Getting a new car!
Well, today will be mostly traveling trough the countryside. Even more than we anticipated beforehand but we’ll get to that a bit later.
Finally we had some time to properly enjoy the breakfast. On saturday it is served from 8:00 in the morning so we could even sleep in a bit. Again there was plenty to chose from. After our nice breakfast it was time to pack up our stuff and take a taxi back to the airport. Today was the day we would get our new rental car. And because of the harsh environment we got quite a lot of car.
It was a Toyota RAV4 with enough room for us four persons and our luggage. And then it was time to set off to our new destination: Abisko in Sweden. It would be a bit of a drive of four and a half hours. So we made sure we left on time.
Driving trough the Norwegian countryside is a sight to behold. Finally we got some real snow and roads trough enormous fjords with stormy weather and surrounded by high mountains all around. What we noticed that even while we drove to quite remote locations, Everywhere there were small groups of houses. We’ve already learned that Norway had the surface area comparable to Germany but only 1/10th of the population. It was clear how spread-out this population was seeing these remote homes of people.
Since there was quite a lot of wind and snow now blowing on the road we began to realise that the four and a half hour drive estimate was VERY optimistic. Maybe in good weather, in the summer, with wind in the back we could’ve made it but now we certainly couldn’t. Driving carefully over icy roads using the engine as brake to prevent sliding. We might make it just in time to our next destination if we dumped our bags and quickly changed for the Aurora Sky Station. And then the traffic completely stopped.
The road ahead was closed. Red signals and crossing barriers made sure nobody would enter the next road segment until a snowplough could clear the path. While we saw the minutes tick away we must have waited at least half an hour until the all-clear sign was given. The road was still pretty dangerous so we slowly progressed in a convoy of cars. And that is when we finally entered Sweden. We made it.
With only fifteen minutes to change our clothing into something more attuned to the cold we rushed to check in. And then we saw our new cabin….
Anyways, it is quite late here now and tomorrow we have some cool early activities planned. So I will update this post tomorrow. Stay tuned!
And now we continue…
The cabin is small and we share this with the four of us. Not ideal but no time to think about it now. We have to race to the Aurora Sky Dinner. The original plan was to have dinner at the Sky Station on the top of the hill. But sadly due to harsh winds we can’t go up the chairlift. So now we have dinner at a very cozy Swedish hut with a fire in the center. We enjoyed a delicious meal with lots of local ingredients. We kicked off with a very typical northern Swedish drink Vargtass (Wolf’s Paw). And as the main course some reindeer fillets. Afterward we go for a walk through the surrounding area in the hope the clouds clear up. Sadly they don’t and due to the rain from the last few days the whole ground is extremely slippery. So the walk was more of a waddle and slip & slide. But we learned about the area, nature and town. It was fun but after another long day it was time to go home. We finished the day by sharing a stern drink together and get some sleep for the activities the next day.