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SATURAY JULY 4 TH.

Av EvaLena Hallgren - 4 juli 2015 06:28

HAPPY 4 TH. EVERYBODY ..............I’m glad I’m here in Sweden now, so I don’t have to be scared by all the fireworks you guys use to celebrate..............I’ve been really really mad at my Mom lately, because she has refused to help me write in my blog. She said nobody is reading anyway ??? I told her she’s wrong, but no begging or nagging has helped until now when she noticed some friends had replied to me...............

For the last week we have stayed in Mom's puppy town and done the usual visits.

I'm going to try to pick up my story at the place we left off, which was in Kiruna in Swedish Lapland.

Covering 19,447 square kilometers, Kiruna is the biggest municipality in Sweden. If all the municipalities were as big as Kiruna, there would only be room for 21 municipalities in Sweden, instead of the 290 that Sweden actually has. Its size naturally means there are long distances so we're driving forever and all I see is forests.

Variations in the landscape within the municipality also mean that there can be big local variations in climate and weather. In the central community of Kiruna which lies about 200 kilometers (125 miles ) north of the Arctic circle and just over 500 meters above sea level, it is seldom colder than -20° (-4F )Celsius in the winter, at the same time as Jukkasjärvi in the Torne River Valley 20 kilometers further east often experiences -30° ( -22 F).Normally the snow cover lasts from the latter part of October until the end of May. In Riksgränsen however, the skiing season continues until midsummer – in the third week of June. Incidentally, Riksgränsen is the place in Sweden with most precipitation - snow and rain. But just 30 kilometers away we have Abisko with Sweden's least precipitation

Kiruna is home to the world’s largest underground iron ore mine.

Processing takes place above ground and includes concentration and pellets production. They're planning to move the the entire town 3 km. so they can continue mining.

Kiruna wooden church is in the shape of a Sami tent cot.

The church was completed in 1912 and donated by the Mining company. Seems like Mom and Lotta has done a lot of church exploring lately ??

Of course I'm not allowed to come along ? and I don't understand why ? Does not God like dogs ? I'm real curious what the big deal about these places is ?

Maybe next time.........................Mom says it's only special churches that are interesting, the architecture, history and so on .....................phew I'm relieved, I thought she was becoming holy

...................The steeple,which was in my view from Lucy was very pretty......

Spaceport, is a company located in Kiruna, in Swedish Lapland,that plans to make Kiruna the primary European Spaceport for personal suborbital spaceflight for space tourism, research, education and a hub for cross-industry innovation.

Next time we visit maybe we can take a rocket to the moon...............

we're soon continuing south, and stopped at yet another church in the small town of Jukkasjärvi, which is the home of the first ice hotel. There was no remains of it, since it had melted, but they had tours of their warehouse where they stored big blocks of ice ..............Mom and Lotta has seen plenty of ice in their lives so they didn't bother to pay for the tour, but they tried on their very heavy capes.

let a sleeping bear sleep

weather is changing quickly now, and the internet is acting up ..................I'll continue later.......................promise...............

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TUESDAY EVENING IN BACK SWEDEN

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Av EvaLena Hallgren - 23 juni 2015 20:31

Here we go again, several days went by without me having a chance to tell my story. I can’t really blame Mom tough, because the connection in Norway has been really lousy. It may have something to do about the tall mountains surrounding us.

The boat rides are not my favorite, but absolutely necessary if we want to continue to the tail of Norway, called Lofoten.

Finally.............. I’ve been waiting forever for Mom to take down that bicycle she bought. But what the heck ? again a boat ?, the bike went on a boat and I was shaking like a leaf, the entire way across the lake. ............at shore Lotta too got a bike, and off we went to a glacier...............Svartisen is Norway’s second to highest glacier and has an area of 370 square kilometers. It is the lowest positioned glacier on the European mainland, just about 20m above the ocean. This makes it easily accessible for glacier trips and other adventures.

do you see the solid block of ice behind me ?

After that adventure we were all pretty pooped, but next stop were supposed to be the Saltstraumen..............a place Mom had read about, and wanted to see.

