4 August, 1996 - Goteborg, Sweden
After North Cape, it was a bit of an anticlimax until we got to Stockholm.
From North Cape we drove to Skarsvag (northernmost fishing village) for
pictures, then to Honningsvag, where we caught a ferry to Kafjord. We
headed south through Finland and stopped at Napapiiri,
Arctic Circle, (just north of Rovaniemi). After lunch at Santa Claus Village,
about as touristy as it gets, we continued south and cut over to Sweden
at the Baltic, then followed the Swedish coast down to Stockholm.
We came down a lot faster than we went up (9 days from North Cape to
Stockholm), mostly because Norway is much more scenic than either the
part of Finland that we saw, or northern Sweden. We only spent a couple
of days coming down Finland. Gorgeous riding weather but not much to see.
Like northern Ontario, including mosquitoes by the million! They even
have stickers of giant mosquitoes, with "Finnish Air Force"
on them. It is much more industrialized, and the language is so different
from either Norwegian or English that it's like being on another planet.
Unlike Norway, few people speak much English.
Reindeer unsuspecting their fate, outside
a Finnish restaurant
Sweden is a very tidy and pretty country, (although much more industrialized
than Norway),but not spectacular scenery.
Stockholm is a lovely city, lots of nice old
buildings and beautiful harbors and canals (called the Venice of the North,
since we haven't been to Venice yet we can't say if that's accurate or
not). On the other hand, at least one major street - Strandvagen, was
supposed to be influenced by Paris and is very similar architecturally.
A lovely city, whatever you compare it to. Gamla Stan, Stockholm's old
town, dates back 800 years and was built on landfill, some of which is
sinking.
Stockholm Harbour
Among our sightseeing highlights were the Vasa Museum.
The Vasa was a Swedish warship, which sank in Stockholm Harbour on her
maiden voyage in the early 17th century (probably top-heavy). She was
raised in the 1960s, then spent 30+ years drying out carefully. It must
have been quite an undertaking to bring her up and restore her. The Vasa
Museum was built around the boat. It includes a reconstruction of the
time period and the inquiry into her sinking, as well as a depiction of
the process of raising her. It is really enormous, and quite a spectacular
sight. There are elaborately carved full-sized figures honoring the king
who commissioned her. Difficult to take pictures, as they restrict use
of flash, but we did get some good ones.
We also visited the Russian Sub Museum - this is U105.9, an actual Russian
U-Boat purchased by Sweden and now moored in Stockholm harbour as a museum
/ tourist attraction. Really gives you an insight into what it must have
been like living on one of those.
Marifred, Sweden, across the lake from
Gripsholm Castle.
We left Stockholm on August 2, and stopped at Marifred
and Gripsholm Castle on our way south. Marifred was gorgeous, well worth
a detour. At Gripsholm Castle near the town we met a German minister living
in Sweden. He had been photographing the bike in the parking lot when
we arrived, then asked if he could photograph us. I wonder how many people
have photos of us now? Of course it's not really us they're photographing,
it's the bike - the real star of the show. Occasionally they ask us to
be in the picture, but probably just to be polite!
Route: North
Cape --> Skarsvag --> Honningsvag. Ferry to Kafjord -->Lakselv
--> Lakselv --> Inari --> Napapiiri, Arctic
Circle, Finland. Rovaniemi to Ii, Finland -->Byske, Sweden -->Nordmalik-->Sandarne-->
Stockholm -->Marifred
--> Goteborg.
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