Culture

In the Hjemmeluft area on the southern shore of the Altafjord in northern Norway, just west of the town of Alta, Neolithic and Bronze Age petroglyphs were found in the autumn of 1972, ranging in age from 2000 to 6500 years.
Petroglyphs (from Greek πέτρος petros "stone" and γλύφειν glýphein "to carve") are representations worked into stone, which often show hunting and religious scenes from prehistoric times. Unlike rock art, a petroglyph is engraved, scraped, or pecked, and sunk into the ground.
 

Via the European Route 6 (E6) we drive along the border river between Finland and Norway, the Kárášjohka, to the main settlement areas of the Sami people in Norway. Ice floes are still drifting on the raging river and mountains of ice and snow are piling up meters high on its banks.

We stay overnight in the town of Karasjok, the seat of the Sami Parliament Sameting. Here the Kárášjohka flows leisurely through the small town before it becomes the sometimes raging border river in the narrower passages between Norway and Finland.

One of the highest concentrations of archaeological sites in the Nordic countries is at Ceavccageađge (Mortensnes in Norwegian) in Varanger. Ten thousand years as a meeting place for hunters, fishermen and traders have left traces of settlements in the landscape, some monumental but many often small and easily overlooked. A cairn is not always just a cairn.

Gammelstad (translated Old Town) is the former mainly religious center of the city of Luleå in northern Sweden. There are around 400 huts (kyrkstugor) around the impressive stone church, the construction of which began in the 13th century. When church services were held, people came from near and far, so that they could spend the night in these accommodations.

A tour of Leuven offers many surprises - small as well as big. Of course, the town hall on the Great Market is impressive and is one of the most beautiful late Gothic buildings in Europe. It is decorated with hundreds of figures depicting biblical scenes as well as scholars and important figures in Louvain's history. It was built from 1439 to 1468 and stands directly opposite the St. Peter's Church.