The Saltstraumen has the strongest tidal current in the world. Up to 400,000,000 cubic metres (520,000,000 cu yd) of sea water forces its way through a 3-kilometre (1.9 mi) long and 150-metre (490 ft) wide st every six hours, with water speeds reaching 22 knots (25 mph). Vortices known as whirlpools or maelstroms up to 10 metres (33 ft) in diameter and 5 metres (16 ft) in depth are formed when the current is at its strongest. The Saltstraumen has existed for about two to three thousand years. Before that, the area was different due to post-glacial rebound.................most definitley not a place to go swimming............

Unfortunately we couldn’t find a decent campground, so once again we wild camped in a parking lot.

Following day we kept going on yet another ferry, this one was 3 hours long, and it was no fun at all as I had to stay in Lucy the entire trip

Finally we arrived at the destination that was supposed to be THE place to visit....................LOFOTEN

Lofoten is an archipelago and a traditional district in the county of Northern Norway, mountains and peaks, Though lying within the Artic circle, the archipelago experiences one of the world's largest elevated temperature anomalies relative to its high latitude. Lofoten is known for a distinctive scenery with mountains and peaks, open sea and sheltered bays, beaches and untouched lands.

It was so beautiful, so I have no words, pictures have to speak for them selves

This is a favorite spot for fishing, and the men looked quite happy when they returned with their catch.

After Lofoten, we continued to Narvik, where we had planned to spend a little time, but their campground was closed, and weather was getting crappy, no WIFI, we left after one nights sleep in a parking lot...................It's a place with a lot of war history, but since Dad isn't with us this time, we skipped that stuff.

Narvik is the third-largest city in Northern Norway by population which was 18 473 in 2012.
Narvik – 2,407 km (1,496 mi) from North Pole
The history of Narvik as a settlement began in the Stone Age. Not very much is known about these people, but the Vikings lived in this area.
The history of modern Narvik begins in the 1870s, when the Swedish government began to understand the potential of the iron ore mines in Kiruna, Sweden. Obtaining iron ore from Kiruna had one significant problem in that there was no suitable Swedish port, since the Baltic sea ports will freeze in winter.Swedish company built a railway to Narvik, as the port there is ice-free thanks to the warm Gulf Stream, and is naturally large, allowing boats of virtually any size to anchor, up to 208 metres (682 ft) long and 27 metres (89 ft) deep.
The Swedish mining corporation, still ships the majority of its ore from Narvik (a total 25 million tons a year) and the corporation is still important in the area, both as an employer and landowner, although its influence is not as prominent now as it has been in previous years.
The port of Narvik proved to be strategically valuable in the early years of World War II and the town became a focal point of the Norwegian Campaign. In 1939, Germany's war industry depended upon iron ore mined in Kiruna and Malmberget in Sweden.
Winston Churchill realized that the control of Narvik meant stopping most German imports of iron ore during the winter of 1940. This would be advantageous to the Allies, and it might help shorten the war. Equally as important, later in the war, German submarines and warships based there threatened the allied supply line to the Soviet Union.
Churchill proposed laying a naval minefield in Norwegian territorial waters around Narvik, and that met with debate within the British government – since the plan would mean a violation of Norway's neutrality and sovereignty.

We kept on driving towards the Swedish border and continue to go OH and AHh at great looking places.

Somewhere on the road there was a Viking museum, where Mom tried to get hired as a warrier.

there was some good looking meatball factories outside, but I never gor to meet them

When we finally crossed the border back to Sweden , there was still ice on the lakes, and the trees had no leaves yet..............boring rain and more rain again

We are in Kiruna now, and I don't know what will happen next, but maybe there'll be no WIFI excuses anymore...............

I miss you all...........................whomever is following us on our trip......................kisses

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MIDSUMMER FREDAG

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Av EvaLena Hallgren - 19 juni 2015 16:12

Today Sweden celebrate midsummer, but here in Norway it’s not until the 23rd. Weather has been great for 3 days now. Not much heat, but sunny so there’s no complaining.

Today we are at a place called Polar Camp, and it has absolutely magnificent views............Sky is blue so we decided to stay here 2 nights.

Again Lotta made a delicious supper, salmon and a salad. This time I did get a small taste............

The drive to get here were on roads even more narrow than before, and I could sense Mom was a tad nervous since she started to talk to herself .........................(she does that when she’s scared ) I think it got even worse when we saw two RVs that had met and smacked their rearview mirrors together.

