Day 22
We left Alesund, rather reluctantly. It does look like a really interesting place to visit. Maybe we’ll return on a cruise ship!
We drove out, looking for somewhere where we could catch up with some of our washing, as the pile was getting larger by the day. We had noticed a campsite on the way in, so thought we’d try there. It was a good find! Eight pounds allowed us to do 2 loads of washing and some time with the tumble dryer, plus emptying our loo. We could have done with the tumble dryer, but Lyn was keen to get on the road, so we dried our bedding and resorted to Harvey looking like a Chinese laundry for a day or two. It’s amazing where you can hang things when you need to.
Now there is a place in Norway called Hell. We were going nowhere near it on this holiday (even though it would have made for a good blog post!), but today I was definitely going to my idea of hell. Of course my idea of hell is Lyn’s idea of heaven; up into the mountains on horrible switch back roads.
Lyn was desperate to visit the Trollstigen. The Trollstigen is one of the most famous scenic routes in Norway. It’s basically a single track road that winds its way up over the mountain with a 10% gradient. It’s very busy and not for the faint hearted as buses and cars queue up to pass with inches to spare. Now, as those of you who know me will know I have a crazy fear of heights. I have even been known to have total panic attacks in such situations ( Mount Washington, USA!!). I was very definitely not looking forward to this.
The drive started pleasantly enough, with a viewing point looking up at the two massive waterfalls that come crashing down. We could see the switchbacks, and the traffic on them on the head wall. It was monstrous. Gulp.
We were soon stuck in a jam; two buses needed to pass, but there was a little white car in no man’s land stuck between them. He couldn’t go forward or back. The bus driver got out to advise him. I could only give thanks it wasn’t me!
We eventually started moving, and I tried to keep focus by taking photos with Lyn’s big camera; It’s not so scary when you are looking with one eye through a lens. We inched up and up towards the top. Lyn was in his element!
Once we got to the top I was fine. There was a massive car park with many many tour buses, plus a gift shop with everything Troll related! We didn’t go in. We followed the walk ways, along with everyone else, to the viewing platforms. These are another amazing Norwegian feat of engineering, where you can stand and look out (and down, through the open part!) You are jutting out into space, looking down over 200m to the road! The views were amazing, it’s hard to do them justice with photos.
We left the Troll road and took the quieter road over the other side; the Ornevesgen or Eagle’s Nest. There were still many switch backs, but not so much traffic this time. As Lyn is on the wrong side of the van for driving I have to look left for him on every hairpin, so I can’t keep my eyes shut like I wanted!
We dropped like a stone towards the famous Geiranger, stopping to look out at a high viewpoint. Geirainger is one of those picture perfect villages, nestled at the head of the 20km long Geirangerfjord, and a classic for cruise liners to dock. There was a smallish German cruise ship in, and we watched it leave at 6pm.
We headed up and out of Geiranger, being stunned by flashing views of stunning waterfalls and a tumbling river cutting its way through the rock to the distant fjord as we travelled. We headed higher and higher up into the mountains, where it became increasingly barren. We found a tiny track at the very top and stopped to camp for the night in a clearing with a couple of other vans; just under a glacier. Lyn was in heaven. No phone signal at all for the first time this holiday.
We woke in our wilderness camping spot, having had a very windy night, and I do mean outside the van in case you were wondering! The wind was so strong it had blown our neighbour’s big canoe away from his T5.
We left to begin the very very long drive to Oslo. We had both been dreading this as it meant a return to busy roads, and the E6 all the way in.
As it happens, we followed an amazing river for hours. We stopped several times to cross the river Otta on little bridges by foot. I’ve never seen such an active river; there were so many waterfalls. The water was the clearest river water I’ve ever seen, and varied from rushing and tumbling over rocks into a huge serene deep turquoise lake.
Eventually, however, we had to leave the lovely scenery behind and head into urban territory. It was a huge 6.5 hour drive for Lyn, and we were glad to get into the campsite. As it is a capital city we had resigned ourselves to having to pay for a campsite, and there is only one really in Oslo. We ended up getting here at 6.30pm, and paid a whopping 92 pounds to stay here for two nights. Wow. That stings after so many free nights!
