Trondheim - 9th August

Woke up early-ish and wandered down for coffee while waiting for everyone else to get up and join me, and we all had a hearty breakfast.

There was an update on the trains to say that there was no new news, everything is still cancelled and the following update would be at 1pm.

Knowing that we'd be here for another night, spoke to the guy on reception who has been so helpful. Explained the situation to him and he said that although the family room was booked, we could have 2 doubles for the same price for the one night and to chat to him if we needed more and he'd see what he could do.

Instead of waiting around for the next update we thought we'd do something, so wandered around the shops looking for a nice woolly jumper, but never really saw any that were in my price range.

Decided to try the cathedral again, see if we could get in to see the crown jewels. The woman looked at yesterday's tickets with a scrawled note on them and let us in! Spent ages reading all of the signs and admiring the thrones, crowns and other paraphernalia before we received an email to say that our train tomorrow had now been cancelled.

We left the museum, knowing that fate didn't want us to finish seeing everything and rushed to the train station to get some advice on what we could do to get to Oslo tomorrow. Alex has scoured the train lines, looking at where we could go, change and head for, but the customer service person put the final nail in our travel plans - there was no way we could get to Oslo until Saturday at the earliest. This means that all of our other trains and connections would be missed and we couldn't get home before our inter-rail pass ran out and we'd have to pay full price.

We headed back to the hotel where we had free WiFi, power and peace and quiet to look at our options.

We could hire a car for about £600, and drive 13 hours to Oslo, but the roads are still closed.

We could get a bus, for a similar price, but again, closed roads.

We could fly, from Trondheim to Gatwick, and depending on when we go, would cost is between £450 and £2000. Either tomorrow or Sunday are the cheapest, but we'd have hotel costs for the extra nights, and the hotel had said that there was a huge concert in Trondheim at the weekend, so we could stay until Saturday, but not Saturday night.

Decided between us that tomorrow would be the best option, get us home without any more hotel costs, and in reality, the last few days of the holiday were just travelling back home.

With that done, we went for a final slap up meal, followed by a walk along the quayside to watch the sunset on our holiday.

This has been an amazing adventure, brilliantly organised by Alex. Not only has he taken us places and allowed us to see things we would never have done, he's also pushed us, and I for one am looking forward to his next holiday, wherever that is.

Trondheim - 8th August

Somehow the fantasy of falling asleep on a gently moving train as it passes through a thunderstorm is slightly different to the reality. I fell asleep really quickly, but then kept waking with the movement so didn't feel as rested as if hoped first thing in the morning.

We didn't get room service or breakfast, not even a shower, but as we started walking the length of the train to the buffet car we had to pass through the premium plus carriage with their reclining seats, blankets and free coffee machine, so obviously we helped ourselves to coffee from there.

We had pull down seats outside our room in the corridor, so watched the world go by as our coffee cooled and we waited to arrive in Trondheim where we could go in search of more coffee and breakfast.

They did an announcement while we were sat there to say we had been delayed by 30 mins overnight due to lightning taking out the signalling system. Soon afterwards almost everyone's phone made a simultaneous noise as we all received a red level emergency broadcast! Apparently some rain the UK had over the weekend had strengthened and had become a named storm. We didn't think much of it at the time, busy considering where breakfast was coming from.

We knew that our hotel had a luggage storage, so thought we could bag drop and wander around before coming back to check in, but the guy on reception was amazing. Not only did he check us in straight away, he also invited us to breakfast there as a free treat from the hotel.

Well, couldn't resist, so bags dropped and we were soon tucking into a lovely continental breakfast and coffee.

Feeling sated we started to explore Trondheim, knowing our next train was tomorrow morning. Walk to the river to take the obligatory photo of Trondheim - tick. Visit the old bridge, yep.

Then we discovered the cycle lift, or rather Sam showed it to us, having been here about 5 years ago for a couple of hours. Basically, take one very large hill, a community that loves cycling and skiing and create a cable lift that you hook your foot onto as it pushes you up the hill.

