Norway and beyond

Northern Norway was a spectacularly scenic country, glacially rugged like Sweden, but with a sea component that made it all the more captivating. Fjords and glacially carved inner valleys dominated the landscape, no wonder it is considered some of the best alpine terrain in the country. Driving from Abisko National Park to Norway was pretty neat geologically, basically as soon as we entered Norway it became substantially more rocky and glacially polished. In fact, in the highlands near the border with Sweden, we stumbled upon clusters of small vacation home that were nestled into the landscape quite comfortably. The effect was further amplified by a brief sun entrance, hooray for sun!

Small ponds and lakes were interspersed throughout too, everything was so deliberate.

Micro-church perched on a rock with no parking lot, just sloping granite slabs!

Going off a recommendation from the nice fella we met at our hotel, Ashley and I drove through Narvik and along the coast into the Skjomfjorden. It was a hellaciously windy day unfortunately, but here and there the sun would come out to illuminate the vistas.

Our day in Norway finished with a hike in the highlands. Poor Ashley, we accidentally got separated for a little while and she was worried sick about me. I came running down the hill to her and lost a shoe in the mud. I will admit that I am terrible about estimating time and actually ran further up the mountain than expected. The day before we were engaged, and the next day we lost each other! However, the views from up high were really stunning.

The wind was really whipping up high, this video shows it well!

Our day in Norway ended on an unforgettable note, it was a remarkable country and an indicator of natural harmony within the constraints of human perspective.

Surprise!

So here we were, Ashley and I, eating lunch beside a glacial blue stream. The sun was starting to peek out from behind the clouds, a light breeze was blowing, and there was a 360 degree view to abyssal vistas. A perfect and life-changing opportunity was presented to me. Ashley was not aware that I had been carrying around an engagement ring for our vacation so far. Here is how we shared one of the most memorable moments of our lives.

I suggested we look around for heart shaped rocks near the stream, and that I desperately wanted to find one. So we started looking around, Ashley found a nice one and then I found a perfect one. I waited until she came close by, then, having already placed the ring under the heart shaped rock, I asked "how about that one"? Sure enough, she picked it up and was absolutely shocked to the surprise beneath! I kneeled down and asked her formally for her hand in marriage, she said yes, and gosh well the rest is history!

We're getting married!

Lapland- the Great North Pt I

Sweden is a stunningly beautiful country from north to south. Lucky for me, Ashley and I were in total agreement to see the far North, she totally read my mind when she said she wanted to see northern Sweden. In fact it was something we had considered back in 2010, but were already spread thin on destinations. It was a unique coincidence that we would have the opportunity to come back. The far North is a special place and it was absolutely the highlight of our trip. While it came at no small expense, it was a truly priceless experience.

The Lapland refers to the most northern province in Sweden with the upper part inside the arctic circle, it is roughly the size of Portugal. Lapland is sparsely populated and home to native Sami people and reindeer herds. It began with 2 flights from Malmö to go a distance as far as Milan, Italy. We arrived to chilly air and a steady mist and it felt like we arrived in an entire other country. It was easy to get into downtown Kiruna from the airport to pick up our rental car. We got a Toyota Avensis and it was a terrific diesel mid-size wagon with a manual transmission. Ashley drove it and really got the hang of it too!

The landscape was somewhat similar to Iceland, but vastly more forested. The forest was almost entirely birch and unfortunately when we arrived, a caterpillar had defoliated almost all of the trees in the valley. Consequently the landscape was pretty brown, but a recovery was underway and new leaves could be seen sprouting up. Trees are so resilient! 

We drove about a hundred kilometers west from Kiruna into the mountains towards Abisko National Park and the Lapporten region. The view from our room was actually directly east into the Lapporten valley, seen beneath the clouds. The sad, leafless birch trees can clearly be seen too. We stayed at a fantastic hotel in Björkliden, which is a few kilometers west of Abisko. The town is actually more of a ski village and is actually a few kilometers up the mountain. As at all Scandinavian accommodations, the breakfast was a huge buffet within the restaurant. The restaurant served excellent meals and there is a bar which serve you even in the lobby. All the windows face east to give a panorama over the lake and towards Lapporten. I want to make a shot out to Jonas, the friend we made at the front desk who helped us a lot during our time there!

