Category: 2026 Europe

We woke up early on Tuesday morning. The Camper Stop at Kirkenes Harbour isn’t the most conducive place for a good night’s sleep and we were slightly apprehensive about the boarding onto our ship at Kirkenes.

There’s a policy of no Motorhomes and campervans with kitchens incorporating gas appliances must be removed. When we booked, the company agreed the weight and dimensions of our Campervan were OK and that so long as we removed the gas bottle we would be granted safe passage onto the boat.

However, pre-trip research revealed that several VW Califorinia travellers had been refused boarding, even with pre bookings.

The cost of the ferry for our Campervan was something like £250 – which is a bargain for a 6 day crossing of around 1300 miles. The associated cabin and meals for Moe and I were nearer £5k.

That’s because this is no ordinary ferry.

This is the original Norwegian mailboat ferry, one of which every day sets sail from Bergen in South West Norway to Kirkenes on the Russian border. And back again.

Our trip on the Hurtigruten Nordkapp would be that Southbound route from Kirkenes all the way to Bergen. Assuming we were allowed to board.

Which we were. There’s a small car deck for around 50 cars which is accessible via a tiny lift. Nellie fitted fine, with the wing mirrors tucked in. The Loadmaster and the guys on the car deck were very helpful and we picked up our bags and headed to reception check-in.

Boarding the vehicle was by the left hand small cargo door and lift.

The sailing information is below. Click on an image to see it in full resolution.

The Hurtigruten is one of those “bucket-list” trips on a par with the Orient Express. Here’s some history about the Norwegian mailboat.

Hurtigruten, originally established in 1893 as a vital mail and cargo carrier, continues to operate its iconic Coastal Express along the Norwegian coast. Running daily between Bergen and Kirkenes, the fleet stops at 34 ports acting as a working lifeline for local communities while offering scenic passenger voyages.

The classic voyage takes 12 days round-trip, though you can book shorter, custom point-to-point journeys. Because the ships serve both tourists and local commuters, passengers get a unique look at authentic everyday coastal life, far beyond what typical sightseeing cruises offer.

As we are traversing the final stretch of water to Bergen, we are happy to report that this ferry journey has exceeded our expectations. The double room was comfortable with a nice view from the port hole.

The sales agent was helpful in identifying the best room within our budget for location, coastal facing and with unobstructed views from the cabin.

The food was superb. Drinks were expensive but not prohibitive at around £11 for a pint and similar for a glass of house wine. Buffet for breakfast and lunch with waiter service in the evening.

The highlight of the culinary calendar was the four course farewell meal. Now, whilst I’m always likely to be first in line, Moe and I never are. On this occasion we had thought that the dinner was free seating so we arrived early and happened to be first in the queue.

Moe marched into the restaurant, first time first, to be greeted by a guard of honour from the Captain, officers and restaurant team, each of them greeting us personally. The look on Moes face was exquisite.

The pictures below are from the four-course farewell dinner…

The excursions were well organised but expensive. We went on two – a midnight concert in the cathedral at Trondheim and the Lofiten Island tour. We would do these again…

In Hammerfest we made our way to a viewpoint on the mountain and it turns out this was a similar route to the Mountain Hike excursion so with a bit of research, you can find your own things to do.

Typically, when a stop was 30 minutes or longer and during the day we would head ashore. Some of our other trips are shown in pictures below.

Midnight concert in Tromso.

Passage through the Trollfjorden. The weather was good which allowed the Captain of MS Nordkapp to navigate through this narrow fjord.

The 2-kilometre (1.2 mi) long fjord cuts into the island of Austvågøya and flows out into the Raftsundet strait. The fjord has a narrow entrance and steep-sided mountains surrounding it. The name is derived from troll, a figure from Norse mythology.

The fjord is a popular tourist attraction due to the beauty of its natural setting. It is only accessible by boat or by a nearby 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) hike over very rugged terrain. The Hurtigruten’s ships on the route between Bergen and Kirkenes detour into Trollfjorden. It is also popular with other cruise lines.

The Lofoten Island tour took us along the Lofoten peninsula, stopping at the pretty fishing village of Henningsvaer and a lovely viewpoint. The Lofoten islands have become a major tourist honey-pot destination.

Of course there was the moment to cross the Arctic Circle southbound.

Stopover at Bronnoysund.

An early morning in Trondheim.

And the afternoon brief halt in Kristiansund.

Passing MS Vesteralen

Summary

We spent Tuesday and Wednesday nights at NordKapp camping with a trip to the port of Honningsvag on Wednesday.