Well, we watched as people came and zoomed up the hill, as tourists tried and failed miserably to use it effectively until in a fit of bravado Di and Alex went and hired a bike of their own for 30 mins for a couple of quid.

So we had 30 mins to master this simple technique as crowds gathered to cheer and take photos of our attempts. Safe to say we failed miserably but had an hilarious time doing it. Alex was the clear winner, getting about 5m from the starting point.

Bike back, we searched for an indoor venue for some celebratory cake, and a good job it was inside too as the heavens opened. We also got an email to say our train tomorrow had been cancelled, but we didn't worry as there were loads of others scheduled so thought it would be easy to get a replacement.

Wandered next to go and see the cathedral, which also houses a royal museum and the crown jewels. The cathedral is really impressive, someone was playing the organ as we wandered round, which was nice.

Just as we came out of the crypt, Alex started checking the other trains for tomorrow and realised it wasn't just our train that had been cancelled, but they'd closed the line, the other line we could have used, ferries we're no longer running, buses were also postponed.

Quick check on Avis rent a car and that showed us that it would cost ~ £700 plus fuel to drive ourselves to Oslo, our next stop. Flights were also a similar price and not something we really wanted to do.

Foregoing the jewels and royal museum, we zoomed down to the train station and spoke to someone official, who has rebooked us onto a train on Thursday, one of the only ones with space. We messaged the air BnB we have booked for 2 nights in Oslo to say we can't arrive so will only stay with them the one night (which obviously they're fine with) and have booked an extra night in Trondheim.

At the moment, we think we can get to Oslo for the train out, but we have to play it by ear. The news is full of stories of flooding, landslides and even train derailments. There should be an official update at lunchtime tomorrow.

To take our mind off the travel, Alex booked us into a nice restaurant for evening meal and a good job he did as they turned away group after group who hadn't booked. Sam gave us all food envy with his delicious reindeer stew.

Back at the hotel now, showered and relaxing ready to see what tomorrow brings.

 

Narvik to Trondheim - 7th August

Kept waking up as it was so light outside, more like 10am than 3am, and eventually got up at 5:20.

Quick coffee and shower, packed up and checked out before 6:30. We're heading south and there's no trains unless we go back into Sweden,the way we came, but there is a bus that goes south and gives us access to the next line down.

The problem is is that there are 2 buses a day - 7am, and the other would be too late to make our train that's booked for the afternoon.

So, 7am and we're on a bus that may or may not go to the town we need to get to (Bodø), and we won't know for a few hours.

The bus takes 6 ish hours, and there are others that come from the north too, so whichever gets to Fauske first goes on to Bodø, everyone else has to swap busses.

One of the other passengers spoke timidly to the driver to explain they get really bad travel sickness and could they go carefully and smoothly if possible. Well, we drove round all the towns winding or way south and it was as smooth as smooth could be. The bus takes the coastal roads so was like a tour rather than a bus ride.

Just as we started relaxing the driver came over the tannoy to say we're just going into the ferry and will be getting off in 30 mins! Sure enough, the bus drives onto the ferry and the driver disappears. We timidly follow him to find a seated waiting area with canteen, so we could grab coffee and some snacks as well as use the toilet.

Couple of hours later and we make a stop and meet up with 2 other buses. We asked the driver if we needed to change and they said nope, we could stay on, but the driver got off and started moving some boxes around.

Suddenly we had a new driver and I think he was a budding rally driver who was impatient to get home. He would tailgate the camper or caravan in front until they relented and pulled off the road to let us pass.

Couple of hours of this and we pull into Fauske to be told we needed to swap busses onto one that we'd parked next to all those hours ago. A few very green people seemed happy to escape.

The third driver was a lot nicer and it wasn't long before we pulled into Bodø with plenty of time before our train.

We found a small cafe for refreshments and to escape the rain, then explored the town fully within a couple of hours.

With the rain still coming down and a few hours to get rid of we went for a couple of games of bowling, which was great fun and really cheap too.

