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Lofoten road trip

2K views 13 replies 7 participants last post by  Cobstar 
#1 ·
Since 2016 when I drove to Nordkapp with my CLK55 I have always wanted to visit Lofoton islands as well. So why not?

Day 1 out of 6.


Off we go.


Blue Road. Starts from Vaasa, Finland and ends in Mo I Rana, Norway. Or actually it starts way further but we started it from Vaasa because we left from Pori.


Mornings first ferry from Vaasa, Finland to Umeo, Sweden. There wasn't many cars waiting.


I kindly asked to get my car into first deck with trucks and campers because its low. Normal passenger cars went upper deck with quite steap ramps.


Boat trip took four and a half hours.


Midle of the day we got out of boat and started to drive thru Sweden.




Scenery was ok but quite mild compared what we were heading to.


At Lycksele, Sweden we stopped for lunch and fillup.





And constant driving. Thats what I like.



Of course it started to rain when we get closer to Norway border.


A quick stop for a scenery.


Norway border.


You need to watch out for dears or what ever they were. I'm a urban city guy.


Norwegian good roads.


Small water fall side of the road.


Ole Tobias Comfort Hotel, Mo I Rana, Norway.


Dali.


Time for the whiskey.

Continue...
 
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#3 ·
Day 2 out of 6.


Morning started fine with hefty breakfast. Me and my gf had even time for a short jogging before we hit the road.


Spotted some British bikes. Last night in restaurant there were punch of British gentlemans and you can't go wrong with their strong accent. =)


Narrow bridges.






Tunnels were nice places to drop couple of gears and give some long beans to hear that full flavor catless system with Kleeman headers.




Clouds were kissing the mountains.


Some sections of the roads weren't in very good shape. Lofts of road work.




After we climbed higher the moisture and rain started to show.


But it could stop right away.


Stop for a scenery moment.


Twisting roads right next to river.



Entering into Fauske, Norway.


Time to eat. Local Italian style pizzeria, Restaurant Napoli, offered a very good food and friendly staff. Positive shout out for them.


Back in the road. Rain again.


One damn long tunnel.


And road work.


Casual driving.


Later on we drove Bognes, Norway to catch a small ferry to Skarberget, Norway.


Waiting for a ferry to come. Thing goes in roll call style.


After 15min we drove in.


Trip took something like 30min.


Sometimes I got a feeling I have to wipe inside the windscreen but right away I realized it were just clouds further on. Strange feeling.


Narvik, Norway.


After long a day we got into Breidaplikk Guesthous, Narvik Norway. Our next night place.
 
#6 ·
Thanks for sharing Your Road Trip with Us - Look forward to seeing more pictures:

Great pics! Look forward to seeing the rest of your trip unfold. :tu:

Thinking of taking Mabel over to Norway sometime. These pics have reinforced that idea. :D
Funny enough, having visited Norway back May (Sorry, think I may have used up all of Norway's sunshine allowance..) I was also thinking the same & was just talking about it in My post:
https://www.slkworld.com/roadtrip-field-reports/525381-t-js-2018-euro-road-trip-pictures.html
Trev'
 
#7 ·
Day 3 out of 6.



Morning view from our room.






Once again it started to rain right away when we left the quest house.




Nice scenery, once again.



Well... Like I wrote in "Croatia road trip" topic, not a single trip without police interference was once again true. I just can't understand Norwegian speeding tolerances and penalties. I drove 92kmh at 80 zone. That's nothing and god sake middle of nowhere! And for that I got 3400NOK (358€) ticket. I made my point very clear while officer wrote the ticket. I think this would be my last time I visit Norway. Total BS!




Atl least mountains made me relax a little bit.



After all we got in Vestfjord Hotel Lofoten, in Svolvaer.



It was nice to have own entrance.



It was time walk around a little bit and discover the city. Around the corner there where once famous Magic Ice bar or club. Everything made by ice there. We tought it was too early for that.



A small park.



A sea mine reminds us for a great Lofoten war in 1940.



Harbor area.



It was time eat. Tripadvisor told us this is the place.



Burger was excellent.



We continued to discovering...




Marine engine shop or manufacturer or something.







Dryed fish.



Me.



Cat on the roof.



Paw marks.



Mini.



Ship.
 
#9 ·
Day 4 out of 6.



It was time to go again. This day was more dry than rainy. Nice.






This was something I was expecting.







Yeah!



I had to stop just to see all.



A real water fall just next to road. So clear water from mountains. Me as a urban city guy was so fasinated and even tested it.


Short video:





Off we go...



In these half open tunnels I got strange dejavu feeling. I bet I have drove these in some video game over 20 years ago.



One of the narrowest bridges.



Then we stopped in Reine.



Some unknown internet source tells it is most beautiful fisherman city.



Atleast theres more dry fish.



Theres a info pack for all of you. Yes I didn't know eater.



I wanted to see whats round the corners...



End of the E10. This is literaly end of the Europa-10 road. You can't go further by car.



What a beautiful beach. Clear water, clean sand, nice scenery... What wrong? Freezin weather and wind!



