From Obbola to Tromsø – home home and work home Mar 25 2025

Thursday, 20 March – Obbola

Annika and I are in Obbola, my “home home”. In the morning we get visitors. Three deer stand in our garden – always alert. Are they happy, that much of the snow is gone?

In my lunch break I am kayaking round the island Bredskär. That’s just 3 km. There is still some ice round the rocks at the shore, but much snow and ice has melted away the last weeks. What a warm winter.

Friday, 21 March

Annika and I take the car to Tromsø. We will make a stopover in Jokkmokk, because the total distance is almost 1000 km. Hejdå home home!

In warm and sunny weather we head northwards to Piteå and then northwest to Jokkmokk. Now we are north of the Polar Circle.

In Jokkmokk we meet a good friend and take a walk round the lake Talvatissjön. Around the sun a halo appears .

Saturday, 22 March

After a good sleep in the hostel Åsgård Annika and I continue our car trip. Gällivare, Kiruna, Abisko. Torneträsk – the 6th largest lake in Sweden – is still completely frozen. Good for recreation such as skiing.

Parts of the road were closed some days ago. You can still see some remains of the snow storm.

Some weeks ago it would have been impossible to drive from Jokkmokk to Tromsø in daylight. Anyhow two days ago astronomical spring has started and the days are as long as everywhere. After hours of driving the sun is low but visible. It illuminates the beautiful clouds. And then we arrive at our apartment in Tromsø, my “work home”.

Sunday, 23 March

On Sunday the weather gets nasty. Max temperature: +9 °C and wind gusts up to 23.5 m/s. Annika and I take a promenade anyhow. With spiked shoes because some of the ways are just bare, wet ice and the friction is next to zero. We arrive at home before the rain. Good luck.

Monday, 24 March

On my way to work I spot the first spring flowers in front of the Tromsø Cathedral. I could believe in spring …

Tuesday, 25 March

… but do know the forecast and it is correct: Snow, snow, snow on the next day. So it looks like in the morning outside of the apartment …

… and so in the afternoon, when I walked home.

Me and the old Anorak I’ve bought 2nd hand

So we did not solely travelled between countries but also between seasons. Anyhow I hope for some more winter days (or weeks), before my seasonal clock will jump to spring mode. Perhaps in mid-May?

Three countries in sixteen snapshots Mar 5 2025

This article is part of the series “2025-02: Finnmark”.

While Annika and I have been travelling through Northern Norway, Finnish Lapland and Northern Sweden I take photos not only with my cameras, but also snapshots with my mobile phone. Here is a small non-landscape selection.

Norway

23 February – Solhov

Solhov, built in 1912–24 as a school provides accommodation today. The wooden building is huge and has a large hall with a piano that is surprisingly in tune.

24 February – Alta

As in Tromsø it is too warm in Alta. Temperatures round +7 °C lead to snowmelt and giant puddles in town.

25 February – Suolovuopmi Fjellstue

In the middle of nowhere there is a café by the road E45 from Alta to Kautokeino. To our delight it is open and we get reindeer burger and omelette with smoked rein for lunch. Delicious!

25 February – Karasjok

We stay two nights in Karasjok, where the Samí parliament is located. Our cabin is cozy. Min Ája, the camping site has a billiards room.

The design of some of the beer cans looks arctic. While most alcohol has to bought in the specialist shop “Vinmonopolet”, beer up to 4.7 % can be bought in supermarkets, too.

26 February – Karasjok

In the tourist shops you can buy a lot of genuine Sámi handicraft. And thick fabrics in wonderful colours. Many traditional Sámi garments use the same colours: blue, yellow, red, and green.

27 February – Finnish-Norwegian borderland

A small shop. A cupboard with lockers. On each locker attached photos, all of them with fishing motives.

Finland

28 February – Utsjoki

As many hotel rooms our room has a wardrobe with hangers. But it has something more: two umbrellas. Could be a useful device here in the warmer months.

28 February – Saariselkä

Saariselkä has many cross-country ski trails. No wonder, that the hotel has an own waxing hut, where you can prepare your skis.

1 March – Saariselkä

It’s not a rumour, there are definitely a lot of Ä-s in the Finnish language.

3 March – Sodankylä

No town without a pizzeria and/or a burger bar. Although the name “Riviera” may not completely match the actual winter weather in Sodankylä.

3 March – Vuostimo

If temperatures are hardly below zero and it is snowing the snow is sometimes like glue and covers your car everywhere.

