Norway Fishing Dramas

It’s so warm! Half asleep I throw down my blanket and turn around one more time, but it is so warm up here in the campervan bed. Then I open my eyes and see sun rays peaking through the small openings of the windows. Sun!!! Finally after days we have sunshine!
We pull out chairs and table and have breakfast outside, overlooking the Listafjord.

After passing through Flekkefjord, the street gets narrow, sometimes only 3m wide, and very curvy. Going past deep chasms, cliffs, fjords and up to 400m-high and grey weather-beaten mountain scenery.

I also tried to capture the beautiful and very unique architecture: from houses hidden below an overhanging rock wall (picture above), wooden churches or the typical idyllic Norwegian-style houses surrounded by large bolders, lakes and grazing sheep.

Arriving in Egersund, we stop at a
sports store to buy some bait that may attract Norwegian fish better than our little neon yellow fish-bait. Logan also suggests we should buy more fishing line, as ours isn’t long enough. We go for the cheapest one which is still about 20€ and some stingsilda 28g bait for 10€. I read that one does the trick here in Norway.

The landscape after Egersund is less mountainous, but instead a beautiful sandy beach borders onto hilly fields and forests.

From Sandnes, near Stavanger, we drive east along the fjord, which I believe is still part of the Hillefjord and at the very end of the street we find a small village called Dale. We are basically across the fjord from Stavanger. Here we discover a small grassy spot right at the fjord to park on. As soon as the engine stops, we excitedly jump in the back and unpack the fishing accessories. Logan is first in and within 10 seconds he has a fish on the hook!!! (This is no exaggeration!) I couldn’t believe it! He throws it in a second time and within another 30 seconds he’s got another one but this time the fish is putting up a fight and … The fishing line tears!!!
I already had a feeling that the line was too thin when we reeled it onto the rod. Now this really is a problem. We lost one of the good bait and we don’t really want to loose the second one. Nor do we want the poor fish swimming around with hooks in their mouths.
How very frustrating!
The second problem is, that even the front part of the fishing rod itself broke off too!

Back at the Intersport store in Sandnes, we buy not just fishing line (this time the second strongest they have!) and more bait, we also buy (what we think are) floaties and even a new fishing rod. Over a hundred euros poorer we quickly get back to the same place… We better make up for this now by fishing every day and actually catching some too!

Back at Dale with two rods, a stronger line and more bait, we keep fishing for an hour but pull nothing out but seagrass.
Also the floaties dont seem to stay afloat and sink with the bait.

I wonder whether we’ll ever have any luck fishing???
We change location one last time to a spot only just south of Dale and try fishing from a jetty this time.
No fish.. An hour later, still no fish! My fishing rod keeps getting tangled and knotted up. During my last attempt I can’t seem to reel it in anymore as there are knots everywhere. I patiently de-knot what I can, while the hook with the bait is dangling at the bottom of the sea.
Finally I seem to be able to pull it out, obviously with a lot of seaweed on it as it is quite heavy.
I can’t believe my eyes what I then see emerging out of the water while I’m reeling it in: a crab! The first “fish” I ever caught is a CRAB?!?! I’m not all that happy about it, more so shocked! But Logan yells at me: “Pull it out!!!!!!”
Eeeew so we’re having crab for dinner, are we??

Logan puts up a little fight with the crab, he’s a strong little creature! Then we take him up and throw him in boiling water. Poor thing, threw off one of his claws in stress.
Logan seemingly enjoys his crab dinner, while I only have a few small bites of his fish he caught earlier.

Funny enough he hooked himself later that evening crying out for help, hahaha!

Norway, Viking Roadside Assistance (ADAC) and Norwegian Customs asking for drugs

As we still need to wait a few hours for the ferry to take us from Hirtshals in Danmark to Kristiansand in Norway, we both decide to go for a run – individually though, as I could never keep up with Logan’s speed and distance. While Logan is running towards the town of Hirtshals, I’m running along the beach in the other direction. The weather is cool, windy and sometimes rainy; probably quite good for a run! Soon I’m forced to turn around as there is a small river (or creek) separating the beach. It is too wide to jump, so I’m turning around, running back towards the van. Just as I arrive, Logan also returns from his run and decides to go for a refreshing swim in the Baltic Sea. A few people stare, it is probably rather uncommon for a person to go swimming in this kind of weather.

