The Scandinavian leg is hard to describe. Hundreds and hundreds of lakes, thousands and thousands of miles, millions and millions of trees, and a few answers to the question: “what’s the difference between Norway and Sweden?”

Leaving Copenhagen, our route was across the bridge to Malmo, then a change of train in Gothenburg. On to Oslo, changing for the sleeper to Trondheim. Trondheim meant crossing a platform for all of 20 feet, before another half dozen hours to Fauske.

Fauske was vital in terms of timing. We had a twenty minute window to catch a bus to our most northerly point, Narvik. Four hours of bus, via a ferry, and little in the way of fallback should we miss it. We made it.

Through Narvik – where we had proper midnight sun – and right the way down through Sweden from top to bottom, it became very clear that this was a landmass of two halves. Norway: spectacular fjords, mountains, incredibly clean everything (and fast, free wifi pretty much everywhere). Sweden: grey skies, drizzle, flat, trees, more trees.

I know it’s unfair to judge a country by a passing weather system, but I also had a bit of a downer on this part of the tour because it didn’t give a lot to work with in terms of varied images. Maybe there was also a bit of brain rot as a result of covering such enormous distances, especially after spending whole days in the same seat.

The ferry across the fjord was incredible though. Time for a hotdog (best hotdog EVAH) and forty minutes of silent gliding between snowcapped mountains, many capped with slabs of marzipan mist. I hadn’t enjoyed a ferry so much in my life: a record which stood for only a couple of days, but that’s a story for the next post.

Anyway, a few of the more interesting photos from this section:

Here’s the full photo collection from the tour as it develops, day by day.

In the next post: from dark into light…