Across the Arctic Circle, halfway to the North Pole -Trip Report UPDATED 11/29 About This Page:

[OhToodles!]

Originally Posted by Nimros

When you posted about going to northern Scandinavia, I had no idea you were going to drive! I can just imagine the adventures you'll have along the way.

This will be an adventure! What made you decide to do this spur of the moment?

[lauriep]

That's a lot of driving in one day! But I can understand wanting to get right to the places that are new to you. I love travelling in Scandinavia, but, aside from driving from Oslo to Bergen, have always taken the train. It'll be great to have the freedom to veer off the beaten path to explore on your own.

[Colexis Mom]

Sounds like great plans!

[chezp]

What a great plan for day one - my goodness, that is a lot of driving though!

[Disneybine]

Originally Posted by OhToodles!

What made you decide to do this spur of the moment?

We had been thinking about maybe doing a trip of some sort sometime in the fall for a while now but never made any concrete plans because we couldn't decide where to go. We love traveling to North America but didn't wanna deal with a long-distance flight and jet-lag this time around. However, an extended road trip in our previous car (which I still drive), a Chevrolet Aveo, didn't sound like much fun either. So when we bought our new car in July and realized just how big and sturdy it really is, northern Scandinavia came to mind... We'll be driving in pretty remote territory way up north so you need a reliable car. Plus, the huge trunk offers enough space for all the warm clothes we'll be taking along

Originally, we had thought about taking a trip in October. However, since it can start snowing in northern Scandinavia as early as late September, we decided to go for early/mid September instead. So yeah, by the end of July, I started checking hotels and ferries on the internet and found out that both were still available at affordable rates. I had to wait with the bookings till we both knew if we'd get time off of work. When I finally got the green light on Monday, I had all the hotels planned out and it took me all of half an hour to book 10 different hotels

For me, any trip that's booked less than a month out is a spur-of-the-moment trip

[lauren-roxy]

Great start!!! Sounds like a wonderful trip!!

[Wendyismyname]

I think it's fabulous!! I love the old car, I love the new car and I love that you're driving through all those countries! That's amazing!! I wanna go!!

[Kenny]

Sounds like a great trip! I'm glad to be coming along. 600 miles in a day?... That's "truck driver driving"... but I agree, get through the familiar stuff as soon as possible so you can take your time with the new sights.

[Disneybine]

Pre- Trip Report: Day Two

Distance: about 325 km (200 miles)
Estimated travel time: approx. 3 to 4 hours
Destination: Stockholm (Sweden)

After the long drive the first day, I’m sure we’ll be glad that we can sleep in on the second day. We don’t have to hit the road till 10am. From Jönköping, we’ll then drive north along the shore of Lake Vättern before following the main highway east through Linköping and Norrköping. After about 3 ½ hours, we’ll reach the beautiful city of Stockholm. My DH and I visited Sweden’s capital during our southern Scandinavia tour in August 2004 and we both fell in love with it. However, since we only have 16 days available and we want to reach the far north, we won’t be spending any time in Stockholm. It is merely where we board the ferry to Helsinki.

Viking Line runs daily ferries to Finland’s capital. Our ship, the MS Mariella, leaves Stockholm at 4:45pm, and we need to check in 2 hours before that. This is what the MS Mariella looks like:



The ship makes one stop (at the island of Mariehamn in the Baltic Sea) at 11:45pm, then keeps on going throughout the night to reach Helsinki by 10am the next morning. The MS Mariella will actually go into dry dock right after our crossing so I’m hoping it’s not too run-down. The ship has 8 decks and several restaurants, shops and a casino (of course). It holds up to 2500 passengers and up to 430 cars. You can book all sorts of cabins just like on a cruise ship. We went with a small inside cabin since it’ll just be for one night. With only 7 m² (about 75 sq ft), it’s really tiny though! Our cabin will be on deck 4, 5 or 6. We didn’t pre-book the (overpriced) dinner, figuring we’ll just grab a bite to eat before we board and take along plenty of snacks. Well, of course there’s one other reason, too... I am prone to motion sickness, and while I’m usually ok on a cruise ship, on a ferry – not so much (as you feel the motion a lot more on them). I’m fine as long as I’m outside so I’m hoping for good weather (i.e. no rain!!!). I could just spend a few hours on deck and go straight to bed then. And that’s it for day two!

[lauren-roxy]

Your plans sound great!!

[Colexis Mom]

Great plans!

[jagmom08]

Sounds like an amazing trip!

[chezp]

Nice plans for day two.

[Disneybine]

Hmm, I just remembered something from our last trip to Scandinavia: We had various degrees of rain on 14 out of 17 days!!! Let's hope we'll have better luck this time around...

[orionchika]

for much better weather this time around..... Your plans sound great.... I took the Viking line years ago to visit a BF back in the day, that lived in Helsinki.... It wasn't bad at all... After all the drinking and dancing I was out like a light and woke up in time to get ready and have breakfast... If I remember - it was quite inexpensive taking my car across. You are going to have a total blast.....