Norway: Part 2 of 2 (Keiservarden, Svartisen, Arjeplog)

 This blog post has photos from our three bigger day trips:  Keiservarden, Svartisen Glacier, and Arjeplog, Sweden. 

We all love the Keiservarden hike in Bodø. It is renowned for panoramic views of the city, sea, and Lofoten Islands and was named after German Emperor (Kaiser) Wilhelm II, who used to visit.  The day we went, the weather was beautiful and the skies were clear of clouds. At the top it is easy to walk around and see fjords, islands, and city in multiple directions.

I love this photo of Karina and Derek:

Another day, we drove a couple hours and took the ferry so we could embark on the much more difficult hike to the Engabreen arm of Svartisen glacier.  Over the past 20 years, the glacier has retreated by more than half a kilometer, so the hike literally gets longer and more difficult every year.  At some point there is no trail and we have to traverse difficult rocks to get to the ice.

The glacier-melt lake is a pretty turquoise:

The ice is deceptive, because it always seems like you are close to it, but with each hill, you are just as far away as before.

The reward of reaching the ice is lots of fun.  The day was actually so hot that we didn't even need jackets when we reached the glacier.  Normally, even on a hot day, when we get to the ice, we put on jackets, but there was no need that day. There were lots of cracking/melting sounds though, so we tried  not to stand anywhere dangerous.

The kids had never been to Sweden and we keep a spreadsheet of states and countries we've been to, so it seemed fitting to make a day trip to Arjeplog, Sweden, about 3.5 hours drive away. You can drive to the Swedish border in 2 hours, but there is literally nothing there, so we drove to the nearest interesting place. Arjeplog is part of Lapland where the native Sami people have traditionally lived herding reindeer. 

In Arjeplog, we explored the Sami building structures they have set up replicating life centuries ago.  The Silvermuseet museum showed both Sami culture and non-Sami Swedish cultural history in the area and I really enjoyed it. 

Inside the Silvermuseet, showing life 100-200 years ago:

We also played on a little playground and had a picnic lunch from a pizza place plus ice cream.

On the way back, we stopped in Jäkkvik, Sweden to hike a little bit of Kungsleden (the King's Trail). 

Now Sweden is checked off:-)

This is the view of my parents' barn from the balcony of my bedroom.  

Silly kids playing together.

For the flights back to Maryland, we had an overnight stay in London.  Our hotel had a pool and sauna that we enjoyed.  Lydia and Derek thought it was funny to go in the sauna and sing "Bara Bada Bastu", the 2025 Finnish Eurovision song, sung by a Swedish group in Finland (about 5.5% of Finland is Swedish-speaking).  The kids had been singing that catchy tune all summer.