving his Discovery on one of the many gravel roads we have encountered, throwing up plenty of dust.

Appendix 1 - Bob's & Kenny's Photos

2011-06-11T02:09:00.000+01:00

Bob's photos first.

On the drive from Wesel to Berlin, Bob & Thelma went into the countryside and drove along some great narrow cobbled roads and came across this wonderful small ferry.

A good group photo of us all, minus Bob, in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

As we were walking around Berlin, I saw this Trabant centre but didn't take any photos. Luckily Bob did.

Finally from Bob, a beautiful photo of nesting storks at the top of a telegraph pole. Not sure if it is a chick's head just above the nest, or the mother sitting on eggs.

Now to Kenny's contribution! Couldn't resist posting these two.

The car being worked on to drain out all the petrol in the diesel tank. How about this photo? Are these Kenny's feet we can see??

London

2011-06-10T07:27:00.001+01:00

No sooner have we finished one drive, than I am setting up the blog for our next! In September of this year we are driving from St. John's Newfoundland to Savannah Georgia. The blog is now set up and has the uninspiring title, Newfoundland to Savannah, Georgia - Sept 2011.

The website is: www.newfoundlandtogeorgia.blogspot.com and can be accessed by clicking on the link at the right of the home page, in Adventure Drives.

Day 36 - Harwich to London - It's Over!!

2011-06-08T07:41:00.001+01:00

Now that we have reached our home here in London, the title words from the Roy Orbison song, 'It's Over', spring to mind.

We arrived at Harwich very early in the morning and at 5.30am we had the ship's alarm call to wake us up for disembarkation at 6.30am. Our first sight of England for five weeks through the large round porthole window of our cabin.

We left the cabin and took the lift down to the car deck.

We drove off the ferry back into England. A last look at our ferry, the Britannica.

With the UK not party to the Schengen Agreement, we had to line up and clear UK customs. Behind Kenny and Bob in the queue.

It was such a contrast to how easy and quick it has been to move from one European country to another on our Baltic drive.

Bob had arranged breakfast for us all at the Pier Hotel in Harwich. He had been to the restaurant there before with Jim and Helen, two friends of ours from our various adventure drives with HERO.

The eight of us sat down, overlooking the harbour, and talked about our tour. Many stories were recalled and laughed over.

So this really was the final parting, as we said goodbye to Kenny and DeeAnne, who will be staying with Bob & Thelma for the next few days, before they fly back to the States next Monday. Farewells also to Eric and Lynn who were driving back to near Bristol. The great thing is we will be meeting up with them all, plus also Ahmad and Reza, at DeeAnne's birthday party, which is being held in a West London pub on Friday evening. There will also be many of DeeAnne and Kenny's friends from their drives with HERO at the party. It will be a great opportunity to say hello again to friends we have not seen for a long time.

The drive back to London was easy, apart from missing the turn-off for London from the M25 to the A2, because the road layout has totally changed since I last drove along the M25. Then, in frustration at being held up by a broken-down truck on the slip road off the M25 for the A20, I took the wrong exit and turned off for Swanley!! I should have been using my navigator, Wendy, but I knew better!

We reached home at around 10am. We really have come to the end of a fantastic tour of thirteen European countries, including the UK. For those interested in some facts and statistics, here are the countries, in the order we drove through them from the beginning to the very end:

England
France
Belgium
The Netherlands
Germany
Poland
Lithuania
Latvia
Estonia
Finland
(Sweden) for 100 metres!
Finland
Norway
Denmark
Sweden
Denmark
Germany
The Netherlands
England

We have travelled a total distance of 5,933 miles. We have bought 1,140 litres of diesel, which has cost us 1,799 Euros, giving the Landcruiser an average fuel consumption of just under 24 mpg.

The five cars, and passengers, all made it. We had four major problems with the cars. First, there was the damage to Ahmad's Mercedes in the container from the US and then the fitting of a new intercooler in Berlin. Second, was Kenny filling his diesel car with petrol! Third, was Eric's Discovery's smashed window in Tallinn. Finally, Ahmad's Mercedes' fuel problem in Finland. Apart from these, we have had trouble-free motoring, which is pretty good when you realise the cars have travelled a total of just under 30,000 miles, which is 6,000 miles greater than the circumference of the Earth!!.

So, as usual to finish the blog - the thank you's.

First, to Bob & Thelma who have now been on all of our 'private' drives. What wonderful friends they are. They really do make the drives very special for Wendy and me.

Second, to Kenny and DeeAnne. This is their second drive with us and their never-ending laughter is a tonic to us all. We will both miss them when they head back to their home in El Paso, Texas.

Third, to Ahmad and Reza, who overcame such awful problems with their car, but never let it bother them one bit. I wish I could be as relaxed as they are! We will miss their after-dinner jokes which always rounded off an evening so well.

Next to Eric and Lynn - we want to say how pleased we are that they decided, more or less at the last minute, to join us. To have ten like-minded people together for five weeks, has been a real pleasure for Wendy and me. As I have said before, how lucky we are.

Finally, I must not forget those who joined us as passengers. First, there was our passenger, Peter, who was with Wendy and me from Helsinki to Tromso. His encyclopaedic knowledge of geographic and scientific facts added another dimension to the drive. Thank you, Peter. Next to Gos, Ali and Darvish, who travelled with Ahmad and Reza. First, they picked up Ali in Paris, then Gos in Eindhoven and finally Darvish in Helsinki. He had flown over from England for the side trip to St. Petersburg. Thanks guys, for making the drive go even better than I thought possible. It was such a shame none of our passengers could stay longer.

Now, we are in the final planning phase of our next drive, which starts in September of this year and goes from St. John's, Newfoundland to Savannah, Georgia. Bob & Thelma are joining us and hopefully, Kenny and DeeAnne might do so too. I haven't yet thought of an appropriate name for my next blog, but rest assured I'll come up with something. We leave the UK on September 7th and the drive starts on September 12th.

Day 35 - Hamburg to Hook of Holland

2011-06-07T16:22:00.001+01:00

Our last day of the drive and now we are down to four cars, as Ahmad and Reza left early this morning for their stop in Eindhoven tonight, while we take the ferry from the Hook of Holland to Harwich.

We left the hotel at about 11am for the drive of nearly 600 kms across northern Germany and into Holland. We had decided to take a slightly circuitous route so that we could drive along some of Holland's wonderful dykes. Wendy took this last look at the fountain in the lake opposite the hotel.

We left Hamburg on the autobahn heading for Bremen. What a disastrous choice that was! They are widening the road to six lanes and we had 75 kms of roadworks. Each section of work had both carriageways on one half of the autobahn, resulting in extremely narrow lanes and, when we watched cars overtaking trucks, we thought they would either hit each other or the edge of the central reservation. It was quite hair-raising!

We finally reached Bremen where the roadworks ended and then we turned north-west for the Dutch/German border. It was a good fast drive and we reached the border around 2pm. We left the autobahn and took to some minor roads that went through several Dutch towns. We saw this strange sculpture in the middle of a dual carriageway. It reminded me of the Atomium from the World Fair held in Brussels in the 1950s. We later discovered from a reader of this blog, that it is the CH4 (methane) molecule. The sculpture is within 100 metres of the site where natural gas was found in the Netherlands in 1959.

We saw more extraordinary modern architecture. How about living in this block of apartments?

Another example of original design.

The land in northern Holland is very flat with many canals and bridges. We came up to one bridge that was raised to let a boat through and as we waited, we saw this lovely group of horses in the fields near to us.

Driving past one of the canals, we saw this miniature windmill in a nearby field. We have seen several of these and think they may be for pumping water.

Some of the small bridges over the road were very graceful and interesting from a design point of view.

We reached the Afsluitdijk, or Barrier Dyke, at about 3pm. It is the most wonderful example of civil engineering on a gigantic scale. The dyke is over 30 kms long and carries a four-lane autobahn. We stopped and climbed up on to the dyke, from where we took these photos.

The sides of the dyke are paved with rough-cut stones that fit very well together.

After a few minutes, we continued on our drive along the dyke. At either end are two sets of large sluice gates and locks to allow water and ships to pass from the Ijsselmeer (formerly the Zuiderzee) to the North Sea.

In the middle of the dyke is a monument. We didn't stop to see who the statue represented, but I am sure we will find out when we 'Google' it later.

We later learned he was Cornelis Lely, a statesman and engineer who designed the Zuiderzee reclamation project.

The remainder of the drive to our meeting-point with the others, in the town of Delft, was through increasingly industrialised and built-up areas around Amsterdam. We drove along one very pleasant road with trees on either side and a canal close by, when we came across a commercial estate with some very interesting architecture. I don't think you will see many industrial buildings like these in the UK.

It was now about 4.30pm and the beginning of the rush hour. We hit one jam after another on the autobahns around The Hague, mainly caused by roadworks, but also by the sheer weight of traffic. We finally reached Delft at 5.30pm, after driving for over six hours. It had certainly felt like a long drive.

We found a multi-storey car park and, as we were getting ready to walk into the town, who should turn up but Eric and Lynn. We called Bob, who was stuck in the same jam we had been in near the Hague, and told him we would meet him and Thelma in the main square.

Wendy and I had been to Delft many years ago and remembered how beautiful it is. The canals and the buildings, especially in the main square, are quite something to see.

Bob and Thelma eventually arrived and we all had a very acceptable dinner, sitting outside in the main square.

The final 20 kms drive to the ferry was through an area of intensive market gardening. Acres of glass greenhouses were on either side of the road.

We checked in to the ferry at about 9pm. We boarded the boat and saw that Kenny and DeeAnne were already there. We settled into our cabin for the overnight sailing to Harwich.

With about 90 miles from Harwich to London tomorrow morning, we are virtually at the end of our Baltic tour and what a drive it has been! I'll do a final posting after we have unpacked our bags and returned to some sort of normality in London. I am not looking forward to the mountain of mail that is waiting for me, but I suppose that is a small price to pay when we have so much fun doing our Adventure Drives. Long may they continue!

Day 34 - Copenhagen to Hamburg, Germany

2011-06-06T09:25:00.001+01:00

Just two more days of driving to go!

We have both enjoyed our brief stay here in Copenhagen. I mentioned previously the unbelievable amount of rubbish strewn all over the streets that we saw as we arrived. We had no idea what had been going on. Everywhere we went in the centre of the city, there was litter and broken glass. Well, we found out from the hotel that there had been the annual five day alternative Street Party, Distortion, which had finished the night before we arrived. This event has grown out of all proportion and is attended by up to 100,000 people. Now the politicians are talking about limiting it, as it is having an effect on Copenhagen's tourist industry.

As we left the hotel, we saw the first street cleaners attempting to clear up the mess.

Our drive took us about 160 kms south of Copenhagen to catch the ferry that crosses the entrance to the Baltic Sea, taking us to the German state of Schleswig-Holstein.

Before we reached the ferry, we turned on to the side roads and went through some lovely farming country and into the small town of Vordinborg which had a ruined 12th century castle. We parked beneath the tower and walked up to the castle where we could see the remains of the walls.

There were some very pretty houses next to the castle.

The castle tower which had dozens of crows flying out of nests built inside it.

The ruined walls.

As we drove away, we went past this statue of a man, or was it a woman?

The road to the ferry went over several old iron bridges which were quite narrow.

Will I get used to the traffic in the UK after driving for most of the past five weeks on roads as empty as this?

When we reached the ferry and checked in, this Prius was parked alongside us. It was taking part in an electric car event going from Tallinn to Monte Carlo. Below is a photo of the event support coach. The driver of the Prius told me they had more cars joining in Germany and other countries along the route.

Boarding yet another ferry! I have lost count of how many ferries we have used on the drive.

Passengers sunning themselves as we crossed the Baltic, on our 45 minute journey.

As we approached the ferry terminal in Germany, we had our last views of the Baltic. We really have gone all the way round it!

A ferry was leaving the terminal for Denmark as we were about to dock.

Entering the state of Schleswig-Holstein, we were back in Germany again after nearly five weeks of driving.

The drive to Hamburg was an easy one along the autobahn and we arrived at our hotel just before 3pm.

The Hamburg Fairmont, where we were staying for one night.

Opposite the hotel is the giant fountain in the inner Alster Lake.

We decided to take the open bus tour of Hamburg. Fortunately for us, the bus stopped outside our hotel and we only had to wait five minutes for it to arrive.The hotel is near the main shopping area of Hamburg and this is the famous department store, Alsterhaus.

Our bus with, on the left, our German guide who spoke fluent English.

The town hall.

St. Michael's Lutheran Church.

The massive concrete statue of Otto von Bismarck, the German Chancellor at the beginning of the 20th century.

An interesting sign as we entered the district where the Beatles started performing in the early 1960's.

Hamburg has some amazing modern architecture. As the bus was going along, we attempted to take reasonable photos but at times we weren't very successful, as in this photo of the Philharmonic Concert Hall under construction.

Down by the port and in the old warehouse area.

Another modern building, this one an apartment block.

Is this the third 'London Eye' we have seen on the drive?

More modern architecture.

Then, when we were about two-thirds of the way round the tour, the heavens opened! The guide just managed to close the canvas roof in time. The rain was torrential and as you can see, the people sitting with us on top of the bus didn't have much of a view!

We got back to the hotel with the rain still pouring down, so much so that the downstairs restaurant in the hotel was flooded. We had arranged our 'Farewell Dinner' in the Grill Restaurant for 8pm. As we sat down, we could hear the pumps working away, pumping out the water from the restaurant below us!

I say 'Farewell Dinner' because tomorrow Ahmad and Reza leave us to stay with their relative, Gos, in Eindhoven, before driving back to Brighton. So, here we all are, for our last meal together. A great way to say goodbye, but we were very sad to think our drive around the Baltic is nearly over.

Tomorrow is the last day of driving on the continent. We are meeting in the evening for a meal in Delft, which is just a few kilometres from the Hook of Holland, where our ferry departs for Harwich at 10.15pm.
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Finally, we will see everyone again at DeeAnne's birthday party, next Friday evening in London. So, we will have a chance then to say our final farewells to all our wonderful friends. How lucky Wendy and I are!