4 March – Vuostimo

Snow, a birch, a fence, a road in the background. Leaning against the fence: a bicycle. Clearly unused for a while, since it is deeply stuck in the snow. A Northern winter short story.

Sweden

4 March – Tornio/Haparanda

Two countries, two time zones, two languages. At the border two towns: Tornio on the Finnish side, Haparanda on the Swedish. They share a lot of infrastructure such as the bus station. The border itself is not visible, but the two clocks showing Finnish and Swedish time or the cabinet with Finnish and Swedish food.

A border that connects people. A border I like.

Finnmark birches Feb 26 2025

This article is part of the series “2025-02: Finnmark”.

Yesterday Annika and I continued our travel from Alta to Karasjok, part of the Norwegian Finnmark. I connect this landscape with birches and snowy hills. Especially by the rivers it often looks like this:

You may think, this looks quite desolate, but I love the simplicity landscape. I find it much less desolate than the wet and ice snow free meadows that we passed the day before. Sign of a winter that has been much too warm (and still is).

The lower parts by the sea are often free of snow – in the end of February!

The rivers however can be quite beautiful, when they are partly frozen and snowy and partly open. This is the river Kárášjohka where the road 92 crosses it.

Tamokdalen, Rostadalen, Dividalen Oct 9 2024

Sometimes the trains in Northern Sweden run and sometimes they don’t. Last weekend, when my wife Annika planned to travel from Obbola to Tromsø they didn’t. Anyhow she was lucky and got a lift for most of the distance ending in the town Bardufoss. That’s less than two hours from Tromsø so I fetched her from there.

Sunday morning my car was covered with ice flowers. I was very happy that I got my tyres changed two days ago. Now I have studded winter tyres and I feel ready for winterly road conditions.

On my way to Bardufoss I took a detour through the valley Tamokdalen and the side valleys Rautadalen and Dividalen. Still many trees were clad in colourful leaves but a bit higher there where white of snow.

In Dividalen the temperature dropped to -4 °C and the road in the shadow was icy. Thank you, winter tyres!

The valley Dividalen is long and I didn’t make it to the end. On my way back the sun began to set. I crossed the river Målselva that has some river isles and turned left to the main road.

One other stop for a bog covered with frozen grass and a hill with green pines and spruces and yellow birches.

One day later – Annika and I take a walk through the forests nearby. Nature here may be less impressive but I like it very much as well. Two photos with the same theme: autumn, meet winter. What luxury to have access to nature nearby but only two minutes to the next bus stop.

Summer weather in Tromsø May 17 2024

10:30. I am sitting in my car on my way to Sommarøya – “The summer island”. The sun is shining and it is warm already. Today it is supposed to be 19 °C, much warmer than the last weeks (or months). The first photo stop, a parking place by the sea. Tussilago is blooming everywhere.

The road leaves the sea and leads through the valley Kattfjordeidet. The lake Kattfjordvatnet lies on 149 metres of altitude. Does not sound much, nevertheless it is high enough that most parts of it are still covered with ice. I like the open areas – small waterfalls and beautiful reflections.

Kattfjordeidet I – a small rapid in the mountain river

Kattfjordeidet II – an open patch by the ice.

The valley is 12 km long. I leave it behind and meet the sea again. And two locals – reindeer that know the traffic rules and walk on the other side of the street (or better said in the ditch).

Just before the tunnel Oterviktunnelen there is a parking place and shortly after a beautiful sandy beach. It looks so warm, but I didn’t measure the water temperature …

I am lucky, I find a nice shell, a “pelican’s foot”. Then I continue my ride and enter the tunnel. It is not long, just 607 m.

Almost wherever you stop there are nice places to explore, for example this tiny beach, less than ten metres wide. It is not far away from the bridge to Sommarøya.

A small beach by the road Sandneshamnvegen

From the bridge you can see a lot of small islands, many of them with sandy beaches. A kayakers paradise, although the weather can be pretty rough. But if you like challenges, take your boat, head west and after 1600 km you are in Greenland. ;-)

The last weeks I have seen three kinds of wild flowers blooming in and around Tromsø. (1) Tussilago – 17 April (always the first). (2) Dandelion – 26 April. (3) Oxlip (or another primula) – 8 May. Today I discovered two others. According to Pl@ntNet, which I use for identification a Goldilocks buttercup (91.2%) and a Purple mountain saxifrage (94.6%).

Would I find one of my favourites flowers as well – the Marsh marigold, which loves wet places and has an incredibly beautiful hue of yellow. Yes? I found some of them beside a small pond.

On Sommarøya I hardly took any picture, on the outer island Hillesøya I took a photo of one of the boat harbours. In my back an open door, a dark room and in there a man cleaning fish.

