Across the Arctic Circle, halfway to the North Pole -Trip Report UPDATED 11/7 About This Page:

[Disneybine]

Across the Arctic Circle, halfway to the North Pole

Pre- Trip Report

Another spur-of-the-moment trip is in the works for my DH and me! In September, we'll be going on a true adventure... We got the idea when we bought a new car in July. It's a crossover, the perfect car for a road trip! And we have one heck of a road trip coming up: Within 16 days, we'll drive a total of over 4,000 miles, all the way up to the northernmost point of continental Norway! We've been to southern Scandinavia before so this time around, we're focusing our attention on the north.

I'm currently in the process of putting everything together and I'll post our plans over the next couple of weeks. To give you an impression of what's ahead, this is what our route looks like:




The map is in German so it doesn't matter if you can't read everything We'll basically drive from Germany briefly through Denmark to Sweden, take a ferry over to Finland, drive all the way north through Finland, cross into Norway and finally drive back down through Sweden.

Right now I'm so excited I could burst And, to be honest, I'm glad that we're doing a road trip this time. Usually, we need to fly to get to our vacation destination - which means long hours in a tiny airplane seat plus very strict limits on our luggage. Instead, we now have plenty of space to take along a ton of junk food - oh yeah, and LOTS of warm clothes!!!

[jimmymac]

Sounds like a a great trip. Have fun planning. At least you'll have plenty of daylight

[hall0731]

Sounds like a great trip. Excited to hear about your plans.

[lauriep]

Ooh, this sounds so great! Can't wait to hear all the details.

[statelady01]

Sounds awesome! Can't wait to hear more about it!

[ccmom]

Oh, that sounds like so much fun! You are really going to break in your car.

[DrDolphin]

What an awesome sounding trip!! Can't wait to read all about this one!

[chezp]

This sounds amazing - I can't wait to hear all about it.

[yo ho yo ho]

How exciting! Looking forward to following along!

[Colexis Mom]

Great start Sabine!

[orionchika]

What a Great road trip planned... You will definitely have some beautiful views.... Thanks for inviting us to hitch hike along....

[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.

Can't wait to hear all about this. This means I'll also be paying better attention to the Norway pavillion during our upcoming trip.

[pamcarey]

Sounds fabulous!! Can't wait to hear all about it!

[Disneybine]

I have to say, I'm getting more and more excited about this trip the more I read about our destination!!! In preparation for our big adventure, I bought the Lonely Planet guidebooks for Sweden, Finland and Norway (Wouldn't it be nice if there were PassPorter guidebooks for those countries? ) The LP series is great for self-planned, individual road trips like the one we're doing. So right now my evenings are spent browsing through those books, making plans, taking notes...

Ups, I just realized I forgot to introduce the cast of the Arctic adventure! It'll be me, Sabine (28) and my DH Manuel (26). Here's a pic for those of you who don't know us yet :



Alright, now that we've got the formalities out of the way, let's take a look at our first day.


Pre-Trip Report: Day One

Distance: about 950 km (600 miles)
Estimated travel time: approx. 10 to 11 hours
Destination: Jönköping (Sweden)

This is actually the longest distance we'll be driving in a single day. We decided to do this marathon drive the first day because a) we've been to places along the way before and b) we wanted to have more time in the north.

We're planning on leaving home around 7am. It'll take us approximately 4 hours to drive north through Germany and reach the small German island Fehmarn. I assume between 11am and noon we'll board a ferry that runs from Puttgarden (on Fehmarn) to Rodbyhavn in southern Denmark. It's a short 45-minute ferry ride and we're in Denmark. From Rodbyhavn, it'll take us another two hours to reach Copenhagen. (In case you're wondering why we're not stopping in Copenhagen, it's because we've visited the city before.) There, we'll drive onto the Öresund bridge that connects Denmark with the city of Malmö in Sweden. It's the world's longest cable-tied road and rail bridge (7.8 km=4.9miles), combined with a 3km=1.9miles tunnel. Feels like driving on the ocean

Once we're in Sweden, it'll take another 3 hours to get from Malmö to the city of Jönköping. I guess we'll just grab a quick bite to eat along the way. Hopefully around 6pm, we'll then check into our hotel and take a well-deserved break. Jönköping (population 123,710) is known as the birthplace of the safety match and lies on the southernmost shore of Lake Vättern (Sweden's second largest lake). Our hotel is actually just a short walk away from the lake. Depending on how beat we are after the drive, we may take an evening stroll.

Since Jönköping is still in southern Sweden, temperatures in early September will most likely be around 15°-20°C (60°-70°F) during the day and around 5°C (40°F) at night. Sunset should be around 7pm.

[KMB733]

How exciting! This is going to be some adventure!