Day 33 - Copenhagen

2011-06-05T06:32:00.001+01:00

We decided over breakfast to join Bob, Thelma, Eric and Lynn on an open-top bus tour of the city. Kenny and DeeAnne were undecided about staying in Copenhagen as they did not like the area surrounding our hotel. It was slightly sleazy and there had been a festival going on for a few days before we arrived and the streets were full of rubbish. We hoped it would be cleared away during the weekend, but this was not to be. We all set off, unsure of whether we would see Kenny and DeeAnne later in the day.

We boarded the bus in Town Hall Square and drove past several places of interest on our way to the waterfront and the Little Mermaid statue. This famous feature of Copenhagen was surrounded by tourists and we left the bus to take photos and have a closer look. She was smaller than we had expected but quite beautiful. We then decided to abandon the hop on/hop off bus and walk along the waterfront to the Amalienborg Palace, the royal family's winter residence. Nearby, we saw a large impressive statue of a female warrior with four oxen. It depicts the Geflon, a goddess who reputedly turned her four sons into oxen and ploughed up land in Sweden, hurling it into the sea. It became Zealand, the main island part of Denmark!

Here are the first of the photos we took on our tour.

Passing one of the palaces, we saw rows of soldiers' houses built in the 17th century.

The famous Copenhagen Mermaid, which I must say lived up to expectations. She is a very beautiful sculpture by Edvard Eriksen and erected in 1913.

Sights as we walked along the river. First, a bust of Princess Marie of Denmark.

Beautiful flower gardens with, in the background, the monument to Ivar Huitfeldt who fought in the Danish/Norwegian wars of the early 18th century..

Frederick IX, King of Denmark, who died in 1972.

The wonderful statue of the Boadicea-like Geflon, lashing her group of four oxen, above a fountain.

Wendy and Lynn in front of us as we saw the Opera House on its own island on the far side of the river.

A replica of Michelangelo's David standing outside one of the restored warehouses.

The courtyard of the Amalienborg Palace and, behind it, the Marble Church with its marvellous dome and interior.

We walked on to the colourful and very popular Nyhavn canal.

Our walk took us past many of the famous buildings and statues of Copenhagen, as well as some very pretty streets with their multi-coloured houses.

An interesting piece of modern sculpture on the pavement outside one of the grand buildings, Christiansborg Palace.

How about this for a spire? It is nearly 60 metres high and appeared to support the tails of four intertwined upturned crocodiles! We later discovered they were dragons and the building was the 17th century Old Stock Exchange.

The National Bank of Denmark.

The Royal Library.

From there, we crossed over a bridge to see the world-famous restaurant, Noma, where we had tried, unsuccessfully, to make a reservation.

We had lunch at a small cafe and then walked back to the hotel, stopping on the way to look at the statue of Hans Christian Andersen, outside the town hall.

We returned to the hotel, where we met up with the others for dinner, while Bob & Thelma went to eat at one of the restaurants in Nyhavn. We had a message to say that Kenny and DeeAnne had left a day early and would meet us in Hamburg, where we will all be tomorrow.

The day after that, we will drive to the Hook of Holland to catch the overnight ferry to Harwich.

Day 32 - Göteborg, Sweden to Copenhagen, Denmark

2011-06-04T06:42:00.001+01:00

Last night was our only night of the tour in Sweden. Today's drive took us down the west coast of Sweden to the town of Malmo and then across the Oresund Bridge into Denmark and our hotel in Copenhagen.

We left Göteborg after a short drive around the city in glorious sunny weather.

Using the satnav to guide us out of Göteborg, we were directed through the back streets and, at one point, we went through the campus of a technical college where we saw these strange statues of stilt walkers.

The road south, the E6, is a very good motorway and the speed limit of up to 120kph was a welcome relief after the restricted speeds of Norway! We drove for about 150 kms, then we turned off the motorway and went a short distance down to the beach at Tylosand, near the town of Halmstad. The road ran through farming country with lovely woods and avenues of trees.

Here is the second windmill we saw. This one was open to the public, but we did not stop.

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The Swedes were out on the beaches, sunbathing and swimming in the very blue warm water of the Kattegat.

At the beach I saw this trio of Land Rovers, all with yellow surfboards on top.

As we left the beach, we stopped at a small chapel called St. Olaf's. It was a delightful wooden chapel which dated back to the early 18th century and had been fully restored in the 1950's.

It had a very beautiful interior with painted ceilings.

The remainder of the drive to the Oresund Bridge was uneventful. We reached the bridge at about 2pm. It is a marvel of modern civil engineering and was opened in 1999 after taking over four years to build. The road consists of four lanes with two railway lines below. It is a bridge and tunnel combination, with the bridge being 7,845 metres and the tunnel 4,050 metres. It cost over $5.7 billion.

To the left of the bridge was this wind farm in the middle of the channel.

The sign as you enter Denmark, 5.3 kms from the Swedish end of the bridge.

Looking back at the bridge in my wing mirror before we went into the tunnel section.

We drove the final few kilometres into Copenhagen and arrived at our hotel at around 3pm.

Directly opposite us is a 'gentlemen's club' with a sign stating that it has been voted the best club in Copenhagen. We obviously couldn't have chosen a better place to stay!

We unloaded our bags and checked into the hotel. I parked the car in a nearby street, as there was no on-site parking, It's parked outside another of Copenhagen's many clubs, but at least there will be plenty of people going in and out of the club, which will deter any possible vandals or thieves. Well, that's my theory!

The hotel is located within easy walking distance of the famous Tivoli Gardens, a large amusement park with the usual giant rollercoasters. Wendy, DeeAnne and I spent about an hour in the gardens and then walked back to the hotel.

Wendy and DeeAnne admiring one of the flower displays.

In one of the ponds was a group of baby ducks. Here's a photo for the grandchildren.

Just before we left Tivoli, a boys' marching band went through the gardens. In the middle of the parade was a small coach pulled by horses. As we walked away, we heard them playing the theme music from Monty Python's Flying Circus!

In the evening, we went back to the gardens to see the illuminations. While we were there, Kenny took a ride on the rollercoaster. As it was dark we couldn't see if he was the oldest person on the ride, but I'm betting he was!!

We walked back to the hotel going through the main station, which had a lovely arched roof.

When we were back at the hotel, we met up with the others and had a drink while we discussed the problem of the e-coli outbreak in northern Germany. We are booked to stay in Hamburg for one night and we talked about the possibility of driving to Holland without stopping in Germany. The problem is the distance of nearly 750 kms, which is a long way to go in a day. Also, we had planned our End of Drive Dinner in Hamburg, as Ahmad and Reza will leave us then to stay with relatives in Eindhoven before driving back to the UK. We will have to make a decision tomorrow, as we need to give the hotel in Hamburg 24 hours notice, otherwise we will have to pay for the night.

Day 31 - Kristiansand, Norway to Göteborg, Sweden

2011-06-03T07:46:00.001+01:00

Our journey today involved two ferries and was the shortest day's driving of the whole tour, at just over 100kms.

We left Norway, taking the 8am ferry to Hirtshals, Denmark, our twelfth country of the tour, albeit very briefly, before we took our second ferry to Göteborg in Sweden. Hirtshals is on the northern coast of the Jutland Peninsular. Jutland is famous for the largest naval battle in history that took place off its western coast on May 31st 1916 in the First World War. It was between the Royal Navy and the German Imperial Fleet. Both sides claimed victory and, although the British lost more ships and twice as many sailors as the Germans, the Germans failed to destroy the Royal Navy as a fighting force.

Leaving Norway.

The journey took just over three hours and when we were about an hour away from Denmark, the Seacat of Stenaline overtook us.

We arrived at Hirsthals in Denmark at 11.30am. Here we are driving down the ramp from the ship into Denmark.

We had just over two hours before our next ferry, the 2pm sailing from Frederikshavn, which is on the eastern side of Jutland, about 50kms away from Hirtshals. We decided to take the 'scenic' route, which took us along the northern shoreline and then headed for Skagen at the very tip of Jutland. It was a lovely drive across flat country. with sand dunes between the road and the sea.

Alongside the road were row after row of beautiful wild flowers

One of the many typical Danish houses we saw, painted in yellow with a red tile roof.

The straight road to Skagen.

We reached Skagen and only had time for a brief stop at the sea and then a quick drive through the town, before heading due south for the 40km drive to the ferry.

At Skagen's waterfront.

We caught sight of this windmill, the only one we saw today in our drive through Denmark. It was just visible, in the distance, above the roofs of the houses of Skagen.

It seemed every single house in Skagen was yellow!

The drive to the ferry was uneventful, except for the fact that I think I got 'flashed' by a speed camera. The Danish have this strange way of marking their speed limits. As you leave a 60kph zone going to an 80kph zone, you have a sign with the 60 crossed out. Unfortunately for me, they use the same 60 crossed out sign when you go from 60kph to 50kph in a town. They do not appear to have a 50km sign. Within a couple of hundred metres, the speed camera flashed. Let's hope that, as I am from the UK, nothing will happen.

We boarded the ferry for the three hour journey to Sweden. The weather was absolutely perfect and the sea beautifully calm. We could all enjoy the sunshine on the outside decks. The arrival into Goteborg is a wonderful sail up a wide estuary. We saw this huge flotilla of small yachts racing around marker buoys. There must have been a couple of hundred yachts of different sizes.

As we approached the ferry terminal, we went past what looked like an old fort in the middle of the estuary.

We came up to a suspension bridge and assumed we would berth before it - incorrectly, as it turned out!
I estimated we had only about six feet clearance between the top of the funnel and the underside of the bridge.

Some views of Göteborg as we approached the terminal.

Göteborg's equivalent of the London Eye.

We quickly disembarked and drove the couple of kilometres to our hotel, The Elite Plaza.

Bob's car parked outside the hotel with one of the city's blue trams passing.

In the evening, we went to a local Mexican restaurant where we ate outside. It was a great meal and a perfect way to end the day with everyone enjoying themselves. I took a few photos with my iPhone but, for reasons beyond me, I cannot rotate the photos to show them on the blog. I'll have another go tomorrow and, with a bit of luck, you will see how the group spent the evening!!

Day 30 - Stavanger to Kristiansand

2011-06-02T05:41:00.001+01:00

We woke to heavy skies and a fine rain. Before we left for our drive to Leif & Siri's summer house, Wendy took this photo of the oystercatcher's single egg in its 'nest' amongst the flowers. I have put 'nest' in inverted commas, because there is no nest in the normal sense of the word, as the bird lays its eggs directly on to the stones.

We took the main road south but, after a few miles of quite heavy traffic, we turned off on to side roads running through sheep-farming country. At one point, following a lone car, we climbed up over some hills and a thick mist descended.

It was a lovely drive through a landscape very reminiscent of Dartmoor.

As we came to the sea, the weather improved and we drove along a very rocky shore.

The road wound its way along the coast and then rose up into the mountains which were truly impressive. You could see how the glaciers from the Ice Ages had eroded the rocks so that they were no longer sharp-edged but smoothly rounded boulders.

We reached our first destination, the Helleren at Jossingfjord, at about noon. We looked down into the fjord from high above as the road dropped to the sea in a series of sharp hairpin bends.

The name Helleren comes from the Norwegian word 'heller' describing an overhanging rock. The buildings were from the early 18th century and had the intriguing feature that the roof did not need tiling as the overhanging rock protected the houses from rain.

As we were at the houses, Bob and Thelma arrived. They had taken the coastal route all the way from Stavanger. They left after a few minutes, but we climbed up to have a closer look at the cottages and to go inside. We then continued on our route south through great countryside.

We heard from Ahmad that he was waiting at the junction of the E39 and the minor road that led to Leif's house. Fifteen minutes later, we saw them and they followed us through narrow winding lanes to the very end of the road and the idyllic spot where the summer house is located. How's this for a place to spend your summer?

We arrived a few minutes after Leif had taken Eric and Kenny out in his boat to do some fishing. So while we waited for them to return, we relaxed in the sunshine down at the boat house.

The girls soaking up the sun.

Leif, Eric and Kenny returned but without any fish! Apparently, the mackerel weren't interested in being caught.

Leif then took everyone by boat on a fantastic tour of the coastal region, which included going past the lighthouse at the southernmost point of Norway. We also saw the oldest lighthouse in the world, dating from the early 17th century, and some beautiful communities situated in small coves.

The oldest lighthouse in the world, dating from the 17th century.

Leif's daughter's house on the waterfront.

We returned to the house where Siri had prepared a wonderful lunch for us all to eat in the boat house by the water's edge. It was a marvellous way to end our stay with them. How can we ever repay them for their kindness?

We parted after taking a photo of our hosts and then one of the whole group.

We left their house at about 5pm and drove the remaining 80kms to Kristiansand, from where we will take the ferry tomorrow to Denmark.

We checked into our hotel, another one of the Norwegian Thon hotels chain.

Our room was not much bigger than a prison cell, but it was only for one night and the bed was very comfortable. We went out for a walk down to the harbourfront where we saw the mega-yacht Ice with this helicopter on the stern.

We Googled it later to learn it is owned by a Russian oligarch, Suleiman Kerimov. The boat is just under 300ft long and is one of the top ten biggest private yachts in the world.

We watched it sail out of the harbour.

Then, we saw the Seacat of Stenaline arriving from Goteborg.

We walked up from the port to a tapas bar in the centre of the town. It was a lovely meal and when we left, we met up with Kenny and some of the others in the main square.

Kenny and a black marble statue, with DeeAnne and Thelma on the right.

We really liked the town and took a few photos on our way back to the hotel.

We have been in Norway for two weeks and have driven from the most northerly point, North Cape, to the most southerly. It has been an amazing experience which none of us will forget.

I looked at the car's odometer as we filled up with diesel near our hotel and the odometer read exactly 5,000 miles. That seems a fitting way to end our stay in Norway.

Day 29 - Wednesday June 1st - Stavanger

2011-06-01T07:09:00.000+01:00

Our rest day here in Stavanger has been spent walking the streets of the old parts of the city and then being driven by Leif and Siri around some of the local areas.