We pitched up and relaxed, and then headed out to search for the Sommeroya festival that was nearby to us. This is one of Oslo’s electronic music festivals, and we could hear the bass clearly from Harvey. We walked out of our camping field and straight into the Ekebergparken sculpture park adjacent to us.
We followed our ears and found our way to the boundary fences of the concert, and watched for free. We weren’t going to pay 120 pounds each to get in! We watched for a while then went off to explore the sculpture park. Lyn and I both enjoy looking at sculptures and wondering what they mean, and how the heck the artist got their inspiration; drugs, alcohol, both?
This park was fabulous. We loved stumbling across the sculptures dotted where you would not expect to see them. There was a Damien Hirst “Anatomy of an Angel” standing by the sides of some massive ornamental steps that had been part of a German military cemetery until the powers that be had the graves removed and sent elsewhere in 1952.
The most creepy sculpture was of a giant woman, frozen in a walking stance right in the middle of the path. As you walked towards her you could tell, there was something not quite right, and felt as if someone was watching you! Her height made her Lyn’s ideal woman!
Other sculptures included a silver swirly couple hanging cuddling from the trees, and one very weird one called “The Traveller”.
Back to the van now, listening to the bass whilst dinner is cooking, and the van is rattling. We passed at eating at the little café in the campsite, where a takeaway pizza would have set us back 22 pounds each.
We are going into Oslo tomorrow, so that should be a fun filled expensive day!
Day 24
Today was going to be a busy day exploring Oslo, so of course, for the first time, the weather forecast was actually accurate and we had rain all day. Not just any old rain but that rain that varies from fine drizzle to heavy downpours. Great!
We walked through the sculpture park to get to our nearest tram stop. On the way we encountered our strangest sculpture yet. It was called Deep Cream Maradona, and shall we just say it is not a sculpture for the faint hearted or prudish of nature! I’ll let the picture speak for itself!
We got to the tram and got on, ready to start our day. We had opted to buy Oslo Passes for 24 hours, as this gave us access to all public transport in Oslo, and entrance to many of the museums. It cost us about 80 pounds for the two of us, so we had to get our monies worth.
We got out of the tram at the main station, and onto a bus. The bus was quite crowded, which was only to be expected as it was a Saturday, and it was the bus headed towards the museums. I pushed on and sat on the only seat available, and Lyn squashed in next to me. Shame it was a seat for one! Cosy!
We went as far as we could and got off at the Fram museum. This is a museum I was keen to see as it was all about polar exploration, and especially Amundsen’s exploits. The key exhibits there are Polar boats Fram and Gjøa, which are the world’s most famous polar exploration ships. The museum was quite cool, although a lot of the display boards were on the walls, which made it difficult to read them as people stood in front of you, or walked in front. I managed to harness up and pull 300kg, which is essential if you want to pull an arctic expedition sled (I don’t). Not sure how long I could pull it for though! I also got to go into an igloo, and into a polar simulator, which was cool as I was having a flush!
By far the best exhibit though, is the Fram ship itself. You get to actually go on it and inside it, which I hadn’t expected. It was surreal looking inside at Amundsen’s little cabin, and the way they lived on board. They had planned for 3-5 years on board, and food and leisure activities were given as much thought as scientific equipment. They had loads of food, and nobody lost weight or had scurvy. They had a library of over 600 books, paintings by prominent artists in the saloon, and an organ!
It was interesting, being British, to see the Norwegian side of the race to the pole between Scott and Amundsen.
From there we crossed the road to a museum about another famous Norwegian explorer, Thor Heyerdahl, who crossed the 8000km across the Pacific in 1947 on a hand built raft called the Kon Tiki, from South America to the Tuamotu Islands to prove his thesis right. He believed that indigenous South American people were the first to populate Polynesia. When no one would listen to him he felt his only option was to prove it himself, despite him having a fear of water and not being a very good swimmer! It took him and his 5 man crew 101 days of open seas to prove them wrong.