A lovely meal and then grabbed some more snacks and went to catch the train down to Trondheim. It's an overnight sleeper and we've got a couple of rooms with bunk beds. You have to check in to get your room cards but when we got to the carriage, half of the cards worked and the others did not. Chaos ensured until they realised that the cards had been randomly swapped between carriages so everyone had to move down carriages trying their cards until they all got sorted out.

The train is rolling across the countryside, we're sat in the restaurant car and there's a huge storm in the mountains around us. A perfect end to the day.

Rombakstotta - 6th August

This was the day that Alex had been looking forward to, the boys had been planning it with military precision for weeks, and to be honest, the day I was least looking forward to.

Up at 7 and down for coffee before breakfast had even opened, and the views were spectacular as the clouds had broken overnight, the sky was blue and the sun was shining.

Breakfast done, 2 rucksacks packed with enough food and water to feed a small army we set off, leaving here by 9am.

The aim, the great plan, was to go for a walk. They'd warned me that it was going to be long and up a mountain "about the same height as Snowdon", or about 1231m above sea level. What they didn't say is that you tend not to start at sea level for Snowdon, but about 350m, or a third of the way.

I'm someone who hasn't done a lot of walking over the past couple of years, so knew it was going to be very hard, but also very easy to just want to give up, something I didn't want to do.

Before we'd even got through Narvik to the start of the trail, I was panting, sweating and ready to fall by the wayside for them to come and collect me on the way home.

Well, I didn't, and we walked up, walked past streams, reservoirs, trees, and many, many boulders the size of cars.

They wanted to go up a particular mountain, called Biesfjordtotta, and, after about 6 hours of walking, as we pulled off the marked track to start climbing, we had to scramble up some near vertical rocks and for whatever reason I freaked, panicked and froze. I was pretty sure I didn't want to go up and fairly certain I couldn't go back down, and sure as anything I wasn't going to let my friendly solid rock I was holding go.

Well Sam stayed with me and calmed me down enough for me to get back down to the main track and they had a think about what we could do, having come so far.

The decision was made to go towards a different peak - Rombakstotta, and see how I coped, hoping there wasn't any vertical scrambling.

A couple more hours of walking, across a boulder field and I finally had enough. I'd come about 9km and ascended about 1km. The boys went on, climbing the last 200m (lots of scrambling involved) and got some amazing views from the top. This is a photo of them at the top, taken from where we were waiting. They are the two small dots about half way along the ridge.

We waited for them, a really good chance to recover enough to be able to get back down, and slowly made our way back to the hotel, arriving 13 hours after setting off, with some very sore legs.

Tomorrow is another travel day, we start moving south, out of the arctic circle back towards Germany.

Boden to Narvik - 5th August

Did wake up early, around 5am here time, but drifted back off to sleep and didn't wake into 8am.

Quick shower and a semi relaxed breakfast before the walk to the train station for the longest journey so far.

We had seats booked so weren't worried about that, but the platform was packed with people with serious kit - rucksacks, climbing ropes, and think we were the only ones not in walking trousers and boots, so thought that storage could be an issue.

Managed to get our bags in the overhead rack, our seats being right next to the buffet, but as the train pulled out we realised we were travelling backwards! Around halfway the engine did swap to the other end and we went forwards, so not so bad.

The journey was scheduled to be 7 hours 12 minutes and is the longest single train journey we'll take, apart from the night train.

Our second stop was Nattavaara, and we all got pretty excited as we got closer to it as we went over the 66° 30' latitude which meant we'd gone into the arctic circle. Unfortunately there wasn't any line, banner or marker to let us know, other than our phones.

As we rode the rails across Sweden the landscape changed. The forests of pine became more sparse as the hills grew more frequent and higher.

By the time we got to the Kiruna stop the landscape was pretty dramatic. By the time we reached Bjoernfjell we were snaking between snow capped mountains, winding our way down towards Narvik.

At one point a load of German tourists got on, and at another station a load of cowboys got on, running through the train with their hats, lasso and even one small child being carried firing a cap gun! They jumped off at the next station to be promptly arrested by other cowboys. Very surreal and we're we've no idea if it was planned or just something random that happened.

