ANC2401 Adventure North Cape
After a leisurely Sunday breakfast in 1904, we meet for our first daily briefing. We can't wait to start our North Cape adventure! After we have made it out of the colorful city of Ålesund, we continue on comfortable roads along the fjords towards Valldal. The place is known for its sugar sweet strawberries. Jordbærstova, a great coffee shop in the middle of the strawberry paradise, opens its doors for us just on time at 11am. A piece of fluffy strawberry cake as a second breakfast certainly won't hurt. Well fortified, we continue to Rosekyrkja, the rose church in Stordal. Quite inconspicuous from the outside, the little wooden church, built in 1789, surprises with fascinating wall paintings. We start with blue skies and sunshine until our lunch stop at a cool restaurant with a fjord terrace. Later we also got a few raindrops. But that doesn't change the wonderfully good mood in the group. During dinner, many stories are unpacked. You can see many smiles and hear lots of laughters. What a successful day. And it´s just the beginning..
After a simple but excellent breakfast with the specialties of the small fishing village, we start the day and immediately notice that the acclimatization to the group riding the day before is showing the first results. The first few kilometers go smoothly through beautiful landscapes with the typical colorful farmhouses embedded in the golden yellow fields and grass-green meadows of the farmland. After a lunch in a typical Norwegian restaurant in the small mining town of Lökken Verk we then quickly return to the sea and reach our hotel in Trondheim in time. The real goal of the day was not only to see the beautiful landscape, but the history and the medieval buildings of the city, which was founded in 997 AD. Along the way, we discover the lively hustle and bustle in the Old Quarter on the other side of the old wooden bridge and return to our hotel full of impressions for the excellent dinner. Due to a certain heaviness after dinner, the further exploration of the city is a bit shorter this time, but there are still some exciting destinations to be expected in the next days on our ride.
Another great day is ahead of us and we strenghen ourselves at the extensive breakfast buffet. Of course, the local specialties are not to be missed, which always have something to do with fish, among other things. After we have involuntarily rearranged the groups a bit at the start in the city, we compensate for this before boarding the ferry and enjoy our first ferry ride across Trondheim Fjord right at the beginning. The entire morning takes us along the Atlantic coast and culminates in a spectacular lunch in a small restaurant on one of the offshore peninsulas. In the afternoon, the landscape changes from the rugged rocky coast to a tundra-like scenery in the inner land and after we have already settled as a group, the riding fun increases with every kilometer. Nevertheless, we are happy when we reach the day's destination in Overhalla with the proverbial last drop of gasoline in the tank and check in at a small but fine hotel in a village setting. It can continue like this for the next days and the Edelweiss slogan already applies. "Best Ride there is".
When we wake up in the morning the sun is shining through the colorful curtains. In fact, it´s been doing so since 3am :) We have a leisurely breakfast, then gather at the van (on the motorcycle side!) for the morning briefing. A wonderful day of driving awaits us, following coastal road 17 to the north. We drive through wonderful landscapes, past the typical red wooden houses with green roofs, small waterfalls, lots of sheep and cows. After a good hour we stop at the Foldabrua, a beautiful suspension bridge, for a photo stop. Laurie goes on a little trip too! A good hour later we reach the first of our three ferries. We not the only ones at the harbor who don't want to swim. There is so much going on that the first ferry, packed with people, leaves without us. The waiting time flies by. It's 9 a.m., the sun is shining and we're having fun with lots of stories and a little walk. When we arrive in Vennesund we make our way to a lunch stop. The Hildurs Urterarium is located somewhere in the middle of nowhere and surprises with a large herb garden, wood-fired pizza or moose in a sleeping bag. We continue to enjoy coastal road 17 for the rest of the afternoon, and the sun remains faithful. Our second ferry arrives late and we reach Fervik "just in time" to watch our next ferry leave. Never mind, around the corner we find a small coffee roastery with lots of Norwegian delicacies and incredible chocolate covered licorice!
Today we show what we are made of and cross the Arctic Circle to the north. During the approach over the now toll-free Helegeland Bridge and the Thoven Tunnel, we are already preparing for the Arctic Circle when the weather sets in and lets us feel Thor's and Odin's displeasure. This is exactly the mood we need and the coffee break ends with the guide's statement that it is raining harder right now and that this is exactly the right time to leave The trees become fewer and the steppe becomes more prominent as we reach the Tropic of Capricorn. The atmosphere at the artic circle in the rain is unique and cannot be described in words. This is followed by the riding highlight of the day and when we have moved away from the omnipresent road cameras on the E6, we let things run free a bit until the next highlight of the day stops us. The Saltstraumen - one of the strongest tidal currents on earth and although we arrive half an hour before low tide, the power of this current can still be seen. But now it's enough for today and we retire to a cozy dinner in a very good restaurant. Great day packed with highligts.