We set off in two cars with Leif driving Bob and me and Siri taking Wendy and Thelma. Their house is a few kilometres south of the city and it took us about a quarter of an hour to reach the centre. The weather was overcast but fortunately dry. We called in to see the others at their hotel on the waterfront and Kenny and DeeAnne showed us their suite they had just moved into, at the top of the hotel. It was in an original wooden house and, within the roof beams, there was this large caged 'wheel' that was used to haul up goods manually from the quayside into the building. There were lots of jokes about how DeeAnne would put Kenny inside it, as a punishment for the route he had taken yesterday!

We all walked along the harbourfront towards the old town, Gamle Stavanger. As I looked down into the water, I saw this large jellyfish swimming slowly along.

The harbour with yet another enormous cruise liner.

The white wooden houses, with their wonderful small gardens, reminiscent of the garden exhibits of Chelsea Flower Show, are magnificent. The houses, gardens and narrow streets make for a perfect photo scene. Here are a few that we took.

Wendy and DeeAnne.

Bob and Kenny.

Some of the lovely pots of flowers.

The 'Chelsea Flower Show' in Stavanger!

These two silver stag candelabra caught my eye.

There was this statue of an elderly man and two small ponies. He was a local man who became a celebrity by collecting waste food and feeding it to animals and giving rides to children on his ponies.

Next, we went to Stavanger's 12th century cathedral.

Beautiful stained glass windows behind the altar.

The cathedral had this magnificent painting with very intricate wooden carvings surrounding it. I particularly liked this sleeping 'priest'.

Leif and Siri then took us to the Oil Museum, which gave a really interesting insight into the development of the Norwegian oil industry. Oil and gas was first discovered in the North Sea in the early sixties. Since then Norway has become a major oil producer and, unlike Britain which has spent its oil money, Norway has invested most of its oil revenue, resulting in Norway having one of the strongest economies in the world.

We had lunch at the museum and then Leif took us on a driving tour around the area outside Stavanger. Unfortunately, the weather had taken a turn for the worse and, because of the rain, I couldn't take any photos from the car. We went through some of the large oil supply depots, where thousands of enormous pipes were being stored ready to be taken out to the oil fields. We saw a couple of large supply ships that go between Stavanger and the oil rigs. On our way back to the house, we were shown Bronze Age carvings, made between 1800-500BC, in rocks near Sola. We also saw the site where a united Norway was founded, overseen by Erling Skjalgsson, a political leader in the late 10th and early 11th centuries.

In the evening, we met the others at Allegro, an Italian restaurant in the centre of the city. We had a wonderful meal to end the day.

Tomorrow we leave Stavanger, but not Leif and Siri, because we are all driving to their summer house to spend the afternoon fishing for mackerel. Their house is at the very southern tip of Norway, about three hours from Stavanger. It is not far from our overnight stop at Kristiansand, from where we will catch the ferry to Denmark. Our stay in Norway is nearly over, after two weeks of travelling in this wonderful country.

Day 28 - Bergen to Stavanger

2011-05-31T07:20:00.001+01:00

Everyone agreed that they would love to come back again to Bergen and that one night here was nowhere near long enough to see and enjoy this beautiful city. I have to add that the location of our hotel and the view from our fourth floor window really was 'the icing on the cake'!

Both Wendy and I love views of water, especially those which have plenty of activity going on. You couldn't beat Bergen on that score!! There are boats going back and forth continuously, taking tourists to see the maritime sights of the city. We had one that docked close to the hotel that was going to the aquarium.

I defy anyone to get bored with this view of Bergen, so I make no apology for posting another photo of the wonderful harbourfront scene with the houses rising above the city on the very green mountains surrounding Bergen.

Wendy and I went on a high-speed walking tour, as we had to leave by 12 noon for the drive down to Stavanger where Bob, Thelma, Wendy and I are staying with our friends, Leif & Siri. The others are booked into a Stavanger city centre hotel.

Within a couple of hundred yards, we went past the law courts with their four gaunt stone statues...

.. and below, this plaque in Norwegian, I think giving their names. Perhaps readers of this blog who can read Norwegian can enlighten me? To enlarge the photo, double click on it. To return to the blog, click the browser back button.

We then went past the statue to the seamen of Bergen which was erected in 1950.

Our walk took us through the Bryggen, the old quarter which is a World Heritage site. The buildings are crammed together with narrow passageways. The place was crowded with cruise liner passengers and I wondered what it would be like in high summer, when there are literally tens of thousands of tourists visiting.

The World Heritage visitor centre, housed in one of the small wooden buildings.

One of the very old stone-built houses.

We then went to see the cathedral. It has a very plain white interior, but what made the visit special for us was an organist practising on the cathedral organ. The sound filled the cathedral and we just stood there enjoying the music.

A few photos of the beautiful streets and houses of Bergen, finishing with a photo of a stall at the fishmarket by the waterfront, displaying lobster, crab and fish.

The line of people waiting to board the funicular railway. What a contrast to yesterday, when we were virtually the only people to board the train!

The fish stall.

The three magnificent wooden guildhouses.

We returned to the hotel, loaded our bags into the car and left Bergen at noon. We had two ferries to catch, the first about half an hour south of the city. We met up with Eric, Bob and Kenny all waiting to board the ferry. Ahmad had caught an earlier sailing.

When Kenny came onboard, we saw his new woollen hat he had bought in Bergen, We could see he was really entering into the spirit of travelling through Viking territory!

The ferry crossing took about thirty minutes and we then took a side road to avoid the quite heavy traffic on the E39, which took us close to the sea and through lovely wooded hills. Further on, we reached a series of long tunnels and great bridges. I love the beautiful curves of the bridges and roads. They make great photos.

This suspension bridge had a short section of tunnel on the road leading to it - a great combination in one photo.

After one more ferry, we reached the outskirts of Stavanger. Unless we have a ferry on our drive from Stavanger to Kristiansand, our last town in Norway, I think this is our last experience of Norwegian ferries. The speed with which they load and unload hundreds of cars and trucks is incredible. So here, for maybe the last time, are a few photos taken of our ferry crossing.

Me enjoying the sunshine and the ferry crossing in the opposite direction.

We drove the final 25 kms to reach Leif and Siri's house just outside Stavanger and what a house it is! It is situated on the shores of Hafrsfjorden, facing west across the water, with islands in the distance. It reminded us of my cousin Basil's house in Canada. The views from the panoramic windows in the living room are incredible.

We made contact with the others in their hotel and arranged for them to get a taxi over to the house where Siri and Leif were putting on a dinner for us all. What great hosts!! Unfortunately, Kenny and DeeAnne had decided to take a 'special Kenny' route, which resulted in them reaching a ferry crossing where the next ferry wasn't arriving for two hours. This meant they had to turn round and rejoin the main highway, resulting in three hours being added to their journey. To compound their problems, when they finally arrived at the hotel, they found they did not have a reservation! The hotel was full, so they had to find another one in Stavanger. So, when they did arrive at the house, everyone was very relieved that we were all together to enjoy a fabulous evening with a delicious dinner cooked by Siri.

Kenny and DeeAnne, being greeted by Leif and me.

After the meal, we took a group photo, with Leif on the far left and Siri standing at the back, next to Ahmad.

Bob, Wendy and Lynn enjoying a joke.

With the sun setting behind the islands, this photo summed up for me the ending of yet another wonderful day on this Baltic drive.

Day 27 - Stryn to Bergen

2011-05-30T07:17:00.001+01:00

Before I post on today's drive to Bergen, I must report on the meal we had last night in Stryn. We walked into the town to find a restaurant and the whole place was like a ghost town! We saw only three places to eat. The first was a cafe in a bowling alley, the second restaurant was empty and looked very uninviting and the third looked like a takeaway pizza place. Still, it was open and we were told they did in fact have an eat-in menu. I must say I feared the worst when we ordered, but the meal was not only very good but, most importantly, the cheapest we have had in Norway!!

Today we awoke to cloudy skies and showers. Our drive took us along the fjord next to Stryn and almost at once, we stopped to take photos. We can't get enough of this beautiful scenery, even when the sky is overcast with dark rain clouds.

Not long after, we passed the National Geographic Explorer, an expedition cruise ship that we saw in Ushuaia, when we did our Antarctic trip in 2008.

The road was quite narrow and wound round the fjord, close to the shore. The road was being upgraded and we were stopped at roadworks, while a truck was being loaded with rocks that had been blasted out from the mountainside.

When we drove on, we came up to the construction site for the entrance to a new tunnel. I liked the arch of wooden shuttering for the concrete lining of the tunnel entrance.

As we climbed away from the fjord, the sun came out and there was this wonderful rainbow.

We each had decided to take different routes today but, with only two possible ferry routes across Sognefjord, it was not a surprise to come up behind Eric & Lynn waiting at roadworks just before the ferry.

We were held up for about twenty minutes and had to make a dash to catch the ferry, which we did with five minutes to spare. We boarded it and for the first time since Eric fitted his 'temporary' perspex window, I took a photo of his finished handiwork. What a good job he did!

Once we had crossed the fjord, we had about 100kms of great driving on the E39 highway to Bergen. We had very little traffic and whenever we came up behind a truck or a car, we could get past very easily. How different this is from driving in England!!

The road had one tunnel after another. The Norwegians are masters of tunnel building and you can only be impressed by their great civil engineering. Many of the tunnels are over 4 kms in length, with the longest we drove through measuring nearly 7 kms. Their bridges are also most impressive and here we are, following Eric into Bergen, going over yet another beautiful suspension bridge.

The next bridge had a gigantic white painted steel ramp that raised the road up towards the suspended section of the bridge.

We reached Bergen at about 4pm and checked into our hotel, the Clarion Hotel Admiral, which is on the waterfront right in the centre of the city. The views from our fourth floor window are fantastic. What a shame we are only here one night!!

Directly opposite from our room is this row of old wooden houses that often feature in travel books and articles about Bergen .

We decided to take the funicular railway to the top of the mountain. The station was only about five minutes walk from the hotel and as we made our way there, we were busy taking photos of this beautiful city.

We reached the station and took the five minute ride to the top, where the views over the city are incredible. The centre of Bergen is quite compact so one photo can show you more or less everything. Here are a few photos, including one of the Hurtigruten boat, MS Trollfjord, that brought us from Svolvaer to Trondheim and then carried on to Bergen, which is the southern end of the Hurtigruten coastal route.

The harbour basin with, in the middle of the waterfront, our red-bricked hotel.

Bergen's old fort, the Bergenhus Fortress, towards the centre right of this photo. Apparently, the walls and buildings were severely damaged during the Second World War, by an exploding Dutch armaments ship, the Voorbode. This reminded me of the Halifax, Nova Scotia disaster in 1918. Bergen was the centre of Norwegian resistance in the war.

The Hurtigruten MS Trollfjord docked in the harbour.

We spent about an hour at the top, including having coffee and cakes in the restaurant, before descending to the city centre and our hotel.

In the evening, we went to an excellent tapas bar with Eric and Lynn while the others went for a fish meal. Unfortunately for them, the service was so bad they left the restaurant. Kenny and DeeAnne then went to an Indian restaurant while Bob, Thelma, Ahmad and Reza found another seafood place.

More sightseeing in the morning and then we leave at around noon for the five hour drive, which includes two more ferries, to Stavanger.

Day 26 - Trondheim to Stryn

2011-05-29T08:13:00.001+01:00

The ferry docked in Trondheim at 6.30am. It was raining and pretty bleak as I went on the top deck to take some photos of Trondheim as we arrived in the port.

We had an early breakfast and I then went down to the car deck to drive the car off the ship. I picked Wendy up from the passenger gangway and we drove into the centre of the city. Being Sunday, it was very empty and we spent about half an hour driving around looking at the main sights.

Here is a selection of photos Wendy took.

The very old Nidaros cathedral where the Norwegian monarchs are crowned.

The central square with its statue of Olav Tryggvason, the founder of Trondheim.

We then left the city, driving due south and then west for about an hour and a half, The weather improved dramatically as we left Trondheim and within a short time it was sunny. Our planned route involved us taking three short ferry crossings and we had intended catching the first ferry at 11am. The drive was so much quicker than we expected, as the roads were virtually empty and also very good, that we thought we could catch the earlier 10am ferry. We drove through lovely countryside with the occasional snow-capped mountain.

Unfortunately, owing to a silly error on my part of driving the wrong way at a junction, which cost us five minutes, we arrived at the ferry to see the 10am sailing leaving the terminal. Onboard, as we learned later, were both Ahmad and Eric. They apparently saw us drive down the road to the ferry as it pulled out!

We had an hour's wait at the terminal and not long after we had arrived, Bob and Thelma turned up. They brewed some tea as we waited for the ferry to return. It was a short journey and we were soon on our way to see the famous Atlantic Road. At one point, Bob and Thelma took a suspension bridge across a fjord near to the Atlantic Road, whilst we went through yet another amazing tunnel. This one was 6.7 kilometres long and went down over 230 metres!

We reached the start of the Atlantic Road, which runs only for about 5kms, linking small islands. As we drove along it, who should be coming the other way but Bob & Thelma! The Road has to be one of the most over-hyped 'attractions' I have ever seen. It was a huge disappointment and, apart from one rather impressive curving bridge, it was like many other coastal roads we have driven along. Here are a few photos.

After the disappointment of the Atlantic Road, we drove across Averoy to the town of Molde to catch our second ferry of the day. Once again we were out of luck! We arrived with 15 minutes to spare. There was a long line of cars plus one or two trucks waiting to board the ferry. They started loading and then, when we were eight cars from the front of the line, the loading stopped. A man came along and explained that, as one of the trucks they had loaded was a petrol tanker, Norwegian law stated that no more than 40 cars could be loaded with it. So, the ferry left without us, virtually empty!

We waited a further half an hour before the next ferry came and we crossed to the mainland. As we left Molde, we went past the Akers Stadium and this very modern glass-fronted building, that looked like a sail..

Once across the fjord, we had a wonderful drive to our final ferry. The road ran alongside a magnificent fjord, with incredible views of the water far below us and the mountains rising vertically.

We reached the next ferry with plenty of time to spare. We waited in beautiful sunshine for the boat to arrive and watched a collection of classic cars offload and drive past us.