Another scary thing is the tunnels, the longest one so far was 8 km, dark and narrow.......

This where I sleep, and it's very comfy cosy

Today we did something absolutely amazing, we went for a long boat trip and saw a pilot whale, that’s been living in this fjord for 10 years. We were told he always comes to greet the boats. We figured it must be quite lonely since he seems to be the only whale here ??

Before we went on the boat, both Mom and Lotta gave me a real squeeze, to make sure I’ll be ok ...............like I was going to get scared ???

Ok tough guy says Mom.............how come you were shaking the first 2 minutes than ? .............Me ?? I was cold ......

Lotta got herself a shower from a waterfall, Mom came inside, since her camera does not like salt water

Mom got to try her luck at fishing..................no fish tough

Here's a few more pictures from the boat

The mountainside showed amazing fossils and some places looked like a work of art, can you find the witch ?

This is our Captain Mr Albert

Amazingly, there’s some beautiful flowers growing on the mountain side.

we picked flowers for our midsummer table, and tomorrow we’ll be on our way again, first a ferry, than driving, and finally a bike ride to get where we’re going. ................It’ll be a surprise Mom says ......................I’m hoping it’ll be warm

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THURSDAY MORNING

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Av EvaLena Hallgren - 18 juni 2015 08:47

Finally it looks like we have a decent connection to the cyber world, and there are so many days for me to catch up on, but I don’t think Mom is willing to take the time to start back from where I left off, so here it goes.

Like I said, we’re in Norway for the third day, and are slowly driving North. There’s no such thing as speeding on these roads, as they are winding around up and down the mountains. All roads only have one lane, and are very narrow, without a median.............just a ditch

First stop was in Norway was in a town called Trondheim, and only reason we went there was because Mom wanted to see the Nidaros Cathedral ?? again what’s up with Mom and her obsession with churches lately ? Mom says it was because she was there as a little puppy, and remembered it as a huge scary place. I had to stay and watch Lucy again, which was OK since it was raining.

Mom said it wasn’t scary at all anymore, but looking at the pictures at all the statues clinging to the walls all over the place, I could see why it was scary back than.

Work on the cathedral as a memorial to St. Olav started in 1070. It was finished some time around 1300, nearly 150 years after being established as the cathedral of the diocese. The cathedral was badly damaged by fires in 1327 and again in 1531. The west section was destroyed and was not rebuilt until the restoration in early 1900s.

In 1708 the church burned down completely except for the stone walls. It was struck by lightning in 1719, and was again ravaged by fire. Major rebuilding and restoration of the cathedral started in 1869

Trondheim lies on the south shore of the Trondheimsfjord.

The settlement was founded in 997 as a trading post, and it served as the capital of Norway during the Viking age until 1217.

The city has experienced several major fires. Since much of the city was made of wooden buildings, many of the fires caused severe damage. Great fires ravaged the city in 1598, 1651, 1681, 1708, twice in 1717, 1742, 1788, 1841 and 1842; however, these were only the worst cases and there have been several smaller fires in the city. The 1651 fire destroyed 90% of all buildings within the city limits. The fire in 1681 (the "Horneman Fire") led to an almost total reconstruction of the city. At the time, the city had a population of roughly 8000 inhabitants.

After the Treaty of Roskilde on 26 February 1658, Trondheim became Swedish territory for a brief period, but the area was reconquered 10 months later. The conflict was finally settled by the Treaty of Copenhagen on 27 May 1660.

During World War II, Trondheim was occupied by Nazi Germany from 9 April 1940, the first day of the invasion of Norway, until the end of the war in Europe,May 8 1945.The home of the most notorious Norwegian Gestapo agent, Henry Rinnan, was in Trondheim. The city and its citizens were also subject to harsh treatment by the occupying powers, including imposition of martial law in October 1942. During this time the Germans turned the city and its environs into a major base for submarines (which included building the large submarine base and bunker Dora 1), and also contemplated a scheme to build a new city for 300,000 inhabitants, ("Northern Star"), centred 15 kilometres (9 miles) southwest of Trondheim, near the wetlands of Øysand in the outskirts of Melhus municipality. This new metropolis was to be accompanied by a massively expanded version of the already existing naval base, which was intended to become the primary future stronghold of the German Kriegsmachine. Today there are few physical remains of this enormous construction project.