It is then soon time to drive over to the ferry terminal. We are one of the first to arrive and one of the last to go on the ferry – of course. Once on the Fjordline Express ferry we get comfortable in the “comfort seats” in the top level and soon daze into a shallow sleep as it’s already past 11:30pm.

The ferry ride only takes 2 hours and 15 minutes. There were two children on board who would also cry for those two hours and 15 minutes – non-stop!! How very exhausting for everyone on board, also for the toddler himself to cry for over two hours without a break, wow!
I’m glad once we get back to the van and am looking forward to falling asleep very soon… But of course the appearance of our flower-decorated van, the peace sign hanging from the mirror and Logan’s deadlocks lead to the customs officers stopping us to get our van sniffed through by a dog! I was already highly amused about how the cliché of someone with dreadlocks got us into this situation but the creme dela creme was the the question of the officer: You smoke? Marijuana? Cannabis? Logan laughed and responded: Don’t let the hair fool you, I’m not even smoking cigarettes! The disbelief in the officer’s face expression was priceless!

Finally we are able to pull up in one of Kristiansand’s side streets and get some rest.

In the morning we have our first experience with grocery shopping in Norway. All we need is some water but a 5liter bottle of water is over 7€!!! All we end up buying are 4 bottles of bubbly water and instead of still water in a bottle we use the next opportunity at a shell station to top up water and also refill all our water bottles from a tap/hose supplied.

And there is our next problem: When we want to refill diesel, the petrol cap won’t open! No matter how hard we try, it won’t open but instead just makes a clicking noise. We have to call the German road ride assistance (ADAC) who then send us the Norwegian road side assistance “Viking”. It really pays to be a member! After the nice assistant doesn’t seem to have any luck with our petrol cap either, we are being taken to a mechanic who then breaks the lock in the cap. This service didn’t cost us a cent. The only little problem now is that we can’t lock the cap anymore and it isn’t as tight as it should be, so hopefully there won’t be any dirt or sand falling inside the tank until I can replace the cap.

Finally, by 2pm we are on the road westwards. It has been raining all day today but our first impression of Norway is still a very good one. There are a lot of lakes and fjords everywhere along the south! First we stop at the south cape and take a few snapshots of the lighthouse, before moving on.

We make it to a place before Flekkefjord where we try our luck fishing again.
We haven’t caught a single fish during all of our Europe trip, I wonder whether that is going to change today! While we are sitting patienly for 3 hours, trying all sorts of bait like fake fish, bread and sausage, “our fish” like to nibble but never bite; while the guy next to us is pulling one fish out after the other. Within 30min he’s got 4 fish and leaves. We keep on trying for a long time but eventually give up as the rain and especially mosquitos become unbearable. Soup for dinner tonight and we’re still smiling of course. But maybe we should consult a fishing expert before our next fishing adventure!

Hirtshals, Denmark

Finally we can enjoy breakfast outdoors in the sun! Logan sets up chairs and table behind the van (and sheltered from the wind) while I’m cooking up some porridge.
Some rabbits hopple through the grass, one time even only a couple of metres infront of us.
We are taking our time. Logan plays some guitar in the sun before we are leaving around midday.
Of course we had to take a wrong turn very soon and didn’t realise for another 30min. Doesn’t matter, we’re not in a hurry; our biggest challenge is to find a water tab so we can finally fill up our dry water tank! None of the following three petrol stations seems to have a tab and the fourth one has one but it isn’t working. I’ve had enough, grab the watering can and fill up a few liters. Logan is slightly embarrassed but we drive around and find another watering can and a bucket full of water. I pour both contents into the tank as well! That should last us a few more days, even though there seems to be some detergent in the water as it got a little foamy when I poured it in. So we better don’t use it to brush our teeth with it.

Arriving in Hirtshals, we park in town, go for a walk through the shopping street and along the port and eventually park on the sandy beach, which is hard enough from all the rain so we won’t get bogged.

A walk along the windy beach helps us stretch our legs before getting settled for bed.