The last part of the drive was a mixture of sunny skies and then showers. The mountain and fjord scenery was magnificent. Here we were driving uphill towards the mountain wall at the head of the valley. It can't get much better than this!

Further on we had another magnificent view of a fjord.

As we crossed the mountains, we were faced with darkening skies and then quite heavy squally showers. I liked this photo that Wendy took of the clouds and the mountains.

We reached our hotel at around 6pm but, without the delays at the ferries, we could have arrived two hours earlier!

We are getting rather blasé about this incredibly beautiful scenery and I apologise for repeating the same descriptions as well as posting more photos of fjords and mountains!

Finally, a story of how the efficiency of the Norwegian ferries caused Ahmad a big headache, but resulted in a wonderful unexpected bonus for him and Reza. Ahmad and I had discussed the ferries we would be taking on the road from Trondheim to Stryn, so he knew he needed to be at Molde at a time to coincide with the ferry sailings. Unfortunately, we did not realise when we were looking at the sailings from Molde, that there were two different ferry routes. So, when Ahmad arrived, he saw a ferry about to leave and raced straight onboard. The ability to board a ferry without needing to buy a ticket beforehand, definitely speeds up the loading time, but this time it created a big surprise for him.

As Ahmad was paying, he asked where the ferry was going to and was told it was heading across the fjord to a totally different place from where he wanted to go! He then found out it was possible to take a different, but longer, route to Stryn. The road took them up into one of the glacier regions of Norway. They drove along roads where the snow was piled high and through ski areas that were still operating. He and Reza both said it was a 'drive of a lifetime'. We learned later that Bob and Thelma had driven the same road, but had reached it by taking a tunnel rather than a ferry from Molde.

We have one night here in Stryn and then we head to Bergen about 250kms south of here. For those interested in facts, we have now driven over 7,500 kms.

Day 25 - Svolvaer to Trondheim on Hurtigruten

2011-05-28T17:59:00.002+01:00

Because of the lack of an internet connection on the ferry we have just taken from Svolvaer to Trondheim, I have a bit of catching up to do.

Firstly, here are three more photos that Wendy and I took just before we left Svolvaer on the Hurtigruten ferry.

Here is Kenny fishing off the landing platform at the hotel and the 'giant' cod he caught. There were a lot of jokes about it being smaller and limper than Bob's, from the previous evening!

Secondly, our great waitress at the Rica Hotel Svolvaer, Camilla, who had the most wonderful sense of humour and kept on smiling even when we were giving her a hard time ordering our meal!

Finally, our boat, the Trollfjord, entering Svolvaer harbour.

We boarded the boat at about 7pm. It took ages to load the cars on to the ferry as each car was loaded individually. It most certainly was not a roll-on/roll-off ferry!

We pulled out of Svolvaer harbour right on schedule. We then heard that Reza and Ahmad had upgraded their cabin to a suite. When we saw their room, it provoked a few mutterings about 'how the other half lives'!!

We had boarded just in time for the second dinner sitting. The food was much better than I had expected, though the wines cost the normal Norwegian price of around £50 a bottle. It will be great to get back to the prices we pay for alcohol in the UK, and I always thought they were expensive - no more!!!

As we sailed down the south side of the island, we had some lovely views in the late evening.

The boat's first stop was at Stamsund, a small town near the end of the Lofoten Islands and a place we had bypassed on our way through the islands to A. During the night, we called into Bodo and Ones.

We both had a reasonable night's sleep and, apart from the noise of the engines, there was nothing to disturb us as the sea was as calm as a millpond. We met up with the others for breakfast and then spent the morning enjoying the scenery as further stops were made at Nesna, Sandnessjoen and Bronnoysund. You had the opportunity to get off the boat at each stop while it was being unloaded and loaded with cargo. I stayed onboard, but Wendy took a walk through Sandnessjoen.

One highlight was when we crossed the Arctic Circle at 66 degrees North. There is a globe placed on a small island to mark the line.

As we crossed the Circle, I took this shot of my Garmin showing the latitude.

I couldn't understand why it was 1 degree further south than I thought it should be. Later, when we were on the bridge, I asked the navigation officer about this and he explained that the Arctic Circle is moving south each year, and will continue to do this for many years to come. It will then reverse and move back north. You learn something new every day!

The crew laid on cod liver oil and cloudberry wine. You needed the cloudberry wine to take away the taste of the cod liver oil! The oil was served on a stainless steel spoon engraved by Hurtigruten to celebrate crossing the Arctic Circle.

After being north of the Arctic Circle for nine days, I'll be sad to leave. The light nights and the wide open spaces have been a wonderful experience.

The boat is a very large ferry, in fact the largest I have been on. To give a sense of its size, Wendy took this photo looking down into the central atrium, with its glass elevators.

The cabin corridor leading to our cabin and yes, that is me coming towards the camera.

On the upper deck are two hot tubs, one of which Kenny used last night at midnight. Perhaps that explains the happy look on his face as he smokes one of his giant Cuban cigars.

Kenny and me talking about our different cameras.

Approaching Bronnoysund and the bridge crossing the fjord In the background.

Docking at Bronnoysund.

I've spent some of the time today planning tomorrow's drive south from Trondheim, where the ferry docks. We have three ferries to catch along the route and, making sure we don't arrive just after a ferry has departed, is quite important, as we have another 500kms to go before we get to our hotel in Stryn.

This afternoon we visited the bridge of the Trollfjord. It cost us 80kr each and I wondered if it would be worth it. In the event it was. The Captain explained a lot about the ship and how it was steered. It was interesting to learn about the ship's propellers that can be rotated through 360 degrees, giving the ship great manoeuverability . We ended the tour receiving certificates of the visit from the Captain and then having a Captain's cocktail.

Our captain.

Two shots of famous Norwegian island mountains. Their names escape me at the moment! The second mountain has a cave which goes right through it and you can see the sky beyond.

Late in the afternoon the sun came out and I took this photo of the sea and islands lit up by the sunlight.

We have just heard that the ship is putting on a live showing of the Champions League final between Manchester United and Barcelona, in the conference centre. As Manchester knocked out Chelsea in the semi-finals, I think I'll cheer for Barcelona!

Before our evening meal, Reza and Ahmad hosted drinks in their suite, which had the curious name of 'Optimist'. It gave us an opportunity to take this group photo, with, from left to right: Bob, Lynn, Reza, Thelma (seated), Ahmad, Wendy, DeeAnne, me, Eric and Kenny.

We then had our evening meal and finished in time to watch the second half of the Barcelona v Manchester United match and, I am delighted to say, the best side won!

An early start tomorrow for our drive to Stryn, via the famous Atlantic Road. I just hope it lives up to all the hype of its being one of the great roads in the world.

Day 24 - Svolvaer

2011-05-27T16:18:00.001+01:00

I'm doing a quick posting before we board the Hurtigruten ferry this evening for the sailing down to Trondheim, where we arrive at 6am on Sunday morning.

The others have told me that, on the ferry sailing they did from Honningsvag to Tromso, there was limited internet access, so this may well be the last posting I am able to do until Sunday evening when, with a bit of luck, we should arrive in the small Norwegian town of Stryn.

The weather here has changed for the good and it is beautifully sunny. What a change from the past week or so, when we have had more or less continuous cloud and intermittent rain. Svolvaer and the surrounding countryside look so much better in the sun!

We decided to join Bob & Thelma on a visit to the Museum of Lofoten and the aquarium at Storvagan. The museum consists of old fishermen's houses (rorbuer), a main house, boat houses and workshops. Everything has been wonderfully restored and the museum gave us a very good insight into the lives of the Lofoten islanders in the 19th century.

The main building, a white painted wooden house, has a beautifully restored interior.

The machine shop with a multitude of ancient engines and tools.

On the left, one of the Rorbuer and, next to it, a boat house. Below, one of the restored 19th century boats.

The interior of one of the Rorbuer. The fishermen lived in very cramped sleeping quarters, where between eight and twelve slept two to a bed.

The aquarium and one of the seals in the outside tank.

With the sun shining, the surrounding mountains looked magnificent.

We drove back to our hotel to complete our packing and went into the town to have lunch at one of the harbour bars. Bob and Thelma joined us.

One of the wooden fishing boats moored in the harbour.

The centre of Svolvaer.

We board the ferry this evening at 7pm. We will both be sad to leave the Lofoten Islands and I am really pleased we decided to stay here for three nights.

Day 23 - Lofoten Islands

2011-05-26T18:41:00.001+01:00

Our second full day on the Lofoten Islands and four of our cars set off, in the rain, for the 150kms drive right to the very end of the Lofoten chain.

Our first port of call was the small fishing village of Henningsvaer, 25 kms south of our hotel. You reach the village by crossing one of the many bridges that link the Lofoten Islands. It was another very typical village with a small harbour and multi-coloured wooden houses.

Wendy had been researching the route in her guide book and suggested we go to Nusfjord, a very small village about 6kms off the main road.Within a kilometre, we came up to this magnificent rock wall facing us. It towered above us and was simply awesome!

We continued on to Nusfjord which is a very pretty village. The houses by the water are all on stilts.

I noticed this rack of drying fish heads which are kept for animal feed.

One of the many grass-covered roofs on the old fishermen's cottages. This one was in rather a poor state. The cottages are called rorbuer and many have been renovated and are rented out for holidays.

We returned to the main road and not long after, we drove past the Viking Museum at Borg, with its impressive main building like an upturned boat.

The route then took us across a series of bridges and through tunnels, one after the other. It was the most wonderful driving experience, with light traffic and the weather improving all the time.

At one point, we looked across a fjord and near the opposite shore, the water was emerald green, such a contrast to the rest of the fjord.

We went from one side of the Lofoten Islands to the other and close to the northern shores, we saw this church with a domed steeple. It was unlike any other I have seen in Norway.

We reached our destination at the very end of the islands, A, at around 1.30pm and, for those who are not sure how it is spelt, here is a photo of the sign as we entered the village. A with a small o on top is the last letter of the Norwegian alphabet. They have 3 additional letters after Z.

We parked the car and then walked a couple of hundred metres to the headland. It was a very beautiful spot and with the sun now shining, we could really enjoy the fact that we had driven the whole length of the Lofoten Islands. Here I am pointing in the direction of London!

Wendy with wonderful scenery.

As we walked back to the car, we met a German photographer taking pictures of some plants. We chatted with him and discovered he was taking photos of a very ancient plant that has existed for a hundred million years. Wendy went on the internet when we got back and found out it is a Scouring Rush Horsetail of the equisetum family.

Here is my close-up.

Apparently it doesn't flower, but propagates itself by producing spores. Yet another interesting fact we have learned on this drive. My brain will be full by the time we finish!

We went into the 'centre' of A, where these nesting seagulls caught our eye.

We headed out of A and had coffee and a sandwich at a cafe where we were served by a Polish man. He had been in the Lofoten Islands for four years and prior to that, he worked at a golf club in Surrey!!

Shortly after we started the journey back, we met Bob and Eric driving the other way. They had spent some time at the Viking Museum. The drive north mainly followed the same route that we had taken in the morning and we stopped to take photos at a place called Ramberg, which had the most wonderful white sand beach. With the mountains in the background, you couldn't ask for a better photo. That's me at the bottom of the steps to the beach.

We continued on the main road except for one section, where we detoured on to one of the minor roads for about 60 kms.

The weather here can change very quickly and rain showers appear more or less out of nowhere. This mountain that had been clear a few minutes earlier, was suddenly shrouded in mist and clouds. It made a good photo.

As we reached Svolvaer, Wendy saw this modern house with grass roofs on the top of a hill.

We returned to our hotel at about 5.30pm. We both agreed it had been a great day's driving.

Day 22 - Svolvaer

2011-05-25T21:27:00.001+01:00

The first of two full days here in the Lofoten Islands has been spent looking at the town and a couple of places close by.

We all met up for breakfast and then each went their separate ways to explore this part of the Lofoten Island chain. We headed straight for the local laundry to catch up on a pile of washing that has accumulated over the past ten days, the last time we had washing done. We have found that trying to do laundry in your bathroom, when you are only staying one night, is very difficult as there is no time for it to dry. The result is, we pay exorbitant local laundry prices!

As we drove out of Svolvaer to find the laundry, we went through the side streets with their pretty coloured wooden houses.

We dropped off the laundry and drove a couple of kilometres to the small fishing village of Kabelvag. This village is famous for the fishing fleet that docks here during the winter months, leaving by April. The town has a very pretty wooden church, but, as we have found so often on this drive through Norway, it was locked.

Kabelvag is a very attractive little fishing village and we started exploring it by driving down to the sea. We had great views across the fjord to the mountains in the distance, which made a good backdrop for me and our trusty Landcruiser.

I particularly liked this photo taken by Wendy of two mountains, each covered by cloud, that made them look like smoking volcanoes.

A view towards the harbour of Kabelvag.

While we were enjoying the scenery, two air force fighter jets flew overhead. As they went towards the mountains they dipped down and flew between them! I managed to take a photo of one of them as it climbed on the far side of the mountain.

We drove back into Svolvaer and went down to the harbour mouth where there is this statue of a woman, waving goodbye (or is it hello?) to the sailors of Svolvaer as they left or returned to the town.

We drove through the centre of town and saw this statue of someone called Jens Steffensen, who died in 1961. I must look him up on Google to see why he is honoured. In front of the statue is the building housing the Lofoten War Museum.

At lunchtime we decided to try a local bar called Bacalao which is the name for salted and dried cod.

You see the cod being dried everywhere, either on the giant racks the fishermen build, or just a few fish hanging from the window ledges of houses.

Kenny and DeeAnne joined us for lunch before we drove back to our hotel, crossing the bridge to our island.

The Rica Hotel.

At 6pm, when it opens, we are going to the Ice Museum which has beautiful ice carvings. I'll post some photos either later today or tomorrow, when we are aiming to drive all the way down the archipelago to a place called A. This is the best spelling I can do, as the Norwegian name of the town is a letter 'A' with a small 'o' on top of it. The barman in Bacalao told us that we should see puffins there. I hope so, as I love these colourful little sea birds.