Mom said there was a lot more to see in this city, but since it was raining, and a town that was extremely difficult to navigate. The Garmin lady screwed everything up, and I’m pretty sure we drove a little bit on a bicycle path...................The people we met looked a little surprised.........We decided to keep going North to find a place to camp out for the night.

the campsite we found was a complete mud hole, so we stayed at the concrete where you’re supposed to wash RVs, and we had the company of another Lucy.

we kept going North through gorgeous landscape, and made a few bathroom stops for me, fika for Mom and smoke for Lotta

One night we stopped at a military place where we was protected by a bandwagon

Finally we woke up to a day of sunshine, it’s not warm, only 48 degrees F, but as long as it isn’t raining we’re fine

Lotta stole my seat, so I thought I’ll sit on the table to look out.......................not very popular with Mom

Here we are at the middle of Norway, still heading north to more gorgeous mountains and fjords,

Last night we ate our supper outside for the first time, we were sitting at the bottom of a snowy mountain, and it was gorgeous. Lotta made a delicious supper (not for me of course) I have pictures, but it’ll have to wait until tomorrow, because it’s now 10 AM and it’s time to continue our trip.................hopefully Mom will find a good connection tomorrow night too........................

Norway is gorgeous, and there's more to come ..................says Mom......................

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THURSDAY EVENING IN NORWAY

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Av EvaLena Hallgren - 17 juni 2015 22:10

I haven't had a chance to write for days, and this time it’s not Mom’s fault, we are in Norway now, and Internet does not work very well here. Just want to tell you we left Lotta’s house in Västervik on Saturday afternoon. It has been raining and been crappy weather ever since. Today is the first day of sunshine and warmth. I have so much to tell you about, and the other day I had written a lot, and ................pooff the connection went, so all the effort was lost. Not taking a chance that’ll happen again I’ll write and post this quickly so you guys know we’re ok ...............because you do care about that don’t you ? We have been driving 756 miles so far, and I have tons of great pictures to show you later. We are in a town called Mosjoen. As for now one picture takes forever to upload, and Mom are not a very patient person when it comes to this stuff.......................all is well .............talk soon woof...

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THURSDAY MORNING

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Av EvaLena Hallgren - 11 juni 2015 05:11

We're now back in Visby, the only big town on the island, and later this afternoon we're getting back on the ferry to sail back to the main land. Mom has turned day and night around. She got up at 3 AM, and made herself breakfast ??? gave me more room up in the alcove...............because I'm not about to get up in the middle of the night. I do know the difference even though the sun is up, and the birds are chirping their little harts out.

Mom have no new pictures, but I want to show the great pictures Mom's friend Ove is taking of me................he's a very good photographer...........

This is Ove and I .....................no worries, he’s not strangling me at all, he’s just pretending................he really loves me to death, and I have a very good eye on him too. Actually, I can hypnotize him into giving me treats.................and he does that a lot when Mom isn’t looking.....

This is Ove’s lady, and she’s also very nice, but she’s listening to Mom when she says no more treats for me................not good, me thinks

Squirrels look different here, brown with pompom on their ears............I don’t bother chasing them, since I know they climb up a tree where I can’t go, so why waist energy ?

Since we’re parked close to the city, we’ll take a walk into town for “fika” a little later, as for now....................Mom come back to bed .........

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TUESDAY EVENING 10.30

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Av EvaLena Hallgren - 9 juni 2015 22:05

Today has been very relaxing and uneventful, which is totally ok once in a while. We're staying at the same place a second night. First day since we got to Sweden,that it really felt like summer, and Mom got her laundry done, and painted her rocks into ladybugs.

In the afternoon we went for a very long walk to the supermarket, I wasn’t really walking I was riding in my buggy. Mom could really use the exercise now, since she succumbed to her Swedish biggest sin..............the cinnamon bun has America sized and is as good as Mom remember from puppyhood, but back than they were a fourth of this size............................and it didn’t get glued to the hip like now..............Max I really did warn her, but she’s not listening to me, I think you need to have a serious talk to her about this addiction...........

in the afternoon Mom sat in the sun and embroidered, and I chewed on my bull muscle...............life is good

there’s a motorcycle meeting in town and some guys are camping here. This bike is a Ducati in disguise made to look like a bull.............it even sounded like one, and that I didn’t like at all....

here’s a view towards the city and the ferry

adjacent to this campsite is Pippi Longstocking world, and this is the ship her Dad sailed on the seven seas

they’re trying real hard to make this place look like it’s tropical, but I think they should stick to the beautiful roses that grows plentiful here. The palm tree looks very sad.

well, the pine trees looks like it got a beating too

Sweden is very Americanized in many places, here’s a copy of a diner.....................have to say they’ve been very inventive when it comes to the garbage cans though.

