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Adventure NORTH CAPE, Norway

Monday, August 8, 2016 | Ted Goslinga / Uwe Hausleitner | Europe

Final day: Enontikiö (Finland) to Tromsø (Norway)

And then, suddenly, it is here: the last day of this fantastic North Cape Adventure tour! All saddled up in the morning even before 9 o' clock (always on time!!), we took off for our last track through Lapland , said goodbye to the numerous reindeer along the road, took a coffee in Sweden, and found ourselves back in Norway around noon with it's beautiful fjord and mountain views. Three countries in one day, where do you find that!.

A last stop just before entering the bridge over to Tromsø visiting the beautiful cathedral which reminds a little bit of the opera house in Sidney, Australia

And there it came to an end. Thank you all for this great two weeks riding  on the top of the European continent. Weeks of great riding, amazing views in an unforgettable environment!

Thanks Udo, Barbara, Theodor, Ursula, Walter, Christoph, Nikolaus, Bill, Peter, Tom and Gilad. You are a great group of riders and persons! We had a lot fo fun! Hope to see you all on a next tour sometime!

Ted and Uwe

Peter ..(when the going get's tough...)
Gilad....(tell us more jokes!)
Bill...(amazing Worldtourer!)
Nikolaus ...(always fun!)
Tom ..(our high energy movie maker!)
Christoph ( the Swiss Knife!)
Theodor..(part of Happy couple 2)
Ursula..(part of happy couple 2)
Walter "Boss Hoss"
Udo (part of Happy Couple 1)
Barbara... (part of Happy couple 1)
Udo trying self-found blueberries
Peter taking a break...(didn't like blueberries!)

Lakselv to Enontikiö (Finland)

With still yesterday's memories in our minds of riding up to the North cape along the amazing coastal area's of the most northern pieces of the European continent, we had to grab ourselves together this morning for the last two parts of this great tour through Norway and today, also a piece of Finland!

The landscape is completely different from the ones we were used to the last 10 days: going more into tundra landscape, we followed the road to Karasjok, where we visited a very nice and informative museum of the Sami people. Although the guys behind the reception was working alone, he gave us nevertheless a short guided tour through the museum. After coffee and a nice cake we got on the road again and fouind our way to a very interesting place of a silversmith. A great place to get some authentic gifts for the home front!

Arriving at our hotel with a nice warm sun in the back, we enjoyed our boot beer at the hotel. Tomorrow a short coffestop in Sweden and then for our final track back to Tromsø!

Leaving the hotel
Walter listening to the interesting info of the guy at the Sami museum
Nice line-up
Inside a Sami tent
Rudolph again.....
We even found some Hobbits in Sami country!
Without words...!

Alta to Lakselv via the North Cape

This day will stay in all our minds for a long time. We took of in Alta for a 400+ km riding day in thick fog. No mountains, no sky, no view, just grey. But as soon, as we reached our first mountain plateau the fog was gone, blue sky above us and bright sunshine. This weather stayed with us, with some changes the whole day. It was a wonderful riding day with unbelievable views. We had reindeer again, empty roads, dark tunnels, breathtaking bridges and the Nordkapp. Our most northern destination, as this is the most northern point on the European continent, that can be reached by motorbike. After our lunch there, we took another great ride down to our hotel in Lakselv to end this perfect day with a nice dinner.

Another troll came our way...
The breathtaking road up/from the North Cape
Finally!! The reward for eleven riding days: Reaching the North Cape!
Th3 top end of the European continent
We tried this also with our motorbikes....
And a moose showed up
Theodor, Nikolaus and Bill enjoying the coffee break in the bright sunshine.

Day 11 - Storslett to Alta

With a bit of sadness we left our hotel with one of the best views ever! Dramatic clouds and skies accompanied by a midnight summer sun is just something!

Today we had a fairly short ride in order to save our energy for th long ride tomorrow to our main highlight: the North Cape. Nevertheless we had a quite interesting day. A nice coffestop and right away a nice souvir stop at some Sami tents. Those original inhabitant of this northern part of Norway are some fine craftsman making everything out of reindeer and elks. Concluding the short shopping with a nice coffe and a waffle, we followed our way to Alta. First sightseeing of today was the small but very nice utilized Tirpitz museum. This huge German battleship  was sunk by the allies at 12 nov 1944 and divers have collected a lot of stuff from the ships wrech throughout the years. Also a very interesting foto exhibition was part of this museum. Next cultural highlight was the Alta museum. This is build around an area with beautiful and interesting rock carvings. Accompanied by a nice sun we walked for some time throught this "cradle of humanity".