As promised, here are a few photos from our visit this evening to Magic Ice, the Ice Museum. Wonderful ice carvings and drinks served in ice glasses! As you can imagine, certain members of the group had a ball!!

A rack of ice glasses. Yes, they are made out of ice!

The bar, made of solid ice, where the drinks are served in the Ice Museum and where the temperature is kept at minus 6 degrees Celsius.

One of the fantastic ice sculptures. This one of a man rowing a boat.

Finally, an update on the saga of Eric's window. After leaving Alta without the replacement window because it was stuck in Oslo, Eric had it redirected to Svolvaer. Well, yesterday Eric heard from the hotel in Alta that it had just arrived there!! It looks like Eric and Lynn will have to complete the journey with the perspex temporary window that Eric made and fitted. So much for DHL service!!

Day 21 - Tromso to Svolvaer, Lofoten Islands

2011-05-24T07:33:00.002+01:00

We got up at 5am to say our goodbyes to Peter, who was flying out on the 6.45am flight to Oslo. None of us can believe how quickly the nine days have flown by since his arrival in Helsinki. It was a very sad moment for both of us as he boarded the airport shuttle and we waved him goodbye.

Our hotel in Tromso, the Clarion Collection.

We had breakfast in our hotel and then went next door to the other hotel, where we had originally made our reservation, to meet up with the others who had arrived on the Hurtigruten ferry at midnight. It was good to see them all again and to hear about their time in Honningsvag, which included a fishing trip. They caught lots of fish and then had them cooked at the fisherman's house. I'll post some of Bob's photos when I get hold of his SD card.

We left Tromso at around 9.30am for the 400kms drive to Svolvaer. The road was more or less due south and ran through more stunning scenery. Here are a few photos taken on the journey. Sorry if they appear similar to ones from previous days, but the scenery is so spectacular I just have to post more of the same each day!!

At one point, we saw a sign pointing off the main road to a memorial for the Battle of Narvik, which took place in 1940 at the beginning of the Second World War. We discovered that the Germans suffered their first defeat of the war in this engagement.

Apparently, there are six of these memorials, placed at particular locations of the campaign and we soon came across the second. To get to this memorial we had to walk through deep snow.

We then turned off the E6 and took a wonderful side road that ran alongside one fjord after another. At the beginning of the road there was this amazing waterfall. It was very, very close to a house and I wondered how anyone could live there with such a roar from the water rushing past the back door 24 hours a day!

Near to the waterfall was our third memorial to the Battle of Narvik. This one was particularly poignant as it listed the names of a Norwegian company of men who had been killed by the Germans as the Germans were retreating and came across the Norwegians by surprise. It was the greatest number of Norwegian casualties suffered in one action in the Second World War.

If you click on the photo above to enlarge it, you will see that the unit involved in the fighting were from Alta, the town we stayed in a few days ago.

We walked down to the shore of the fjord and by it was an old grass-covered barn with two oystercatchers on the ridge of the roof, with a seagull nearby. They were making a 'hell of a racket' and I wondered if they had a nest on the roof and were trying to scare off the gull.

As we continued around this particular fjord, we came to another memorial, at a village called Laberg. This one was not for the Battle of Narvik, but for the victims of a shipping tragedy in 1939. A seal-hunting boat that sailed from Norway to Newfoundland was lost at sea and everyone on board perished.

While we were looking at the names and where they were from, a local Norwegian stopped and came over to us. He was a 75 year old retired teacher, who had lived all his life in Laberg and was now a fisherman. He told us that an uncle and a cousin of his were amongst the victims. A second sealing boat had also sunk but all the crew were saved. The brief conversation we had with him was another one of those small but memorable moments from this wonderful trip.

The drive along route 825 was almost as good, but not quite, as the drive we had a couple of days ago from Alta to Tromso: magnificent scenery with mountains and fjords alternating as we drove along the twisting road. It was time to stop for lunch and we pulled over to the side of the fjord where, as luck would have it, there was this strange sculpture on the rocks by the sea. It was called The Seven Magic Points. We tried to work out if the name was related to the number of mountains surrounding the fjord but couldn't quite make it exactly seven!

The sculpture was done by a Finnish man, or is it a woman, Marti Aiha in 1994.

We were now just at the beginning of the Lofoten Islands and it was interesting to see how very green the landscape had become. I presume this is as a result of the Gulf Stream, which makes the sea comparatively warm.The water in the fjords was often like a mirror giving us wonderful photos of the reflections of the snowy mountains.

As you drive down the chain of islands, there are tunnels linking them, with one tunnel being 6 kms in length. It's a fantastic drive and definitely another highlight of the Baltic tour for us all. Here we are about to enter one of the tunnels.

We reached Svolvaer, the capital of the Lofoten Islands, at about 4pm. Our hotel, the Rica, is on a small island and to get to it you have to drive across a short causeway. We have a wonderful view from our room, looking at houses at the water's edge and mountains in the background. Life could not be much better!!

Looking back across the causeway towards the centre of Svolvaer.

In the evening, we had another expensive Norwegian meal. Will we ever get used to the high cost of living here? Adding to the fun of the meal was the fact that Kenny couldn't find anything he liked on the menu. As there was a pizza bar next door, which we thought was part of our restaurant, we tried to get a pizza for him. This caused all sorts of problems and the poor waitress came back saying the chef refused to allow Kenny to eat pizza in his restaurant! I made a fuss, which perhaps I shouldn't have done and, in the end, the waitress said she would cook it herself! Whether she did or not, I don't know, but back she came a few minutes later with an enormous pizza. We made sure she got a good tip for her efforts.

We have three nights here, so that we have time to explore the islands, before we take the Hurtigruten ferry south to Trondheim.

Day 20 - Tromso

2011-05-23T16:26:00.001+01:00

It's great to be back in Tromso again. We really enjoyed our short visit last August, at the end of our cruise around Svalbard. So, I am not posting many photos of Tromso because, if you want to read about and look at Tromso, all you have to do is go to my blog: www.81degreesnorth.blogspot.com. You will find the postings for the time we spent in Tromso from August 21st.

Having said that, today has been great fun and included a big surprise, so our decision to have two nights here has been well and truly vindicated.

After last night's late drive to see the midnight sun, we had the chance of a 'lie-in'. The trouble is, I always wake up early, however late I have gone to bed! When I looked out of our window this morning, I saw this French sailing-boat that had been moored up next to the hotel, sailing out into the fjord. It made for a good photo with the Arctic Cathedral in the background.

We had talked with Peter about the 'must-do' things to see while in Tromso and we started the day by driving out of Tromso to the island of Hakoy. We had visited Hakoy last August to see the site of the Tirpitz sinking and the memorial to the German sailors who died when the ship capsized. We found it a very moving experience to stand in such a beautiful spot and think back to the terrible events of November 1944, when nearly a thousand sailors died when they were entombed in the ship.

Peter and Wendy standing in front of the Tirpitz memorial, made from four inch thick steel decking from the battleship.

When we were last here, we had not looked at the craters from the bombs that missed the ships. This time we saw two; one on land and the other just below the high tide line. In the third photo below, the reflection of the beautiful snowy mountains in the crater highlighted the stark contrast between the beauty of Nature and the awful destructive nature of Man.

The Tirpitz was broken up for scrap a few years after the war ended and the only thing remaining in the water is the platform used for the salvage operation.

Now, for the ornithological bit. There were several birds in the sea and I took this photo of one bird that gave out a low coo every minute or so. There were quite a few on the shore and the sounds they made added to the beauty of the place. Wendy has just found out from the internet that the bird is the Common Eider.

Walking on the seaweed along the water's edge were two red-beaked Oystercatchers, or so Peter said.

We spent about half an hour at the site before starting our drive back to Tromso. Within a couple of minutes, Peter shouted out for us to stop. He had seen three moose standing in the trees, not that far away from us. We all got out of the car and started taking photos and video. As none of them had antlers I assumed, maybe incorrectly, that they were females.

It was a wonderful moment, especially as we had not seen any moose on the drive before today. We drove on and then, within a couple of minutes, Peter shouted out again and we saw three more! As they say, you wait ages for a moose then six come along at the same time!!

We left Hakoy for the short drive back to Tromso, where we had lunch in a pub run by Mack, the most northern brewery in the world. We had Norwegian stew, which was tasty and very filling. The pub had on offer a large range of beers and Wendy and I each chose a very small glass of Arctic Beer.

We returned to the hotel and collected the car to drive to the cable-car that takes you to the top of the mountain overlooking Tromso. Wendy remained in the town hoping to see inside Tromso's Lutheran cathedral, which had been closed on our last visit. It is Norway's only wooden cathedral, but is manned by volunteers and rarely open, so as luck would have it, she failed to see inside it, once again.

Peter and I went on the cable-car and took lots of photos from the mountain-top. Here is a selection, which includes the Hurtigruten ferry boat arriving in Tromso and the Arctic Cathedral from high above.

We returned to our car and then I dropped Peter off at the Arctic Cathedral. While he was looking inside, I spent a few minutes sorting out the car, ready for our drive tomorrow to the Lofoten Islands.

For our final dinner with Peter, we chose to go to Emma's Dream Kitchen, one of the best-known (also one of the most expensive) restaurants in Tromso. On the ground floor is Emma's Under, a cheaper version of the fancier dining-room upstairs. We decided to give it a try and were rewarded with the best meal we have had on the trip so far - superb food, well-presented. It was a fitting farewell to Peter after a most enjoyable week travelling with him.

Late tonight, the others arrive on the Hurtigruten ferry, so we will not see them till tomorrow morning. Peter leaves for Germany on an early flight that goes via Oslo. We will say goodbye to him at 5.30am. Another early start!!

Day 19 - Alta to Tromso

2011-05-22T21:39:00.001+01:00

For those ornithologists amongst the readers of the blog, here is the best still shot I managed to take from my video of the white-tailed eagle that flew over us yesterday.

This morning we left Alta at around 8.15am for the drive west to Tromso which included two ferry crossings of fjords. Once again, it was an overcast morning with a slight drizzle that we have become used to while we have been above 70 degrees latitude. As we drove away from Alta, we came to Kafjord, the fjord where the German battleship Tirpitz was at anchor, hiding from the British. We could see why the Germans had chosen this fjord with high mountains around it, making it difficult for bombing raids to succeed. The Tirpitz then moved to Tromso fjord where it was finally sunk by British 'Tallboy' bombs.

We then began what I can only describe as 'One of the Great Drives in the World'. For over 210 kms we drove along the coastline of one fjord after another, with magnificent views of spectacular Norwegian scenery. The sun, shining now, made the whole setting even more stunning. The final icing on the cake was the fact that we came up behind only one car on the whole drive and that was after 200 kms!! Below is a selection of photos we took.

We reached our first ferry with 40 minutes to spare before the 11.45am sailing. We sat in the car and watched the ferry arrive and, when it raised its front door to unload the cars, it looked like a giant mouth opening! Unfortunately we didn't take a photo of the doors fully open, just the ferry docking, but you can just see that they are beginning to open.

The 40 minute crossing was an absolute delight. In glorious sunshine and on a dead flat calm fjord, we enjoyed ourselves sitting on the top deck admiring the never-ending wonderful scenery. What a country Norway is!

Who's a lucky girl then, travelling like this???

The view towards the other side of the fjord and you can see the Landcruiser on the right hand side of the car deck below us.

The ferry's Norwegian flag against a lovely blue sky.

More views as we crossed the fjord.

We disembarked quickly and needed to drive the next 22 kms within 30 minutes in order to catch the second ferry. It turned out to be an easy drive and we arrived at the ferry with ten minutes to spare.

More great scenery!

Our car in the middle of the car deck.

The second crossing took just twenty minutes and then all we had to drive was 46 kms to Tromso. The weather continued to be perfect and we arrived in Tromso at about 2.30pm

A couple of views as we drove into Tromso. The first of the famous Arctic Cathedral, which we will visit tomorrow, and the second of the bridge across Tromso fjord into the centre of the city.

We checked into our hotel, The Clarion Bryggen, but were so disappointed with our room that we checked out and booked into the Clarion Collection Hotel immediately next door. Here is the view we have of the Arctic Cathedral and the mountains beyond.

We all went out for a walk around the town and spent a very enjoyable hour in the Polaria Museum, which is dedicated to the Polar regions and their protection. The museum architecture is quite something and looks like a row of giant dominoes that have fallen over.

Berthed in the harbour next to our hotel are three Norwegian minesweepers. They are very menacing- looking boats and have what look like a row of black rubber balloons hanging down at the bow, just above the water line. If anyone can enlighten me as to their purpose, please let me know.

Wendy sent a text to Bob to let them know we had arrived in Tromso and heard back that they had been out fishing in Honningsvag and had caught a lot of fish. I will post more about this when we meet up with them again, the day after tomorrow.

We ended the day with a good meal in a pasta restaurant. It has been another special day of this great Baltic drive. Tomorrow is a rest day for us here in Tromso, while the others take the Hurtigruten ferry from Honningsvag to Tromso. They are scheduled to arrive about midnight.

Late addition to the posting! At 11.45pm, we took the car across the bridge and drove up one of the streets on the side of the mountain to watch the midnight sun. We found a good spot that looked down over the Arctic Cathedral and the centre of Tromso and then, at precisely midnight, we took a photo of the sun above the mountains behind Tromso. It was a perfect way to end our day.

Day 18 - Alta to the North Cape and back to Alta

2011-05-21T21:26:00.001+01:00

I need to change the name for this area from the Land of the Midnight Sun to the Land of an Arm and a Leg! I don't think any of us have had a bill as large as we had for the evening meal last night. Yes, it included drinks before the meal, but the cost of the food was horrendous. I really do wonder how the Norwegians can afford to live when everything is so expensive.

Now, back to today's great drive to the farthest point from London on our Baltic trip, the North Cape of Norway. At over 71 degrees north, you cannot drive further north anywhere else in the world, on a made-up road.

I got up early and took this photo of all five cars lined up in the hotel car park and Alta Fjord in the background. Yes, I know there are six cars in the photo but one car belongs to another guest at the hotel.

I then went outside to take some photos of our hotel and of the stunning views over Alta Fjord and the mountains beyond.

