Road Trip // Part II // Norway // Lofoten Islands + Tromsø

Our massive road trip across Scandinavia continues in Lofoten islands and Tromsø, Norway.

(If you missed the first part, you can view it here and also on Facebook.)

Shortly after leaving the Abisko area in Sweden, we crossed the border to Norway. The landscape changed almost rapidly. The hills grew bigger and sharper. And at this point something weird happened. I found myself just staring at the landscapes and taking it all in. With my heart. I’ve never taken so few photos than when we were in Norway. It was just so absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. Thank God for Jouni who almost couldn’t be seen without his camera. :) For me this trip was kind of a reboot. I left all the stress behind me.

Seeing this part of the world also left us thinking if maybe we should move our vow renewal to Norway… We’ll see about that.

This huge troll greeted us after crossing the border.
The landscapes got absolutely gorgeous when we started to get nearer to Lofoten Islands.We tried to camp here, but the ground was so swampy that it was impossible to put a tent there. It sure was pretty, though. With a little help from Google, I found Kalle Beach and we drove there after the sunset. It was the only free camping area we found. We ate dinner around 9PM and I was so tired, I went to sleep. Jouni stayed up and took photos of the pretty sky. It wasn’t until editing of these photos that I noticed a tiny trail of northern lights in a few of the photos.I woke up before sunrise the next morning, grabbed my camera and stumbled across the most beautiful sunrise I’ve ever witnessed.I mean, seriously! Pink sky ♥ In the morning we actually saw where we had arrived. A beautiful, tiny beach right next to mountain Vågakailln. A tiny pink Johanna in a big world.Our breakfast: slice of rye bread, oatmeal, hot cocoa and cinnamon roll. Yummy.Jouni decided he wanted to climb this mountain (I think it looks Transformers-like – it clearly has a nose and eyes and everything. I wonder if it transforms to something else when nobody is watching?). I wished him good luck like any wife would and decided to spend my time washing my hair in an ice cold water.
When he realized he couldn’t get past or climb the upright part of the mountain, Jouni called me. He snapped a photo of me (up) and I snapped a photo of him (down). Makes you realize how big this thing was. Can you spot Jouni? ;)
It was amazingly green and fresh and Jouni came by large areas covered in wood sorrel.
Can anyone tell us what this plant is? We headed back after Jouni made his way down. We started our journey towards Tromsø. I named this the Sombrero Mountain. We left E10 and took E6. The climbed up in our car for the first kilometers. The view was spectacular. Never seen a rainbow this clear before. This. This is by far the most beautiful mountain I’ve ever seen in my life. Russetinden. One of these photos will be printed huge on our wall. Our goal was to reach Tromsø before dark but there was so many stops along the way (road maintenance) that we got there after the sunset. But God gave us something better than the sunset – northern lights. ♥ The sky fired up right after we got our tent up at Skittenelv Camping.

Part III coming sooner than later. :)