He subsequently made an unsuccessful first attempt sailing from Morocco to Barbados in a reed boat, before a second journey on the Ra 11 succeeded.
Heyerdahl is one of the true adventurers of our time, and devoted to global peace. One of his famous quotes is “Borders? I have never seen one. But I have heard they exist in the minds of some people.”
Leaving there, we caught a bus to the Viking museum, where we were met with a huge line of people queuing in the pouring rain. Luckily our Oslo Pass meant we could bypass the line and go straight in. We were met by a massive Viking burial ship on display, one of three in the museum. I hadn’t expected to be quite so awe struck by it. It was beautiful in its simplicity.
These three ships had been at sea for several years before they were pulled ashore and used as burial ships. The dead were put in burial chambers built on board, and were then buried with generous supplies of food and drink, various animals and other objects.
The Oseburg ship was used as a grave ship for two women, while Gokstad and Tune served as burial ships for men. Incredibly, the bones of these skeletons are on display. Again, like in the Vasa Museum in Stockholm I was fascinated with these skeletons. These ships were built around 820-910, and not excavated until the late 1800s. These skeletons had lain undisturbed for 1000 years and are now viewed daily by thousands of people. One of the female skulls still has teeth intact, and experts can tell she used a metal toothpick. Wow.
From there we caught a very crowded bus back into the centre and went for food. We ended up in an Asian restaurant on the seafront, where we had a fantastic meal. A one course dinner and a cocktail for me came to 53 pounds, which was better than we had anticipated. My mojito was amazing…..it came with a lemon ice lolly in it!
We had to rush from food up to the Munch Museum, where I wanted to see The Scream. Again, we bypassed the wet queue and went straight in. The Scream is the main exhibit there, and it was interesting to see that it had actually been stolen from the museum in 1994, along with another of his paintings Madonna, when security was very lax. The thieves walked in, held a gun to the museum guard’s head, cut the wires and walked out! They even dropped the painting on the way out!! The paintings were recovered two years later, and if you look carefully you can see water damage from the robbery in the corner of the painting. Security is much tighter today, with a guard standing right next to it, defying anyone to cross the line around it.
By now, I was flagging a bit. I had managed to pull something in my knee when kneeling down to shoot something in the Fram museum (not a museum guard, but a hunting simulation!). My knee was getting steadily worse, but we wanted to see the famous Oslo Opera House, so I hobbled on. The Opera House has a very unusual shape and is right at the head of the Oslo Fjord. It was opened in 2008 and is reminiscent of a glacier floating in the fjord waters. It is one of the most iconic buildings in Scandinavia. We walked up the sloping paths to walk on the roof, and take in the rainy view over Oslo, before catching a bus back to the campsite and a well earned chill out. We are now waiting for the techno music from the festival to stop at 11pm before bed!
Day 25
Today was to be our last day in Oslo so we were out of bed early to make the most of it. We raced down through the sculpture park, to catch a tram to…… the other sculpture park!
I had been looking forward to this, and so had Lyn. We were going to the Vigeland Sculpture Park, which only has sculptures by the artist Vigeland. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but had read that they were the “weirdest sculptures in the world” according to the Daily Mail. We got there at about 9.06am and there were already 11 coach loads of Japanese tourists there. I kid you not. 11 coach loads!
We wandered in through the main entrance, and could see the famous monolith ahead at the centre of the park. We walked through an avenue of sculptures and I immediately fell in love; hence many many photos. Sorry not sorry.
There are more than 200 sculptures in the park, and it’s the largest sculpture park in the world by a single sculptor. The sculptures are in bronze and granite and all consist of naked human figures, in a huge variety of poses and situations; from fighting, to cuddling, to playing etc. I found them quite beautiful, although they left Lyn completely cold!
Here are some of my favourites.
The monolith at the centre is made out of a single huge piece of granite, 46 feet tall, covered with 121 human figures, all fighting their way to the top.
The park is as peaceful as it could be, with the many tourists there, plus the joggers etc. I’d love to go back if we ever return, and I will definitely find out more about Vigeland as his work made such an impression on me.