In the morning we decide to go and visit the WWII bunkers near the lighthouse here in Hirtshals.
During war, the German occupation forces built 7500 bunkers in Danmark. These bunkers were the largest construction project in Danish history. The 6000 bunkers along the Danish Coastline were a part of Hitler’s Atlantic Wall, stretching from the border between Spain and France in the south, to the North Cape in Norway.

The bunker museum Hirtshals consists of 54 excavated bunkers along with many gun, mortar and machine gun emplacements. There are also radar and searchlight installations. In All, the area consists of 70 different locations, connected by 3.5km of trenches.

The following are photos I have taken of the bunkers and trenches and put a war-themed photo filter on top.

And here are a couple of photos of the bunkers without any filters:

Now we are patiently waiting for our ferry to Norway tonight!

Flensburg into Danmark

Rain! Again! We’re making our way from Kiel to Flensburg along the Baltic Sea. Mum said: “You won’t need your fur jacket! It’s summer, even in Norway!” We’re still in Germany and I feel like wearing my warmest winter clothes!

Arriving in Flensburg, the wind whistles through the ship masts. It’s Sunday, all the shops are closed and the city is quiet, so what is there for us to do? We find a free camp spot at the eastern side of the port and I suggest we should go fishing here. I’m getting changed into warm clothes and the moment I step outside the door: Rain! At first I’m being stubborn and want to go fishing anyway but soon have to admit that it’s not very pleasant out here. We retreat back to the van and watch some episodes of “Once Upon a Time” on the laptop. Occasionally there is a big ship going past, sounding the horn.

In the morning Logan and I both wake up to “AUSTRALIA!” I can hear Logan turn around, to look out the window; now I’m curious too! A white van with red and blue painted windows and two kangaroos with the Australian flag are decorating the side. Logan caught a glimpse of the man who responded to someone asking where he was from. I only saw him leaving. This is only the second time we saw someone from down under within the last 5 months. I wonder if he saw our Australian flag at the front of our van?!

The shops are open today in Flensburg and we find our way to Karstadt, a popular German shopping centre that you’ll basically find in every city. Finding water tabs wasn’t easy so far, so I cheekily fill two bottles up with water in their bathroom which then discretely disappear in my bag. We also buy some more wet baby wipes, which turned out to be very practical in a camper’s life!

Still raining we only browse through a few more shops (I noticed many signs here are already in Danish!) and then leave for Danmark.
The border is only a few kilometers from Flensburg.
We aim for Aarhus today, as it is about half way to Hirtshals, the town we need to catch the ferry from in two days.
Aarhus seems to have a nice core with old buildings. Logan points out that more people here are blonde and paying attention to it, it’s true! Well over 50 or 60% are blonde!
Just behind Aarhus we find a lovely place right at the beach that will be our home for tonight. The weather has cleared up a little, though still cloudy and very windy! A few people get ready for kite surfing on the Baltic sea, while we are going for a walk along the tidal flats. Someone must have dug in the sand here before for mussels or oysters as there are holes and big mounts of sand next to them everywhere.

While we enjoy the late afternoon and evening outside on our chairs with a glass of wine, we keep seeing people going for strolls along the beach and the high grass with their dogs. One family enjoys a snack next to us while their two Golden Retriever girls “Malou” and “Bela” come and receive a lot of cuddles from us. Such happy, enthusiastic and greedy (hoping for a snack from their owners) dogs!

What’s for dinner? Kässpätzle!!! Oh yea, one yammie traditional German meal! Logan is still licking his fingers!

U-Boat 995 of Laboe

Having left Hamburg this morning, we are heading towards Kiel. My great grandfather left from Kiel on the WWI ship SMS König Albert and I always wanted to come here. Big cruise liners like the Colour Line are departing from here towards Norway and other destinations. Kiel is a pretty city but since we had some rain today, I don’t think the photos do the city any justice.

Here just one photo of a cruise liner in the port:

There is a U-Boat, the 995, in Laboe which I heard about and wanted to visit. It was part of the German Kriegsmarine and in service around Norway.

  

The inside:                                                                                 Beds:

  

  

There was only one usable toilet on board but only until 25m below sea level. Not sure what happened when they went under 25m?!

