Vaelkommen till Sveriges

Today was our first rainy day, aside from some "heavy" mist on the Varanger Peninsula that really didn't inconvenience us.

We drove through the Brugedalen, where we stopped at a flea market where the women sold hand knit mittens and lefse (a kind of pale thin pancake) in plastic bags and the men sold reindeer salami and frilly pink polyester girls' dresses.

We were out of bread and milk, but it was Sunday in Europe and grocery stores were closed.  So we bought a sweet bun with chocolate chips in a gas station convenience store, but this is Europe so the buns were freshly baked and rather yummy.

They seem to be promoting bicycle tourism along our route today because everywhere were giant bicycle sculptures and real bikes spray painted in bright colours.

We stopped again in Narvik, site of a famous battle between the Germans and Norwegian and French Allied troops in 1940.  We failed to find a stone age drawing of a reindeer carved into a rock (it looks cool on the internet), but we did find the geyser (actually a big spray released from the power station building) that shoots off twice a day, coincidently right when it was shooting off.  Kind of a strange tourist attraction for a rainy day.  But also a good overlook over a gloomy looking Narvik

Unlike us the hardy Norwegians were all heading off on hikes or mountain bike rides despite the weather.

We managed to find a cafe that was open on Sunday, and then we headed off to our third country, Sweden, in search of drier weather and less convoluted roads.  We are still north of the Arctic Circle and have to make time to get back to Helsinki in 2 weeks.

And the sun did make an appearance once we crossed the border and the road did get straighter.  We stopped at a memorial to he Yugoslavian prisoners who built this road for the Germans.  They were not official prisoners of war and were not protected by the Geneva Convention, and many of them died from the hardship.

We camped at Kiruna, a mining town and aurora borealis specializing tourist town in winter.  It's a busy campsite, the kitchen was crowded tonight. 

We went for a walk in the hills next to the campsite.  Many of Sweden's 60-year olds were out proving their superior fitness to the average Canadian 40-year old by running or walking vigorously along the town's ski trail system.

Leo saw some whooper swans, ducks and grebes; Connie ate a lot of blueberries.