Ultima Thule

I’ve loved Norway deeply since I went there first. It isn’t only the overwhelming beauty of the country: the big fjords in the South, the glacier-covered mountains in the middle, the ragged, island-scattered coast of the North. It is the people, with their straightforward friendliness. You can come back after several years’ absence and find that your friends are still friends; I don’t know of any other country where this is generally true.

For tourists, the best way to get some insight into the life of the country is to take a trip on one of the Coastal Express steamers that go from Bergen to Kirkenes along 1,200 miles of a coastline which has no equal in Europe. These ships serve like buses: they link the coastal communities, carrying mail, cargo, and passengers to and from the North, stopping at every settlement along the way. Apart from the local traffic, they take a limited number of passengers, who travel in comfortable though not luxurious cabins, with good meals and friendly service. The round trip of 11 days, including meals and overland excursions, costs $475. The one-way trip from Bergen to Kirkenes takes five and a half days. The most practical thing todoisto take a oneway trip, flying back by SAS. It is also possible to fly SAS to most of the ports, hop aboard a ship for a day or longer,and then fly back. The flight between Kirkenes (the end of the line) and Oslo is about $100; from Tromso to Oslo, about $80. The flight from the North to the South, both in summer and winter, is extremely beautiful, as you see the landscape most of the time. And SAS, which helped to open North Norway, is a very pleasant airline with excellent hotels.

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Nika Hazelton

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I’ve loved Norway deeply since I went there first. It isn’t only the overwhelming beauty of the country: the big fjords in the South, the glacier-covered mountains in the middle, the ragged, island-scattered coast of the North. It is the people, with their straightforward friendliness. You can come back after several years’ absence and find that your friends are still friends; I don’t know of any other country where this is generally true.

For tourists, the best way to get some insight into the life of the country is to take a trip on one of the Coastal Express steamers that go from Bergen to Kirkenes along 1,200 miles of a coastline which has no equal in Europe. These ships serve like buses: they link the coastal communities, carrying mail, cargo, and passengers to and from the North, stopping at every settlement along the way. Apart from the local traffic, they take a limited number of passengers, who travel in comfortable though not luxurious cabins, with good meals and friendly service. The round trip of 11 days, including meals and overland excursions, costs $475. The one-way trip from Bergen to Kirkenes takes five and a half days. The most practical thing todoisto take a oneway trip, flying back by SAS. It is also possible to fly SAS to most of the ports, hop aboard a ship for a day or longer,and then fly back. The flight between Kirkenes (the end of the line) and Oslo is about $100; from Tromso to Oslo, about $80. The flight from the North to the South, both in summer and winter, is extremely beautiful, as you see the landscape most of the time. And SAS, which helped to open North Norway, is a very pleasant airline with excellent hotels.