A group of fearless riders is gathering in beautiful Alesund, about 400 kilometers North of Oslo. Everybody in this international team, coming from eight different nations, has one destination - the NORTH CAPE, Europes most northern point. The travel will lead us first to Trondheim, the major town in middle Norway. Continueing North we will follow the coast, turn inland later to cross the Arctic Circle and then take a ferry to wonderful Lofoten Islands. Back to the main land north of Narvik we will head towards the "point of return". We can't go any further - a sheer trop off marks the end of the European continent. Turning around and heading South we will enter Finland, have a look at the life of the Sami people before re-entering Norway to get to Tromsö, our final destination. We are looking forward to two exciting weeks!

The horses waiting.......

......for their riders

Taking off in Alesund on a misty day did not effect our mood. An easy ride tokk us along fjords to Stordal, where we had a look at the "Rosekirkye", a church, built in 1789 and decorated with unique adornments. Later on we entered the Norwegian "strawberry country", tried them - of course - and headed on for Trollstigen. But the trolls were hiding themselves and the road completely in fog. Too bad!

The Rose Church

Strawberry fields forever......

......and strawberry cake

The trolls were hiding everything

Thursday, July 28th

Yesterday we left the trolls behind and headed for Trondheim. It was a pleasant ride, a little cool in the morning, but arriving in Trondheim, the weather was perfect.

The Horgkirke

In front of Trondheim's Cathedral

at scenery

Having a beer down by the river

Leaving Trondheim this morning we jumped on a ferry to pick up the road along the coast. Great scenery, no traffic. Dense forrests framing lakes, barren rockformations along the wind and weather prooved coast towards the open ocean and red painted farmhouses, surrounded by wheatfields showed us the whole kaleidoscope of Norwegian landscapes in a glimpse.

farms and fields....

...forrest and lake......

....barren rocks....

"I'm taking a picture of you taking a picture of me while I'm taking a picture of you"

motor talks

July 29th

Taking off in Overhalla we needed to keep it going to catch the first ferry in time. Marvellous boatrides, interrupted by rides across islands brought us to Sandnessjoen and further, along a great road to Mosjoen. It was a long, but good day!

Waiting to get on the first ferry

A little jammed in there...

Will the ship fit through?

Beware of moose

Crossing the bridge at Sandnesjoen

July 30st

From Mosjoen we followed road E6, the Arctic Highway north. As a surprise we went to the Arctic Circle Racetrack. It happened to be, that the Porsche Club Sweden did some training there. The Tourguide managed it, to Francesca's surprise, to get her three laps with an instructor as a birthday present.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

After another half hour's ride the barrenn landscape appeared in front of us - we reached the Arctic Circle. Another 150 km brought us to Fauske, tonight's destination.

Still a long way to go.....

Happy birthday!

Mauricio, Aloy and Michele

At the Arctic Circle

The mishap of the day: bikes don't run well on diesel - but we got it running

After having a good day going from Mosjoen to Fauska everybody was excited about the next day. Taking an early start to get to Bodo in time for the ferry, we were looking forward to two wonderful days, which turned out as

RIDING IN A POSTCARD

.......but have a look yourself

The last two days took us quite some distance North. We are in Alta at the meantime, already in Sami-land. The countryside starts to look more barren, temperature dropped a little bit and the days get longer. Looking out the window right now (11.30 p.m.) it is still daylight - and it will not get realy dark at all.

This is not Rudolf, the rednose reindeer....-it's Gary

....and then we got John, herding the real ones

Everybody is looking forward to tomorrow........

Thursday, August 4th

A cold and rainy day - a "real" North Cape day! What must the first conqueror have felt approaching that barren rock from the seaside. We felt like conquerors, fighting the wind and cold getting to the most northern point of Europe reachable by road. An impressive landscape - formed by the power of nature!

After three more days of riding through the almost untouched areas in the "three country corner" of Norway, Sweden and Finland we reached our final destination Tromsö. The time came to say "good bye" to a country almost everybody felt in love with and to bid farewell to new friends who shared a great experience.

GOOD BYE NORWAY !