Thursday we drove to Kiby on the Varangerfjorden for a few days at the Varanger National park. 276 miles which took nearly 7 hours of driving at 38.2 mpg.

After 3 nights and some very mixed weather it was time to head East towards Kirkenes. 106 miles at around 41mpg. Not bad for a fully loaded campervan. Shame there wasn’t a ferry as we only moved about 10 miles by line of sight!

After a splendid evening meal at Bugoynes, the next day it was time to head to Kirkenes.

66 miles in just over 2 hours at 35.3 mpg.

Tomorrow we hope to continue the next stage of the trip boarding an extremely expensive ferry to Bergen. It’s a ferry which clearly states “No Motorhomes” so we are hoping the various email confirmations are good to get us on-board.

As instructed we’ve lost our Camping Gaz 907 bottle (given away at Bugoynes) but we weren’t able to remove the California kitchen!!! The ultimate decision will be the Ships Captain. Hope he or she is in a good mood.

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Like many Norwegian towns and unlike the pretty coloured houses, the architecture in towns can be quite bleak and brutal. Maybe that resonates with the many weeks of complete darkness here in the Arctic Circle winter.

Honningsvag was similar.

Thursday we drove to Varangerfjorden where we would end up staying 3 nights at Varanger Panorama Camping – located near to the village of Kiby just a few miles outside of Vadso.

The campsite is interesting. It’s a 500m walk to the main building which houses the sanitary facilities. This is pleasant when the weather is warm and sunny but was a real pain in some of the weather we experienced.

The facilities themselves are immaculate and absolutely 5 star.

Thursday night was a beautiful evening and we BBQed for the first time on this trip.

Friday’s weather was poor – very windy, cold and grey but without a whole lot of rain. We caught the bus into Vadso and looked around the town for a couple of hours.

In the 16th century, the settlement consisted of a fishing village and the old Vadsø Church, located on the island of Vadsøya.

The settlement later moved to the mainland.

Township privilege was granted in 1833, and settlers came from Finland and the northern part of Sweden, which suffered from famine. Finnish was rapidly becoming the language of the majority, and this continued for decades.

Even today Finnish is still spoken in some households.

Saturday was a horrible day with strong winds and heavy persistent rain. We remained hunkered down in the van until the evening when we headed to the campsite pizzeria for tea.

The Pizza was gigantic and was ok. The smoked reindeer topping was super but there could have been more of it!

Sunday it was time to leave the Varanger national park but not before we had visited one of the oldest fishing villages on the Varangerfjorden. There are about forty people living in the village now and tourism is an important aspect of the economy.

At Ekkeroy there is an old German fort and other related buildings. The Germans occupied this part of Finnmark for about four years from 1940.

It is one of the few places in Finnmark where pre-World War II buildings can be seen.

When the German army retreated from the Litsa front and Kirkenes in late 1944, they burned most buildings in the county.

However, buildings on the north side of the Varangerfjorden survived because the Russians advanced so quickly that the German troops in this area fled west to get across the Tana river and did not have enough time to obey the order to destroy all buildings.

We had a picnic lunch on our ramblings before a late afternoon drive to Bugoynes. Here we had a stunning pitch next to the water and Moe declared our planned meal as past it’s sell-by date.

This meant a short walk into the village to the Bistro. The restaurant is highly regarded and the food was superb.

Moe had the Pollack and mash potato main course whilst I grazed on the Viking platter.

This consisted of smoked reindeer, smoked whale, pickled herring, king crab and other delicacies.

Monday and here we are at an Aire next to the Kirkenes harbour. It’s functional and for Norway, relatively cheaply priced! Weather is sunny and warm with a high of around 15C.

Finally, to put things into perspective, we are only a few kms from the Russian border.

Before the Ukraine “special operation”, the border here we believe was open and many Russians lived and worked in the Kirkenes region. This explains the dual signage in Norwegian and Russian.

Summary

Well, here we are – at the top of mainland Europe. We left Alta around 09:30 and had covered the 134 miles by around 14:00, as we arrived at NordKapp camping. Since the weather was clear and sunny, we placed our markers on a pitch with a view and set off for Nordkapp itself.

* * * * *

Despite an early alarm call, it was around 09:30 before we left Camping Alta Strand and headed towards Nordkapp Camping. The roads were now much smaller and the traffic was light.

The scenery is more dramatic and spectacular; most of the vehicles travelling North and South on E69 were motorhomes and campervans.

To reach our final destination there were two impressive tunnels to navigate. Firstly the 6.8km long North Cape Tunnel which traverses the Mageroysundet strait as a subsea road tunnel.

