I think this trip is up there with the most amazing travel we have done with the kids. The itinerary looked crazy (especially with a 6 and 9 year old) but was just fantastic. The boys loved it and we loved it. Dog sledding was the highlight for everyone. Expensive. But well worth it.
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| Train trip from Geilo to Bergen, Norway |
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| Outdoor ice skating, Oslo, Norway |
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| Oslo, Norway |
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| Santa in the forest. Geilo, Norway. Minutes before, we had been huddled inside the Sami tent (vallu) singing Christmas carols (in Norweigan...well, listening), eating traditional porridge and getting presents from Santa. |
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| Geilo, Norway. Now THAT is a Christmas tree! |
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| Geilo, Norway |
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| Gelio train Station, Norway. Even the trains and train stations are beautiful in Norway |
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| Train between Bergen and Voss, Norway |
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| Bergen, Norway |
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| Going up the furnicular. Bergen, Norway. |
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Leaving the pier through ice. Gudvangen, Norway
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| Gamla Stan (old town), Stockholm, Sweden. |
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| The beautiful apartment we rented in Stockholm |
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| En-route to our cabin. Lapland, Sweden. |
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| Ice Hotel, Jukkasjärvi (Lapland, Sweden) |
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| Having a drink from an ice glass at the Ice Hotel |
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| Ice Hotel |
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| Jukkasjärvi (Lapland, Sweden) about 200km north of the arctic circle |
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| On our way back to Jukkasjärvi (Sweden) with a beautiful sunrise (it was about 11am!)
In brief
Where we stayed
Norway
Bristol Hotel, Oslo
Dr Holm's Hotel, Geilo
Radisson Blu, Bergen
Bristol Hotel, Oslo
Sweden
Apartment rented through Airbnb, Stockholm
Camp Ripan, Kiruna
Airport Hotel, Stockholm
When we travelled
Dec-Jan 2013 (20 days)
How we travelled
Malaysian Airlines/KLM - Sydney-KL-Amsterdam-Olso; and same on the way back except from Stockholm
Scandanavia Air Service - Oslo-Stockholm, then Kiruna-Stockholm
Trains - Oslo-Bergen, Bergen-Voss, Mydral-Oslo, Stockholm-Kiruna (overnight)
Highlights
* Dog sledding in Lapland
* Seeing reindeer in their natural habitat (Lapland, Sweden)
* Overnight train trip from Stockholm to Kiruna
* Outdoor hot tub at Dr Holm's hotel in Geilo
* Seeing Santa in the forest in Geilo (kind of by accident)
* Train trip from Geilo to Bergen and Flam to Myrdal
* The skies in Lapland (and Northern Lights) + being in the wilderness during dog sledding & snow mobiling (just not the noise of snow mobiling)
* Actually I could list almost everything!!!
Things that the kids really liked
* Dog sledding
* Outdoor ice skating in Oslo
* Viking museum in Oslo
* Pool & hot tub at Dr Holms
* Tobogganing at Geilo
* Just playing in the deep powder snow
Not highlights
* Snow mobiling. Just not my thing. If you like jet-skis and motorbikes, you'll like it. But if you are more a bushwalker (hiker), swimmer, sailor...you'll like quiet dog sledding or snow shoeing better.
* It would be great if Europe was a bit closer to Australia! That said, the kids coped fine with the huge trip over and back. In some ways, those long flights are great because they all have their own TV in the back of the seat, so have a huge variety of entertainment (& you don't have to worry about charging iPads etc.)
What we would do differently next time
* Stay in central Kiruna, rather than Camp Ripan (which was 15 mins from town)
* Stay in more rented apartments - the Airbnb place worked out really well.
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Wow! What an antidote to the hot weather we are having! Not that long ago we spent 3 weeks in winter doing the Trans-Siberian, visiting Russia and then onto Southern Sweden. It was the year that there were serious snow storms that for us just produced lots of snow and not to much travel chaos. It was just wonderful. Looks like you had a great time.
ReplyDeleteFantastic Lanie. I remember being in Sweden in February 1986 very fondly, and I've always wanted to go to Oslo (to see one of my greatest heroes, Fridtjof Nansen's, polar explorer boat, Fram, about which I have read so much). Your photos make it all look even better than I imagined a visit at that time of year might be.
ReplyDeletePreciosas las fotos
ReplyDelete