Norway

A Scandinavian delight of lovely, generous people, 24-hour summer daylight and staggeringly beautiful landscapes. All said, the Kingdom of Norway has to be one of my favourite countries.

With superb hiking, trails are well marked with overnighters easily arranged. Galdhøpiggen at 2,469 metres is Norway's crowning glory. It's also Northern Europe's highest peak.

I often wonder how much places change over the years. These rather sad photos (they were copied from slides to disc in 2006 and damaged in the post) portray a sometimes frozen, sometimes gloriously sunny wilderness. I hope it is still the same.

A must see are the stave churches. Constructed from wooden poles 'staver' means poles in Norwegian. Those still standing were built from 1150 to 1350 and 28 remain in total. Fantastic!