Already close to our hotel we stepped off the bikes around 3.30pm which gave us some time off. Great day!!

Morning briefing in Storslett...well...almost!
Stunning views from our hotel
The Tirpitz Museum
Reindeer on the road!!
Tom setting up his camera's again!
Interesting rock carvings......
....very weird rock carving!!
A nice walk around Alta museum for Walter.....
....but not for Christoph!

Harstad to Storslett

This day we started with sunshine and a smooth ride to the Polar Park. Bears, Wolves, Moose, Reindeers and Lynx were waiting for us to visit them. After we took our lunch next to a Fossen (waterfall), we went on over curvy and sometimes bumpy roads towards north. Today, we did 400+ km on our way to the North Cape. Riding in sunshine, next to the Fjords looking at some Glaciers, thats Norway.

Norway has a lot of interesting creatures, like Trolls...
Moose...
Theodor takes "meeting the locals" too serious!
And some breathtaking views, like Fossen (waterfalls)
Out of the Gildetun Hotel
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Last part of a loooong riding day !

Henningsvaer to Harstad

Very hard to get up this morning....nice and cool outside...very quiet...but rise and shine, we'll have to go again!. We left the very scenic and pitoresque village of Henningsvaer to leave the beautiful Lofoten island. Another ferry ride took us to Vesterålen. It was very pleasant to ride also because it was dry and even the sun came out now and then. After a couple of nice phostops we made our first sightseeing stop at the Hurtigruten museum. This old ship line nowadays has 11 ships which do 34 harbbour visits in 12 days along the Norwegina coast from south to north. A nice lunch next door with great views over the water, completed this visit. A really pleasant afternoon ride brought us to Harstad, but before going to our hotel, we visited the impressive Adolf canon. This huge canon was used in the second worldwar as a part of Hitlers Atlantic Wall. That concludes this beatiful day and ended up in Harstad again with a well earned beer at the terrrace!

Nice suits, guys!
the FInnmarken, former ship of the Hurtigruten line...nowadays a part of the museum
Tom trying capture some footage for his movie with Rudolph
Toby and Gilad at the top of the world...ehhh..fjord!
The very impressive "Adolf canon" in Harstad
Barbara and Barbara!
The 16 inch (40.6 cm) wide barrel entrance of the canon
Splendid midnight view from the hotel room in Hartstad

Bodø to Henningsvaer

This day started with a 3 hour ferry ride to Moskones on the Lofoten. Once there we visited the Town with the shortest name in Norway "Å". We had a look at the fishery museum and enjoyed some nice cinnamon rolls at the local bakery, which is run by an italian family. Than 3 beaches where waiting for us. All of them beautiful, breathtaking and nice sand. After our beach stops, we took the coastal road to Henningsvaer. Our hotel served fantastic dinner and we had some World Tourer Awards to be handed over.

 

Leaving the main land far behind...
Nice Rorbuer (fisher hut)
Barbara, Chris, Udo and Tobias at the beach.
Lofoten beach.
Tobias and Ted are explaining what tours Walter did so far.
Congratulations Walter. 5 Tours now.
And one more World Tourer is here tonight. Bill did already 10 tours with Edelweiss.
Congratulations Bill.
Beautiful village of Henningsvaer at the Lofted islands
Near the Bryggen in Henningsvaer
Gilad and Toby

Sandnessjøen to Bodø

A long riding day ahead , we took off for an important milestone in our tour: crossing the Arctic circle. Riding in beautiful scenery takes us everyday a bit more north to our final goal : the North Cape. But before that happens, we have some fantastic highlights to do. Today around noon we crossed the polar circle and immediately the landscape changes: cold wind teasing the barren rocks and vegetation. But that made the experience right away more interesting. Some of us even tried the reineer on the menu!. After crossing the arctic circle we had to go antoher 170 km begore we reached the second highlight of today: the Saltstraumen (or Maehlstrom). This impressive tidal wave urrents swirls with speeds up to almost 60km per hour  in and out the fjord and can reach up widths of 10m wide and 3m deep. We had a great view to see this from a high bridge right on top of it. We concluded the day with a nice warm shower and a good buffet

How on earth do I find this Arctic Circle??
Visitor center and Sami tent at Arctic Circle
Tom figuring out where to put his camera's
At the Arctic circle!!
At the Saltstraumen Bridge
The impressive Saltstraumen (Maelstrom)

Day 4 - Overhalla to Sandnessjøen

A great riding day started with sunshine and a lonely road. No traffic and very nice scenery through the forests and lakes of this region. After 120 km we reached the first ferry of the day. 2 more to come. After the ferry, we went to our lunch place, which was a very small an nice place, which offered Pizza for lunch. One type. But it was a delicious one with herbs from their own garden on it.