After taking lunch in the snack restaurant Havfrua (“The mermaid”) it was time to drive back. I chose the way round the south of the island Kvaløya and made some small stops. One at the ponds and puddles in a boggy area, which now are free of ice. Another by the church Hillesøy kirke, which is by the way not on the island Hillesøya.

And then the time came: 20 °C according to the car thermometer! Last time it was so warm here was last August.

I took another stop to take a photo of one of the mighty mountains on the other side of the strait Straumsfjorden. When I looked down into the deep water I spotted a shoal of fish. It was hundreds, probably thousands of fish resting in the shadow. The photo is heavily edited to make the fish more visible.

After a while I came back to more known areas – less than 30 minutes away from my “work flat” in Tromsø. I stopped at a small grave yard. Most tomb stones were free of snow, but those located in the snow drifts will have to wait a bit longer. Anyhow snow in the lowlands has become the exception. Even the bogs that tend to be cold are hardly frozen any more. And so I had to be quite cautious to avoid wet feet, when I looked for a good place to take a picture of that beautiful pine tree other there – the last photo for today.

Those of you that are not so familiar with Norway as a country may ask yourselves: Why did Olaf make an excursion on a Friday? That’s because today it is Constitution Day. On 17 May 1814 the Constitution of Norway was signed and this is the most important day of the year. Even through our street a marching band walked by and all people have their best clothes on – many of them the traditional bunad which shows, from which part of Norway they come from.

And so I shout out: “Gratulerer med dagen, Norge!” – Happy birthday, Norway!

Here is an article from 10 years ago: Syttende mai (German text).

A day trip to the island Vannøya May 1 2024

It is 10 o’clock on Sunday, 28 April. Marika, whom I know from work and I are in Hansnes on the island Ringvassøya waiting for the ferry. It will take us to the island Vannøya where we want to stay for the day.

I want to take photos, so I am opening the boot of my car and realise that I have forgotten my camera backpack at home. Sh*t! Fortunately I have my Sony camera with me, which does a pretty good job on landscape photography But no time to be grumpy, here comes the ferry.

After a ferry ride of forty minutes we arrive at the island and take the western way to the fishing village Torsvåg. We pass the Polargirl, a passenger ship that uses to make touristic excursions in Svalbard in the summer season.

After seven kilometres we come to our first stop: A small beach. The view is incredible. Snow covered mountains in the back, a cloudless sky above, some islets with white sandy beaches and shallow waters of a turquoise colour so intense that you can see it on satellite images.

We start cleaning the beach, mostly of plastic. A huge amount is plastic nets and ropes from the fishing industry. The plastic is harmful to the environment and is especially dangerous to sea birds. Beach cleaning has become quite popular and it is a good feeling to remove the garbage from nature even when it is only a drop in the ocean. The next photo showing me is taken by Marika.

We stay there for a while, not only because the scenery is to beautiful and the sun shines warmly, but because there are seals out there. Some of them were sitting on rocks until the tide came in, others are swimming in the turquoise water. They are too far away to take good pictures, but I can observe them through my binoculars.

We continue our road trip, occasionally stopping when there is any wildlife. And there is quite a lot. Here at partially frozen puddles we do not only see crows but also a Eurasian curlew.

Minutes later we arrive at Sandsletta, a larger beach. The small sandy dunes are reminiscent of the German North Sea, the mountains aren’t.

There are some more photo stops, either for scenery or for animals. This time a reindeer (we saw some of them) grazing by the road.

Then we arrive at the fishing village Torsvåg. Parts of it are located on Vannøya, others on the small island Kåja. To get there by car you have to cross a dam with a single file concrete road. In the harbour area there is a huge rack full with fish hanging to dry. The dried fish is called stockfish. And there is the Torsvåg lighthouse. If you look north from there, you can see some stony islets and rocks and then there is the open Norwegian sea. Next stop Svalbard.

Is this the end of the island? Well, at least it is the end of this road. But there is more to explore. We turn, drive back 8 km and turn left onto the road to Burøysund in the east. Marika spots an eagle with prey, probably a mountain hare. I do not stop timely and the disturbed eagle flies away to land on a stone nearby. I make a photo through the windscreen, but it is blurred. Anyhow it shows, how big eagles are. You see the crow for size comparison?

Ten minutes later I have stopped the car again, this time for two ptarmigans that first strolled on a meadow by the road and then decided to ignore us and cross the road. Another object with flying abilities was easier to photograph, but what does a propeller plane do on a parking place by the road? Does it use the road for taking off and landing?