From there we caught another tram to see the Royal Palace. This was quite similar to Stockholm’s palace, and again quite open to the public in lovely grounds. It was strange to see female guards on sentry duty, happily chatting to tourists.
From there we went on the search for a proper cup of coffee, as opposed to the many chains like Starbucks and Expresso House. Lyn found us one just behind City Hall, a wonderful little vegetarian café, with the utterly fabulous name “The Fragrance of the Heart”. They had fantastic raw/vegan cakes there, so Lyn had a coffee with a raw caramel slice, whilst I had an iced coconut milk latte with a coconut cream slice. It was all lovely, and set us back 19 pounds. Gulp! The Inside of the café was filled with books etc about Sri Chinmoy, and a huge photo of him. Lyn had no idea who he was, and asked whether he had anything to do with the café. Shamed! (He was an Indian spiritual leader if you have no idea either!!)
We were quite close to the final museum we wanted to visit. The Norwegian Resistance Museum cost us about 5.50 each to get in, but it was well worth it. It is housed in a German WW2 fortress on the seafront, and at first glance looked tiny. When we got inside we realised it was mostly underground. (No pun intended!!)
I had been doing some reading last night as I realised I knew next to nothing about the Norwegian Royal family, and whilst reading I had come across some really interesting facts. (Well, to me anyway, you might disagree!)
The King of Norway at the time of WW2 was Kong Haakan. When the Germans invaded Norway on 9th April 1940 they planned to capture the king and government in order to force the country to surrender.
The German heavy cruiser Bucher sailed into the Oslofjord in the early hours of April 9th, but was sunk by cannons and torpedoes, with the loss of 1300 men. This gave the royal family and government time to flee before the occupying forces reached Oslo. The King headed north. The next day he met with the German envoy. The Germans demanded the government step down and the King appoint a government headed by nazi sympathiser Vidkun Quisling.
The king felt he could not comply with this, and would rather abdicate. The government supported his decision and maintained its oppositional stance. It was soon clear that Norway could not withstand the German forces and the allies withdrew, leaving King Haakan with a difficult choice. He decided to leave the country with Crown Prince Olaf and the government, and form a government in exile in Britain. For the next 5 years he became the symbol of the Norwegian people’s will to fight for a free Norway. Crown Princess Martha and her three children crossed the border into neutral Sweden and stayed with her Swedish family until they travelled to the US in August at the invitation of President Roosevelt. The Royal family returned to Norway to huge crowds 5 years later at the end of the war.
We both loved the museum, which told the story of the resistance movement in Norway throughout the war. Lyn loved the strategy information and I loved the human stories.
It was time for lunch then, and we walked to find what Trip Advisor had called “Oslo’s best burgers”, on the seafront. A burger each, with one portion of fries and one of onion rings cost us 39 pounds, which was better than we thought. No drinks; we made do with water!
It was time to catch the tram and bus back to the camp site then, ready to leave Oslo on the 7.30pm Stena ferry to Frederikshavn, Denmark.
Day 26
We drove onto the ferry, and dropped our bags off in our cell block. We had brought our ferry forward from next Friday, so the only room available to us was a disabled room on the 4th floor; low enough to hear the engine noise, and with two narrow single beds.
Lyn had booked us a buffet dinner on the ferry, but we were pretty anxious about this after reading the awful reviews. Our sitting was 7.30-9pm, just as the ship sailed, so we quickly made our way to the 8th floor to the restaurant, where we joined a chaotic queue, full of hungry Germans with their elbows out to stop anyone getting past them. Lyn left me in the queue and tried to find out what the procedure was. He came back with a slip of paper saying we were table 101. He had paid extra for a window table, and we were so glad he had, as we had a fabulous view out of the huge windows at the front of the boat as we sailed out of the Oslofjord. We went through the narrowest part of the fjord as Lyn plotted our journey on his phone.
The food was pretty much as I’d expected; canteen food and hungry hordes fighting for it. I didn’t eat much, but Lyn did okay out of it. We went back to our cell and tried to sleep until our 6.30am call, ready to embark at 7.30am.
