It was an incredible trip!
Here are some of our favorite photos from the trip (each photo is a thumbnail linked to a higher quality picture.):
33) It is easy to see why the Viking’s Norse folklore and mythology is full of giants, trolls, big monsters and outlandish Gods. The epic scale of the landscape makes you feel very, very small. After leaving Oslo we were well and truly into the fjords and the landscape was vertical in orientation. Flat spaces were rare and mainly rocky when they did occur. We spent this day's drive in the southwestern part of Norway and most of the time we were either looking up at cliffs, mountains and tall trees or looking down into ravines, waterfalls and fjords. All the giant topography was broken up by pristine lakes, rushing streams and lush forests. A few farms and small villages were sprinkled in but there were plenty of areas that a wandering Viking from 1,000 years ago might still recognize. Certainly farms that a farmer from 150 years ago would feel comfortable walking into. We drove for 9 hours and enjoyed the scenery the whole time. We ended the day on the banks of the spectacular Lysefjorden - camping for free in another roadside park we found immediately after rolling off the fjord ferry.
34) We chose our previous camping place specifically because it was close to the Preikestolen trailhead. Better known to English speakers as "Pulpit Rock" this is a very popular hike so we parked close by in order to get an early start. The hike itself wasn’t that great but the payoff at the end is spectacular. Standing on a rock shelf 1,000 vertical feet up a sheer cliff overlooking Lysefjord. What a way to start the day! The trail was packed with tour bus visitors during our hike back down so we were pleased we had started early! We had a quick, early lunch in the camper and hit the road by noon. After the hike we took the ferry to Stavanger. We decided to skip visiting the city so we drove north up the coast road for five hours toward Bergen. If anyone needs a tunnel or a bridge built they should call the Norwegians. Assuming practice leads to perfection the Norwegians should be pretty damned good. We went under and over quite a few during today’s drive and were very impressed - the fjords are very deep so building an eight mile long tunnel under one is an astounding engineering feat - not to mention a workout on the engine and brakes of our Fiat powered camper! Another observation is that in a week of driving in southern Norway we didn't see a single pothole in the roads outside of cities. Again, impressive!
35) We really wanted to like Bergen. On a map it is spectacular - a lush green mountain sticking up out of the mouth of a huge fjord. It has history, scenery, and we even found a free parking spot within easy bicycling distance of the historic section. But the city just didn’t do it for us. The biggest issue was just the crush of cruise ship tourists. Two big ships and a few smaller ones had docked just before we arrived and so dozens of buses were emptying onto the fish market and historic seafront just as we pedaled up. We fled the waterfront and went to the KODE art museums instead. Bergen has provided some amazing spaces for art - four different museums all around a scenic pond - but the art itself was lackluster. There were a few interesting pieces of modern art and I liked the work of one of the Norwegian painters but overall we left feeling disappointed. By 3pm the masses of people queued up to take the funicular to the top of the hill overlooking Bergen had dispersed so we jumped on that. The view from the top was outstanding - we enjoyed looking out over Bergen more than being in it! We had an ice cream; walked around on top and then returned down to the harbor to finally visit the famous Bryggen UNESCO World Heritage site - a 900 year old waterfront commercial district. Sadly, we were again underwhelmed. The old wooden buildings were beautiful but having them filled with T-shirt shops and bars definitely took the "wow factor" out of it. Given the cost of the ferry ticket to get out to Bergen and the throngs of tourists we just didn’t think it lived up to the hype. We ended up driving out of Bergen and finding a camping spot on a quiet lake outside nearby Åsane. The bleating of sheep is a much better sound than the ship’s horns where we had parked alongside Bergen’s harbor.
36) What a way to start the day! We woke up early and started the drive north. Immediately, the scenery was gorgeous. Despite this being the main road and not one of the side roads marked as a scenic tourist road the views were amazing. By the time we reached Voss we thought the road markings on the map must be wrong. It was breathtaking and we thought surely this would be the highlight of the day. Then we drove to Oppheim. Wow, it was idyllic. Surely *this* was the best. Then we drove through a long tunnel and popped out in Gudvangen. Holy cow, the landscape was unbelievable! It couldn’t be better, could it? Well, we boarded the ferry to Kaupanger which goes through Nærøyfjord (another UNESCO World Heritage site), Aurlandsfjord and Sognefjorden. Three mammoth fjords with 1,000 ft waterfalls, quaint waterside villages, sheer rock cliffs, tiny fishing boats and just an overwhelming sense of scale.
