Norway: No more parking fees on the North Cape

The Norwegians are a clever people. This can be seen, for example, that you can get oil and natural gas on hell, sell it all over the world and thus fill a sovereign fund for the time when the oil is no longer bubbling. The fund is one of the largest investors in the world and currently amounts to 1.7 trillion euros! The Nordic oil billionaires drive as many electric cars as hardly any other country; Sure, because the electricity is ridiculed and also largely comes from renewable energies that are strongly promoted.

In view of such trillion sums, the parking and access fees that were levied at the North Cape last year may seem to be peanuts. 125 Norwegian crowns, the equivalent of almost eleven euros, cost if you wanted to park your car shortly before the northernmost point of the European mainland. An additional 1.50 euros per capita was used to walk on the edge of the cliff on foot and look at the glaring arctic ocean at the world ball sculpture. That the northernmost point of the European mainland is not the North Cape, but the somewhat further east, but only with a long walk to be reached, kinnarodden! Eleven euros, for Norwegian standards-a light beer costs ten euros-actually a bargain. That is why very few of the 200,000 tourists who travel to Europe’s Finis Terrae annually could be stopped.

Nevertheless, there is good news for saving people: the parking rip-off is now over. The state administration of Troms and Finnmark has now decided once. This was preceded by a long -term dispute between the municipality of Nordkapp and the great Swedish hotel operator Scandic. The latter runs the North Cape Hall, in which exhibitions, a panorama cinema, a souvenir shop and a large restaurant. Entry costs a whopping 350 crowns, i.e. 30 euros, but at Scandic it was of the opinion that the Cape in front of the hall was also an economic area with which one could still earn a few billion a year. The community was finally bent last May and allowed it.

But then a power came into play that is almost as strong in Norway as the gods of the gods was Odin: Friluft. For Norwegians, this means something like a fundamental right to be able to be outside in the abundant nature, without major restrictions. And that’s why there is also an “outdoor activities law”. This was called Norsk Friluftsliv, an association of 19 outdoor and nature conservation organizations when he obtained against parking fees. It was argued that the parking lot is a starting point for Friluft activities on the North Cape plateau and therefore should not be managed according to the law.

And that’s how the state administration saw it. No more parking and access fees. Basta.

Imagine this in Germany, where almost every hiking parking lot is subject to charges. Why actually? So that communities and other landowners get a healthy start? Or do the fresh air fanatics come to the starting point with the often non-existent buses? Way with it! And here with a German Friluft law. That could quickly decide on the old Bundestag. Or?