Arctic Circle Centre Norway

My visit to the Arctic Circle Centre [1] was part of a month long road trip through Norway, starting in Oslo and ending up in Lofoten.

I’d made the decision to drive up from Trondheim the day before as I was so keen to get to the Arctic Circle for the first time.

Driving on the E6

The drive up along the E6 was not for the faint hearted. It’s around 560 km or 347 miles.

The E6 is narrow, with drop offs deep enough for you to loose a wheel if you venture too far to the right.

At night, there’s a tonne of lorries travelling on the E6. Expect to be completely blinded temporarily by their lights as they head south.

On board I had my own stove to make a brew, which I did on a number of occasions throughout the night. 

I stopped at around 5 in the morning for a couple of hours sleep at a truck stop, then drove the remainder of the distance.

Arriving at the centre

Arriving at around 8am local time I was greeted by a large empty car park. The weather as you’ll see from the video below was grey and windy, but not too cold, around 10 degrees if my memory serves me.

I hadn’t eaten for a while so I decided to spend a small fortune on a hot meal inside the visitors centre. The food was average at best and cost the usual arm and leg as it does in Norway.

The centre itself is nothing really great. Built in 1990. There’s a tourist shop with the usual over priced souvenirs and as mentioned a cafe serving average food.

Olympic Torch

At the entrance to the centre is a rather nice marble monolith celebrating the carrying of the winter Olympic torch down to Lillehammer in 1994.

On top of the hill overlooking the centre is a small field of stone cairns left by people to celebrate their visit and life, which is quite a spiritual meaning.

Lastly theres a wooden structure at the exact location where the circle starts with coats of arms of each county in Nordland.