4 hour drive to our relaxing parking spot.

A dragon boat crew practising in the bay.

Show location of Tom Sawyer

Beautiful day for the crossing.

Fish decorating the Rastplats Anilla.

Today we went for a walk in the beautiful forest where you can find the sculptures for Wanås Konst.

Yoko Ono‘s wishing trees

The amazing Snapphane oak tree

The colours!

Detail of a large work

More detail

The whole thing

Gerhild is on top of the world

Kim‘s pretty high too

The Wanås country home

The river next to our camp site – Storkens Ställplats

Today we visited Pers mekaniske kabinett (web site – translated )

Anna and Per Helldorff

One of Per‘s amazing automata.

We ate some of Anna‘s delicious rhubarb crumble and her renowned nettle soup with nettles freshly harvested by Per the previous day.

Then we drove to Konst på Hög

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A well ventilated church

A herd of strange creatures wandering over the hill

What’s that?

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Our spot for the night

So green and warm. What more can you wish for?

Today we popped in to Skulpturparken i Ängelsberg in a beautiful watery landscape. (Web site translated )

Not the Louvre, just an artist working in a Swedish forest

The philosopher‘s bench

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A topsy turvy world

Our spot to spend the night, next to the river Testeboån, the least exploited water course in Sweden.

Wild orchids

So much nature in a 2 km walk

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A very fine walk

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Nature‘s abstract creation

Our campsite for two nights (snibbenscamping.se)

It‘s a beautiful campsite so we‘ll stay here for a day and bask in the sunshine.

After lunch we walked up the hill to enjoy the view.

There’s also a barbecue spot on the top. The Swedes even provide some wood. The only snag is that you have to cut it up yourself.

Today we visited Tomas Skimutis, an artist recommended by Per Helldorff

Tomas demonstrating one of his pieces

Gerhild‘s favourite bird-helicopter

Two bottles of high-octane fuel

Fabulous older work.

After a nice chat with Tomas, we went to a Swiss baker to buy four loaves of yummy bread (website translated).

Next stop was the Skulpturenpark Umedalen

Louise Bourgeois

Jaume Plensa

Katarina Kaikkonen, Finland, 160 men’s jackets. Great isn’t it.

Horsing around on a disused chimney

Gunilla Samberg – Räddningsplats (rescue room)

Nina Saunders, Denmark. The Whirlwind in the Thornbush.

Smart building, what’s it made of?

Hang on a minute, aren’t they…?

Yes, that’s right beer crates!

Shoes

Our spot for the night

Not a bad view

We‘ll drink to that

Bye bye lake, time to move on.

Hello lake, we’re here for the night.

Buzz off mosquito, I‘m having my picture taken.

Plenty of room for the camper.

Sunset today 22:48
Sunrise tomorrow 02:01

Today we drove through Finland and popped out on the other side in Norway.

A reindeer family enjoying the Finnish sunshine

Norwegian ice that hasn‘t got around to melting yet.

Doesn’t it look scrumptious?

Birch trees everywhere at the moment

Our very nice spot for the night

Today we drove further north to Stabbursdalen lodge

These reindeer are still dressed for snowy weather

What’s she doing?

Taking a panoramic picture

Kim is looking pleased with himself.

What‘re you looking at?

Nice walk around the coastal bird sanctuary

Atmospheric drive through the mountains

Did you know that reindeer are the only fully emancipated deer where the girls get to wear antlers too.

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Groovy geology

My old geography teacher would have loved this

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11:00 arrived at the very top of Europe!

After a rainy start up the hills, we drove down to sunny Alta (https://www.altamuseum.no/en/) to see some rock art.

Is this Norwegian rock art, no it‘s Swedish knitting by Anna Bauer. The knitting style called „chicken strikken“ originated in the 1970s in Denmark. The idea was to knit using your own imagination and to combine symbols and patterns into colourful garments. When Anna Bauer discovered chicken strikken, she loved it. “I think it’s time to set knitting free again! Embrace the unknown, let go of firm land and get out on the slippery ice!” Anna Bauer.

As a dedicated odd-socker Kim was delighted to read that Anna Bauer prefers odd mittens.

The real rock art was outside of course, spread along a beautiful fjord-side walk in a birch forest.

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The experts now think that the rocks near the sea were originally coated in a red layer of iron oxide like this and the figures chipped into the surface were light grey.

Great view out over the fjord.

It’s the end of May and here the trees are just coming into leaf. Lovely!

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Get a look at Alta’s church, not to mention the irreverent swinger!

On our way to Storslett, where we found a fantastic car park to spend the night in a forest next to the fjord.

Nice to wake up in the forest.

Today we walked around the peninsula where we had parked.

There’s a sandy beach all around the peninsula while we walked along the edge of the forest, looking down.

Snow-capped mountains everywhere you look

We are in a nature reserve with interesting birds everywhere. Loads of sand martens had made themselves at home in this sandy bank

A sand marten

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On our way to Skibotn and Olderelv Camping

Today we walked in glorious sunshine from the campsite up the hill to the Hengen waterfall

Nice spot to enjoy the view and rest a bit

The mountains across the valley

Norwegian pine

Norwegian pine tree bark in the sunshine

There’s a lot of water about

Another Norwegian waterfall

You have to imagine the incredible roaring sound from this falling water

A Norwegian cloud

Today we saw our first elk, grazing in a meadow next to the road. Hurray! 🫎

We drove for about half an hour up into the mountains behind Overgård.