37) Even once we rolled off the ferry in Kaupanger it was beautiful - steep green hills with the town tumbling down to the fjord’s shore. As soon as we left the ferry we stopped at the Kaupanger Stave Church. The church is around 800 years old and is one of the largest stave churches in Norway. It isn't as ornate as some but right sitting on the shore of Sognefjorden makes it pretty photogenic!
38) After our stop at the church we then went from bottom to top, driving from the fjord straight up into the snow-covered mountains stopping just a few miles from the face of the mighty Jostedalsbreen - the largest glacier in Europe. We visited the Norwegian Glacier Museum which had a lot of great information but was a little goofy too. Still the view from the upstairs viewing deck was well worth the drive up to the village of Fjærland. We ended the day halfway back down the mountain, parked in the completely empty parking lot at the Sogndal Ski Center.
39) What an incredible day! This was the kind of day where I really am at a loss for words to do it justice and I don’t think text speak (OMG, cool AF) nor emojis are gonna fill that void. Just liberally sprinkle stunning, unbelievable, awesome and spectacular throughout this post on your own. We slept in late and, since the ski center parking lot was still empty, had a leisurely breakfast. Once we got moving we drove to the nearby Kvinnefossen, a roadside waterfall that drops nearly 400 feet from the shoulder of a mountain into the Sognefjord. [insert descriptive word here]. Next we took a short ferry ride and a short drive to Balestrand. Honestly, we showed up there with low expectations - we had seen the village recommended in travel books and there were travel brochures that described it as a "must see" so we drove in just to take a quick look with the intention escaping before the crowds got too bad. Whoa! Look, no tour buses... and it really is a cute little village...with great scenery...and it is empty of tourists! We ended up staying for six hours! [insert descriptive word here] We checked out the "aquarium" which is really just a couple of rooms with fish tanks but focused completely on the marine environment of the fjord directly offshore. Very interesting, we had it to ourselves and it contained a side gallery of wood carvings by a local artist that we liked better than many of the art museums we had visited. We saw the tiny St Olav’s faux stave church (actually built by the Church of England).
40) After walking around downtown we went a few blocks away to a cider brewery and took a tasting led by the very knowledgable owner. We opted for the juice tasting but a group of Norwegians were there at the same time and they pronounced the alchoholic ciders to be very good! On the way back to the camper-van we strolled past two viking burial mounds. (As an aside, if the Norse religion turns out to be the one true answer about life I would like to request that I be buried in a viking-style mound in Balestrand with a motorcycle and some hiking boots so that when I awake to live my eternal life I will be in this area. Yup, this area would be just fine for my personal Valhalla.)
41) After our totally enjoyable day in Balestrand we headed out to finally experience one of the Tourist Routes that was marked "scenic" on our map. Holy cow! In an area with mind-blowing scenery the Gaularfjellet Tourist Route somehow excels. [Just dump out the entire contents of a thesaurus here.] Fjords, snow-covered mountains, switchbacks, wildflowers, waterfalls, sheep herds, alpine lakes, hiking trails, little farms, and so much more. The only challenge of the entire day was squeezing a 2 meter wide camper-van past oncoming traffic on a three meter wide road (with stone walls and sheer drop offs).
42) After the incredible Utsikten pass the road continued through the Gaularvassdraget river valley with numerous roadside trailheads that led to hiking trails along the Gaula river. We got out to stretch our legs and found this cool metal bridge stretching over a waterfall. We ended our long day parked in a picnic area on the side of a big lake - with actual Romanian gypsies cooking a chicken stew on a propane stove in the parking spot right next to us!
43) Just another ho-hum day in Norway with nothing to report...as if! This was primarily a transit day as we moved north from the central fjord region towards the central coast. However, that doesn’t mean it was boring. We spent the first half of the day driving - first alongside a big alpine lake, then over a mountain pass on a narrow curvy road, then down to the shore of Nordfjord where we spent nearly an hour circumventing the eastern end of the fjord. Then we went up an idyllic valley filled with lovely farms and over another pass. The other side of the pass brought us down to yet another fjord...actually another UNESCO World Heritage site - the triple fjords of Storfjorden, Sunnylvsfjorden and the famous Geirangerfjorden. This would have been an exceptional day of scenery if we were anywhere except Norway.
