Greetings from London. It is the beginning of the summer holidays, and I am once more on the eve of an epic summer journey. Although I have done summer journeys for the last two years, these were both based in the UK, and thus this is my first epic travel adventure abroad since 2019. I am excited.
Tomorrow I head up north, to begin a week trip around Scandinavia. I first fly to Oslo where I will be spending around two weeks travelling through southern Norway. Then I take a ferry over to the northern tip of Denmark for a few days, before catching another ferry right across the North Sea and into the Atlantic Ocean for a week on the Faroe Islands. From here I take a final ferry further north and onto Iceland, making my first port of call there on the east of the island. I then hire a car for two weeks, and follow Icelands ring road across its northern route towards Reykjavik, before flying home again from there.
While I have visited Copenhagen in Denmark before, this will be my first time in Norway and Iceland, thus adding two
new countries to my list. The Faroe Islands are technically part of the Kingdom of Denmark, so do not count as an additional UN country for me, but they do feature as an additional territory on my TCC list. They also seem so unique and beautiful that I wouldnt want to miss them on my way to Iceland.
I will don my backpacks again, use trains, buses, ferries and a hire car on this epic adventure in the footsteps of the Vikings, and stay in of Air BnB and Booking.com To be fair, this is probably the most expensive trip Ill have ever done, and probably will do, as I have chosen notoriously expensive countries to visit this time, but since Im out to visit as many regions of the world as possible, the Nordic countries are still high up on my itinerary and Im very glad to be in the position to visit them from a financial perspective. And since I just loved my previous visits to Finland, Denmark and Sweden, finding the people just so warm and the cultures and languages fascinating, and the region so stunningly beautiful, I am very much
The trip also seems to be a nice summary of my travels over the last two years, in which I have explored various areas of the British Isles, including England, Scotland, the Isle of Man and Ireland, all with both Viking and Gaelic histories. While Norway and Denmark are prime Viking territories, the Faroe Islands and Iceland are countries which have mixed Viking and Gaelic heritage. This thus seems a fitting conclusion to my recent explorations in and around the North Sea and North Atlantic Ocean.
As with my recent visit to New England, I plan to publish my travel blog entries after I get back from my travels. I find this frees up lots of time for me to explore further whilst on the road, while it also enables me to reminisce more on my adventures as I write them up on my return. I do plan, however, to upload photos whilst travelling onto my Facebook page, and will of course check into my email whilst on the road.
So, without further ado, I shall sign out for now, continue my preparations on the eve of this exciting journey, and look forward to many adventures ahead in the lands of the Vikings.