  

Logan squeezing through the narrow doors, and the radio room:

    

Too many wheels to turn?!

  

  

The front torpedo:

  

Near Laboe we are able to find a big car park right near the sea, which will be our camp site for tonight, and we get to see the beautiful summer sunset:

Leaving for Norway: First stop Hamburg

It’s finally time to drive north to Norway as we’re in the middle of the European summer. Temperatures vary between 16 and 35 degrees (lately it’s been extremely hot) but since we are optimists, that’s all “good weather” for us. The Globetrotter got a little make-over: One of the back tyres had a 40cm long bubble which wasn’t visible to us but it caused both front tyres to go completely bold. So both front tyres had to be renewed and the back tyre was replaced by the spare. We also had the waste water pipe welded back on again, as we accidentally ripped it half way off again in France, oops.
Organised as we are we book the ferry from Denmark to Norway on the day of our departure, realising that it’s booked out for the next 5 days. Fortunately we are not in a big hurry and still have to cover 800km to the port anyway.

We stock up on food and drinks, as Norway is supposed to be very expensive. Two trolleys full of can food, rice, pasta, soups, veggies in glasses, porridge, cereal and even a box of beer and other beverages should last us 4 weeks without major shopping in Norway.
Last but not least we fill up the diesel tank and then finally find ourselves on the road towards Hamburg.

Click to enlarge:

 

Four hours later we get into a traffic jam just before Hamburg and decide to get off the highway to drive into Hamburg. After driving through what we thought was the city centre of Hamburg, something just doesn’t seem quite right. I remember Hamburg to be very different, when suddenly I realise we are in Harburg!!! We have a good laugh and keep on going to Hamburg which is only about 10min away.
First Logan got the impression that Hamburg is an industrial city and wasn’t all too impressed but I knew the city had a very nice centre. After crossing dozens of bridges over the Elbe (The river that also flows through Dresden and Magdeburg), the Alster and Canals, we finally get to the Alster lake in the middle of the city and Logan’s immersion drastically changes.

There are many people out and about, sitting in the parks, running around the lakes or going for a walk. We find ourselves a car park at the water’s edge for the night and enjoy watching a thunderstorm rolling in. The coolish air is more than welcome but even at night the air temperature doesn’t go below 21 degrees.

The Alster lake …and because it’s in fashion to wear colourful pants this summer, here the traffic light model: red, yellow and green.

   

  

In the morning we have to get up at 7:30 as the car park is reserved for tour buses from 8am. We drive a little closer towards the town hall and find ourselves another car park at the Binnen-Alster, where we have breakfast and then explore the city along the lake, the town hall and some shopping streets.

 

 

Back at the Globetrotter, I navigate Logan towards the Kiez, Hamburg’s famous club, gambling and red light district. On the Reeperbahn, as the street is called, we indeed still find the evidence of the previous night: Young men sleeping off their hangover on the streets, some even still drinking! Sex shops and lap dance bars as far as the eye can see; even along the smaller side streets.
Since it doesn’t look as exciting during the day, here an idea of how it looks like at night:

Hamburg is Germany’s second largest city and has a population of 1.8 million people. What I find more impressive even is: Hamburg has about 2500 bridges! That is about 5 times as many as Venice; an unbelievable number!

Lucerne: the city, the lake, the mountains

Since Naples we can’t ride our bicycles anymore because Logan has a flat back tyre so we finally decided it was time to find a bicycle store to get it fixed. Unfortunately the only bike store in Lucerne is closed today but just when we want to leave, Logan discovers a tube automat. That’s right! Like a cigarette automat, this one sells tubes! How convenient. 

The next challenge is to find a car park. We come across the big bus park next to the train station and decide to risk staying here for the day. There is no parking meter so we don’t need to/can’t pay. (I still don’t know whether we were allowed to park here but we were lucky enough to not get a ticket.)

While Logan is changing his tube, I’m having a look through the nearby park and the Vierstättersee. The lake is not just one of Lucerne’s biggest attractions, it is also somewhat part of the city. 

 

We’re riding past dozens of students enjoying their lunch time at the water front, a street artist presenting his Ice Age painting and swans trying to snatch some bread from the passing tourists. 