44) After a ferry crossing and a picnic at a river cascading through a slot canyon we were finally on to the goal of the day - our second official Tourist Route - the Geiranger-Trollstigen Tourist Route. Just like the one we took yesterday this was a road that made us very sad not to be on a motorcycle. The Trollstigen is one of the great passes of the world - eleven tight switchbacks on a single lane road that drops 2,800 feet at a 10% incline. Oh and don’t forget the two massive arms of the Stigfossen waterfall that drop over 1,000 feet on both sides of the switchbacks. Awesome! The valley leading up to the pass was stunning as well with snow capped mountains, a series of alpine lakes and some impressive waterfalls streaming down alongside the road.
45) It was hard to get a good photo of the switchbacks because for most of the drop down the Trollstigen you are right up against a cliff but this photo at least shows the final few switchbacks down at very bottom. Really this place was just ridiculously gorgeous. After dropping down from the pass we ended our day on the shore of another fjord called Rødvenfjorden. Unlike the previous few nights tonight we did pay for a spot in an actual campground so we could do laundry, shower and refresh the camper.
46) What a change of scenery a day makes! After doing an official Tourist Route through the mountains yesterday we switched things up today and did a Tourist Route along the coast. The Atlantic Tourist Route is really just a short section of road between two villages but there are alternate roads on both ends that can make it longer so, naturally, we drove the whole thing. The first big change was the heavy industrial presence as we drove through Molde. This is one of the key depots for supplying the offshore drilling rigs that exploded Norway’s economy about 30 years ago and the commercial build-up to support that is obvious. Still, none of what we saw had the oily, dirty look of the area in the States just south of New Orleans so I think there are tighter rules on these companies to keep their act clean. Next, we moved into a coastal agricultural zone with lots of farms - almost all grass for livestock but with enough hardware to show there was money to be earned growing it. Lots of old guys on big tractors mowing, threshing, drying and rolling big round bales of grass. After winding through the farms we started to encounter coastal fog so we knew we were getting close. A few more bends and we finally caught sight of the barren rocky islands and the blue expanse of the Norwegian Sea. The Atlantic Ocean Route is 8.5 km of bridges that connects a bunch of little islands - very scenic! We stopped to breath the fresh salt air and to take in the view.
47) From the water’s edge we drive to the fjord side of a bigger island to visit Kvernes. We had found on this village’s website that the little town museum was having their annual Saltfiskballdag dinner - traditional boiled fish balls made with salted cod. We knew there weren’t going to be lines of tour buses at something *that* local so we showed up for lunch. For vegetarians it was just boiled root veggies but the fish eaters doughy salted cod and pork fat balls. We were definitely among the youngest people there and probably 80% didn’t speak English but we enjoyed it anyway. There was also a fundraiser yard sale for the museum so we perused the tables along with all the locals. We both really enjoyed being in the midst of the islanders and getting a glimpse into the lives of the locals. From the coast we took tunnels, bridges and ferries east along the south shore of Trondheimfjord. We stopped just once more, to see the grave site of Keiko the killer whale - better know as Free Willy. A modest stone cairn built by visitors on the beach where Keiko washed ashore many years ago. We ended our day camping for free in a parking lot beside a pretty stream - watching a fly fisherman cast peacefully into the calm pools (and periodically listening to the young teenage scooter hooligans rev their loud little two-stroke scooters half to death up and down the main road.)
48) Traveling to see beautiful scenery is great. Learning about new cultures is endlessly interesting. Seeing museums is fascinating. But best of all is getting to reconnect with dear friends and that was our goal for today. We tried to sleep in late but noisy seagulls took most of the sleep part out of that plan. Fortunately, we were just a couple of hours from our destination so even being sleepy wasn’t a problem. We drove into Trondheim, found a free day parking spot and then rode the bicycles into the historic district. We did a quick walk around to see the old part of Trondheim and then found a cheap restaurant for lunch. The most scenic was the view from Gamle Bybro - the Old Town Bridge where you can see the old buildings of the Bakklandet neighborhood on the banks of the Nidelva River. Still, the highlight of the day was meeting up with our friends Roar and Trude. It has been far too long since we last saw them so it was a warm reunion - well, maybe a cool reunion since we immediately went for ice cream! After catching up for a bit we all agreed to head back to their house. We biked back to the van, drove to the house and got the camper settled in their driveway. The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent talking, eating, laughing and just enjoying the company of Roar and Trude, along with their daughters Idun and Ylva. An excellent way to spend our first day in Trondheim!
