Blue Highway (tourist route)

Blue Highway (Blå vegen, Blå vägen, Sininen tie, Голубая дорога) is an international tourist route from Norway via Sweden and Finland to Russia.

Sights
The Blue Highway follows the ancient waterways from the Atlantic Ocean to Lake Onega. There are numerous lakes and rivers by the road. Vast areas of taiga forest dominate the landscape, and a section of the Scandinavian Mountains in Norway and western Sweden.

There are rural villages as well as cities and towns by the Blue Highway.

The Development of the Blue Highway

 * The idea of a road across Northern Europe was born in the 1950s
 * The Blue Highway Association was formed in Sweden in 1963
 * Year-round ferry service between Umeå and Vaasa in 1972
 * The Blue Highway became a European Highway in 1973
 * A cross-border public bus route between Mo i Rana and Umeå was established in 1989 (service withdrawn in 2014 between Mo i Rana and Hemavan )
 * Border crossing (Niirala/Vyartsilya) with Russia was opened in 1990
 * The Blue Road Highway extended to Pudozh, Russia, in 2000