The local action in Björkliden is all about the outdoors. Winter time brings huge skiing opportunities and the summer hiking tours. The start of the world famous Kungsleden or "Kings path"trail starts at Abisko and goes south 270 miles long, this trail is considered by many to be the premiere trail through Swedish Lapland. It also passes by Sweden's highest mountain Kebnekaise (6,926 ft).

Ashley and I chose a trail that started in Abisko and followed a stream corridor towards an alpine lake and a small hut called Kårsavagge. Of course I underestimated the walk distance and time, but we made a solid attempt to reach the lake within the day. The stream was a deep blue and looked great at the start of the trail as it ran through a ravine.

The weather started out a little foggy and misty, but this soon gave way to a steady breeze and clearing skies. We stopped periodically because the vegetation was changing so rapidly as we went higher up.

After hiking for several hours, we elected to stop for lunch and rest out weary legs. The trail followed closely along the stream and so we paused for lunch at rocky step along the bank and ate a nice small lunch. This presented a unique opportunity for me, Ashley did not know what was soon to follow!

A glimpse of Copenhagen

Departing from Iceland in the early afternoon, Ashley and I headed to mainland Europe, specifically Copenhagen, Denmark. The last experience Ashley and I had there was memorable by an unfortunate event which casted a cloud over our stay there. A few years ago, during a walk through the city, we fumbled the digital camera and dropped it on the cobble stone. The camera took terrible, lined pictures after that and we were pretty bummed. We knew we had to go back for a better impression of Copenhagen.

It was kind of a quick tour, only a day and half, but it was fun. We rented a cool little BMW, stayed in the Scandic and ate some terrific meals. Ashley was really excited about the BMW coupe, it was a great little car to drive.

We decided to visit the infamous Carlsberg brewery on Sunday and it was pretty cool indeed. They are a real beer powerhouse for Denmark and indeed have a global presence. They also keep a stable with horses that ares used on occasion to pull the beer wagon to deliver beer around Copenhagen.

The upstairs loft in the Carlsberg museum housed a climate-controlled collection of global beers which was really neat, it numbered in the tens of thousands!

Of course we made a pass down the main street to check the scene, at the time it was really threatening to rain. We thought to buy a pizza downtown and bring it back to the Scandic to enjoy later. When the locals are lined up ordering pizzas and eating, you know it is a good establishment.

Unfortunately we had to leave pretty early the next morning for Sweden. Our arrival in Sweden was also Ashley's birthday! Her second birthday in Sweden, cool!

Iceland Part II

The last part of our golden tour was to visit Thingvellir National Park which is a site in Iceland of great historical and geological importance. It is the place where the Mid-Atlantic ridge crests and is the place where continental drift can clearly be seen as the North American and Eurasian plates meet. This was also a place where perhaps the worlds first and oldest Parliament gathered to discuss Icelandic governance. They met every year at this place and it was a site of great cultural exchange for people to gather from all around Iceland. The governing council met for nearly a thousand years and it was also essential to lay the groundwork for Iceland's unique culture.

After driving around to see the sites of the Golden Circle and a rough previous night on a plane we were exhausted. Crashing early and awaking around 8am gave us a new day to explore more countryside. We enjoyed a spacious breakfast at our accommodations before setting off on a drive north. Soon as we knew we were going to Iceland, I wanted to check out Mt. Snaefell- site of "A Journey to the Center of the Earth" by Jules Verne. So we embarked on a 2 hour scenic journey along the western Icelandic coast to Mt. Snaefells! Iceland is such a raw landscape, very young indeed!

This was a really neat area where the farmer had been able to get trees to grow beneath the waterfall!

Unfortunately for us, the summit of Mt Snaefells was shrouded in fog, but there was ample snow in many places! The mosses and lichens on the lava rocks look very uniform in color from afar, but up close they were immensely complex. Such a precarious existence vegetation has on the rocks and very cool to see soil forming!