The second tunnel was the Honningsvag tunnel, a mere 4.5km long and just north of the North Cape Tunnel.

We then passed the town of Honningsburg which before the tunnels had been built, operated the ferries to navigate across the islands. Today there were a couple of cruise ships docked.

We arrived early afternoon at Nordkapp camping and found a nice, non-electric pitch with views across the water. It was a cold but pleasant afternoon so we decided to head straight to Nordkapp which can be a dreary and misty place to visit at times. Today was bright and clear.

When we arrived, there were hordes of tourists at the plateau and we found out that this was from the cruise ships docked at Honningsvag. A lady at the entrance to the visitor centre said we would have a quiet hour or so between boats at 5pm. We headed back to our van and popped a brew on.

By late afternoon, the tourist volume had subsided and we had some quiet time to absorb the beauty and ambience of this very special place.

The iconic Globe Monument sits on the very edge of the plateau at the top of the cliffs. Erected in 1978 it has become the symbol of North Cape. Standing by the steel globe you truly feel that you’re at the “end of Europe”.

Not far away from the Globe Monument is the “Children of the World” monument; seven large circular bronze plaques created by children from different parts of the world, unveiled in 1989.

On our way back to camp, we stopped a couple of kms out and enjoyed stunning views across to our campsite.

The nice weather continued into the evening and we cooked potatoes and kebabs in the air fryer. The “portable” air fryer and the Aferiy power station are serving us well on this trip.

After dinner, it was England vs Ghana in the World Cup 2026 – a dire game – and a finish just before midnight.

Of course the sun was now at its lowest level in the sky and was just starting to rise again. The campervan got really quite hot in the night as the sun warmed up the vehicle fabric.

I didn’t realise just how special the midnight sun would be as I expected to sleep as normal. However, it really messes with the mind. You head across the campsite to clean your teeth at 01:00 and its daylight, bright and sunny. You’ve lost the natural markers which intuitively give you an idea of the time of day.

The Midnight Sun has really been one of the most interesting facets of this trip to date.

This has been a really busy day. We travelled from Alta to Nordkapp camping to Nordkapp itself. Then back at the campsite we did the laundry, cooked dinner and then watched a painful England game before finally retiring around 01:00. Time for rest…

Summary

With our batteries re-charged after 3 nights at Camping Vallens we had a relatively early start on Sunday morning. Crossing the Arctic Circle at the rather underwhelming Juoksenki, we decided on a change of plan and just kept heading North.

A nice site greeted us at Sonkamuotka but we just hadn’t appreciated the Mosquito problem. We knew of issues in Sweden but Finland represented a whole new challenge!

Today’s mileage was 255 but we lost an hour entering Finland…

Monday was a relatively short 155 mile journey to Camping Alta Strand at Alta. We arrived before noon because we’d re-gained our lost hour from yesterday. In the afternoon we caught the bus into Alta and looked around this rather bleak town, albeit with a nice harbour.

* * * * *

We were ready to leave Camping Vallens on Day 15 close to 09:00, destination Rovaniemi via the Arctic Circle crossing of Juoksenki. We headed past Lulea and here the landscape and roads started to feel a little more rural.

To date, and prior to Sweden all the European roads we have been on have been a minimum of two lanes on each carriageway and mostly with a motorway specification hard shoulder. Through Sweden as far as Lulea was a mixture of dual carriageway and separated three lane highway. All the Swedish roads so far have had fencing to protect the traffic from Moose and Reindeer.

Now we were travelling on a standard two lane road, with no fence protection. It was as we headed North that our journey was briefly held up by these animals wandering across the highway. Moe was a little slow on the camera trigger!

We crossed the Arctic Circle at Juoksenki and stepped out of the van to be immediately engulfed with a swarm of Mosquitos. This was worse than Sweden! After photographing the under-whelming Arctic Circle sign, we decided we would head straight North through Finland and not detour through the town of Rovaniemi – the “designated” capital of Lapland.

We arrived at Lapin Lomamökit & Camping, Sonkamuotka late afternoon. Another lovely spot next to the Torne river which for much of it’s length forms the border between Sweden and Finland. We had earlier crossed the border into Finland at Overtornea.

Despite it’s lovely location, the activity of these creatures had picked up a gear (see below).

Swarms of Mosquitos were everywhere. Like the one in the picture, dozens more would attach themselves to the van and at the slightest opening of a door or window, in they flew!!

Whilst a relatively pleasant evening it just wasn’t suitable to sit outside so we headed to the cafe and ate our tea there. Highlight of the menu for me was smoked Reindeer. Absolutely delicious.

