Category: Northern Europe – Aug-Oct 2024

In the Fall of 2024 we visit Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Germany and the Netherlands.

Pello Day 2

We had a lovely restful day today at the guest house we are staying at near Pello, Sweden on the Torne River.

This morning we went for an amazing walk in the forest around where we are staying. I have never experienced an environment such as this Lapland Forest before. The ground was like walking on pillows. Everything was covered in deep moss.

There were many many mushrooms of many many varieties. We saw blueberries and lingonberries. We learned all sorts of interesting things but the best thing about the walk was that our Finnish friends Sinikka and Pekka knew all about Finnish nature and showed us so many things we wouldn’t have seen otherwise.

Pekka with a Mushroom
Mushroom
Sinikka explaining this poison mushroom
Lingonberries

We also learned about a Nordic building called a Lavvu that is essentially an indoor fire pit. It’s too bad we didn’t have some sausages to cook for lunch.

A Lavvu
Inside the Lavvu
The 6 of us by the river

Kiruna to Pello

This morning we caught a city bus to the bus stop in the old part of Kiruna. We were right across from the church that they are in the process of moving to New Kiruna. The city bus ride was good because we got to see many of the homes in the new town.

A new Kiruna house
The old church that is being moved.

About 1:30 we boarded the bus to Pajala. It was a nice drive. The countryside reminded me of Northern Wisconsin or Minnesota. At one point we saw a reindeer cross in front of the bus.We are definitely in Lapland.

Reindeer crossing the road in front of our bus.

When we arrived in Pajala we were were met by Roger and Gayle’s friends and the lady from the house we are staying at in Pello. They drove us to the house.

The house where the 6 of us are staying
Dinner

After dinner we walked down to the river. The other side of the river is Finland.

Finland is on the other side of the river

Narvik, Norway to Kiruna, Sweden

We got off the Havila Polaris on Thursday in Finnsnes and took the bus to Narvik where we spent Thursday and Friday nights. This morning we took a train 3 hours and 20 minutes east and a bit south to Kiruna, Sweden.

Our route from the coast of Norway to Kiruna Sweden

The train ride today was beautiful and fascinating. Much of it was along the fjords and through the mountains. Before we arrived in Kiruna we came out of the mountain into pretty much flat land.

On the train
Through the mountains
More of our view from the train

Kiruna, where we are tonight is home to Europes largest iron ore mine. The town itself is being moved because the enormous mine under the old town put the town in danger of sinking into the ground. Our train arrived in old Kiruna and we took a taxi to our hotel in new Kiruna.

Kiruna train station
The view from the train station
Our hotel – Scandic Kiruna
The view from the hotel window

For dinner we walked to a nearby restaurant. The guy at the door told us it was a fast food restaurant. We ordered at the counter and picked up our food when our number came up.

Spill restaurant where we ate dinner
Inside Spill restaurant
My pasta with reindeer meat and loganberries
Duke’s seafood pasta

We are currently at latitude 68 north. You can see how far north that is in this map.

Latitude 68 north

On the way to dinner I saw this sign. I have no idea what it means.

Sign in Kiruna Sweden

Narvik day 2

An enormous amount of iron ore mined in Sweden is exported through Narvik. From our hotel window we can see the trains carrying the ore from Sweden to the port of Narvik. It is pretty darn impressive.

The facility where the ore is offloaded from the trains and loaded into the ships.
The brown cars are the ore cars. They go into the concrete tunnel to unload.

The Germans attacked Narvik in April of 1940. Narvik is the first place that they attacked in Norway. They wanted the Swedish iron ore.

This morning we went to the Narvik War Museum. It was fascinating and very well done. The land and sea battles in and around Narvik are explained in the museum. Duke and I watched the movie Narvik before we left home. That made the museum even more interesting.

Map and audio visual display explaining the battle of Narvik

While I was waiting for Duke to finish going through the museum. I talked to Anne, an American Norwegian woman. She met her husband in Chicago and moved to Norway in 1955. She is 92 years old!

Anne and I by the museum entrance

This afternoon we walked to the train station to see where it is. We were on the platform when an ore train went by.

Train carrying iron ore

For dinner we went to a restaurant called Fiskehallen. The name means fish market and the restaurant is in the restored fish market building.

The Fiskehallen restaurant
Duke had a whale burger
I had fish and chips.

They were each very good.

Tonight is our last night in Norway. Tomorrow we take the train into Sweden.

Havila Polaris to Narvik

This morning we did some laundry in the no charge washing machines on the ship. While the machines were running we had breakfast. Then we packed, and disembarked from the Havila Polaris in Finnsnes.

Doing laundry
The Havila Polaris pulling out

In Finnsnes we got the bus to Narvik. We changed buses once. Both buses were very comfortable and the countryside was scenic.

Our bus
Duke and I on the bus

In Narvik we walked to the hotel.

Our hotel in Narvik, the Scandic

We played some cards in the bar on the top floor of the hotel. Later we had a pizza for dinner at a nearby restaurant.

Our pizza
The view as we walked back to the hotel.