After lunch we went on to our second ferry, which brought us directly into some bad weather. Off the ferry we had some 18 km of rain in front of us until we reached the third and last ferry of the day.

We finally arrived in Sandnessjøen together with a heavy rain shower. So our bikes are perfectly clean again.

A group of people in Norway that really enjoy the scenery and the ride...
They enjoyed the ferns...
and the trees...
but most of all, the roads.
And this is why Bill, Udo, Barbara, Theodor, Ursula, Chris, Thomas, Gilad, Nikolaus and Walter are not only happy, but excited and delighted.

Day 3 -  Trondheim to Overhalla

What a tremendous day!. We left in the morning with our heads full of impressions of the city of Trondheim. First destination was the ferry ride  from Flakka. After a half hour sailing trip to the other side of the fjord we followed our way up in northern direction. A very charming and relaxing scenery lying ahead of us, so everyone enjoyed it very much.

The morning coffestop we spend at a nice small terrace on the top floor of a tiny shopping mall in Åfjord. A good coffee and a refreshing piece of cheese cake was only levelling up the atmosphere!

Another hour and a half later we reached the Atlantic coast and found our hidden secret somewhere at a gravel road: a very authentic Norwegian fish restauarant with probably the best fish soup everyone ever had.

Last part of the track took us again land inwards and after a short break and the daily fuel up, we reached the one and only hotel in town. A nice cool beer and some nice video footage of Tom took us in no time to the final part of the day: the evening dinner.

Amazing scenery
On the ferry to Rørvik
Peter, 83 years old and still going strong!
Our incredible fish restaurant at the Atlantic coast
Gilad having his "after lunch" power nap

Day 2 - Sunndalsøra to Trondheim

Today we started in Sunndalsøra and rode through nice curvy roads to Trondheim. During the day, we enjoyed every kind of weather from dry to heavy rain.

Nevertheless this was another great day towards the Adventure "North Cape" and our lunch as well as our walk through Trondheim in the afternoon, when it was blue sky, sun shining and approximately 20 C made the day perfect.

Arriving in Trondheim on a nice small road, with no traffic cruising next to the Fjord was the perfect completion of this short riding day. On arrival the sun came out, perfect time to do the city walk around this beautiful, historical town. A great dinner followed.

 

Beautiful Bryggen at Trondheim
Nice afternoon city walk in Trondheim
Ted and Bill with a Trondheim "Troll"
Statue of Olav Tryggvasson, founder of Trondheim

Day 1 - Ålesund to Sunndalsøra

After a couple of days of hard maintenance work on the bikes in a hot garage (Thank you, Jens!) the bikes were again in tip-top condition to do their next job: the adventure North Cape to the top of the European continent in Norway.

After a good night sleep everybody was up early and eager to go. After the first morning brief the group took of in direction west for the first riding day. Nice riding weather: not too warm, not too cold! 

Perfect for a first day in Norway! 

Our first coffeestop was at the famous Jordbaerstova, which seems to have the best strawberry cake in Norway...well, they have!. At a nice outside terrace everyone enjoyed the beatiful scenery up here!

Next stop was the lunch stop at the top of the Trollstigen, one of the best known roads among motorcyclist...and unfortunately also under camper car drivers!

After the spectaculair scenery during the downhill ride on the Trollstigen we went to the other side of the mountain where we could admire the biggest vertical rock wall in Europe: the Trollveggen.

After this we took the last part of the day among some beautiful fjords and headed for Sunndalsøra. A very nice Italian dinner and some beers did the rest!

 

famous strawberry place: Jordbaerstova
happy bike!
Selfie time...Udo and Barbara
Bill at the cascade
Happy couple Theodor and Ursula
Beautiful Gudbrand rapids
Strawberry time!
Trollveggen rock wall
Trollstigen at the top
Beautiful Gudbrand rapids
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Add a comment Rate this post
Udo
Friday, August 12, 2016 at 17:25

It was a great tour and we really enjoyed riding through this beautiful landscape! Thanks a lot to you, guys! It was really fun....
Barbara
Friday, August 12, 2016 at 17:23

Back home we met the mosquitoes we missed in Norway
Chris
Monday, August 8, 2016 at 13:09

Thank you so much guys, I had a blast! I really enjoyed the ride! Looking out of the airport at the beautiful norwegian landscape for the last time (so far for 2016...)
Tobias
Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at 12:38

Good times! War sehr schön bis jetzt!!!
Manuel Marabese
Thursday, July 28, 2016 at 00:11

Looking good! Have a great ride to "my" North!

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