Neither of us slept well, and we were exhausted as we drove off. Luckily we were near the front, so amongst the first. The people in the car next to us had not returned to their vehicle as we drove off; so I bet the huge line behind them was happy!
This was the first time for both of us to Denmark, so we celebrated the best way we knew how; by visiting a Danish supermarket! I was pleased to see a huge pick n mix selection, although on closer inspection the selection was not to my standard. They did, however, have plastic gloves to scoop the sweets, rather than the usual plastic shovel. They also had the world’s largest marzipan bar, although I managed to resist that, mainly due to price! Lyn stocked up on beer, and we got bread, milk, and a cheeky little Danish pastry each for breakfast.
Our first stop was right at the end of Denmark, in a town called Skagen. Now, I own two Skagen watches, and love them for their classic Scandinavian simple designs. I was horrified, however, to find out I have been pronouncing the name wrong all these years. It’s not Skah-gen, it’s Skayne! Who knew!
We drove right to the northernmost point of Jutland and Denmark, a place called Grenen. Before we could do anything we both needed a nana nap. This lasted about 2 hours! We had to pay for parking, which was a first this holiday, using an incredibly complicated machine that kept debiting money from Lyn’s bank card every hour!
When we woke, the heaven’s opened, so we sat it out, waiting for a break in the weather to go for a walk. This area is quite a tourist draw, as it’s where 2 seas visibly collide. Grenen is a spit formation made up of deposited sand and gravel carried along by the strong currents caused by the 2 seas. The spit is 30km long; one of the largest in the world, and is constantly moving.
There were loads of people walking along the spit to see the waves at the famous point, and the sun came out. There were also WW2 German bunkers to see, and a cute little baby seal, although it was upsetting to see people ignoring the signs to keep 50m back.The baby seal went from sleeping to looking quite stressed.
We drove back into Skagen town and parked up on the harbour. More car parking fees, but we will stay here the night. Lyn was in his element watching the boats come and go. There are some huge ones here. One did a 3 point turn better than I can in my car!
We walked a few minutes into town; just one or two streets really, but all very chilled and very nice in the sunshine. We had an ice cream and headed back to the harbour to eat in one of the little fish restaurants there. Lyn has been desperate to have fish soup, so that is what he enjoyed, whereas my fish and chips was not exactly what I was hoping for. Looked more like Captain Bird’s Eye than the locally caught big bubbly battered cod that I was hoping for! One beer, the soup and the fish n chips set us back 39 pounds. They even charged us $3.50 for the extra small bread roll Lyn had with his soup!
We came back to the van and chilled out watching the harbour life. We both need a few quiet days; it’s been a hectic holiday!
Day 27
So the plan today was to drive about two and a half hours and visit Aarhus, Denmark’s second biggest city after Copenhagen. Lyn had looked online for a place to stay free overnight, and we got there easily enough and found a spot in the car park, right opposite the ferry terminal.
We waited for the showers to dry off, and then the sun came out and it got quite warm. We walked the 15 minutes or so into Aarhus centre and had a mooch around. The centre was quite relaxed and pleasant. There were lots of shops, including H & M and Superdry. I wasn’t allowed to go in, as a result of expensive Danish prices!
Our main reason for visiting here was to take a look at the AroS Art Museum. This is one place where you get to walk in a rainbow. How could I resist?
Before we could walk the rainbow we had to sample the coffee shop/bar and have a drink as we were gasping! The coffee bar was typically trendy Scandi style, with prices to match. Lovely to look at, but the chairs were not really meant to sit in for long!
The rainbow panorama sits on top of the multi story museum and is visible from all over the city. It is a 150m long circular walkway 50m above the ground on the roof. It offers spectacular views all over Aarhus and the bay beyond in all the colours of the rainbow. It was so simple, but yet mesmerising. I couldn’t stop taking photos, and turned into a real selfie whore, imaging myself in an Andy Warhol collage!
We started at the eighth floor at the top of the museum then, to work our way down. The top floor was mainly modern art and didn’t interest us so much.
