Europe Travel Plans

Photo: Highway E10 towards Gimsoya, Lofoten Islands, Norway.

I’m heading out of California in another week and a half.  First is a quick two nights in Wales before flying to Norway.  I’ll be on the Lofoten islands from Sept 24th until Oct. 10th.  I’m very much looking forward to Autumn color and I hope the weather cooperates.  I also have a bit of work to do in seeing if it is at all possible for me to rent a flat so I can carry forward with my business plans.  Anyhow, I’m hoping to stand on a few mountains and maybe a night or two at Bunes or Kvalvika.  Otherwise, the warm cozy comfort of the Stamsund Vandrerhjem will be my main base.  I can’t say how nice it is to sit besides a warm fire and watch the snow fall outside, much better than a tent.  Maybe I’m getting lazy with age.

After Lofoten my plans get a bit fuzzy.  I’ll travel overland to Stockholm, but if the conditions are good, I might hang out for a few days around Östersund and central Sweden.  I remember seeing brilliant color a few years ago while I was sitting on the train, so I’ll probably try hitching this time to give me a bit of flexibility.  Also, I’ll carry a -11˚ C sleeping bag this time, I’m not interested in repeating a night at -14˚ C in my old 0˚ bag which is probably closer to 8-10˚ C in comfort level these days.  Not much fun and not much sleep.   From Stockholm, depending on conditions, I’ll either travel to Helsinki and then south through the Baltics to meet a friend in Poland at the end of Oct.  Otherwise I might do some island hopping on the Swedish west coast an then visit some friends in north Germany before heading to Poland.

If the weather holds out in Poland, hopefully I’ll have a few days in the Tatry mountains and try and hike up Rysy, the highest mountain in Poland.  From there I’ll head towards some old favorite places like Olomouc and Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic and maybe down to Budapest and Vienna.  Towards the end of November I’ll be back in Germany and hopefully catch a few Christmas markets, which maybe I’m a nerd, but I think are pretty cool, or at least for photos.

Photo: Cobble stone streets, Gamla Stan, Stockholm, Sweden.