By Camper to the North Cape (Part 1)

BY CAMPER TO THE NORTH CAPE TRAVEL DIARY BY ANTERO AND MARY 28 May ---- 9 July 2006 1 OUR JOURNEY With the detailed itinerary in Scandinavia Outbound route in RED: Via Berlin Return route in BLUE: Via Hamburg North Cape Notes: The dream of every lover of touring holidays is to go to the North Cape, because it's the farthest place in the world you can reach by land. Reaching the North Cape by camper means adopting a spartan lifestyle, it means enjoying the splendour of nature while giving up the comforts we're used to and, not least, having plenty of time at your disposal. From Castiglion Fibocchi to the North Cape there are about 5,000 kilometres, crossing six countries with languages, customs and traditions different from ours.

We don't lack a spirit of adventure, and having come back from Canada we thought we'd undertake "THE JOURNEY" alone this time too and experience the strong emotions that the world we want to visit holds for us. 2 The trip was prepared by gathering, including via the internet, all the information possible to plan the route to follow. We decide to set off, in the company of another crew, on 28 May, and to return on 9 July 2006, after 42 days. SUMMARY: KM COVERED: 11,961 CAPITALS VISITED: Berlin, Stockholm, Helsinki, Oslo, Copenhagen. COUNTRIES VISITED (in order of travel): Austria, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark. DURATION: 42 days from 28 May to 9 July 2006. COST: 4,800 euros, of which 1,250 for diesel UNDERSEA TUNNELS crossed: four, one of them 8 km long and 220 metres below the sea.

TUNNELS crossed: 80-100, or more? Very many hewn out of rock and only 3.50 metres high and 4 wide, many without lighting, one 25 km long (the longest in the world) with lighting like the vault of the sky. FERRY crossings taken: 20-30, or more? FJORDS seen: 50-100, or more? Of which Geiranger is the most photographed CRUISES taken: 3. One from Stockholm to Helsinki lasting 12 hours. One to see the island that hosts the largest colony in the world of puffins, Puffin sea birds. One on the Geiranger fjord, the most photographed in Norway. SPECIALITIES tasted: Reindeer, Stockfish, Salt cod, Whale, Sour milk, prawns and lots...lots of salmon and cod.

SPECIAL PLACES OUTBOUND: Wimmerby (Pippi Longstocking's village) -Rovaniemi (Arctic Circle and Santa's house, from here the sun never sets and so the days without darkness begin) -Suomi (Lapp villages, northern steppe with reindeer roaming freely along the roads) -North Cape (midnight sun) SPECIAL PLACES RETURN: Alta (rock carvings 5,000 years old) -Tromso (the northernmost city in the world and its Arctic Cathedral) - The Islands (Senja with Husoy, the most beautiful village in Norway; Westeralen with excursions to see the Whales and the Puffins; the Lofoten, the marvellous, immense nature) -Salstraumen (where the high tide entering a fjord creates the largest and most impetuous whirlpools in the world) -Khristiansund (the road over the Atlantic) -Andenes (Whale museum and ice city) - Mo I Rana (Arctic Circle, from here the sun sets and so the days are of light and dark) -Trondheim (the

Viking capital) - Geiranger (the most beautiful fjord in Norway) -Bergen (the first capital of Norway and a UNESCO heritage site) -Flam (the Flamsbana, the steepest railway in the world) -Briksdal (the largest land glacier in the world) -the road of the Viking churches - Wurzburg (Germany, where the Romantische strasse begins) - Rombo Pass (Italy, an Alpine pass open only three months a year and only from eight to 19...frightening). SUNDAY 28 MAY 2006 Castiglion Fibocchi - Munich Km 670 At 8.30, with the camper fitted out for the long journey, our adventure begins. Our first goal is Berlin and so we head for Germany. Between Bolzano and Vipiteno we hit our first long queue. Before crossing Austria we buy the "vignette" that lets us drive on the Austrian motorways, but, on reaching the entrance to Innsbruck, we have to pay a toll too.

We continue our first day of travel accompanied by the spectacle of the snow-capped Alps but also by heavy traffic and long queues, so much so that at 20:00 we're still 80 km from Munich, and we decide to stop at a rest area along the motorway where we have dinner and rest. 3 MONDAY 29 MAY Munich - Berlin Km 700 An early start to reach Berlin, which we want to visit calmly. The motorway has four lanes, which lets us keep up a decent average even with the traffic. We drive through forests, forests and more forests, where we glimpse little houses with sloping roofs; then, once we reach the plain ahead of us, immense fields of rape seed in an intense yellow unfold, other fields are emerald green, others dark green, and together with the blue sky they brighten our journey.

In the early afternoon we arrive, not without effort, at the camper rest area near the centre of Berlin and close to the underground station, but to our surprise we find the rest area closed!; luckily Antero is curious and, leaving the camper, goes to see whether it really is the one he had seen on the internet....yes, it's that one but the gate is closed! At that very moment a lady opens it and so we can go in and settle for our visit to Berlin. First of all we get ready to reach the centre by underground and we discover that Berlin is an easy city to visit, having so many connections (bus-underground etc). TUESDAY 30 MAY Berlin We slept well even though we were cold during the night.

The morning is cloudy with bright spells; we set off early and already at 8.30, by underground, we're at the castle built by King Frederick IV for his wife Charlotte: Charlottenburg Castle, whose interior rooms and outside gardens we visit in admiration. We take the underground again and head towards the centre of Berlin to see the Kaiser's Cathedral, almost completely destroyed by the bombing and not rebuilt, to remind everyone of the horrors of war. What's still standing is truly beautiful and imposing, clear proof of the importance of the church and of the city; in front of the cathedral an ultramodern church has been built. We continue our itinerary towards the great victory column set in a large park with immense tree-lined avenues leading to the Brandenburg Gate; these avenues were where the great military parades were held.

Having passed the gate (Triumphal Arch) we see the Reichstag, the government building, and, beyond the navigable river, a great many ultramodern buildings, so many as to form a citadel, used by politicians and state employees. The nearby Olympic stadium draws our attention with the sign -10 days to the start of the football world championships. Near the Brandenburg Gate we visit the monument in memory of the extermination of the Jews, which consists of a kind of labyrinth of grey cube-shaped stone blocks...striking. Lunchtime has come and, with a wurstel sandwich and a beer, we take a break in the gardens where we watch a demonstration in memory of the victims of the Berlin Wall.

We set off again to see a piece of the wall erected in 1962 by the Soviets to divide the city of Berlin, later reunified in 1989; we head to Potsdamer Platz to the Sony Center, a megagalactic shopping centre (better to say citadel) covered with a dome of steel