As we were driving to the Cape and back to Alta in one day, while the others were all staying for two nights in Honninsvag before catching the ferry to Tromso, we left the hotel before them. Soon we were into the most wonderful region of snow-covered mountains. It was a fantastic drive.

With virtually no other cars on the road, we quickly covered the 100 kms before reaching the sea again. The road then followed the coast of the North Cape peninsular and we went past small fishing communities who had these large wooden racks for drying fish.

At one point we saw an eagle being chased by another bird and, as it flew overhead, I managed to take a few long-range shots, on maximum zoom. This is the best of the bunch.

Near the Cape, you have to go through a tunnel cut into the rock. It dives under the fjord to a depth of over 200 metres and is nearly 7 kms in length. We then went past the town of Honningsvag and drove the final 30 kms to the North Cape, arriving at about 11.30am.

I drove the car just north of the car park, as far as I could, and Wendy took this photo of the Garmin SatNav showing our position as 71 degrees 10.186 minutes north.

Below is the photo we took of our position when we were in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska in August 2009. Prudhoe Bay is the farthest point north you can drive in the Americas. As the Garmin photos show, Prudhoe Bay is one degree south of the North Cape.

The wind was blowing quite hard and it felt much colder than the 6 degrees showing on the car thermometer. We walked to the globe placed by the edge of the Cape cliffs.

The sign showing the latitude and longitude position of the North Cape.

Peter set up his camera to take a group shot of us by the globe.

Shortly afterwards, the rest of the group turned up and we arranged the cars in an arc. Peter then took this photo of the crews standing by their cars. A wonderful record of us reaching the North Cape safely. We all felt really proud of our achievement, especially those like Ahmad, who had overcome such terrible problems to get here.

Peter and me by my trusty Landcruiser. I think it must be one of the few cars to have reached the farthest north and farthest south points on the globe: the North Cape of Norway and Ushuaia, Argentina.

We then went into the visitor centre and Peter, who had brought lemon vodka with him from Vienna, poured out a glass for each of us to toast our success. It was a fitting way to celebrate the ending of the first half of the Baltic drive.

From left to right: Ahmad in woollen hat, DeeAnne holding on to a Norwegian Troll, me and Reza.

We spent a couple of hours at the Cape before starting the drive back to Alta, via a quick visit to Honningsvag. As we were leaving the North Cape centre, we saw the Children of the World monument, which is made up of seven round stones, designed by children, and a statue of a woman and a child.

The drive back to Alta was very uneventful but with the weather much better and the sun occasionally coming out, it was another wonderful drive. At one point, we saw what we thought was a pod of killer whales quite close to the shore. Unfortunately the only good pictures we managed to take were video and not still photos. If I can take a still from the video I will post it later.

We reached Alta at about 5pm and returned to our hotel. In the evening we had a Chinese meal in the centre of the town. Tomorrow we drive to Tromso for a two night stay and will meet up with the others in two days' time.

I am very relieved we have all managed to reach this point of the tour safely. Now, all I can hope for is that I am saying the same thing at the end of the second half when we return to London in just over two weeks' time.

Day 17 - Muonio to Alta, Norway

2011-05-20T22:16:00.001+01:00

Today we visited our 10th, or if you count the 100 yards dash in and out of Sweden yesterday, our 11th country of the tour so far.

While Wendy was getting ready to leave, I went down to the Muonio River to take some photos. Just outside the hotel was this sign showing the huskies that are used for dog sledging in the winter. We learned later that there are 400 huskies housed here.

The river was running very fast and in the distance I could see it flowing over some rapids. I bent down and felt the ice cold water, very refreshing!

A photo of the Harriniva Holiday Centre.

The centre was virtually empty as the winter season had ended and the summer trekking season would not start until mid-June.

I heard from Ahmad that the parts had arrived for his car and they were now fitting them.. He would let me know later how things were going.

We all drove down to the local garage for breakfast where there seemed to be some sort of party going on outside. A group of people were sitting under an awning drinking and eating, while a woman was playing an accordion. We had no idea what it was all about.

We had a quick breakfast and then drove on minor roads through a local national park. As we were about to turn off to the park headquarters, we had a call from Ahmad saying he was on the road again! He said he would see us this evening in Alta. It was great news to help us on our way. We reached the park Visitor Centre, from where we had a fantastic view over the pine forests and the snow-covered mountains in the distance.

You might just be able to see the ski lifts on the mountain behind the building.

We returned to the road through the park and soon stopped at the beautiful ice-covered Lake Pallas. The water near the shore was the only ice-free part of the lake.

We left the park and came to Enontekio, one of the principle towns where the Sami people live. The Sami are reindeer herdsmen who move the herds all over Lapland between Finland, Norway and Sweden. The town has a very interesting church dedicated to the Sami. It was designed by the architect Veikko Larkas in 1952. There is the most impressive altar wall with a figure of Christ, two Sami and a group of reindeer, all in coloured mosaics. I hope these photos do justice to this wonderful piece of art.

We moved on from the church and almost immediately came across this small herd of reindeer walking along the road and eating the grass on the verges. It seemed to me that there was one buck and the rest were doe. Some of the reindeer had bells round their necks and they made a great sound as they walked by us as we took photos.

It was another great moment from our Baltic drive. On we went and within 40 kms we were at the border with Norway. Norway is a member of the Schengen Treaty and we did not have to stop for customs formalities, simply driving straight through into our 10th country of the drive.

The previous evening I had looked at a website that gives sunrise and sunset times for any place in the world. I had worked out that 5.5kms north of the border, we would come to the spot where 24 hours of sunshine occurs - the Land of the Midnight Sun. We stopped and I took this photo of the road and the Norwegian Arctic. I know I could have taken this photo more or less anywhere in this region, but readers will just have to believe me when I say it was at the very beginning of permanent daylight.

The drive then took us about 160 kms to our destination, Alta. The road was virtually empty and we drove past many iced-over lakes as well as mountains with snow. The vegetation had changed and now all that was growing in the region were silver birch trees and stunted bushes.

We reached Alta at about 3pm, having put our clocks back an hour for Norwegian time. We checked into our hotel, the Thon Vica, and about two hours later, who should show up but Ahmad and Reza! They had completed the drive from Oulu to Alta without a hitch and will now join us for the journey to the North Cape tomorrow. We celebrated their return to the tour with drinks and a meal in the hotel.

Tomorrow we reach a main goal of the tour, which is to drive our cars to the most northerly paved road in the world. It will be a great moment.

Day 16 - Oulu to Muonio, Finland

2011-05-19T20:33:00.001+01:00

First, an update on what is happening to Ahmad and his Mercedes. It appears that a combination of problems has caused the engine management system to fail. The upshot is that Ahmad is staying in Oulu waiting for parts to be fitted tomorrow in the hope these will sort the car out. If that does not happen, he will rent a car from Avis to rejoin us at the North Cape on Sunday. How he will then get the rental car back to Oulu and then pick his car up, if it is working, I am not sure, but knowing how resourceful Ahmad is, I am sure he will find a way! I must say Wendy and I felt bad at leaving him and Reza behind, but Ahmad was sure he would be able to catch us up.

We left the hotel and drove down to the seafront where there is a marvellous covered market. One of the vendors told us it was the oldest in northern Europe. Who was I to disagree?

The area had lovely old wooden buildings that housed restaurants and shops.

In the square outside the market stood the town mascot, Toripollisi (the Town Policeman) and no, it's not the man in the blue pullover!

We left Oulu for the drive along the coast before heading north-east to the Lapland regional capital, Rovaniemi. The weather was consistently poor with drizzle turning at times to quite heavy rain. We reached Rovaniemi and stopped by the Kemi River to take photos of the bridge and a sign I noticed showing distances to various towns. The town that caught my eye was Murmansk in Russia and the fact that it was only 500 kms away, more or less the same distance as we have driven today.

We then drove to the Arktikum Museum, famous for its history of Lapland and the north. We enjoyed about an hour at the museum which looked out over the Kemi River.

Our next 'port of call' was Santa's Village, a few kilometres north of the city where the Arctic Circle crosses the road at 66 degrees and 32 minutes north. Here are the sign and the marker showing the Arctic Circle, the second time we have crossed it by car, the first being on the Dalton Highway in Alaska in August 2009.

We left the village at about 1.30pm for the drive due north to Muonio. It was along a very good fast road with virtually no traffic at all. At one point, the cars in front of us slowed down very quickly. I then saw why. Two reindeer, a buck and a doe, were about to run across the road, which they did right in front of us! Peter took this great photo of the buck as it crossed the road.

We reached our destination, Muonio, a winter resort area, at around 4pm. We are staying in ski apartments very close to the border with Sweden, which is on the other side of the Muonio River that runs close to the resort.

Eric and Lynn had just arrived before us and then Bob & Thelma and Kenny and DeeAnne turned up. It appears we had all taken different routes from Oulu. Eric and Lynn were very lucky to have seen an elk. Having Googled it, we learned that it is the same species as the North American moose, which came as a surprise to us. I had thought the moose came only from North America.

Eric's photo of the elk and, remember, to enlarge any photo in the blog so that you can see it more clearly, just put the cursor on the photo and double click it. An enlarged photo will open in a separate window.

Learning that the elk and moose are the same animal has resolved a query we all have had; namely why the Finns use a moose road sign for the elk. We thought they might have bought a 'job lot' from the Canadians to use on their roads!

We ended the day by having a very good meal in a local restaurant. We raised our glasses to Ahmad and Reza, wishing them well and hoping that they will be back on the road tomorrow.

After the meal we drove back to the hotel, but turned off the road to cross the Muonio River bridge into Sweden. We drove for 100 metres and turned round to re-enter Finland. A bit of fun!

Leaving Finland and entering Sweden.

Returning to Finland from Sweden.

As we came back into Finland, we saw this sign for the region we are in, Lappi. It reminded us of our son Edward's dog in California called Lapdance but known as Lappi!

A couple of facts. Firstly, today we passed the 3,000 mile mark of the tour and secondly, tomorrow we go into the region of 24 hour daylight. This evening in Muonio the sun sets at nineteen minutes PAST midnight and rises at 2.24am giving just 2 hours and 5 minutes of 'darkness'! It's very weird indeed to see how light it is outside so late in the evening.

Finally, some readers may have wondered how Eric and Lynn have got on with their smashed passenger door window. Well, yesterday Eric bought a sheet of perspex at a store near Vaasa and then stopped by the side of the road and cut and fixed it in place. He did a marvellous job and, even if he doesn't get the replacement window, meant to be waiting for him at our hotel in Alta, Norway (our next stop), the perspex window would see him through the rest of the trip.

Here he is, with a smile on his face, cutting the perspex on the tailgate of his Discovery.

Another example of the resourcefulness of us intrepid adventure drivers!

Day 15 - Vaasa to Oulu

2011-05-18T20:34:00.001+01:00

We are now two weeks into the tour and a second Exocet has just struck us!

This evening, when we arrived in Oulu, we saw Ahmad and Reza who had arrived before us and they told us that their Mercedes had a major problem. It has a faulty fuel injection pump. For the last 160 kms to Oulu they nursed the car to the hotel with the engine limited to about 2000 rpm. They went to the local Mercedes dealer, who said it needs a new pump and there are none in Finland. The dealer then managed to locate one in Hanover, Germany and has arranged for it to be flown to Oulu on Friday. This will mean Ahmad will be, at best, two days behind us as we drive to the North Cape. The hope is that he will be able to leave Oulu on Friday afternoon and then do the three day trip to the North Cape in two days, so that he can catch the ferry next Monday.

It's leaving it very tight but we are all keeping our fingers crossed. In his favour is the fact that we have nearly 24 hours of daylight, so driving late into the evening is not a problem. I'll update the blog as I learn more.

Returning to today's journey of just over 300kms, we drove down to the waterfront in Vaasa to take a few photos before driving along the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia.

At the waterfront I saw this old Landcruiser. It made my ten year old model look positively modern!

We left Vaasa and drove more or less due north. After about seventy kilometres we turned off the main highway to take one of the side roads that would lead us to the coast. Not long after, we drove past this very interesting stone memorial that was by the side of the road.

We pulled off the road and saw an information poster that explained the memorial was to Major-General Carl Von Dobeln. He led a battalion of Swedish forces in the 1808-9 Swedish-Russian war and successfully beat back superior Russian forces who were attempting to take a strategic position.

He had fought in a previous war against the Russians and in 1788 he had been shot in the head. Thereafter he always wore a black band around his head, as shown in the picture at the site.

A close-up of the plaque on the memorial and, if you look closely, you can see the band around his forehead.

We left the memorial and drove down to the coast along a narrow winding country road. We reached the sea at a small fishing village. It was very cold with the temperature down to 5 degrees and, with the mist rolling in from the sea, it created quite an atmospheric scene.

As we drove back towards the main road, Peter shouted out that he had seen a large bird in one of the fields. I pulled up quickly and reversed a short way. We all peered through the bushes and saw, feeding from the ploughed field, this magnificent crane. Apologies for the clarity of the photos but these were taken on maximum zoom.

We spent nearly ten minutes watching the bird and then moved on. We reached a very pretty small town called Nykarleby which had this very typical yellow Lutheran church.

By now it was time to stop for a snack lunch. We drove past this waterfall and spent a very enjoyable half an hour having our lunch and looking at the river. We noticed to one side of the falls, a series of salmon steps that had been constructed to allow spawning salmon to by-pass the falls, on their way up river to their spawning grounds.

Wendy in front of the falls.

We reached Oulu around 4pm and checked into our hotel, The Lasaretti. It is located on the banks of the Oulu River where the Finns have constructed a large dam. On the side of the river you can see the salmon steps that have been built to allow salmon to avoid the dam.

We walked through the small park between the hotel and the river and came to a large number of fountains spread out across the water. It was both an impressive and beautiful sight.

It was only a short walk to the city centre and we went past yet another large yellow Lutheran church, this time Oulu Cathedral, built in the late 18th century. It was re-built between 1832 and 1845 following a fire. The architect was Carl Ludvig Engel, who also designed Helsinki Cathedral. The interior was very plain, all in white, but very beautiful. There was the most magnificent ornate organ in the organ loft.