Day 16 and we drove to Camping Alta strand near the town of Alta. We have a nice pitch near to the river and without the incessant Mosquito activity (which extends into Norway) it would be nice enough to sit outside. With a few layers of clothing!

During the journey North into Norway, the outside temperature was as low as 6C and there are still patches of snow on the hills. Strangely, once outside, it doesn’t really feel that cold.

As we crossed into Norway, the landscape changed yet again. The pine trees were replaced by the slow-growing Mountain birch, a feature of this subarctic and tundra landscape.

The scenery also became ever more dramatic and the roads are just a little bit smaller.

Once we had settled onto our pitch at Camping Alta Strand, we caught the bus into town. Like the rest of Scandinavia, the buses are modern, quiet and comfortable; the drivers couldn’t be more helpful. Oh, and they are very punctual.

The town of Alta is the largest town in Finnmark and is also known as “The Northern Light City”. We won’t however be seeing the Northern Lights on our trip because there is simply too much daylight. In fact 24 hours of daylight here in the land of the midnight sun.

The Northern Lights inspired the Cathedral of Alta – The Northern Light Cathedral.

We walked down to the harbour and noted a very nice Camping place right by the water. By now it was a little breezy so we were glad of our pitch at Alta Strand and the nice warm shower facilities.

We are here for 3 nights – Camping Vallens tourism & fritid.

The location is very rural and the campsite is located alongside a body of water, most likely an inlet on the Gulf of Bothnia. We chose this site for its remoteness in order to chill-out before we hit the road for another three straight days.

I think Moe is getting bored with the driving (we are close to 3,000km now) as she has started a photo collection of roads signs.

The showers and toilets are clean and there is a washer and dryer included in the site fees which we made the most of yesterday.

The weather was nice yesterday with broken sunshine during the 22 hours of daylight. Temperatures are pleasant in the sun but fall dramatically when it’s cloudy.

Yesterday was mid-summers eve. We knew this weekend was a bank holiday weekend but we hadn’t appreciated that mid-summers eve was such a big event in Sweden. Partying continued into mid-summers day and several strange trees appeared on-site. Presumably some kind of voodoo rituals were performed at midnight whilst we were blissfully asleep!

Summary

Wednesday was a relaxing drive from Harnosand to Skeppsmalen. 108 miles driven including views of the High Coast Bridge (aka Sweden’s golden gate) and a detour for lunch at the Rotsidan nature reserve. Rotisdan is a 4km coastline with beautifully polished and flat diabase rock, framed by windswept coastal pines.

We arrived mid-afternoon at Skeppsmalen where there is a Stellplatz near the harbour. The sun was strong, temperatures reached a barmy 22C and we enjoyed a coastal walk and a fish BBQ in the evening.

In contrast, the forecast high temperature for Thursday in Skeppsmalen was 12C so we decided to head further north where counter-intuitively the weather would be a little bit warmer.

We left Skeppsmalen at 09:30, stopped for lunch at IKEA in Umea (why wouldn’t you?), refilled with beer at the Systembolaget near to IKEA and stocked up with groceries from the COOp.

Just before Pitea we refuelled with Diesel at sub £1.50 per litre.

233 miles and we finally arrived at Vallen around 16:30.

We had originally planned to stay Friday and Saturday nights at West Coast campsite in Pitea but given this weekend is mid-summers celebrations, and a bank holiday to boot, we decided to head into the sticks instead.

We reserved a pitch at the rather rustic Vallens Turism och Fritid camping. This site really is remote and perhaps rather more rustic and basic than we imagined. But the sanitary facilities are clean and given the bank holiday weekend, we have a pitch! Obviously our preferred direction of parking was not allowed. Nor our second or third orientations which would have maximised our solar gain; however, given that there is only a pitch price including electricity, we decided to hitch-up and we’ll be able to avoid using the diesel heater.

We nearly abandoned the site altogether when we found out there was no campsite WiFi. We hadn’t had any mobile signal since Umea but just when we were thinking we’d need to find another site, our mobiles kicked into action.

The temperature is around 14.5 C and sunset is at 11:49 pm with sunrise at 01:49 am. The sky just doesn’t get dark in the couple of hours the sun sets.

* * * * *

Our travels on Day 11 took us further into the Hight Coast region.

Firstly to the High Coast bridge, or also known as Sweden’s Golden Gate Bridge. We parked up at the services on the North side of the bridge which also features a Stellplatz with stunning views of the Bridge. We could only see that you needed to use Swish as the payment method so that might be problematical for non-Swedish residents.

From the High Coast bridge we drove to Rotisdan which is a nature reserve a little further North of the Bridge. We parked-up here for a couple of hours, walking to the coast and enjoying a picnic in the woods.

