D&O: We were craving solitude, an open wide landscape in front of us, and empty roads. We truly wanted to immerse in nature and have some time in peace and quiet. And we wanted to have some fun in the snow!

There was a kind of bucket list, and it included to see the northern lights, dog sledding, whale watching, getting a good view of some reindeer and star gazing without any distractions. We made the whole list, and our expectations were truly exceeded, it’s beyond words!

D&O: We usually don't create a detailed plan and we mostly don't even make any travel plans. My grandma always said that if you want to make god laugh, make plans. What she meant by that was, that things usually turn out differently than you think, and I believe she is absolutely right about that. This also applies to travel: simply let nature guide you, i.e. you choose the best season to be somewhere or catch natural phenomena. The whales can only be seen for a very short time in northern Norway, for example. And since recently, one must also consider the restrictions around the pandemic.

D&O: Since we were traveling within Europe, we didn’t specifically prepare anything, aside from making sure to pack extra warm and waterproof clothing, and of course snow chains for Charlotte!

D&O: First off, the sub-zero temperatures didn't feel that bad at all. However we "only" experienced minus 20 degrees. Our dog Maxi wore snowshoes whenever she went out, and so did we. That is how we enjoyed the winter wonderland every day.

The driving itself was very demanding, chapeau to Oliver for honing his driving skills! In Norway, the roads are sometimes very narrow. The roads are busy and traffic goes fast. Some trucks seemingly race along the narrow, icy serpentines at breakneck speed, without even slowing down a bit.

That cost us one of our side mirrors on and left us quite shaken for a while. We also found that Norway is completely different from Sweden or Finland. It’s very relaxed there in general.

We also found they don’t use salt on the roads, they just push the snow to clear the roads. There are fewer turns, wider roads, the country is flat and there are far fewer vehicles on the road. Without spikes, which we spontaneously added in Tromsö, we would certainly not have experienced the trip as relaxed.

In general it was very cozy in the truck! Thanks to the floor heating it was never cold! Some of our amazing friends gifted us a tiny Christmas tree with colourful lights, so the interior had quite the Christmas feel to it during the holidays!

D&O: We can’t pinpoint any specific wow moments, the whole trip itself was simply one of the best experiences we ever had! Stand-out memories are the hauntingly beautiful dancing northern lights, the killer whales and humpback whales that we could witness hunting just an arms length away and the dog sled ride through a snowy Finnish forest, which seemed straight out of fairy tale.

The North Cape stunned us with a strange apocalyptic feeling, because there was nobody else there... as if we actually were alone ... the only people near and far.

D&O: Where and when... we don't know yet, since we don't make any plans!