49) For our second sightseeing day in Trondheim we took the city bus from Roar and Trude’s house back to the historic downtown. Our first stop was the Nidaros Cathedral, the northern most medieval church in the world. We paid the extra fee to climb up to the viewing walkway around the central tower. It was a big climb (40 meters) but the views out over Trondheim and onto the Trondheim fjord were splendid. Out next stop was the Armoury - a museum that gives an overview of Norwegian military history over the past 400 years and with a whole floor dedicated to Norwegian resistance to the German occupation during WWII. It was very interesting and, best of all, was free!.
50) Continuing the museum theme we next went to all three of the art Museums in downtown Trondheim: The Trondheim Kunstmuseum, Kunsthall Trondheim, and Trondheim Kunstmuseum - Gråmølna. Our favorite was the retrospective of local painter Håkon Bleken at the main Trondheim Kunstmuseum location.
51) The contemporary art at both Kunsthall Trondheim and Trondheim Kunstmuseum - Gråmølna was challenging intellectually but didn't directly appeal to us, like these broken cement bodies at Kunsthall Trondheim. Still, we are always happy to see a healthy, thought provoking art scene!
52) All of this was nice but again the highlight was spending more time with Roar, Trude, daughter’s Idun and Ylva, and son Arin. We celebrated the birthdays of Idun and Ylva, as well as the twins graduating from high school. Ylva’s graduation was that night so we got to see her in the traditional costume she would be wearing in the graduation celebration. A big family dinner with delicious birthday cake and pie! Yum!
53) After leaving Trondheim we had transit day as we headed further north. The area north of Trondheim, inland from the fjord, looks like Iowa or central Wisconsin. No wonder so many Norwegian immigrants felt so at home in those states a hundred years ago. Big rolling hillsides covered with green fields, big red barns and crisp white farm houses. Tractors were often on the road and clumps of freshly cut grass were dropped in the middle of the road from harvest work. We turned off the major road (E6) onto what will become the coast road (E17) but we stopped for the evening at a roadside veteran’s park surrounded by green grass fields, decorated with beautiful flowering lilac trees and containing memorials to the local dead from both WWI and WWII.
54) Even when half the day is rainy it is hard to beat any day that starts in bucolic farm land, drives along a coastal National Scenic Tourist Route, visits a UNESCO World Heritage site and ends with our camper tires within splashing distance from the waves in Atlantic Ocean tidal pools. Norway’s E17 is a National Tourist Route and it is easy to see why. The road winds along the coast with stunning views out over the bays, islands and open sea to the west. Traveling the coastal route also means hopping on and off multiple ferries each day. We stopped for lunch at a cute herb farm which provided not only a tasty meal but also a peaceful garden in which to roam.
55) Next up was a ferry out onto the Vega Archipelago - specifically to the island of Vega. This entire area is a UNESCO World Heritage site due primarily to a history of the islanders in these 6,500 (yes, *6,500*!) islands harvesting the down from wild eider ducks. We visited a museum just outside the tiny village of Nes that tells the story... and that sells some ridiculously expensive duvets filled with the eider duck down. In retrospect we should have spent the night on Vega but we kept moving instead, taking another ferry in the evening to get back to the mainland.
56) The advantage of our feeling anxious about being stuck on the island of Vega is that we ended up at what is our favorite camping spot up to this point in the trip! A quiet roadside pullout on a thin isthmus of land with rocky tide-pools all around us and a beautiful view out onto the sea. The "sunset" (which lasts about 5 minutes this far north) was probably lovely but neither of us were able to stay up until 12:30am to watch it.
57) Rain, rain and more rain! Rain is one of the things coastal Norway is famous for and today we experienced it for real. It started raining during the night and there were low, gray clouds when we got moving on the morning. There was a famous mountain range called The Seven Sisters that towered over our camping spot but they were only showing their ankles today. Our first stop was just a few minutes away - the Alstahaug Church and the associated Petter Dass Museum. Pastor Dass was a noted figure in northern Norway during the 17th century - a religious figure, a poet (and Lutheran hymn writer) and an important supporter of the Danish-Norwegian king. The museum gave some insight into the person and some historical context for the sparse medieval church.
58) We decided we had extra time in our schedule so we turned away from the Atlantic Coast and instead drove inland along the Ranfjorden to the area around Mo I Rana. Our curiosity lead us to the Arctic Circle Motorcycle Museum. It was modest, to say the least, but the small collection of bikes was interesting.