Another floor was based on “home” and what it means to different people. My favourite exhibit there was the exhibit based on homeless placards from around the world. They were usually on torn bits of cardboard, yet exhibited in fancy gold frames. I found them quite poignant.
The most famous exhibit in the museum is that of “Boy” by the Australian artist Ron Mueck. Boy stands 5 metres tall and weighs 500kg. He is incredibly detailed, and his size is reinforced by mirrors everywhere. His expression is hard to read. Is he scared? Upset? He was incredible!
There also happened to be an exhibit on “Art & Porn” on one of the levels. Denmark legalised porn in the 1960’s, and coincidentally kicked off the whole porn movement in Europe. This was a must see; although I took no photos. Sorry about that lol!Lyn, however, took one photo of a live porn wall, which was a montage of thousands of porn films. It was a little strange to watch! This exhibition is not an easy one to describe, for obvious reasons, but let’s just say it was extremely explicit and had lots of “wtf” moments! The art film on pornography from Balkan history had to be seen to be believed. Lyn and I will forever have an in joke about fishes inserted into orifices and coffee now. Don’t ask anymore!! Seriously, don’t ask!
We carried on throughout the museum, scarred forever, until we had seen it all. It was time to walk along the evening streets, along the river. There were loads of Danes out walking and chatting, and sitting outside in the riverside restaurants eating and drinking, so we thought “what the hell” and joined them in a lovely Italian.
Feeling full we walked back to the van to chill for the rest of the evening, and our final night in Denmark, before the next part of our holiday.
Day 28
Bye bye Denmark, and hello Germany! Just a quick blog post tonight, as today was mainly about travelling through Denmark to get to the German border so we can SHOP!
Oh yes, shop! We found a supermarket just over the border. This supermarket was bigger than Wales. Seriously. It was massive. You can see that it is clearly used by Scandinavians chasing cheaper alcohol and sweets. I’ve never seen so many aisles of chocolates and sweets. The alcohol section was like a whole supermarket in its own right, with its own checkouts. Reading the reviews of it beforehand I read one from a man who travels 300km each way once a month just to do his shopping here!
After stocking up on German beer for Lyn, and a few essentials, we were back on the road. We drove over a bridge over the Kiel Ship Canal which artificially dissects the whole Danish peninsula shortcutting ships routes from the Baltic to the North Sea. This excited Lyn, but not me!
We were heading down to the River Elbe, which meant we bypassed Hamburg and its awful traffic problems. The River Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe, over 1000km long, flowing from the Czech Republic through Germany and into the North Sea.
Lyn found us an amazing camping spot for the night, right on its banks. The river is calm and peaceful, and absolutely vast. Lyn is in his element watching the huge container ships go past. We had a barbecue and watched the sunset. It was good to take some time out to kick back and chill outside, especially as it was my perfect temperature of 21 degrees!
Day 29
We were sorry to leave this lovely peaceful sunny field on the banks of the Elbe, but it was time to move on.
We had decided to try and bypass the horrendous Hamburg traffic by taking a different route; one that involved crossing the River Elbe by ferry, from Gluckstadt to Wischaven. The crossing only takes 20 minutes, but the queue can build up and it can take a while to get on. We waited about an hour, but were then on the open ferry, sandwiched between all the big lorries. The tide was out, so docking the other side was interesting; it looked like we were in inches of water!
The travelling in Germany was quite relaxed; lots of open, rural, farming countryside, with the agricultural smells to match! My phone signal here was often non-existent; surprising really when I always had coverage in the most remote islands in Norway. The countryside made up for it though, with lots of tree lined roads.
We were heading towards the Naval town of Wilhelmshaven, and got there after a few hours. Wilhelmshaven is a town on the Jade Bright on the North Sea coast of Germany. It is the proud owner of Germany’s only south facing beach; the Sudstrand, and we ended up finding a fabulous paying car park right on the bank above it, with huge spaces for motorhomes. We had an endless unobstructed 180 degree view out to sea, and the sun was shining.