A short walk on and we came to the City Hall, a very grand brick building.

We walked round the back of City Hall and came to this very interesting sculpture. It was a series of wonderfully sculptured people on top of a curved low stone wall. They were all about twelve inches tall, but we did not find out what they represented. It's another Google opportunity! If I find out, I'll post the answer to the blog.

We spent half an hour walking the streets of the centre before going back to our hotel for our evening meal. Over the meal, we discussed our route for tomorrow and decided that, contrary to my plans to drive close to the Swedish border on our way to our overnight stop in Muonio, we would head much farther east and go via the capital of Lapland, Rovaniemi. This is where Father Christmas lives!!

Day 14 - Helsinki to Vaasa

2011-05-17T21:29:00.001+01:00

Those who remember the events of the Falklands war will recall how the Argentinian Exocet missiles came out of nowhere to strike at the British task force ships. Since then, I have thought of those unexpected bad things that come of the blue to strike you, as Exocets. Well, an Exocet hit us late last night!

During our evening meal at the hotel, Ahmad came in with an email he had just received from the US Hurtigruten agent he had booked his ferries through, saying that our ferry from the North Cape to Tromso was cancelled because it was in dry dock having repairs! They were offering him a sailing 24 hours later. I won't go into all the subsequent discussions, phone calls and emails that took place, but the result is that we will be splitting from the group when we reach the North Cape. Four cars will stay in Honningsvag for two nights and then catch the ferry to Tromso, where they will then stay only one night, while Wendy, Peter and I will return from the North Cape to Alta, where we will stay a second night and then drive across to Tromso for two nights. Doing it this way will give us the two days we had planned in Tromso and also enable Peter to fly back to Germany on the 24th.

It's not entirely satisfactory and I must say I am very disappointed not to be doing the ferry from the North Cape, but there is no sensible alternative. These are the sorts of things that happen on a trip such as this and you have to get used to making changes.

Returning to today: we left Helsinki around 9.30am for the 430 kms drive across south-western Finland to Vaasa on the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia. It was an easy drive on good empty roads and we reached the coastal town of Pori around 12.30pm.

A typical empty Finnish road and then, with the sun coming out, some dark clouds in the distance.

We then turned more or less due north and left the main road to find somewhere to have lunch. We quickly found this very pretty spot by the sea, where we had the lunch of cheese and ham rolls we had prepared at breakfast.

The place was truly idyllic with small islands and forests down to the shoreline.

Two pals.

We spent a very enjoyable hour and then started north again. We took the small back roads that kept close to the coast and occasionally we could see the sea through the pine forests. We went through many small villages with their red and white wooden houses.

In one village we saw this church with the most peculiar wooden statue of a man with one wooden leg and his hand out-stretched.

Behind the church was a very small graveyard with neatly arranged headstones of those who had died in the two world wars. By each headstone were blue pansies in a small flower pot. It was all very beautifully laid out.

We drove on and again turned off the road to look at the sea and take more photos.

The end of the road????

We reached Vaasa at about 4pm. Driving into Vaasa and the wooden railway station opposite our hotel.

Ahmad had arrived and, not long after, the others all turned up. We exchanged stories and then walked down to the waterfront to have a wonderful meal as the sun was setting.

We came out of the restaurant at about 9.30pm with the sun still quite high in the sky. We really are very far north and the day after tomorrow we cross the Arctic Circle, to enter the Land of the Midnight Sun.

Finally, more disappointing news for Eric when he learned that the window he was waiting for will not now be delivered to Oulu as he was expecting. He has taken the decision to have it delivered to Alta, as that is the first place of any size where he can possibly get the car repaired after we leave Oulu the day after tomorrow.

Day 13 - Helsinki

2011-05-16T17:18:00.001+01:00

Those days of wonderful weather are now long gone! We woke to a cold and wet Helsinki but we were looking forward to exploring the city, so we weren't too bothered by the rain. We went down to breakfast and met Lynn who said Eric had gone to a local Land Rover dealer to sort out his smashed passenger window.

We had our breakfast and then walked across the road from the hotel to buy tickets for a bus tour of Helsinki. The tour, which lasted an hour and a half, was well worthwhile and gave us a good idea of the layout of the city as well as its history.

Our hotel, the Hotel Kamp.

On the bus.

Shortly after the tour started, I had the first of several text messages from Lynn. Poor Eric had real problems as he had just been told that there are no windows for his car in Finland! The only solution was to get a window sent by DHL or Fedex across from England to one of the next towns we are visiting and have it fitted there. Eric decided on Oulu, where we will be in two days time and arranged with his UK dealer to have the window sent to the hotel we have booked. There followed more calls to the Land Rover dealer in the UK to arrange for the Finnish dealer to be ready and waiting to fit the window. I just hope it all works out as after Oulu, we are into the wilds of northern Finland, where a repair will be really difficult to organise.

Whilst all this was going on, our tour continued around the city and below are some of the photos I took. Apologies for the quality but they were all taken through the rain-splattered windows of the coach.

We drove through Senate Square with its statue of Tsar Alexander 1.

The Russian Orthodox Church, the largest in Northern Europe.

After about an hour we stopped at the Sibelius monument where hundreds of tourists were crawling, literally, all over the monument. There were hundreds of Far Eastern tourists, either Japanese or Chinese.

The Olympic Stadium built for the 1952 Olympics, which were to have been in 1944, but because of the war were re-scheduled for eight years later.

We got back to our hotel around 1pm and immediately walked down to the market square to catch the ferry that takes you across to the sea fortress, Suomenlinna. It is a world heritage site for its military architecture.

The ferry across to the island.

The ferry journey takes about twenty minutes and as we approached the island, it was shrouded in mist.

We left the ferry and stopped at a restaurant for a quick lunch before walking on across the island to see the fortress.

The World Heritage sign.

Wendy and Peter following behind me.

We came to the fortress which is a huge complex of massive walls with many cannon pointing out to sea from the top of the fortifications. On one of the cannon we read the date, 1875.

We walked all the way through the fortress to the King's Gate, so named after King Adolf Frederick of Sweden, the founder of the fort in 1752.

We walked back to the ferry and returned to Helsinki. When we got off the ferry, there were thousands of cheering Finns who were in the market square celebrating yesterday's victory of the Finnish ice hockey team over Sweden in the World Championship final.

As we walked into the hotel, we were met by Kenny and DeeAnne who had just arrived on the afternoon ferry from Estonia. Bob & Thelma had also reached the hotel and had checked into their room. Shortly after, Ahmad, Reza and Darvish arrived from their three day trip to St.Petersburg.

Wendy then went for a short walk to see the Evangelical Lutheran Cathedral with its life size statues of Martin Luther.

So, we are all back together again and ready for the drive through Finland. It will be great to have everyone doing the same thing again and, with luck, we will get Eric's car repaired in the next couple of days.

The adventure continues.....

Day 12 - Tallinn, Estonia to Helsinki, Finland

2011-05-15T06:22:00.001+01:00

We rose fairly early so that I could have breakfast and then walk, with Eric, to the underground car park and collect our cars. Contrary to my forebodings that something might happen to the cars while they were in the car park, nothing had. After collecting the cars we drove back to the hotel to load up our bags.

Before going to the port, Wendy wanted to see St. Catherine's Palace, built by Tsar Peter I, in honour of his wife Catherine I, which was just a couple of kilometres from the city centre. It is now the Presidential Palace. We found the park where it is situated, but not the palace! As we had to be at the port by 10am for check-in, we decided to abandon our search. On the way to the port we discovered we had been looking on the wrong side of the park!

We met Eric in the check-in line and both of us were soon through the barriers and waiting in line in front of the ship, the Tallink Superstar. As we were waiting, Kenny and DeeAnne arrived telling us that they were not on the boat, as the shipping line had no record of their booking! A few minutes later, Bob turned up with the same story!!! There was nothing we could do about it at such short notice, so Eric and I boarded the ferry and, via emails, learned that Bob and Thelma & Kenny and DeeAnne would have to remain in Tallinn for the night and get a ferry across tomorrow.

I noticed this sign aimed at drivers who were entering Estonia. It suddenly occurred to me that I should have filled up with diesel in Tallinn and saved some money. It was too late now.

Waiting at the ferry terminal to board the Superstar.

The two vehicle loading doors at the stern of the ship. The Superstar was definitely the largest car ferry we have ever sailed on. It came into service in 2008 and weighs a staggering 36,400 tons! It can carry over 2,000 passengers and 665 cars. As we had discovered, from Bob and Kenny not being able to get on the boat, it was totally full.

Driving up one of the ramps to take us up to the third car deck level.

The colossal bow window that gave four deck levels a view out to the sea.

Our first views of Finland as we negotiated the narrow channel between low lying rocky islands.

Approaching the port in Helsinki.

The sailing to Helsinki takes about two hours and we had a very smooth crossing, arriving at 1pm. We had to wait quite a long time to disembark, as we had been loaded on to the third floor of the car decks and the two lower floors had to unload first. We finally got off the ship and headed through the outskirts of Helsinki towards Vaantaa Airport, about 30 kms north of the city, where we had arranged to pick up Peter, who was flying in from Vienna. Peter, who I have known since I was three years old, is coming on the tour as our passenger. He will be with us until we get to Tromso, from where he flies back to Germany and then on to Australia via Vienna.

A couple of photos Wendy took as we drove away from the port and around Helsinki. We will post more photos of the city after we have taken a city sightseeing tour tomorrow.

We called Peter on his mobile and learned he had landed and was waiting for his bags. We had time to fill up with diesel which was about 10% more expensive than in Estonia. We then drove round to the arrivals at Terminal 1 of the airport. As we reached the terminal, we saw Peter pulling his bags across the road from the Terminal. It was perfect timing! A hurriedly snapped photo of Peter as we parked to load his bags.

It was great to see him again and as we drove away from the airport we all exchanged news. Us, about our tour and Peter, about his recent visit to Gabon and his imminent move back to Australia from Vienna, where he has been working for the past seven years. We are both looking forward to the eight days he is travelling with us. A lot of banter and good humour will certainly add to the fun of the drive through Finland and Norway.

Just before we left London, another school friend of mine, Michael, had told us about a famous Finnish architect, Eliel Saarinen and the house he designed in Hvittrask, some 30 kms to the west of Helsinki. Knowing our interest in architecture, he said it was well worth visiting. How right he was and a big thank you to him from all three of us.

We reached Hvittrask in about half an hour and drove round the lake and eventually (because I foolishly did not listen to the navigator and slavishly followed the SatNav!!) found the house. In fact it is two houses designed by three architects, Saarinen, Gesellius and Lindgren. Two lived in the main house and one in the smaller house. The style of the houses and the interiors is very much along the lines of the Arts and Crafts movement. The furniture, wall coverings and carpets all reminded us of the William Morris designed houses, Standen and The Red House.

The interior and some of the wonderful tiled wood fireplaces.

Wendy took this photo of two old (very old?) school pals. For me, a very special lifelong friendship.

We left the main house and went into the smaller of the two houses where a cafe was located. We had tea, coffee and cakes, including this strange-looking cake, which apparently is a Finnish speciality. Wendy Googled it and we found out it was a May Day Fritter which is traditionally served during the May Day celebrations. It looked like a heap of worms, with sugar on top, but I can assure you it tasted much better than sugary worms!

We left Hvittrask and drove due east into Helsinki. Little did we know the problem we would have getting to our hotel! We reached the hotel, in fact we could see it, but within 50 yards of the front door there was a demonstration going on. We never discovered what they were demonstrating about, but the road was blocked by a police van.

Peter talking to the police.

As the road was one way, we couldn't get to the hotel from the other side so, following the police advice, we drove up a tram lane, barred to cars, before passing the hotel again. In fact we went past the hotel three times before I finally decided we had to drive the wrong way down the one way street to the hotel. With cars flashing their headlights at us as we went down the street, we finally reached the hotel. It had taken us nearly half an hour to travel just 50 yards!!

We checked into the hotel and met up with Eric and Lynn who had arrived a few hours earlier. In the evening we went out to a local bar for a meal. Eric had told us they had seen several smashed bus shelters and as we walked I saw the glass of an advertising sign shattered on the pavement. We asked the waitress at the bar what had happened and she said it was drunk fans who had been watching the Finnish Russian ice hockey match that we had seen on the TV when we were in Tallinn. Here it was vandalism by ice hockey fans, at home it's soccer fans. It's the same story, just a different country and sport!!

Tomorrow we have a chance to see Helsinki and hopefully meet up again with Bob and Kenny. Ahmad, his son Darvish and Reza arrive back from St. Petersburg, so we should, with a bit of luck, be back to the full group of five cars as we head north on the long drive to the North Cape.

Day 11 - Tallinn

2011-05-14T16:34:00.001+01:00

A day that started well but ended up causing a few problems!

Since we left Riga yesterday morning, the weather has made a turn for the worse. Today it has been quite cold, 9 degrees, and raining most of the time. The forecast for the next couple of days is more of the same.

The day started well when went we went for a walk through the Old Town. The streets are all quite narrow with many steps climbing uphill to the Russian Orthodox Alexander Nevsky Cathedral and the Lutheran Church. An immediate impression you get of Tallinn is one of colour. Many of the buildings are painted in soft colours like the post office in green and the Parliament in pink.

The streets are a delightful mix of colours and building styles

The Alexander Nevsky Russian Orthodox Church

The Lutheran Evangelical Church.

The castle walls with two of the twenty-six towers and just below you can see the archery targets where tourists were paying 10 Euros to take aim.

Below the walls was this modern statue (2008) of a nude couple.

A short distance on we came to a great viewing point over the city from where you could see the port with Baltic ferries and cruise liners docked. In fact, the city was crowded with passengers from the cruise liners being shown around by guides carrying signs with the ship's name.

Two views, the first showing the port in the distance and the second showing four castle wall towers.

