Norway, August 1996

There are no words to describe what we have seen.
It's a land so different from Italy that it doesn't seem true, how is possible to have 30 degrees near the see and suddenly reach 1200m on a mountain with zero degrees in less than an hour?!
The days are so long and the nights don't have more than 3 hours of true black, around at 3am the sun starts its way to the sun-shine.
Fjords, lakes, waterfalls, see... everything seems reflecting the sky.
This is the troll's land, small magic denizens of the forest; be ready for strange meetings, like a coach with your fellow-citizen in a mountain pass lost in the snow or to meet distant relations in an Oslo's square (to us it's really happened! :-).
A traditional food is cod: a typical recipe is to let it soak into caustic soda (sodium hydroxide)... for us the choice was between salmon and hamburger...

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

This was the first stop in Germany, if you are thirsty drink beer, if you do not like it be ready to spend a lot of money: 7 DM (a bit more than 4 dollars) for a small bottle of water against 1 DM for a litre of beer.

Lubeck

Lubeck is a very nice town, but for us it was just another sleeping step to Denmark.
At Puttgarden we took the ferry to Rodby Havn.

Oslo

The Norway's capital has a lot of museums. Into the National Museum you can even find persons dressed with typical costumes. Another important museum is the Viking one.
Other place to visit are the theatre dedicated to the two biggest Norwegian composers (Ibsen e Bjornson) and the castle were the King lives.

Lillehammer

This is an important sky site. Beautiful the "Ice House" and really emotional the sky-jump-board.
The day after we have visited the Stavkirke in Ringebu. It's a typical wood church which has "won the fight against the time" as it's really old.
Five kilometres before Andalsnes you must turn to the left for the street called Trollstigveien, a really beautiful road made in the rock, it's called in that way because it cross the Troll's land, you'll even find street sign advising to watch out for suddenly street-crossing by this little elf.
This road will go on the Trollveggen, the European highest sheer rock.

Alesund

This is the land of the big Fjords.
Alesund is (like Copenaghen) spread over many little islands.
The day after we have visited the Nordfjord and the Geirangerfjord. With a ferry we saw the Seven Sisters' waterfall, a small river which falls into the fjord creating seven high and thin waterfalls (please note that in the other side there is another waterfall called The Endless Suitor, can you imagine why? ;-).
Next we have went up to the Dalsnibba mountain, the last part is a not asphalted  tall-road but quite easily done with our BMW. On top of it you can see the other mountains and the fjord, but it's really cold so you cannot stop too long.
On the way up we tried to stay close to an Italian coach to warm up our legs!!

Lom

Here we slept in a shelter-like hotel (wood made and with grass over the roof!), the Hotel Sota Seter. We did more than 20 off-road kilometres, it has not been so easy but the place was so "strange" (we were surrounded by pasturing cows which were curiously smelling the bikes!), that it was worth while.

Bergen

Bergen is a nice city on the Ocean.
We suggest to visit the old town where you can still see the old wood houses, the fish market and the Bryggen.
The city is surrounded by seven hills, two cable-ways reach two of them and there you can have a complete look of the ex Norway's capital.
Left Bergen we have reached Bruravik, following the Hardangerfjord. Here we took the ferry for Brimnes, then we went to Geilo and Gol, in the Mabodalen valley, following again a steep road made in the rock.
Finally we reached Oslo and the day after we went to Goteborg and then Copenaghen.

Copenaghen

The Denmark capital is jewel of the Nordic architecture. Made over small islands is called Venice of the North. Mercantile town, is really quiet.
You must see the Little Mermaid monument, hoping that it has not being damaged again!, the Tivoli entertainment park and finally take a walk in the main street Stroget.
The last suggestion is for the Erotic Museum... ;-)