Along the journey we'd stopped here and there to let freight trains pass in the opposite direction. Gone are the beautiful smelling log wagons, replaced within wagons carrying something to do with the iron ore mining, very dirty looking 

Narvik is right on the coast, so not only do you have the freight trains, passenger trains, but also cruise ships. Although this is very much a winter destination, they do get a fair number through during the warmer months.

We found our accommodation for the next two nights, and have a big family room with an actual double bed. Wandered into town to find the bus station (for Monday), something to eat which was lovely, and then a supermarket for supplies for tomorrow where Alex has a walk planned for us.

Oh, it's 11pm here, and this is the view from the hotel.

Kemi to Boden - 4th August

Up about 8am for a relaxed travel day. Quick shower and breakfast with a frame of snooker before checking out of the hostel.

We had a bus to catch as there are no train lines between the two towns, which are across the border between Finland and Sweden.

Got to the bus stop and waited while Di and Alex went to shopping for boots.

Boots brought and back to the bus stop in plenty of time for catching the bus to Tornio which is on the border with Sweden. The bus itself cost us €7 each and we used Google maps to know when to get off. There is essentially one town that is split by the border. On the Finnish side it is called Tornio and on the Swedish side it is Happaranda. So we walked across from one side to another. Right on the Swedish border there is a massive IKEA 😀.

We had a short half hour walk to the train station which was a really old building. The train took 90 mins to Boden, which is our stop for the night.

There was another 30 mins walk to the house we've rented for the night, but it's huge. 4 bedrooms, but only single beds in each one! 

Popped out to the supermarket for supplies for the evening meal, but unfortunately they only had zero alcohol wine, so another 20 minute walk into town to the alcohol shop and €8 brought me a bottle of malbec.

Arrived back to some Swedish meatballs, followed by an evening of cards and snacks.

Kemi - 3rd August

Woke up early but didn't need to do anything so lazed around for a while then hit the shared showers which were surprisingly clean.

We'd ordered a breakfast basket each, so sat in the communal area with those and some fresh coffee, slowly waking up.

Decided to go for a walk and explore the town, but wanted to pop to the bus station as we have a bus to catch tomorrow. Found the right stop and luckily there was one there, so chatted to the driver in broken English, but understood enough that we can pay by card, and it goes every hour.

Strangely, the town is a bit of a tourist hotspot in the winter, with Santa bring based in a nearby town, but here they have an ice castle that they build every year. While there isn't one at the moment, the are sign posts all round town pointing to it and they wouldn't look out of place signposting Santa's workshop.

From there we walked through the town and into a nature reserve where we followed the track to the small shoreline.

Following the coast around the edge of the town we came to a small beach where those who were brave enough could dip their toes in the Gulf of Bothnia (not me though).

Toes dried we saw someone walking towards us with an ice cream, so obviously we could think of nothing else until we had one of our own, which was really refreshing.

Following the shoreline round the bay we discovered a crazy golf course, and a quick 9 holes followed. Further round the coast to a small peninsula, before finding a restaurant for food.

Stopped at the supermarket for some more low alcohol wine before back to the hostel for dinner games of snooker.

Kuopio to Kemi - 2nd August

Another travel day but this was a nice relaxed one, so gently woke up and had coffee on the top deck while waiting for the boys to wake.

Slow walk to the train station through the town to see the sights and wait for our first train to Oulu.

While we were waiting we had another freight train come through, pulling loads more wagons of felled trees off to be processed.

The first train was the same as the final one yesterday, but a continuation of the journey - another 4 hours! This took us to Oulu which we would get the final train of the day from and with an hour to change.

Just as we got off the train the weather finally caught up with us and the heavens opened. We managed to get into the station building but couldn't venture any further for fear of getting soaked.

The final train of the day turned out to be the actual same train, just with a different crew. This meant different seats for us too as we don't book any so have to sit where there's space. Turned out that the spare seats were in one of the little enclosed carriages, which we shared with a young woman and her son.

Arriving in Kemi and all of the sidings were full of empty log wagons, with a huge processing plant behind. Chimneys were bellowing out steam which smelled of pine needles, so really nice!

