Wanna tunnel? Ask a Norwegian. They’ve been burrowing around inside the huge lump of solid rock that is Norway for over a century. Believe it or not, they are now investigating building tunnels for ships. Yup!

Wanna bridge? Ask a Norwegian. They’ve connected the hundreds of islands that comprise coastal Norway with high, arching, seemingly delicate concrete bridges that allow ships to pass underneath, and island communities to connect with the mainland by road.

Wanna eat fish? Ask a Norwegian. They can make anything with fish – even icecream. Hurtigruten is now also designing a ship that will run on dead fish. Yup!

But you wanna boat? Then definitely ask a Norwegian. By necessity, they’ve been messing around in boats for at least three millennia.

The sea is Norway’s very own bespoke freeway. Little ports snugly crammed with multi-coloured timber houses (and hundreds of boats) sit strategically alongside this natural freeway all the way to the Arctic Circle and beyond. Everywhere from Bergen to Kirkenes, lonely little red Monopoly houses dot the coastline. To our perplexed eyes, they are frighteningly isolated, huddled on narrow slivers of flat land under the dark mountains with no way out but the sea.

But the sea is the Norwegian freeway that gives people ready access to each other, except in very bad weather. The fjords buzz constantly with boats of every shape and size. Everyone has a jetty, it seems, with a boat. And everyone who lives along the coast in Norway lives with and understands the sea well.

All this Norse nautical know-how has fostered a hugely entertaining variety of boats. They come in every size, shape, and purpose. Here’s a sample …

This final post of a wonderful trip is being written at home, as our last hotel in Oslo before flying home was the trip’s first and only hotel with poor wi-fi connectivity. It simply wouldn’t post my fave ‘boat’ photos, so I gave up.

It has been a full-on trip of almost seven weeks, briefly visiting Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany and Denmark before the last truly memorable three weeks in Norway.

A poor country still recovering from WWII when I visited in 1971, Norway now has high per capita incomes, and the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund. It’s breathtakingly expensive to visit but so, so worthwhile.

Not silly with money, the Norwegians squirrel their relatively recent oil and gas wealth and hefty taxes into robust health and welfare systems. In 2017, they topped the ‘World Happiness Report’ and the country has the world’s lowest crime rate.

And all of this is visible when you visit. People are busy, active, sociable and civil. To visitors, they are unerringly gracious and helpful – and just plain nice to be around. They now beat the Canadians on my own personal international niceness scale and, for me, Oslo even outranks Vancouver. If it weren’t so damned cold, I’d love to live in Norway!

All of this is impressive when you recall that the Norwegians are descended from the Vikings, who’re remembered for their “plunder-and-kill-first-and-don’t-bother-with-the-questions-after” attitude towards life. How can these possibly be the same people? I know a thousand years have passed, but still …

And they can laugh at themselves. When we first boarded the Nordkapp, the crew showed us a daggy, delightful little film in which Norwegians poke fun at themselves. Find it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebqdwQzmSHM .

In closing, thanks to everyone for joining us for this wonderful journey. And special thanks to Deb Ey for suggesting the WordPress template I’ve used to create this blog. It’s been the perfect match for me to write about the places we’ve visited.

So long, and see you all soon!