After neither Thor nor Odin could stop us yesterday, the captain of the ferry did it today and simply left 3 of our bikes and riders behind. So we splited the groups and while one large group enjoys the first ferry, the other small group makes a second breakfast in Bodö and even donates part of it to the seagulls....... Thanks to Bob. After all, we have all reached Lofoten and are amazed at the landscape, which sometimes shrouds itself in low-hanging clouds and then again allows views of the rugged mountain ridges. After a coffee break in "A", the city with the world's shortest name, and a few photo stops, we reach a unique hotel in Svolvaer via the narrow streets of the island chain, It consists of beautiful fishermen's houses and we feast happily and contentedly on one of the best dinners of the whole trip in the nearby restaurant. We can go on like this and we are already looking forward to tomorrow when we can continue the trip on the Lofoten Islands.
And? Guess what: Another bright AND sunny day up in the north ... unbelivable!!! Temperatures around 30°C/85°F - someone could think we are travelling in Italy. So we left Harstad in the morning to head to Narvik, where we visited the Narvik War Museum, with a very interesting documentation of the Battle Of Narvik - Nazi-Germanys first defeat in WW2 - and a second very critic part about war in general. The roads then from Narvik to the swedish border where nice and winding through a kind of a fairytale landscape. Smooth rounded rocks and uncountable tiny blue lakes. Finally we reached the swedish mining city of Kiruna and our hotel: tiny huts welcomed us for the night. Unfortunately our mexican friends Jenny and Roberto had to leave back home to Mexico this evening - Jenny and Roberto: We are with you! Thank you for being so lovely guests!
A very meditative ride awaits us today. We chug through the never-ending forests of Sweden and Finland. Caught on fairly straight roads, you have a lot of time for your thoughts. And if you keep your eyes open you will spot one or two reindeer between the trees or even in the middle of the road. It's incredibly sweet when the beautiful creatures look up with their big eyes and trot away. Once you've discovered one, the scanner view is activated and you can't wait to find another! ... How do you find the right transition from a description of how cute the little bullies look to, well, how good the burger tasted. Difficult. But everyone enjoyed it. After our lunch stop we continue for another hour until we arrive at our hotel in Enontekiö. Felix surprises us with a delicious boot beer. Well deserved.
From Enontekiö in Finland it is just a short ride to the norwegian border. Woodland and soft hills are dominating the scene. It is a calming and easy travelling to this part of the northernmost part of Europe. The small town of Lakselv - our destination for today - is located on the southern and of Porsanger Fjord, with nearly 130 kilometres the longest fjord of Norway. In Lakselv 3 of the main "Salmon-rivers" lead into the Baltic Sea.
What should I say: Bright sunshine welcomed us also this morning! But everybody was quite excited; becuase today is THE DAY: Reaching the Nordkapp is the topic! Boris and Thomas started very, very early and also Julie and Tony headed off together - they all had great time in exploring the very north on their own. The main group left a bit later and we rode along lovely Porsanger Fjord to Hönningsvag and Mageroya island. It got more and more windy and much cooler - windgusts between 3 and nearly 6 Bft enlivend the ride. A great experince was also the Nordkapp Tunnelen with its steep incline and ascent - and the temperature at the lowest point was 9°C/48°F - brrrrrr. And afterwards the wet fog came!!!! But finally we reached the Nordkapp happy and thankful. On the way back and then to our hotel in Alta our heads where all full of deep impressions. And we had a lot to tell at the dinner this evening.
Isn't it amazing, how fast time goes by? All felt like it was just yesterday, when we started in Alesund! So many experiences, so many different landscapes, so many gorgeous moments, wonderful people, the Nordkapp - yesterday ?!?- and and and .... and one last day of riding. Alta to Tromsö: again a completely different picture of Norway: rough countryside with fjords and high snow covered mountains at Lyngens Alpan. Tromsö - the city of the northern light - welcomed us at modern shaped impressive Ishavens Cathedral and the final point of our outstanding journey. At Farewell Dinner we all git a bit emotional, when erveryone told hers or his most impressive moement of the tour!
Jenny & Roberto, Julie & Tony, Stephen, Denise & George, Thomas G., "Bench"Mark, Daphne & Shawn, Damian, Hans, Boris, Robert "Wayne" Rainey, Bob, Fran & Robert, Pattie & Tom, Sir Paul T.! You were charming, interested & interesting, well informed, polite, friendly, humorous, generous, talented, tasteful, curious, good riders, enthusiastic ... to make a long story short: You were marvellous!!!! Thank you for being wonderful guests - we would love to see you all once again! Joy, Holger, Felix