We walked on down towards the car park to get some things out of our car. There we met Eric who was talking to the Tallinn police because his car had been broken into! The nearside front window had been smashed. From an initial search of the car, it appeared that nothing of value had been taken. I got my duct tape out and covered up the window so the car was driveable. A few phone calls later, we located a Land Rover dealer near to the airport. I drove my car to the dealer with Eric following. Unfortunately, they did not have the glass for his car but they very kindly taped a plastic covering over the window so that Eric could see through it, as well as giving some protection from the weather. The repair will have to wait till we get to Helsinki. We just have to hope they have a window in stock.

We drove back to an underground car park outside the Old Town, as we didn't want to leave the cars in the open car park for another night. Hopefully, the cars will not be subject to more vandals. We will know if we are right tomorrow morning!

While we were at the Land Rover dealer, Wendy visited the Holy Spirit Church, the oldest church in Tallinn, which had a beautiful interior with many carvings and paintings.

On her way back to the hotel, Wendy took this photo of the Town Hall and then she noticed, in a small shop window, this collection of wine corks. This photo is especially for our American daughter-in-law who has a collection of corks!!

Tomorrow we catch the 11am ferry to cross the Gulf of Finland to Helsinki and our first visit to Finland, the ninth country of the tour.

Day 10 - Riga, Latvia to Tallinn. Estonia

2011-05-13T21:14:00.001+01:00

The tenth day of the tour and our eighth country visited, Estonia.

With a comparatively short day of just over 300kms, we had plenty of time to visit the Art Nouveau district of Riga. When we did the open bus tour we didn't stop to look at the buildings, so we decided to return and give ourselves some time to admire these wonderful examples of Art Nouveau architecture. We went to Albert Street where there are some very fine buildings in Art Nouveau style.

Here are three buildings which show the incredible detail that went into the design.

The plaque on one of the buildings commemorating Mikhail Eisenstein, the architect.

Some close-ups showing the extraordinary sculptures that adorn the buildings. I was particularly interested in the open-mouthed sculptures. What were they meant to signify?

As we were about to leave, we saw this silver Toyota parked in the street with stickers for a Budapest to Mali rally. Competition for us!! As luck would have it, the driver returned to his car and we talked with him about the event which took place earlier this year. Apparently, over 100 cars went to Africa, which makes our five car event pretty puny by comparison!

We spent about an hour in Albert Street before leaving Riga for a 30km drive north to visit a small town called Carnikava. I had read about this town in a harrowing book called"The Mascot". It is the true story of a Jewish boy who became a mascot for a Nazi death squad in Latvia during the the Second World War. He was then 'adopted' by a Latvian businessman and spent part of the war in Carnikava and that is why I wanted to see the town.

The road sign to Carnikava.

We drove around the town and into the surrounding countryside. We saw a strange-looking yellow brick 'castle' house on the outskirts of the town.

We drove through the woods near Carnikava in an attempt to find the beach where, according to the book, the boy was dressed up in his SS uniform and filmed for a Nazi propaganda film. We never found it!

We left Carnikava and headed north to the border with Estonia, about 100 kms north of Riga. There was no actual sign saying we were entering Estonia, just this strange looking Big Mac sign, with the words 'No Borders'!

Once across the border, we were almost immediately stopped by the police for an ID check.They were very pleasant and after a few questions about our visit to Estonia, they let us go on our way.

The weather had become quite overcast and as we reached Parnu, a town on the Baltic coast, it started to rain more persistently. We had intended meeting Eric and Kenny for lunch in Parnu but, because of the weather, we decided to continue our drive north. The traffic was now getting much heavier, so we turned off the main highway to Tallinn and went across country. Once again we drove on gravel roads but, with the rain which had almost stopped by now, the amount of dust was minimal. At around 1pm we pulled off the road, and had a snack lunch.

Here's Wendy standing on the edge of the gravel road waiting for Eric and Lynn to catch us up.

Next to where we parked was a grove of silver birch trees, which I thought were rather beautiful.

Eric and Lynn did not catch us up as they had taken a different road, so we continued our drive to Tallinn, which we reached at about 4.30pm.

Bob and Kenny had already arrived and Eric turned up a few minutes later. We checked into the Merchant House Hotel, which is right in the centre of the Old Town. Wendy then discovered that the Estonian National Ballet was performing Swan Lake that evening. The artistic director, Thomas Edur, was a principal dancer at the English National Ballet and she had met him and his wife, Agnes Oaks, at their farewell party in London before they returned to live in Estonia. We hurried round to the Opera House, just eight minutes away, and managed to buy two tickets in the back row of the upper tier. We returned to the hotel to change and went back to watch the performance in the evening. It was a huge success.

Tomorrow we have another of our 'rest' days, which gives us time to explore Tallinn, Estonia's capital, before we take the ferry to Helsinki on Sunday. We have now driven over 2,000 miles, more than a third of the total tour.

Day 9 - Riga

2011-05-12T05:35:00.001+01:00

Our day here in Riga was split into two. The morning was spent doing an open bus tour and the afternoon walking the streets of Riga's Old Town.

We walked the short distance to the bus stop and took these photos of the 'Girls on Tour' and then of the ' Old Fogeys!'

The bus stop was next to the Opera House with its manicured flower gardens.

We rode through the streets lined with the famous Riga Art Nouveau buildings, many designed by Mikhail Eisenstein, the son of the famous film maker Sergei Eisenstein, who produced the film Battleship Potemkin. Trying to take photos from the moving bus was not easy, as the photo below will show, so we will come back here and look at the buildings again.

We were amazed to see a virtually identical building to the Palace of Culture in Warsaw. We were told there were seven buildings of this design that were built by a Soviet architect, with the remaining five in Russia. This one housed the Academy of Sciences and was built in the early 1950's.

After about an hour, we stopped at the Town Square where this gaunt-looking statue, so reminiscent of Communist design, commemorated the Fallen from 1915-20.

It stood next to the Museum of Occupation. We spent half an hour in the museum which details the dreadful times from 1940 to 1991 when the Latvians were under both Russian and Nazi occupation. In 1940 the Russians occupied Latvia as their part of the secret German-Russian Pact of 1939, whilst Germany invaded Poland. Hundreds of thousands of Latvians were either deported by Stalin to Siberia, or murdered. Then the Germans invaded and, under the Nazis, the Latvian Jews were murdered by death squads or sent to the death camps.

We returned to the bus and continued the tour seeing, in the distance, the TV tower that became famous in 1991 as a symbol of Latvian resistance to the Soviets. It was surrounded by Soviet troops in an effort to stop the broadcasts from the tower.

We finished the tour and had a snack lunch in one of the small squares close to the hotel. The others then continued their sightseeing individually while we explored on foot. Here is a selection of the places we visited:-

Close to the Opera House is the Freedom Monument. It was built in 1935 and paid for by public donations. Stalin wanted to pull it down but never managed to do so. It is now one of the most revered places in Latvia.

Riga's Lutheran Cathedral which has wonderful stained glass windows.

The cathedral was closed for thirty years during Soviet rule and only opened again in 1989.

Next, we walked to the President's Residence, which is part of Riga Castle dating back to the 14th century.

Finally, we walked to the Town Square to see the House of the Blackheads. They were a society of traders founded in the 14th century. The building was totally renovated in 1999.

We returned to the hotel and met up with Bob & Thelma who had taken one of the small canal boats and gone through the canals and along the Daugava River where the large cruise liners dock.

In the evening, we had a meal at one of the local Latvian restaurants. Unfortunately, the service was dreadfully slow and when the meal was over I made the BIG mistake of querying the bill, as I couldn't understand why a 10% tax charge appeared to be 15%. After much argument, the staff discovered that they had added up the bill incorrectly and the total was in fact about £90 more!!!! In future I'll keep my big mouth well and truly shut!

Tomorrow, we leave Latvia for Estonia, the last of the Baltic States we will be visiting. The tour continues!

Day 8 - Klaipeda to Riga, Latvia

2011-05-11T21:46:00.001+01:00

The start of our second week, heading for our seventh country.

We left our hotel, the Navalis, at about 9.30am for the drive due north along the Lithuanian coast.

As we drove along the coastal route, Wendy read about the one remaining Lithuanian Soviet underground missile site. Apparently all the other sites, which were in Latvia, have been demolished. This one is located in the middle of the Zemaitijos National Park about 80 kilometres from Klaipeda, so we changed our route and drove inland. The roads once again were almost totally free of traffic and, with a cloudless sky, it made for great driving.

We reached the national park and drove through lovely wooded hills and past many azure blue lakes.

As we headed into the park we came across this rather strange sign by the side of the road.

We stopped and read the information plaque that said the sign referred to a giant ash tree which was located just a few yards away. The tree is the largest ash tree in Lithuania!

We hadn't found where the missile site was located but came across the park headquarters. Inside, we met Aousha, a delightful young lady who spoke perfect English and told us all about the missile site. She showed us numerous photos of the site and of the missiles that were housed in four gigantic silos. One interesting fact was that the 179th Rocket Regiment, who manned the site, were used in the deployment of missiles to Cuba! She told us the site was about 10kms back along the road we had just driven along, but suggested that first we should go to a lookout point above Lake Plateliai which gave good views of the park. We drove the short distance and parked. We walked down towards the lake and took some photos.

Nearby were some trees in full bloom and underneath were these lovely white flowers.

We then drove to the missile site which took us about twenty minutes. The last five kilometres was on dusty gravel roads. The site is being renovated and we couldn't go beyond the entrance gates but could clearly see the concrete domes that were slid over each silo to protect the missiles. It was quite an eerie place to visit and brought back memories of the cold war.

Two of the four domes that covered the silos.

We left the site and the park and soon crossed over the border into Latvia. On the way we passed the 3,000 kms point of the tour. You can see we were on one of the gravel sections from the description of the road on the SatNav.

As soon as we were over the border, it became obvious how much poorer this region of Latvia is than Lithuania. We went past many buildings in a dire state of repair and their condition reminded us of houses we saw many years ago in Eastern European countries.

We soon came to a long section of extremely dusty gravel road and each time a car came in the opposite direction, we had to slow down to a virtual stop as we were completely blinded by the dust.

By now, we were getting quite close to Riga and made the decision to drive to the coastal town just to the west of Riga, Jurmala. We parked close to the beach and walked through the pinewoods to the Baltic. Once again we saw beautiful sandy beaches stretching in both directions. Wendy took this photo of a cyclist making his way along the beach.

Wendy looking up at two jackdaws. This one we managed to photograph on the sand before it flew up into the trees.

We stayed about fifteen minutes and then drove the final 20kms into Riga, arriving about 4.30pm.

We met up with the others who had each taken different routes to Riga. We exchanged stories over a great meal in a small restaurant, a fitting way to end another wonderful day on this Baltic adventure.

Bob, waiting for us as we were leaving the restaurant.

We have two nights here, so tomorrow will be devoted to sightseeing, which will mean a restful day for us all.

Day 7 - Vilnius to Klaipeda

2011-05-10T19:59:00.001+01:00

Our stay in the capital, Vilnius, was always to be one night, which meant we had only a couple of hours to walk through the old town and visit some of the main sites.

We said goodbye to Ali and Gos at breakfast as they would be heading, with Ahmad and Reza, to Riga and then on to Tallinn and Helsinki, while we went to Klaipeda. We will be sorry not to have them adding their fun and humour to the group.

Here is our hotel in Vilnius, the Hotel Artis.

Next door was this imposing government ministry building.

Our walk through the old part of Vilnius took us past the university and then the Presidential Palace.

A short distance on, we came to the city cathedral with its tall bell tower.

We went inside the cathedral and two things caught my eye. The first was the beautiful organ, in the organ loft high above the nave.

The second was a small side chapel that had the most magnificent domed ceiling as well as some milagros, charms left by the faithful who believe they have healing powers. They reminded Wendy of similar milagros she had seen in El Paso, Texas.

Outside the cathedral is the monument to Grand Duke Gediminas. He stands there with a sword in his hands alongside his horse. He is credited with founding Lithuania in the 14th century.

We then walked through the narrow streets of the city, past the Town Hall to the Gates of Dawn. The gate is the only one remaining from the original walled city and is revered by devout Catholics, who cross themselves every time they walk through. There is a small chapel above the gate and when we were there a service was being conducted.

The Town Hall

The Gates of Dawn

We returned to our car and drove out of the city heading for Kaunas, the second largest city in Lithuania. Wendy had sung with her choir in Kaunas a few years ago and wanted to see the city again. On the way, we went past a sign to Trakai which was once the country's capital. It is renowned for its castle which has been fully restored. So we made the 10kms detour, which turned out to be well worthwhile. The castle, which sits on its own island, is very beautiful, so much so that it is often described as Disney-like.

We spent about an hour in Trakai and then drove on to Kaunas about 60 kms away. We went to the old town and tried to find some of the places Wendy wanted to see again, unfortunately without much success! One of the statues in the centre of Kaunas.

We left Kaunas and took the motorway to Klaipeda, about 200kms to the west. On the way we saw this sign to Kaliningrad, the Russian enclave that lies between Lithuania and Poland on the Baltic.

Wendy was reading in one of our travel guides about the Curonian Spit, the very long sand bar that stretches south from Klaipeda to Kaliningrad with the border between the two countries running through the Spit. We thought we should visit the Spit today as it is south of Klaipeda and tomorrow we head north to Riga. When we arrived in Klaipeda, we discovered that we needed to take a ferry across to the Spit. We were in luck, as there was a ferry about to leave and after paying 42 Litas (4.5/£) we boarded the ferry for the 10 minute crossing.

We disembarked and drove south through dense pine woods that seem to run all along the Spit. We were tight on time as we wanted to catch the 6.30pm ferry, so we had to turn round without finding the famed beaches of the Spit. We were very disappointed as we drove the 40kms back to the ferry. Just before the terminal, Wendy saw a track leading into the woods and so we turned off the road to see where it would lead. Within half a mile we came to the sand dunes at the beach. We couldn't believe our luck as we climbed the dunes and saw the Baltic with a stupendous sandy beach stretching in both directions as far as you could see.

We spent about twenty minutes at the beach before returning to the car and a mad dash to the ferry terminal to catch the 6.30pm sailing. We made it with 2 minutes to spare!

Back in Klaipeda, we drove the 4kms to the Navalis Hotel, where the others had already checked in.

Another great day and tomorrow we enter our seventh country of the drive, Latvia.