Ashley and spent the better part of the day exploring the Mt. Snaefells area, it was full of really neat formations, small glacial streams and precarious loose rocky slopes. As the day was fading we begun our trip back to Reykjavik, and as luck would have it, the clouds lifting above and revealed the strata volcano from afar.

Along our drives we saw many sheep grazing comfortably in farmers fields. Ashley totally wanted to pet one, so we pulled over and she could feed it wildflower snacks. The fur was amazingly soft.

This last full adventurous day in Iceland wrapped up with a brief beer in downtown Reykjavik under rainy cloud cover and a cold breeze. We got up chipper Saturday morning in order to visit the infamous Blue Lagoon just before flying onward to Copenhagen. It was a pretty sweet spa-like experience and I think the hype about its skin-softening qualities are real! The Blue Lagoon totally put us into a nice vibe to continue to Denmark and mainland Europe.

Departure time and Iceland Part I

Our flight was on a Wednesday evening, August 22nd to be precise and the anticipation had been growing for weeks beforehand. Ashley and I were about to embark on an unforgettable adventure, truly. We had been planning it since booking flights many months ago.

We flew Icelandair and actually had a stop over on the way to northern Europe (I suppose it is implied in the airline name). One neat feature about Icelandair is the ability to take a free stay up to 7 days. For Ashley and I, this was a perfect opportunity to see the marvelous landscape of Iceland.

It was kind of a miserable flight from Washington D.C. to Reykjavik, luckily it was fairly short at 5 hours. It is basically the same time to fly to Iceland as it is to California from the east coast. However, our arrival in Iceland was quick enough of a shock in terms of cold, rain and rawness to snap us back from a stale world of cramped seats. Although the flight is only 5 hours, you actually gain 4 hours and arrive at 6am in the morning!

Upon arrival it felt very Scandinavian influenced- as far as the highways, cars and buildings were concerned. After picking up the rental car and driving into downtown Reykjavik we were exhausted. Having an opportunity to check into our room at 10am in the morning to nap for a short bit was excellent! We woke to chilly air and a brisk wind to tour the town. The highlight of the quick tour we took was definitely Hallgrimskirkja, the large Lutheran church which dominates the city for height. The architecture is a sort of expressionist and was said to have been the architects idea to show basalt lava flows. 

The inside of the church had a really neat 25 ton pipe organ which definitely bellowed!

Since the church is the highest structure in Iceland, it served as a marvelous viewing point to perch and view the city down to the harbor.

The 50F temperatures were a bit cold for us so we decided to drive to see the sights outside town. We knew we wanted to check out some parts of the Golden Circle tour, which sort of combines all the major sites near Reykjavik. Ashley and I did our own tour and saw what was to be the essence of Iceland. First though we had to navigate to the sites and the roadside tourist maps were all we had to make sense of! 

We decided to drive furthest first to see the geysers. Actually, this place is where the English word for geyser came from and (to the best of my knowledge) is the only Icelandic word which has made its way into English. On the way to Geysir the place and other geysers we stopped by a stream to take in the rugged landscape. Iceland is just such a young place, it feels like the soil is forming beneath you as you walk- perhaps because it is!

It felt like a scene from the movie Lord of the Rings, astonishingly beautiful.

We arrived at the geyser spot after taking quite a few breaks to walk the terrain. The area around the infamous Geysir is flanked by other geysers which are more active. Some were photogenic and some were not. However, to view these geothermal features up close was very cool. The only large erupting geyser was saw was Strokkur, which means churn in Icelandic. On the whole it was a bit of a smelly place due to the sulphur gases.

The next stop was the infamous Gullfloss waterfall, it means golden falls in English. This is perhaps the most famous attraction in Iceland and it was a real crowd pleaser. The Hvita river turns abruptly and then falls into a crevice which is about a hundred feet deep and adjusts the flow of the river by 90 degrees. It was quite dramatic, the misting spray can actually be seen from the highway on the way in!

Iceland has several large glaciers, I believe the name of the one presented in the photo below in Langjokull. The sheer size of it is difficult to fathom, it is probably a half mile thick in places.