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Me and my family spent the second half of July travelling in Scandinavia. We visited the Finnish islands and lakes, the very North of Europe - Nordkapp, the Atlantic coast of Norway including the amazing Lofoten archipelago. I'll try and share some of the beautiful sights in this thread.
The route of our trip. The photos in this post have been taken in the red part of the route.
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We reached Finland by driving across the Baltics and taking a Viking Line ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki.
A few shots from Tallinn. Given the amount of threads with the same views, I won't add any captions
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And now some Helsinki. Again, touristy shots...
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The first more interesting waypoint in our trip - Archipelago sea - a huge collection of islands stretching from the city of Turku pretty much to the Swedish coast. (Wikipedia: EN)
We spent the night in a camping next to the city of Naantali. It is famous not only by the proximity to the archipelago, but also a Moomin troll theme park.
The port of Naantali could be seen straight from the rocks in the camping.
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The same rocks provide a breathtaking sunset:
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Even though many of the islands are connected by bridges, the islands further out to the sea can only be reached using the ferries. We liked the fact that many short ferries were free (in contrast to Norway, where we had to pay to cross even the shortest distance).
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Unfortunately, in order to reach the island of Storlandet, the crossing is almost 20 km. The ferry for 4 people and a car cost 60€ (The 80km ferry trip from Tallinn to Helsinki cost 55€). On the other hand, the price is counter-weighed by the views. Even though the mainland is some 20 km away, you can't see the open sea everywhere - there are thousands of islands 360 degrees around.
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We pass a similar ferry on the same route.
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Upon entering the Nauvo harbour we are met by loads of yachts.
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We found it quite interesting that Swedish language dominates the island of Storlandet (and, we suspected, all the other islands further to the West). Whereas the places in the mainland Finland, those with a Finnish majority, mostly had bi-lingual signs, the western part of archipelago seems to ignore the bi-linguality and Finnish is hard to come-by.
In the afternoon we turn Northeast-wise. We stop in a camping near Jämsäkoski on the shore of lake Kankarisvesi.
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Cabins like this was the main accomodation during the entire trip.
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The following day we visited Kuopio, which is surrounded by the huge lake Kallavesi.
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The Kuopio harbour was swarming with tourist ships. It made me really sad to know that even though Lithuania has a few lakeside cities with a potential similar to Kuopio's, these opportunities are almost never used...
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The following day saw the most intense part of the trip. We decide to reach Nordkapp, which is some 1300 km away.
On our way we take a detour and cross lake Oulujärvi, one of the biggest lakes in Finland (887 km²).
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A wide-angle shot of a peninsula of lake Pirttijärvi.
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As we come closer to the polar circle, the "Caution: Wild animals" sign starts becoming more and more meaningful. At one point we have to stop completely. The road is dominated by a herd of around 50 reindeer, who have no intention to let us pass through. We have to wait for some oncoming traffic (which is quite a rare sight on that road), which finally causes the animals to move off the road.
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The lakesides of Northern Finland look quite different to the sights in the South.
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We're in Norway. Evening sky above Kárášjohka.
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We spend the night in Porsangermoen. We failed to reach Nordkapp, however, after travelling more than 1100 km we only have some 200 km left.
In these latitudes the sun is above the horizon during the whole June and July. Unfortunately, that night was cloudy, however, it still didn't look like night:
38.
![]()
The route of our trip. The photos in this post have been taken in the red part of the route.
We reached Finland by driving across the Baltics and taking a Viking Line ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki.
A few shots from Tallinn. Given the amount of threads with the same views, I won't add any captions
1.
2.
3.
4.
And now some Helsinki. Again, touristy shots...
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
The first more interesting waypoint in our trip - Archipelago sea - a huge collection of islands stretching from the city of Turku pretty much to the Swedish coast. (Wikipedia: EN)
We spent the night in a camping next to the city of Naantali. It is famous not only by the proximity to the archipelago, but also a Moomin troll theme park.
The port of Naantali could be seen straight from the rocks in the camping.
11.
The same rocks provide a breathtaking sunset:
12.
13.
14.
15.
Even though many of the islands are connected by bridges, the islands further out to the sea can only be reached using the ferries. We liked the fact that many short ferries were free (in contrast to Norway, where we had to pay to cross even the shortest distance).
16.
Unfortunately, in order to reach the island of Storlandet, the crossing is almost 20 km. The ferry for 4 people and a car cost 60€ (The 80km ferry trip from Tallinn to Helsinki cost 55€). On the other hand, the price is counter-weighed by the views. Even though the mainland is some 20 km away, you can't see the open sea everywhere - there are thousands of islands 360 degrees around.
17.
18.
19.
We pass a similar ferry on the same route.
20.
Upon entering the Nauvo harbour we are met by loads of yachts.
21.
We found it quite interesting that Swedish language dominates the island of Storlandet (and, we suspected, all the other islands further to the West). Whereas the places in the mainland Finland, those with a Finnish majority, mostly had bi-lingual signs, the western part of archipelago seems to ignore the bi-linguality and Finnish is hard to come-by.
In the afternoon we turn Northeast-wise. We stop in a camping near Jämsäkoski on the shore of lake Kankarisvesi.
22.
23.
Cabins like this was the main accomodation during the entire trip.
24.
The following day we visited Kuopio, which is surrounded by the huge lake Kallavesi.
25.
The Kuopio harbour was swarming with tourist ships. It made me really sad to know that even though Lithuania has a few lakeside cities with a potential similar to Kuopio's, these opportunities are almost never used...
26.
The following day saw the most intense part of the trip. We decide to reach Nordkapp, which is some 1300 km away.
On our way we take a detour and cross lake Oulujärvi, one of the biggest lakes in Finland (887 km²).
27.
A wide-angle shot of a peninsula of lake Pirttijärvi.
28.
As we come closer to the polar circle, the "Caution: Wild animals" sign starts becoming more and more meaningful. At one point we have to stop completely. The road is dominated by a herd of around 50 reindeer, who have no intention to let us pass through. We have to wait for some oncoming traffic (which is quite a rare sight on that road), which finally causes the animals to move off the road.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
The lakesides of Northern Finland look quite different to the sights in the South.
34.
35.
36.
We're in Norway. Evening sky above Kárášjohka.
37.
We spend the night in Porsangermoen. We failed to reach Nordkapp, however, after travelling more than 1100 km we only have some 200 km left.
In these latitudes the sun is above the horizon during the whole June and July. Unfortunately, that night was cloudy, however, it still didn't look like night:
38.