We arrive in Burøysund. The whole of Vannøya is a bit “Norway in a nutshell” with its snowy mountains, the blue sea, the rocky shore, the coastal villages. Here anyhow the rocks are special. They are sharp-edged with their “teeth” up into the air and look wild and rough.

Now it is time to head back. On a place we spotted already on our way there we take a late lunch break with the view to the sea (and some ptarmigans and seals in the distance) and the wetlands in our back.

Even if we take the second last ferry we have plenty of time. And we need it, because while driving further I spot something in the water which does not look like seabirds. It is an otter. No, it’s two, wait – three. They meet in the sea and then swim side by side.

Then they go ashore quite near us. One is swimming away soon while the other two stay on land for ten minutes. What an experience so see them so near! I’m sure they have seen us as well but since we are quiet they ignore us. What a pity, that I forgot my Nikon to use the large telephoto lens. The Sony did not manage to take good pictures, also because of the light situation. Anyhow – for the archives – two pictures of the otters:

This day really delivered! Incredible weather and a lot of wildlife. Reindeer, curlews, ptarmigans, geese, eagles, a lot of other birds I do not know, a white mountain hare, the first butterfly of the season (a small tortoiseshell), several seals and now the three otters. Time to catch the ferry with a hasty detour to the south east of the island from which you can see the Nordfugløya (Northern bird island).

Finally we have to hurry a bit but we reach the 19:15-ferry in time. Another forty minutes ferry ride in beautiful light …

… and we are back in Hansnes on the island Ringvassøya which is connected to the island Kvaløya with a tunnel which is connected to the island Tromsøya with a bridge, and that’s where I live. There are worse places!

Takk for turen, Marika!

Farewell Obbola Jan 12 2024

As almost every day the last weeks I went to the coast yesterday. This place is less than 100 metres away from Annika’s and my house in Obbola. It was partly cloudy but the upcoming sunrise made the clouds and ice extremely colourful. I waited for the sun to rise and then went back to my home office room to continue working.

Today I have other plans. After three weeks of being home – part vacation, part work – it it time to travel back to Tromsø. Normally I do this by train and bus, this time I travel by car. After I’ve found a nice flat in Tromsø I took my Norwegian car here to fetch some more stuff.

Such as a box of books, kitchen stuff, an uplighter, an Ivar bookshelf, my acoustic bass guitar, a bulky winter sleeping bag and more stuff that I want to have in Tromsø. Now my car is full but I still can use the rear-view mirror.

I guess I might need my down parka for if the weather forecast is correct it might be -25 °C on my way back to “work home”. But not today where I only have to drive round about 200 km to Gagsmark to visit friends and stay over. From there its 470 km go drive to Kuttainen (Saturday) and then 300 other km to Tromsø (Sunday).

Farewell, Obbola!

Obbola—Boliden—Kusfors—Obbola Jan 7 2024

Just some photos from a car trip to Boliden and Kusfors to visit good friends this weekend. Temperatures: everything between -13 and -28 °C.

Two wintry sunrises Dec 21 2023

From polar night into the solar light

It is crazy – three days ago Annika and I have been in Tromsø in the middle of the mørketid – the polar night – where the sun hasn’t risen for weeks. Two days ago we went to Gällivare in Swedish Lapland by car. Yesterday we continued our way south and crossed the polar circle. The sky was clear and full of colours and then – at 10:23 – we saw the sun ahead. It did not only rise above the horizon but also the forested hills.

The sun was low but we saw it for several hours. That was a great feeling especially for me who haven’t seen the sun for almost a month.

But days are short and already at two o’clock in the afternoon the moon dominated the sky.

Soon it was too dark to take good photos from the moving car. At half past six we arrived at our house in Obbola, where I’ll stay for three to four weeks.

Today I worked from home and could see how it gradually got brighter. I took a break and went to the coast. I was lucky – now I got a real sunrise. Not above a road in the Swedish inland but above the partially frozen Baltic Sea. So beautiful!

A sunny car trip to Jøvik May 3 2023

As in many other countries 1. May is a rød dag, a red day which is an official holiday. The weather is beautiful and I decide to do something I haven’t done for a long time: a car trip.

I take the car to Jøvik, a village in Tromsø municipality located on the peninsula Lyngenhalvøya, home of the impressive mountain range “Lyngen Alps”. As soon as I leave the E8 travelling is slow. On the one hand there’s a lot to see, on the other side the roads are in a pretty bad shape.

Just some photos I took on this wonderful day trip:

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