Norway Guide
North Norway
Baedeker, writing 100 years ago about Norway's remote northern provinces, Troms and Finnmark, observed that they "possess attractions for the scientific traveller and the sportsman, but can hardly be recommended for the ordinary tourist" – a comment which isn't too wide of the mark even today. These are enticing lands, no question, the natural environment they offer stunning in its extremes, but the travelling can be hard, the specific sights well distanced and, when you reach them, subtle in their appeal.
Troms's intricate, fretted coastline has shaped its history since the days when powerful Viking lords operated a trading empire from its islands. Indeed, over half the population still lives offshore in dozens of tiny fishing villages, but the place to aim for is Tromsø, the so-called "Capital of the North" and a lively university town where King Håkon and his government proclaimed a "Free Norway" in 1940 before fleeing into exile. Beyond Tromsø, the long trek north begins in earnest as you enter Finnmark, a vast wilderness covering 48,000 square kilometres, but home to just two percent of the Norwegian population. The first obvious target in Finnmark is Alta, a sprawling settlement that's famous for its prehistoric rock carvings. From here, most visitors head straight for the steely cliffs of Nordkapp (the North Cape), mainland Europe's northernmost point, with or without a detour to the likeable port of Hammerfest, and leave it at that; but some doggedly press on to Kirkenes, the last town before the Russian border, which feels as if it's about to drop off the end of the world.
Finally, and even more adventurously, there is the Svalbard archipelago, whose icy mountains rise out of the Arctic Ocean 640km north of mainland Norway.
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