Lucerne is enjoying a warm break from the long swiss winter and it seems as if every Lucerne resident is out and about. The streets are filled with joy and laughter and the cruise ships are overflowing with tourists. 
Arriving at the end of town, we turn around and this time navigate away from the water front, into the city. 

  

At a shopping mall we have lunch and once we’re back outside, unlocking our bicycles, we are being stopped by two police men. “Are these bicycles your’s?” I wish I had asked: “Would you mind if I just take out my camera and you repeat your question?” I wasn’t quick witted enough and responded: “Yes?!” Then they asked for our lock and key as proof. 
Rather amused about this occurrence, we ride through the city, browse through a couple of shops and eventually arrive at the popular chapel bridge.

   

The Chapel Bridge is a covered wooden footbridge spanning diagonally across the Reuss River in the city of Lucerne in central Switzerland. Named after the nearby St. Peter’s Chapel, the bridge is unique since it contains a number of interior paintings dating back to the 17th century, although many of them were destroyed along with most of the centuries old bridge in a 1993 fire. Subsequently restored, the Kapellbrücke is the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe, as well as the world’s oldest surviving truss bridge. It serves as the city’s symbol and as one of Switzerland’s main tourist attractions.

 

Leaving Lucerne and the Vierwaldstätter See, we are driving past some beautiful mountain scenery and eventually find ourselves a camping spot for the night at a lake not far from Lucerne. There is even a waterfall nearby. 
Logan tries his luck fishing for a couple of hours but has to give up after two hours, blaming the fishing rod for not having caught anything. 

New Video online of Italy’s Amalfi Coast, Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius

We just uploaded a new video of Italy’s Amalfi Coast, Pompeii and the volcano that destroyed Pompeii: Mt. Vesuvius.
Unfortunately once again the video is not available in Germany (and maybe is some other countries) and may also not play on mobile due to the music we used.
We’ll try our best to use unlicensed music in the future.

As an alternative please feel free to use the free proxy http://www.hidemyass.com which will hide your country’s ID. Just add the video link and click enter.
Um das Video alternativ auch in Deutschland ansehen zu gucken, bitte nutze den kostenlosen Proxy http://www.hidemyass.com und füge den Video-Link dort ein.

Switzerland, St. Moritz and Lake Lucerne (Vierwaldstättersee)

From the Dolomites in Italy we’re making our way to the country with Europe’s biggest mountains: Switzerland. Okay to be correct, the biggest mountain in western Europe is Mt Blanc (4807m) in France, but Switzerland then follows with 48 four-thousander summits.

Via the Julier Pass …
 
… we drive into the “Confoederatio Helvetica”, the latin name for Switzerland which gave it the country abbreviation CH. We are now not only confronted with a new currency but also with four different languages: German, French, Italian and Romansh. The latter is spoken by only 0.5% of the population, nevertheless Logan managed to befriend some romansh speaking young lads later that night, but I’ll get to that later.

We aim for St. Moritz, a popular spa town in the South East of the country.

St. Moritz is surely a nice place and we stop for lunch at the lake. Due to the time of the year, there are not many people here, so we soon keep going. We are planning on staying mostly in southern Switzerland, but as so often our plans are at the mercy of other forces and this time mother nature puts a spoke in our wheel.
We stop in a little village before Chur to spend the night. Logan feels like going for a walk downtown to watch the tennis and have a couple of drinks. Around midnight he comes back to let me know that he met three young lads who asked him to join them at the club which happened to be only meters from our van. I wake up one more time when we returns and think I can finally sleep through until morning, when suddenly the van is shaking heavily. At first I’m utterly confused, still half in my dreams, then I think someone is trying to break into our van. I try to wake up Logan and when he finally does, he drunkenly mumbles: “I can take ’em!! Shhhh I can take ’em!” I realize Logan is in a foggy-brained state due to his alcohol intake and decide I have to do something myself. I open the blinds and bang at the window and all I see are three young men running away. So we were victims of a joke, lovely! Apart from being woken up the third time tonight and a 5-second panic attack, it made me laugh now myself. Especially thinking back about Logan’s response.