We had a minor battle with the pay & display machine, as it didn’t like either of our debit cards, despite one of them being from a Dutch bank. A little old man stopped to help us, and tried for ages, despite him not speaking English, or us speaking German! We eventually ended up putting all our euros into it, but that wasn’t enough to pay for 24 hours, so we knew we had to go out and get more change. Hmmmm, maybe we needed to go out for a drink??
We went onto the prom, and walked and walked. We walked towards what Wilhelmsaven is famous for…and the reason we were here! It is the home of the German Naval Museum, and three of its biggest exhibits are displayed outside. The missile destroyer Molders is huge, with its 40m mast, and that is moored alongside the mine hunter Weilheim. We could also see the submarine U10. Lyn was looking forward to spending a few hours here tomorrow!
We walked over the impressive Kaiser Wilheim Bridge and then stopped for a drink on one of the waterside bars. We sat on bean bags and watched the sun set, clutching our all important euros!
Day 31.
Den Helder certainly looked like a nice place to explore! We got up and went out for a walk to do just that. We walked past some of the historic ships in the harbour, and then crossed the busy road to the dike. The road was so busy with traffic; then we realised that it was all the cars going to the ferry to the offshore island of Texel.
We would have liked to visit Texel but just didn’t have the time just now. It is the biggest of the Wadden islands and looks fantastic with over 30km of sandy beaches.
We could see the beaches of Texel across the water from the top of the dike. The view just went on forever. The long flat paths of the dike made it so popular for walking, cycling and running. There were loads of people out enjoying the sunshine, but it never got busy.
We turned inland after our dike walk and looked for somewhere for breakfast. Even though Den Helder is a bustling port town, the actual town centre was very quiet, with many places not opening till 12pm, despite it being a Saturday.
We walked back near our camping spot and went to one of the waterfront places we had drunk at last night. They were just opening up at 10am and we were the first ones there. We sat outside in the sunshine, and ordered our breakfast. Oh boy! It was our favourite breakfast of the holiday. I had a cheese and onion toastie which was heart shaped, with an iced coffee with a salted caramel bottom. Lyn’s farmer’s omelette was huge and really tasty. We also had tiny Dutch liqueurs with whipped cream as a free extra. I was gutted we were leaving! I wanted lunch and dinner there!
We headed off again in Harvey, knowing our holiday was nearly at an end. Lyn found us another fab place to chill for a couple of hours, on a grass bank above the sea. There was a tiny little beach, filled with people, and we spent a few happy hours there, reading and chilling, watching the boats and jetskis in the water.
We were in Zeeland now in the Netherlands, which has got a fascinating coastal history. In reality, the Netherlands is not meant to be built on; one third is under sea level and the other two thirds liable to flooding. The Dutch have had to become world experts in keeping the water at bay in order to live. We found ourselves chilling on one of the dikes on the Deltaworks,
The Deltaworks has been declared one of the wonders of the modern engineering world. It is a series of construction projects in the southwest of the Netherlands to protect a large area of land around the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta from the sea. The works consist of dams, sluices, locks, dykes, levees, and storm surge barriers.
The aim is to shorten the Dutch coastline, reducing the number of dikes that had to be raised. Major areas to be protected from flooding are identified. The cost of flooding is assessed using a statistical model involving damage to property, lost production, and a given amount per human life lost. For the purpose of the model, a human life is valued at €2.2 million.
We knew we couldn’t stay, however, due to the Dutch camping rules, so we had to find a campsite. We ended up in the overspill car park of a large campsite nearby. It was like the village of the damned! We had a little old guy who kept walking really close to our van back and forth all the time, plus a big guy in another van who kept blocking cars in with his motorbike so he could get them to move and he could then move his van into their space. He did this several times! He then parked up right next to us (of course he did!), and made friends with the people in the van opposite.. They all then proceeded to drink together and look at us, before eventually he went back to his van and started singing across to his new friends, who then responded in song back! And on and on it went… It was a long night!