We saw lot of road work during our trip. Interesting was that there were a guy whos driving back and forth with that leader car to gather and guide cars. What a job all day long.






Search of our next hotel...





We ended up into Henningsvaer.



A small village. Hotel was Finnholmen Brygge.


And once again it was time to eat and discover more by walking...







I love cats!







US-spec imported to Norway.





 
#10 ·
Oh Wow, Moutine!

What a fantastic road trip. Your photos have brought back so many fantastic memories for me -- from way back in 1976/77!!

We (myself, my wife, and our 4-year old daughter) were living in Helsinki and I was working for O/Y Ford AB. Our summer vacation was family camping road trip during the Scandinavian mid-summer of 24 hours of daylight.

We started from Helsinki with an overnight car-sleeper train to Rovaniemi on the Arctic Circle. We then made our way northwards through Finnish Lapland - mostly on dirt forest roads and accompanied by lakes, Elks, and wild scenery - into Norway, and up to Nord Capp. I remember clearly cooking our evening meal one 'night' - in sunlight - at 2 am! Quite disorienting.

From North Cape, we worked our way down the north coast of Norway - on succession of ferries across the fiords that, fortunately for us (heading south) each carried a larger number of vehicles. When travelling north, it is something of a dash to catch the dwindling number of places (a bit like the childrens' party game of musical chairs). We still have memories of Hammerfest (we are honorary Polar Bears), Tomso, Narvik, and Mo i Rana. We then cut east to Umea on the Gulf of Bothnia, crossed by ferry back into Finland, visited friends in Vaasa, and then 'home' to Helsinki.

By the way, apart from 24 hours of rain around Tromso, we had great weather (the mosquitos thought so too). How have you managed to keep you car so clean? By the end of our trip, the door cills (and presumably the whole of the underside) was bare, paintless shiny metal from the hammering it took from the gravel roads. Perhaps things have improved in the last 40 years! Sadly, my car for the trip was not an SLK, it was a 2-litre Taunus S - a bit flash for a 'base-car' market like Finland back in the 70s.

I've forgotten many of the details, but your travelogue has been soooo good to see, and has reminded me of the pleasures we had driving in such a wildly beautiful and remote part of Europe -- many thanks.

DaveR.
Cornwall, SW England
 
#11 ·
Thank you all. Nice to see that so many are interested to see my pics and trip story. I'll post the rest as soon as I can.

DaveR. What a coincidence. About 16 years ago my first job was at local Ford dealer as a parts seller. I was into Fords and my first and second cars were Ford Capri. One with 2.8i engine and other one with 2.9i 24V Cossie engine. I think Finland and northern roads were much diffirent in 70s. You asked how I kept my SLK so clean... My friend works as a car detailer and he did some Fusso coating just before we left. And that allmost constant raining washed my car all the time. It was funny to see how easily rain drops run away on waxed surface when driving.
 
#12 ·
Day 5 out of 6.


After well slept night we realized that our trip has passed a peak point and now starts the way back home. It doesn't mean that there isn't anything to see or tell.


We left Henningsvaer and headed to Moskenes. Once again. Yesterday When we drove to end of E10 we drove the very same route.


After couple of hours driving we are waiting the ferry in line. The idea was to avoid same roads so we took short cut 4 hour ferry from Moskenes to Bodo.




Wind was hard and whole ship swang so hard that I was worried about my car. And I was feeling sick. After all I didn't throw up.



From Bodo we drove to Fauske, once again.


Shell Fauske. It was nice to see an old american car as vehicle symbol in pump. I dunno know why but in every other Shell station that was boring family car type of symbol. Btw... In Norway Shell and few Essos only offers 98 and in up north it is hard to come by. I simply filled every time when I saw 98 pump and I was fine. No need to use lower grade.




From Fauske to Storjord, where we turned to small road 77. We had to climb over the mountains. Swedish border was near.



At finaly! I was so fed up with constant speedo watching and slow speeds. I have nothing against Norway but I just have to say their speeding policies are BS.


Right away I rise speed up to 130-140kmh. In Sweden you can talk yourself out of so much easily.


Until I got a reminder that you have to watch out other threats too.




Roads were quite good and with high speeds we actually moved on the map quite fast.


Until we hit the road work sections. Luckily these were allways marked well before so no danger to brake the car.



Well before night we arrived to small city called Arvidsjau, Sweden and a hotel Lapponia Hotell.


Only one short main street.
 
#13 ·
Day 6. The final day.


Only task basicly was drive from Arvidsjau to Umeo harbour.


Allmost 300km went so fast in rain that we didn't take much pictures.


It was mid-summer festival time in all northern countries so not much sober people to drive cars any more. Kind harbour staff remembered my car and without any talking they put my in flat lower deck.


Back in Finland. Drive from Vaasa to Pori was so spooky in mid-summer festival time. With that 200km drive we saw only few cars. And we are not talking about Lapland here now. Roads were so empty.


Home sweet home. 123174km-120637km=2537km (1576mls) in 6 days.
 
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