Norway by Daniele Somenzi

Norway The Lufthansa flight takes Vanni, Nicola and me from Frankfurt to Oslo. As soon as we land we realise the airport is brand new. Already in the dark we take the supertrain that leaves directly from the airport to reach Oslo, where, after a 4-hour stop with a walk through the streets of the centre, we continue all night towards Trondheim, where we arrive the following morning. Here the snow rules; the ice on the pavements is covered with gravel so you do not slip, and some people have rotating heels with snow spikes, while the old ladies get help from a kind of sledge. The Hurtigruten ship that was to host us for 3 days and 2 nights had left the port three hours early, leaving us high and dry with our regular, already-paid tickets; so, after the mistake they had made, they made up for it by flying us to reach the ship waiting at the next port. Finally in the evening we are on board.

The navigation among the Norwegian fjords is spectacular; the only drawback is that it is always cloudy. After many stops we reach the city of Tromso, in the north, where we disembark and immediately get on a coach for the journey home. The driver drives at 80 an hour on the ice; back home you could not do that, you would be off the road at once. There it is possible thanks to the very dry ice, and of course to the studded tyres. It gets dark very early; it is autumn and the hours of light above the Arctic Circle are few. The bus is even loaded onto a ferry, to take us to the other side of the lake; further on, the next day, we continue with Scanrail and by train we reach Lillehammer and then Oslo, to board the flight that, via Frankfurt, takes us back to Italy. bye