Scandinavia… Not a country, but a beautiful area. Scandinavia is the collective name for the following Northern countries; Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Looking at history, Finland and Iceland also belong to Scandinavia: according to the Norwegian council, they also belong. All in all, Scandinavia is huge (more than a million square kilometers), while about 24 million people live there. For comparison; The Netherlands is more than 41,000 square kilometers with about 17 million inhabitants.

Of all western European countries, the Scandinavian countries probably have the most more or less untouched nature. In addition, they are countries that are easily accessible from the Netherlands. Norway is characterized by, among other things, the fjords and the Trollstigen known to many motorcyclists. And where Sweden is known as wide and relaxing, everyone knows Finland as the land of 1000 lakes. All in all, legitimate reasons to traverse this beautiful nature in the north of Europe by means of a number of routes.

The route starts in Orkanger, at the northernmost tip of the Ork Valley. Shortly after the start you will pass a gas station with a fairly extensive supermarket. You can buy some food and drinks there for the road. If you haven't filled the tank yet, you can also do that here.

Before leaving Orkanger behind, it is nice to take a short detour along Thams-Paviljongen, or The Norway Building. This building was Norway's contribution to the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. After 124 years in the United States, the building was moved to Orkanger, where it was originally built. During that construction, many woodcarvers among the 300 workers were employed and they contributed greatly to the decoration of the building.

After this piece of craftsmanship, you leave Orkangen and drive a long way along the coast, on your way to Trondheim. To avoid the E39 with its many tunnels at Trondheim, the route runs on the smaller back roads along beautiful lakes where it is nice to stop every now and then to pull your legs and take a nice picture.
You drive under Trondheim and you only have to deal with a small piece of built-up areas, then you quickly find the smaller roads again and you drive through the 'interior'.

At Ranheim you come back to the coast and it is time for a cup of coffee. Delicious cup of coffee with a view over the water, at least, if that blue shed wouldn't get in the way ...

After lunch you first drive along the coast again on a somewhat larger main road, good asphalt and pleasant views. At Størdal you can turn to visit the Stjørdal museum Værnes. This is an open air museum located on the old rectory of Værnes. The museum is built around Martin Moe's large collection of antiques and natural history material. In the old rectory building, a number of rooms are furnished with antique furniture and "farm furniture" from the 18th and 19th centuries. The rectory has an English garden from the 19th century, which is also worth a visit.

You drive further north on beautiful, good roads that meander through the rolling countryside. In Levanger, where lunch is planned, you also have the opportunity to visit the Levanger photo museum. This is a photo history museum, the institution responsible for photo preservation in Nord-Trøndelag. The museum used to be called Levanger Museum, but changed its name in 2016. The museum's collection consists of approximately 600,000 negatives and objects related to photography. The collection consists largely of archives of individual photographers from Levanger and the surrounding area. Of particular note is Harald Renbjør's archive. Renbjør was a chemist and pioneer in color photography and spent his life researching color photography. The archive after him contains examples of the most common color photography techniques, such as tricolor photography, Autochrome and Agfa color screens. Harald Renbjør's chemistry laboratory has been reconstructed in the museum.

After lunch the route continues, still north, again along water. The advantage of these types of coastal roads is that they usually form the contours of the (naturally formed) lakes and are therefore provided with many bends. And that is no different here. No punishment to take this road, kilometer after kilometer, winding.

Via the large lake Snåsavatnet, where a coffee stop is planned, you will eventually reach today's end point, hotel Namsentunet in Grong. A charming hotel in a rural setting. Lovely to stay there. Equipped with a restaurant and bar, so here too an evaluation of the day while enjoying a beer.
Three campsites are signposted for campers in the vicinity of the end point: Bunesset, Langnes Camping and Værem Gård.

Have fun driving this route!