Nature’s art

Kim’s artistic socks poking out the back of the camper

A shy river that won’t tell us what it’s name is

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Pink!

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We’ll stay for the night here.

It was a bit rainy when we woke up today

Some atmosphere for breakfast

The Tromsonians are fond of their church

This is the only church that I have visited with a nuclear bunker in the basement

The church organ

The architect’s plain glass blinded the congregation so an artist was called in to help with a lead glass window. This sent the architect into a sulk and he never set foot in the place again. He plainly hadn’t seen the light!

Some fun Norwegian advertising

The Polaria aquarium

Will you look at those whiskers!

Fabulous filter-feeders

Gerhild has made a new friend

Back to nature after big-city life in Tromsø

Today we took the ferry to the island of Senja and the Senja scenic route

Great place to park on the hill above Mefjordvær

Let’s go up there

There

They look good (cornus suecica – Swedish bunchberry)

Mefjord

The view from the top

Norwegians prefer dry feet. We had a good chat with the woman approaching in the distance.

Very changeable weather today

A bit of this a bit of that

Gerhild trying her hat-making skills with some birch bark

Today we drove to Solbakken Camping to avoid the uncertainty about the ferry to Andenes

There are swings for the children, small or large

Kim’s dreaming of streams

Snow on the mountains

Gerhild suddenly has one new hat and Kim has one less. Hats shouldn’t be washed!

We‘ll park here for the night

Get some exercise in first

Hot work this

No need to light the fire

On the way to Svolvær, we visited a couple of locations in the Skulpturlandskap project

This is The Stone Church – like a Norwegian stave church

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This reminds me of the 3000 year-old rock pictures to be found here & there near the coast

The coast is good place for art, even if it’s just the art of standing on one leg.

Seven Magical Points

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Fascinating

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Here comes the sun

The beach

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Quite a place to camp

We started the day with another walk along the old coastal road

Norwegian picnic table

Another beautiful day

Kim‘s very own beach

Just another Norwegian fjord

First impression of Bodø cultural capital city

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Today we drove south along a scenic route to Furøy Camping

Yes, this is sculpture, not a ruined house

No that’s not a sculpture, it’s Kim exercising

Sculpture

The fantastic surroundings for the art

More sculpture- a Thai pavilion. They unlocked the door and threw the key in the lake to make sure that anyone can use it!

Yes it’s rubbish isn’t it. By a Portuguese artist called Bordalo II

Another Norwegian fjord, next to our camp site

Today we washed everything, brushed the carpet, swept the floor and had toast for breakfast.

A tree well past its best, but still worth a look.

It rained quite a bit today, so we drove as far as we could

Stop for lunch

What’s Kim doing up there?

He‘s snapping the camper. Can you find it?

Kind of dramatic spot for the night next to a wide river and a cantilever bridge, on a quiet road

We woke up very early today and spent the day driving to Trondheim.

The sun shone to welcome us to Trondheim

Today we jumped on the bus and headed for the traces of a street art festival from a few years ago

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It’s in an industrial part of Trondheim

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There’s an old church too

What’s stranger, the graffiti or the religious carving?

Who are those people blocking our view of the modern art?

This one’s good too

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Playground for grownups outside the library

Today we drove a couple of hours to Gjøra Camping

It‘s a nice spot with lots of trees, mountains, waterfalls and birds to try my new Merlin Bird ID app.

We can hear this singing all day long

Nice stroll down into the village, playing „what’s that called“ with plants in the verges

Today we decided to start early and drive most of the day to see the puffins on the island of Runde (campsite)

On the way up

Handy stones for most of the way

Nice view from the top

What are they all looking at?

Must be good!

Peek-a-boo, I can see you

On the way down

Almost home

Here comes our boat (Aquila)

Johan telling us about razorbills

Herring gull?

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Sleek, black cormorants sunning themselves

Luxury development for birds of a feather

Gannets galore

Heading for a grotto

What a colour scheme

Inside the grotto

A peckish gull

Who is screeching the most?

Our evening walk – just before it started to rain…

The end of another fine day

On the beach opposite the Hestad Chapel

The rain stopped about 21:00

Clouds are fun when they don’t rain on you

It seems to be a nature reserve here. A sandpiper like this sang a nice song for us.

Visited the designer loo before we left

So much natural light, amazing!

Somewhere in the forest the sun is shining

Sun hat required

Good campsite at Ølberg

Small harbour with some real fishing boats

There are loads of birds in the protected zone along the coast

We found this funny old bird in the harbour

On the beach

Enjoying the warm evening sun

Gerhild starting off with style!

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Daredevil Kim

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Tiring work, climbing over rocks

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A rock star

The birds love it here and so do we

Evening on the beach

Our campsite for the next couple of days Roligheden camping

It’s a good campsite

Especially for swimmers

At least it will be when it stops raining

Not sure which way he’s sailing

Just finished this year, the Kunstsilo (Guardian article)

The Bug. I hope it’s not carnivorous!

A selfie cabin on the quayside

We are both in this somewhere

Today we jumped on the bus again to go to visit the Kunstsilo in Kristiansand

Stroll past the concert hall with its wooden roof lining

Sliced-off silo tubes

Stairs

More stairs

20th century Norwegian art

Collected by a hedge fund manager who made a fortune in London

Who also donated money to build the Kunstsilo

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This old Norwegian mountain hut was bought from the farmer, changed into a work of 21st century art and installed here

Recovering on the campsite with some delicious cinnamon buns thickly smeared with blueberry jam