In the morning I ask Logan whether he knows what happened last night but he can’t remember anything. He is very amused about his reaction though. He then tells me that those three lads he befriended, spoke romansh and only a few words of English but they explained to him, that the Furka Pass was still closed due to snow and the only way to get to Western Switzerland was via a train or driving a big detour.
I wasn’t gonna believe it at first but at some stage we got to the sign: Pass closed! Instead we drive north and I’m planning on taking the road south along the “Vierwaldstätter See“.

Driving along the lake, we discover windsurfers and stop to watch their acrobatic jumps and turns for a while.

Of course that road ends in a little town called Baumgarten and we have to backtrack and follow the road north around the lake. The only road south is a highway and we decided against buying a vignette (toll ticket). This way we got to see Lucerne and Interlaken, two very beautiful towns.

We found a beautiful camping spot not far from Lucerne and will explore the town tomorrow.
More about Lucerne (Luzern or Lausanne) in the next post.

Hiking on the Seiser Alm/Alpe di Siusi, Dolomites

“Francy, get out the van and look at this! You won’t believe it!” I hear Logan saying in the morning. I open the door and see a snow line in the trees only about 100m above us. Oh, so I guess there will be fresh snow on the Seiser Alm then?! Looks like our walk will rather be a short one today anyway after Logan ran up there yesterday and I’m still fighting off my light headache.

The Seiser Alm, or in Italian: Alpe di Siusi, is Europe’s highest alpine pasture at 1680 – 2350m above sea level. It is very big at about 57km² and surrounded by mountains like the Schlern and the Langkofelgruppe (long-peak-group).

The Schlern:

We drive up the serpentine mountain road to Compatsch, the only village where cars are still allowed on the Alm and discover that much of the snow is already melting due to the warm sun. Looking at the tourist map, we realize there are literally hundreds of different routes to choose from, some of them particularly designed for hiking, some for cycling and some for running. We choose a 1-2hour round trip and start our easy walk:

The Langkofelgruppe with Logan looking at the Plattkofel (flat-peak) 2969m:

 

 

Within 10 minutes we lost the orange track we wanted to follow and find ourselves getting further and further away from the van. What started off as a slow walk turns into a hike, then a power hike, up and down hills and soon steep up towards the Langkofelgruppe. After 5(!!!) hours of hiking I’m suddenly being screamed at. I have no idea what it is or where it’s coming from and start screaming myself. Then I see it! A groundhog! I’m so excited, I can hardly get a word out to explain Logan what I see. A very confident ground hog is standing up right in front of me, trying to scare me off. We slowly get closer and sit down on a rock. After a few seconds we see another one, and another one, and another one… The whole groundhog family is coming out from it’s den to check us out too. I really love watching animals, especially in the wild. We stay for a while, watching them play, feed and ring the shrill alarm whistle another time, when a large bird flies past.

Finally we arrive at the Plattkofel hut. My feet are wet from the melting snow and I’m exhausted from the long hike. We are looking forward to a drink and some warm food in the hut when soon it dawns on us: The hut is closed. We already expected it as we haven’t seen any hikers for a long time and there were no tracks in the snow either.

Plattkofel (flat peak)                                                                            See the ground hog?

 

So instead of sitting down for a nice warm lunch, we get out our emergency cookies and some water and sit down in the grass. A black bird joins us, being quite pushy about getting his share of our lunch.

Plattkofel hut                                                                Black bird and Plattkofel in the background

 

The tracks up the Plattkofel weren’t open yet due to the snow and quite frankly we didn’t feel like hiking/climbing any higher. We had a long way back to our van and didn’t want to arrive back in Compatsch after dark.
Fortunately going down works out to be quite fast, especially slipping and sliding down the melting snow.

Soon we arrive in a valley and realize that we need to walk back up again. There are no buses going, so we have no choice but to keep going!

 

Here you can see the Plattkofel (the snowy flat peak on the right), the mountain we walked down all the way into the valley and then back up to where I took this photo. Only about 20min to Compatsch (and our van) from here!

The sun is standing low when we see the first houses of Compatsch. It has been 7.5 hours since we left for the walk.
Absolutely exhausted but happy about this amazing hike, we fall into the door of our camper van and have a decent portion of Spaghetti to fill up our hungry bellies.