Featured Europe Down

Reeperbahn

 

Beatles fan are you?

 

Great thread, following with a lot of interest. I like the thought and planning process.

 

I had a look at the Northern Norwegian section. As it happens, I lived in Northern Norway for 14 years and consider myself pretty familiar with the region. It all looks great. Provided I had enough time, this is what I would do:

Follow E6 from Nordkapp to Olderdalen. Take the ferry to Lyngseidet and follow FV91 and then E8 to Tromsø. Tromsø is the largest city in Northern Norway with its 65,000 inhabitants and well worth a visit. A sort of Klondyke city in the Arctic. But it’s just a stop along the way, if it doesn’t interest you you just cross it and continue along FV862 to Brensholmen. Just make sure you do the detour to Sommarøy just north of Brensholmen, very well worth a stop.
https://sommaroy.no/eng-frontpage/

From Brensholmen you take the 35 min ferry to Botnhamn, and you find yourself on the north end of the large island Senja. Follow the coastal road FV862, then FV86 to Gryllefjord, but I recommend the detour to Husøy if you have the time. Keep in mind that Senja island is very little affected by tourism, this is your chance to see first hand what thriving fishing villages look like. As you move south, there will be more tour buses and campervans.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Husøy,_Senja
https://www.lokalkjent.no/husoy

At Gryllefjord you board the summer ferry to Andenes (1h40min). Now you’re in Vesterålen. The main road from Andenes would be FV82 on the eastern side of Andøya, but the western option is more spectacular. You’ll arrive at Sortland, the largest settlement in Vesterålen.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortland_(town)

Again, if you have time for it, I’ll recommend spending some time on the scenic route. This definitely means going to Nyksund on the NW side; north of Myre. Let me know if you want any contacts.
https://nyksund.no/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyksund

As an alternative to spending much time in tourist trap Lofoten, I’ll recommend doing a round trip along FV820 before you head back east to the crossroad FV820/FV821 (Frøskeland). From there you head south along Eidsfjordveien etc. until you get on FV82 to Stokmarknes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stokmarknes

From Stokmarknes it’s a short dash along FV82 to Melbu, where you board the ferry to Fiskebøl. So now you’ve made it to Lofoten. I won’t go into details about Lofoten, Google and you’ll find lots of info in English. And don’t get me wrong, Lofoten is truly sepctacular. The road ends in the south west at the small place appropriately called Å (Oh!).

If you got to Å, you don’t need to double back, there’s a 3-4 hrs ferry from Moskenes to the city Bodø. If you take it, you will have made up for some of the time spent exploring Vesterålen and Lofoten.
https://www.torghatten-nord.no/

If you must press on from Bodø, there’s always the E6 from Fauske, that will take you across the mountain Saltfjellet. The scenic route will always be to hug the coastline though, which means the FV17. If you connect to FV17 already near Bodø, make sure you time it to the tide at Saltstraumen where the road crosses the fjord, as this is an opportunity to observe the world’s strongest tidal current at work.
https://visitbodo.com/en/saltstraumen

As you’ll see from the map, you can switch between FV17 and E6 on several occasions, you can aim for reconnecting to E6 as far south as Steinkjær. Let me know what you’ll set aside time for and I’ll provide more details. Sonja is from Mosjøen and we spemd a lot of time in the surrounding region, last time this summer.

On the northwest side of the coast south of Trondheim you have already got some good advice, like the Atlantic Road, Trollstigen and Geiranger etc. At this point you may be seasick from all the ferries and ocean views, so you may want to cross the mountain to the east side of Norway. Make sure you follow the western side of the Oslo fjord, and Sonja and I will have beds and dinner waiting for you on our island Nøtterøy. See you!

 

The very north

 

Senja

 

Vesterålen

 

Lofoten to Bodø

 

Hugging the coastline from Bodø

 

I'm interested in a trip into Scandinavia soon. I retired on 1st January and wife and I want to explore Europe a bit more. Your trip sounds amazing but we don't want to be away for weeks at a time or become mile munchers!

 

It certainly looks like a plan! The Northern Norway section as it stands will take a bit more time than you had anticipated, but you'll get to see and experience a lot more than if you thunder down the mostly inland E6. I have only one comment to the map at this stage: If you'd like to stop by, you need to keep on the western side of the Oslo fjord after you get to Sandvika. Again, it's the slower scenic alternative (after Sande) or you can stay on the 110 kmh E18. Afterwards you can cross the fjord on the Horten - Moss ferry (40 min) or the Sandefjord - Strömstad ferry (2h30min) into Sweden.

 

Stock up on mars bars or any other chocolate bars that you like, man they are expensive