August 15 Crossing the Arctic Circle Again (Day 323)
We are moving south again by train, but not before our hosts invited us to enjoy a slice of heavenly cake made with the fresh blueberries they picked yesterday!
Cake made from eggs, rolled with whipped cream and fresh blueberries, covered in chopped almonds! Light, fluffy, delicious!!!
We walked the 5 minutes to the train station, declining an offer of a ride from our host (we need some exercise) and boarded our train toward Steinkjer, our destination.
We rolled through beautiful countryside, pine covered mountains along the Luonosjåhkå river, a turbulent stream descending from the mountains into this valley.
Soon the scenery changed to what I would consider more stereotypical ‘arctic tundra’.
Treeless, rocky, low vegetation, wet, and it looks like patches of snow in the distance!
About one hour and 20 minutes into our ride, 60 some odd miles south of Fauske, we crossed the Arctic Circle again, from north to south this time!
We zoomed past the Arctic Circle Center, on the highway paralleling the train tracks.
And then passed the rock cairn marking the Arctic Circle!
We began our descent from the Saltfjellet mountain range into another river valley.
The pine forests again cover the lower reaches of the mountains.
The sun occasionally peaked out from the clouds to illuminate farms along the river.
We reached the town of Steinkjer (pronounced something like “stine-sh-jar”) and had a short walk uphill to our Airbnb overlooking town.
A modern growing city at the inner end of Trondheimsfjord, the 3rd longest fjord of Norway.
Like most of northern Norway almost all current buildings were built after 1945. During WWII Norway was heavily bombed by the Nazis and then occupied by them for 5 years. As the Russian army approached in 1945 and the Nazis retreated they destroyed everything of value, almost all buildings, sparing only a few churches.
We had a relaxing evening sitting on the patio in the cool breeze watching the arm of the yellow crane swing around, trying to discern if it was being manned, blown by the wind, or remotely programmed to swing into the wind!