From Rotisdan, we completed our journey to Skeppsmalen by mid-afternoon. Skeppsmalen is a fishing village known for fermented herring and the fermented herring museum. The village or port authority also runs a Campsite or Stellplatz in the middle of the village with room for a dozen or so units. Very modern and clean sanitary facilities.

From the campsite we walked one of the coastal circuitous paths. The first gallery below shows the various information boards describing the area, the geology and the history of the fishing port. Click on an image in the media file to see the full detail.

Day 12 was a much longer drive from Skeppsmalen to Vallen. We left site around 09:30, arriving at Vallen late afternoon. We passed one of the most Northern IKEAS in Europe around lunchtime so its seemed appropriate to visit it in its home country.

It’s exactly the same as every other IKEA we’ve ever been to! There were many motorhomes in the carpark and did wonder if it’s used as some kind of add-hoc Stellplatz.

Harnosand is the gateway to the beautiful High Coast region of Northern Sweden. We spent yesterday evening absorbing the views across the Gulf of Bothnia and it was nearly midnight before we retired.

The evenings are strange because the sun doesn’t set until 11pm and then rises again at 3:00am. The sky doesn’t really get dark during the sunset hours.

A wet start to today gave the perfect opportunity to write about our visit to Copenhagen and by early afternoon, the rain had subsided sufficiently for us to walk the mile or two into Harnosand. Lunch at a waterfront restaurant was functional if not spectacular.

Given the inclement weather, we decided to visit the Bilmuseum in town. This is Sweden’s largest car museum and home to more than 300 spectacular cars. It’s privately owned but also displays some cars on behalf of their owners. The museum owner is a successful local entrepreneur.

There is also an interesting display of old mobile phones… we’ve owned quite a few of these over the years…

Another strange Swedish custom is the availability of alcohol. Anything stronger than shandy or a weak beer is only available at a government run store – the Systembolaget. We stopped at one in Harnosand to replenish beer and gin. The prices are eye-watering but apparently great value compared to Norway…

Summary

With a wet morning and afternoon forecast, we decided to head further North to the High Coast area of Sweden. Just 121 miles but we didn’t leave until noon.

It’s a holiday weekend in Sweden (Summer solstice) so we spent the morning finding a site for Friday and Saturday nights. No other sites have been booked so far.

* * * * *

Our campsite is in a stunning location and we are on the front row overlooking the sea (the Gulf of Bothnia).

We walked a couple of miles along the coast before settling down to dinner.

Tonight is pie and chips. Pieminster pies, the last of the ones we brought from blighty. All cooked in the air fryer powered by the Aferiy P280.

Summary

After a balmy evening BBQ, cooking fish from the lake at Arnas Marina, we headed further North today. Temperatures had now dropped to 9.5C and the heavens opened. All day.

We had identified an aire / Stellplatz at Norrsundet but given the atrocious weather, we didn’t fancy spending even five minutes outside figuring out how we should pay, or queuing for the single toilet.

Instead we, looked for a 5 star campsite and decided upon Camping Steno Havsbad.

271 miles in 7.5 hours with three breaks and reported mpg of 38.4

* * * * *

Camping Steno Havsbad is a huge site and some of the reviews slate it as one of the most expensive in Sweden. We did however, call ahead to check prices and availability. All seemed OK, particularly since we didn’t require an electric hookup.

On arriving at the site, we discovered it was operating the ACSI scheme and the total charge was SEK 28 for the night including electricity, great excellent value.

Availability was certainly not an issue!

Summary

Took a while to pack up from Tangloppen and refresh the water in the tank which was now 7 days young and un-touched!

Nice 6.5 hour drive covering 283 miles, beginning with crossing the Oresund Bridge. The California again averaging slightly under 40mpg.

The Bridge was both spectacular and expensive, costing over £60. Maybe we missed a discount somewhere along the way.

Now parked up at a small Stellplatz / campsite at Arnas Harbour, as recommended by Park4Night.

its absolutely stunning and the cost about £20 including electric which we won’t be using.

* * * * *

I need to write about our three days in Copenhagen but that might be a little later with some serious driving ahead of us.

The Stellplatz / Campsite at Arnas Marina is lovely. It’s incredibly peaceful, has full facilities and costs about £20 for the night

Payment is either via a Swedish banking app – Swish – or cash in an envelope. We also picked up some fish from the on-site freezer which I’m about to cook on the BBQ.

The weather on the drive North was cold and very wet but it’s now a beautiful evening sat outside. On that note, it’s time for a beer I think!