norway

I've just noticed on the Scanrail website that their railpass, which covered rail travel in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, is no longer available; sales of this pass ceased on December 31st, 2007.

This is a shame, because it was possible to purchase the Scanrail pass even after a traveller had arrived in Europe, although with a few restrictions. The only remaining equivalent is the Eurail Scandinavia Pass, which is not available to European residents, and cannot be purchased by travellers already in Europe.

There have been a gaggle of travel articles on the nordic countries, in recent weeks. The Independent visits southern Finland, and finds a considerable number of saunas. They also have an article on the five best Nordic summer retreats.

The Guardian takes a yacht around Norway's Lofoten islands and the New York Times looks at Skane, southern Sweden. The Age also travels to Sweden, but goes a a little further north.

Finally, the Shanghai Daily looks at design in Denmark and Sweden.

The Guardian spends 48 hours in Ålesund, Norway

"The town is set on a fish-hook shaped peninsula more or less midway between Bergen and Trondheim. Bound by the sea and the impressive Sunnmore mountains, the main part of Aalesund occupies a narrow tongue of land while residential neighbourhoods have spilled on to outlying islands"

Recent blog posts on Alesund:

• Hurtigruten - Floro, Maloy, Torvik, Alesund, Geiranger, Molde