Again the heavens opened on our walk to the next hotel and we got soaked to the pants. This stop is a family room in a hostel, so very different from everything else we've stayed in so far.

Popped out for food as the rain eased off, and ended up at a kebab house, which serves mediocre food for extortionate prices.

Quick stop at the supermarket for more low alcohol wine, then back to play snooker and cards.

Park hotel, Turku

 In Turku, we stayed in the Park Hotel. This hotel was built in 1902 and is a "proper" hotel where they have a reception desk and make you check in. It has a quaint interior which makes you feel like time has stood still, like you stepped inside a history book.

Each room is decorated to the max in an individual style. The rooms are spacious and include a large sofa (which converts into a bed for two children) with coffee table and a desk for you to write your letters home. Our bathroom had a full-on roll top bath but also acted like a wet room for the shower.

Breakfast was in the dining room and included a range of bread, cereal and fruit as well as the usual continental fare. There are no coffee making facilities in the room but you can ask for one at reception at any time.

There is a small bar and plenty of outdoor seating which backs onto the park where you can watch Turku go by. 

This hotel would suit older couples and families (although the stress of bringing a young child inside the ornately decorated rooms could be quite high - they are bound to knock something over!). It is not a party location but rather somewhere to escape from the modern world.

Hotellilaiva Wuoksi - Kuopio

In Kuopio we stayed in the Hotellilaiva Wuoksi which is on a boat! It is a small boat with perhaps 5-10 rooms in total. We stayed at the bow of the ship below deck and our room had a double with two high bunks either side.

The top deck of the boat has a large communal area and outdoor seating area with an awning. This is where breakfast is served and is also available to all guests during the day time and evening. They are happy for you to bring your own food and drink into these areas and there were always a few groups sat here chatting, playing cards or just watching the lake.

There rooms themselves were quite small (think boat cabin, especially in the bathroom) but had everything you needed. Ours had a small table and some chairs although we preferred to sit on deck. The was some movement making you are that you were on a boat but as this is a lake, the swell is not too bad.

The hotel itself is close to the town in a small dock area that is pedestrianised and has restaurants opposite and a supermarket around the corner.

This was a great place for families and couples alike. Children would love the unusual rooms and bunks, there were boats, bikes and kayaks to hire for older ones and a great view and relaxed atmosphere for the parents. It was never noisy and had a relaxed and friendly vibe.

And the view from the deck 

Turku to Kuopio - 1st August

Up with plenty of time for a leisurely breakfast, packed up and gentle walk to the station for the 09:05 train.

The first train wasn't too bad, fairly busy but we got a seat together, and arrived in Tampere nearly 2 hours later.

We had a 90 minute wait before the next train, so enough time to walk into the centre and have a look at the river. Tampere is actually quite a big town. Interestingly they've dammed the river to provide hydroelectric and you can walk up and across the dam, seeing the water get sucked in one side and spat out the other.

The next train to Piedsamaki was busy, only 1 seat between us, so the rest sat on the floor. The conductor also did a passport check with the ticket check to make sure we were who we said we were and had a valid ticket.

What should have been a 15 minute change turned into half hour as the train was delayed. It was coming from Helsinki so was already busy before everyone got on and we ended up standing in a first. We got held about 5 minutes from our destination waiting for the line to be cleared by a double engined freight train pulling loads of wagons of tree trunks, so I was happy.

We arrived in Kuopio and a short walk across town to the harbour and our accommodation for tonight, which is an old boat. We've got a room on the bottom floor right at the front, which means the boys have portholes next to their bunks.

Kuopio is on a large lake with some nice paths for cycling and plenty of places to hire boats. There is even a sea plane which you can hire. As we had plenty of time after checking in, we went for a walk along the coast to build up an appetite ready for some balkan cuisine which was lovely.

Popped into the supermarket to grab some wine only to find out they can only sell alcohol up to 5.5% and anything stronger has to be brought from official shops, obviously none near us, so had a bottle of low alcohol wine while playing cards.