59) Next we followed our sense of adventure to the Setergrotta and Grønligrotta caves. Unfortunately, the first yet wasn’t open for the season and the second had already closed for the day. We did some googling and found a great hike nearby - Marmorslottet (The Marble Castle). We bounced the camper van down a dirt road and then ventured out into the rain to an incredible slot canyon through a vein of marble. Amazing! We have ended the day parked on the shore of the fjord looking across the blue-grey water onto snow covered mountains.
60) This was the day we crossed the Arctic Circle and moved into the land of the midnight sun - the sun didn’t dip below the horizon again for almost a month until we had turned back south and returned below 66.33. The day started with intermittent rain which was an improvement over the previous day's downpour. The best way to get out of the rain is to go inside so we headed back to Grønligrotta cave which we tried to visit the previous day but found had already closed. We got there when they opened and did their 45 minute tour. An interesting cave with marble sections and with a stream, complete with waterfalls, running through it.
61) From there we drove into Mo I Rana and spent the mid-day on domestic chores - gas, ATM, filling up and emptying out the camper systems. In the early afternoon we headed west back out to E17 - the coastal Tourist Route. Again the landscape was spectacular with dramatic mountains right up against the coast. We stopped on our way north so take a look at the Grønsvik coastal battery - a WWII German coastal gun complex. Fascinating to walk in all the tunnels, trenches, defensive positions, gun pits, sighting rooms and gun platforms. Many of the rooms were hacked into solid rock so it called back to our caving earlier in the day. From there we drove further north and left the E17 to go out to the village of Tonnes. Along the way we drove through Bratland which is right near the top of the best scenery of the trip. Our reason for heading to Tonnes was to rejoin our friends Roar and Trude to travel with them on a ferry out to the tiny island of Myken - home to just 14 people! We arrived in the evening and had dinner while watching the waves of the Norwegian Sea crash into the rocks on the west side of the island. It is amazingly serene for something so powerful!
62) Our first day on the tiny island of Myken was a fun one. We had a leisurely breakfast and then walked down the hill to the Myken Distillery, which is part owned by our friends Roar and Trude. Today was bottling day for their Arctic Gin (made with herbs found on Myken). It was a fun group of volunteers - some of the owners, some island residents and some Norwegian tourists that were visiting for the day. It was mainly a manual process but efficiently done. We had an energetic few hours as we bottled, corked, labeled and sealed 900 bottles.
63) In the afternoon Roar and Trude’s son Arin took us on a hike around the island which was wonderful. The island is just unbelievably scenic so we just enjoyed the views everywhere on the hike. In the evening we had a nice dinner and then headed over to the local BnB/restaurant/pub for an evening of "hygge" (roughly translated as coziness) socializing with the locals.
64) The sure sign that you have had a great day is when you lose track of time so badly that you are two hours late to bed and then you aren’t sure you can fall asleep because your side hurts from laughing. This was our final day with our friends on Myken so we made the most of it. We lounged around the house talking for a lot of it but we also took Roar’s crazy powerful rib boat out for a short spin as well. The main goal for the boat was just to putt across the harbor to see the parallel island that makes up Myken. We saw the light house (circa 1900), the old WWII German machine gun bunker that overlooks the town and hiked halfway down the island to see the old seawall (also circa 1900).
65) The wildflowers were exploding - it is amazing how these little islands can be so different! Then we got a rocket ride in the rib boat around the clump of islands that make up Myken. 600 hp meant we were literally jumping out of the water as we crested the swells. Docked and back ashore we helped the distillery set up for a tour and then went back to the house to do laundry and spend time more just hanging out with the family... we even got serenaded in Norwegian when a book of kid’s songs started making the rounds. However, it was dinner that broke the fun meter. First, we went to the BnB/restaurant/bar again but this time we had dinner. The owner made veggie Indian curry specifically for the token vegetarian on the island! Then we broke out some board games and ended up spending 4 hours laughing, joking, swapping stories and just having good old fun. It was 10:30pm before we remembered we have to catch a 5:30am ferry! Yikes! Anyway, we had the best time of our trip thus far out on Myken with Roar, Trude, Arin, Eyvor and Eyvor’s friend Chris.
Go back to the first
'19 Scandinavia Trip Photo Page.
Go forward to the third
'19 Scandinavia Trip Photo Page.
Return to Alan and Jonna's Travel Page