Day 32
As usual, it’s days after our return, and I’m sat in the living room trying to finish off my blog. The washing has all been done, the van cleaned and the house is now back to normal. What is there left to do but finish off the blog and start to plan for next year?
We knew our last day was going to be a long one, so we deliberately planned some chill time. We left the camp site from hell, and drove back the way we had come. Lyn found his way onto one of the dike roads, and we drove out onto a fishing pier type road which was quiet and surrounded by water. There was no one in sight, and it was just utterly peaceful. I managed to get into my bikini for the first time this holiday and we pulled the chairs out and chilled for a few hours with our kindles. It must have looked as if we had quarrelled as I was sitting at the front of the van in the sunshine, and Lyn was at the back of the van in the shade.
We enjoyed this, and reluctantly pulled ourselves back into reality to start the long drive home. The drive from the Netherlands to Calais took us about 4 hours and we reached Calais in plenty of time for our 7.50pm crossing. Yeah right! The Eurotunnel in August was it’s usual chaos, and we waited over an hour to check in, then they were turning vehicles away as there was no room in the car park. We eventually got on with about 90 minutes delay, then faced the sad ride back home, getting back home at about 2.30am Bank Holiday morning.
So, how would we sum up our holiday? From my perspective it was much better than anticipated. I really hadn’t fancied Norway, but was blown away by the sheer beauty of the place. My biggest memories will be of the colour of the sea and just how clear it was. The beaches were beautiful and if it wasn’t for the absence of Bob Marley music and palm trees you could have felt you were in the Caribbean. I also enjoyed the cities; Stockholm and Oslo were beautiful, with amazing public transport systems and both very clean and safe. I loved the museums and art galleries in both.
The biggest drawbacks for me were two fold; the sheer distances involved and hence time spent in the van, and the expense of food, drinks etc. We ended up driving 5,011 miles, which is a bloody long way. There is no easy way to get there, as there are no ferries to Norway from the UK, so you are faced with a big drive through Europe to start with, then a long ferry ride, then another long drive to get to Northern Norway. The Norwegian roads are also not good; they are not fast and tend to be single carriageway and can be expensive with tolls. We will be billed for them in about a month, and a van of our size can cost 2-3 times the price of a car. We did absolutely the right thing in driving there through Sweden.There were many many tunnels, some very scary, plus many ferries, which were fun. We had been anticipating heavy food expenses, so had filled our van with staples such as pasta, tins, pizza bases, cereal, snacks etc, so we only had to buy the basics such as bread, milk, butter etc., and meat occasionally. Lyn also had to have his daily sausage at about 7 pounds a time! I would never want to fly into Norway and stay in hotels and eat out, as it’s not my type of food (fermented herring??) and very expensive with not much choice. We drunk less alcohol than in any previous holiday, as we mainly drunk what we took.
My biggest regret, however, is that we didn’t spend enough time in the places that we loved. We were on a road trip with a schedule to keep to, so we were always mindful of keeping on track. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and if we had known that our favourite places were to be in Senja and the Lofotens, we would have stayed there longer, and not pushed on so fast. You never know what is around the corner, so the tendency is to keep on going. We could definitely have left off the last day of the Atlantic Coast road. If I had to pick out one standout place on our trip, it would definitely be Uttakleiv Beach. Lyn had seen Uttakleiv Beach in video of a man with his drone over the beach, and had ear marked it as one we had to go to. I am so glad he did as it’s such a special place, and I’m sad I’ll never get back there. We may get back to Norway in the future, but it will be on a Fjord Cruise, or more to Southern Norway. We probably won’t go back to Finland, unless we do a Northern Lights trip, or a city break to Helsinki, but we will definitely definitely return to Sweden. We are planning it right now!
Some stats from our trip;
- 8 countries visited
- 5 different currencies
- 32 nights away
- 8 nights camp sites, 24 nights wild camping
- 5,011 Miles driven
- 1338 pounds Fuel cost
- 21 fuel stops
- 15 ferries
- Countless tunnels
- Too many pounds of pick n mix and definitely too many sausages!
- No arguments!!
Rate my drive for Lyn 10/10
Dwti Draig 
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