There is an advantage with the University of Oulu… we have holidays in October. For me, the period A ends on the middle of octobre and period B begins the 1st november. So, it gave me time to visit the north of Norway.
We booked a car for 5 days and we driven during all the night to go to Nordkapp at 900 kms. After 12 hours, we arrived at the time of daybreak. In nordkapp there is a center with a variety of facilities like the Nordkapp panoramafilm whose presenting the Nordkapp region in four seasons, historical exhibitions, St.Johannes Chapel, the Cave of Light (explain the appearance of the Northern Lights), souvenir shop, the world northermost post office, restaurant and cafes. But you have to pay for the entrance. The steep mountain cliff rises 307 meters above the Arctic Ocean, and marks the end point of the European continent.
The second steps was Alta. Alta is the largest city in the county of Finnmark and is famous to be the city of Northern Lights. In this city we visited the Northern lights Cathedral built in 2012-2013 and during the night we show lot of northern lights on the road.
Then, we went to Tromso located at 350 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle and is the largest city in Northern Norway. During one day, we appreciate discover the charm of the city center with the typical Norwegian architecture. We enjoy it to visit the Perspektivet Museum, and the Artic Cathedral. At the end of the afternoon we took the cable car. It’s Tromso’s most popular tourist destination. This cable car runs from Solliveien in Tromsdalen up to the mountain ledge Storsteinen (421 meters above sea level). From the viewing platform at the upper station, you can enjoy spectacular panoramic views of Tromsø and the surrounding islands, mountains and fjords. It was a wonderful landscape!
For the 4th day, we drove to Svolvaer (Lofoten Islands). It’s in this small city where we hike during 5 hours to admire the Fjords from the top of the mountain. It was necessary to wear shoes adapted because the trails were very slippery and sometimes not very suitable (so dangerous!). We knew that the sun was setting at around 5pm, we had to be careful to go back down before the night comes.
Last steps was Reine, at 125 kms from Svolvaer. The breathtaking village of Reine is located on the island of Moskenesøya on northern Norway’s Lofoten archipelago. The village has earned a reputation as “the most beautiful place in the world.” On the middle of fjords, there is a a quite village with red and white fishermen’s huts at the edge of the shoreline. A picture of this village appears on the front page of all the tourist brochures of Norway. Reine is our favorite destination on the Lofoten Islands. It’s possible to hiking there and many of the best hikes on the Lofoten Islands begin in Reine.
At the end, we made more than 3500 kms.
Hordaland is the third largest county in Norway. Me and my friend Guillaume had plan an itinerary to do it, but some unexpected things happened and we needed to change our plans. We made it in three days. So, I will make this first article for 1.5 days and a second one to tell you the end.