The mini golf was pretty cool too............

This picture is taken directly into the sun at 9.30 PM, and it’s now time to crawl up in the bed and sleep................hope everything is ok with all of you who follow me on my trip.......wish you let me know .......I miss you all..................Good Night

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MONDAY EVENING

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Av EvaLena Hallgren - 8 juni 2015 20:58

We packed up and left Slite around noon and kept going south, heading for the most southern tip of the island. That lady in the little map box Mom is listening to had a hick up, or something...........(Mom programmed her wrong ;-) ) so we ended up in a small fishing harbor. Unbelievable windy, so I quickly did my business and got back in to Lucy to relax. This wind is making it difficult for Mom to drive since Lucy likes to take off sideways, especially when we meet a truck..................good thing there aren’t too many of them...

great looking cows with their kids are resting on the fields..............I tried start up a conversation, but all I got was a blank stare back ..........

We stopped at a very nice rest stop, and Mom made a note of how good of a place it would be to spend a night for free, but it was too early.

At the stop was a little house where this lady lived. She was sitting there spinning the wool from the sheep. I really wanted a bite of that, but nooooo of course it was a nooooooo

Behind her house was a path to the beach, so we went for my peepee walk, and in the water was lots of windmills to generate clean power.

Driving along, a sign that said “scenic route” popped up, so we shut up the Garmin lady and went that way. It started ok, but became very narrow, just about the width of Lucy. Hope this is a one way street Mom said, but nope it wasn’t. Luckily we only met a few small cars. It was a very nice ride and we stopped to make lunch. Not the greatest (we’ll eat better when Lotta comes along) but the view was killer.

Mom was a little impressed with herself being able to navigate in these tight spaces..................big deal I say, wait until we get to Norway...............

Finally we got to the tip of the island, still windy but now we’re here so let’s go for a hike. Mom thought of leaving me watching Lucy again, she was worried I wouldn’t be able to navigate the cliffs with my short legs...............ha-ha, if she can, so can I, and off we went.

we hiked for 3,5 hours, up and down cliffs. Only once did Mom have to carry me .................well, she didn’t HAVE to, she did because there was so much nettle that burn your skin. It wouldn’t have bothered me, I think........... but she got burned a lot.. there was also a lot of sharp thistle that stuck to me.

What was most exciting on this hike ( in my opinion) was all these holes, and gazillions of rabbits, they were so shy they ran as soon as we got a little close. I told Mom to let me loose so I can say hello, but again, noooooo, this is a nature preserve no unleached dogs allowed.............since when did you worry about rules ? huh?

The rabbits left lots and lots of little pellets around, not as tasty as the meatballs at the stable, but not really bad either.............Mom didn’t approve, but we have already established we have a different palate ...............haven’t we ?

When we got to the water Mom filled her pockets with rocks ? and what looked like soft sand is not, it’s a rock, but soft enough to etch my name with a rock..................Buttons was here .............

From the beach we had to climb back up, and there we met a gorgeous New Fondland. A quick whiff, a picture and we were on our way. The wind kept getting stronger so we both were pretty tired by the time we got back to Lucy.

We drove back to the rest stop by the little spinning lady's house, and went to sleep almost immediately..............Mom said she’s very proud of me being so good at hiking. ............we woke up early again, and some workers shooed us away since they were about to put up some new tables.

Fine with us, so we’re now back in the town where the ferry will take us back to the main land on Thursday. Mom spent most of the day cleaning Lucy ( she bought a 12V vacuum cleaner) I too got a good brushing and it felt good to get rid of all kinds of stuff that was stuck in my hair.The pollen count and all the dust for being so dry is making a mess, and you know how picky Mom could be...................Good Night all.................