Northern Norway has a way of slowing things down. There are no distractions, more space and plenty of reasons to spend time outside. It made Alta a fitting place for Vicky McClure and Jonny Owen to celebrate their first wedding anniversary, and for Off The Map Travel CEO Jonny Cooper to sit down with them for a special podcast conversation.
For their anniversary trip, Vicky and Jonny travelled with Off The Map to two very different stays in Alta: Trasti and Trine and Isbreen The Glacier.
This was not a trip built around rushing between activities. Instead, their time in Northern Norway was about experiencing the landscape, meeting the people who live and work there and enjoying some of the simple things that make travelling in the North so memorable.
Walking with husky puppies in Alta
At Trasti & Trine, huskies are a big part of life, even when there is no snow on the ground.
Vicky and Jonny headed out for a gentle walk accompanied by some of the dogs and, perhaps more importantly, had plenty of time with the husky puppies.
Away from the winter dog sledding season, experiences like this give you a completely different perspective on life with a working husky team. You can spend time with the dogs, learn more about their personalities and discover how training and caring for them continues throughout the year.
It was also an opportunity simply to walk, talk and enjoy being outside in Northern Norway.
Foraging and eating the flavours of Norway
Food played an important part in the trip too.
The forests around Alta provide an ever changing pantry of seasonal ingredients, and Vicky and Jonny spent time foraging for mushrooms before sitting down to enjoy traditional Norwegian food.
For us, experiences like these are an important part of travelling in the Nordics. Food becomes much more interesting when you understand where ingredients have come from and meet the people cooking with them.
Rather than simply arriving at a restaurant for dinner, the experience starts outside. It might be mushrooms gathered from a forest, berries found during a walk or ingredients that have been part of life in Northern Norway for generations.
From filming to life away from the cameras
During the visit, Jonny Cooper sat down with Vicky McClure and Jonny Owen to record a special episode of the A Moment in the Nordics podcast.
The conversation moves far beyond their anniversary holiday.
Vicky talks about her career and the very different worlds she has inhabited on screen, including filming Line of Duty and Trigger Point, while the conversation also explores travel, time away from work and what happens when you have the opportunity to leave busy schedules behind for a few days.
There is something about recording a conversation in a place like Alta that changes the pace. It is quieter, less formal and surrounded by the experiences that have filled the days before it.
An anniversary in a very different setting
The second part of the trip took Vicky and Jonny to Isbreen The Glacier, giving them another perspective on this remote corner of Northern Norway.
Their stay was a chance to mark their first wedding anniversary somewhere completely removed from everyday life, surrounded by the landscapes of the far North.
That combination of remarkable places and uncomplicated experiences is something we return to again and again when creating trips.
A walk with a husky puppy. Finding mushrooms in the forest. Sitting down over Norwegian food. Looking out across a Northern landscape with nowhere else you need to be.
Sometimes those are the moments you remember most.
Listen to the latest episode of the A Moment in the Nordics podcast to hear Jonny Cooper in conversation with Vicky McClure and Jonny Owen, recorded during their anniversary adventure in Alta, Northern Norway.
LINK to listen on Spotify HERE
LINK to listen on Apple HERE
LINK to listen on You Tube HERE
