The following are pictures/stories that we didn't have time to update during the trip.
About 6 days before our train tickets from Bodø, we decided to venture away from E6 for a while to go over to Sweden. We had an invitation to
visit professors Tyler knows from the University of New Hampshire. The
ride over the mountains was wet and very windy--so much so that we ended up stuffing reindeer hides down our jackets to keep warm!
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| We were relieved to find out when finally made it to the boarder that despite being farther than we had anticipated, we had a fantastic tail wind. |
Arriving around nine pm, we were greeted with a fantastic dinner and wine. Dry beds and showers were fantastic, as was spending a day off the bikes. We got a tour of the field station, met the students, saw the main research mire and helped with a few student projects. Get to know the students, and learn about Dr. Ruth Varner's REU site here:
http://neru.unh.edu/students.shtml
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| Trapping methane bubbles. In water surrounded by permafrost aka freezing temperature! |
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| Sweden is WINDY! |
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| SPOILS! Candy is MUCH cheaper in Sweden than Norway (along with other specific goods like alcohol and meat). We loaded up two bags and feasted in the parking lot :-) |
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| Shaving reindeer antlers for a stable isotope diet comparison study. |
We also decided that we would cook as much as possible while we had access to kitchens. We had dinner with the professors living there and apple crisp/banana pancakes with the students for dessert-- What a great evening!
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| Caitlin, Ruth (UNH professor) and Tyler in front of Tjøtta lake. |
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| Road re-paving... nice until you realize that they are coming to your side of the bridge. Or that they are laying down tar and pebbles! |
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| Back over the boarder--this time with more sunshine! |
There was an interesting memorial set up on the Norwegian side of the border detailing the war effort in these mountains. Apparently the Norwegians were actually driving the Germans back in this area and when they were informed that Norway had officially been occupied, they had to give up their gained position.
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| Rainbows were plentiful--apparently lots of gold in Sweden as well ;.) |
