It’s Not Coming Home

We had a 150km journey to get to Alesund and we hoped after the previous day’s diversion the trip would be straight forward today. The rain had finally stopped and as always the lovely views kept coming. We stopped for a coffee in Volda from where it was about 40km to our next ferry. The Tom Tom showed a problem on the route and kept trying to get us to turn around. As Google Maps was showing no issues and has tended to be the more accurate, we stuck with it. There were vehicles, if not many, coming from the other direction.  So I guess we shouldn’t have been surprised that two kms before the ferry the road was closed. The workman said there had been a landslide and gave us the route we’d now need to take, which added on yet another 80km to our journey.

It was around 2pm by the time we reached central Alesund. We found the central motorhome parking area was full, but as luck would have it as I was walking round looking for a space I spotted a van looking ready to set off, and I went and bagsied it before the German van that had driven around Colin could get turned around.

Being a Saturday afternoon it was a shame that most of the shops and things in the centre were closed. Norway still has good old fashioned opening times, with virtually everything closed on Sundays.  It’s quite a small waterside town, but has some very nice architecture, the original centre being burned down completely in 1904.  With European assistance it was soon rebuilt in an Art Nouveau style.

Our first destination was to climb the 418 steps to the Mount Aksla viewpoint. From here we got a great view of the main part of the town. We had a mooch around the waterfront area, and checked out some Irish bars that were showing the Euros.  We then found a Fan zone tent so we knew where we’d be spending the evening.

We got ourselves to the Fan zone in good time to ensure a good seat, but as there were only about three others there, we needn’t have worried. The barman kindly pointed out that it had been heaving for the German match the night before.  It did gradually fill up, and we were joined by a nice Norwegian couple from Bergen who were here on their holidays.  The wife admitted she didn’t really like football, but she enjoys people watching.  All she saw from me and Colin was us shaking our heads in disbelief at how poor England were playing, then me with my eyes covered through the penalties.  Most of the Norwegians in the tent didn’t seem to be watching the football, but when England scored we were surprised so many of them were cheering.

In good cheer after the result (and shock) we found a nice Tapas restaurant nearby.  Back at the car park there was a lovely sunset at 11pm.

We set off with no fixed destination the following morning. Our first stop was a pleasant little town called Molde. It is known as the ‘Town of Roses’ for it’s rose gardens around the cathedral and throughout the town.  There was a nice waterfront area, but being a Sunday, even in tourist season, it was largely closed.

We continued on around the peninsular to a fishing village called Bud (nothing to do with the beer). In the centre of the village there were lovely wooden fishmen’s cabins and boat houses. There was some sort of village festival going on and we sat and listed to some nice music for a while.  Above the village is the Ergan Coastal Fort being German fortifications from WW2.  There was a lovely view out to sea from here too.

We wanted a camping spot where we could cycle to the famous Atlantic Road the following day, so we followed the coastline from Bud until we came across a farmer’s camping field in a place called Farstad. There were no facilities there, but it was in a nice spot looking out to sea. It was a beautiful evening so we jumped on our bikes and tootled around the local lanes that took us to various sea views.  It was just so peaceful – we were very taken with the area.

In the morning we had a walk down to the local beach called Farstadstranda, It was absolutely beautiful and an information sign told us it one of the world’s northern most sand dunes areas and is one of the finest sand beaches in the region. We couldn’t argue with that.   We picked up a new furry friend at the campsite who we think was trying to usurp our current furry travelling companion, Solomon (Colin’s award winning pussy when he won a James Bond fancy dress night in the local pub - strangely Colin made a very convincing Blofeld). 

Having done some more research on the Atlantic Road, we decided cycling it may not be the best way to see it, as the road is very busy with tourist traffic and there were no cycle lanes. It was a good decision as we got some terrific views driving across and back twice in Lo11y. There was a viewing area part way along it too where Colin dropped me off to video him driving across (see the Latest Photos link below). The bridge was made famous in the James Bond film No Time to Die, so Colin imagined he was James Bond and that Lo11y was an Aston Martin DB6.

This was also the finishing place for an event called Bobbik where drivers have to buy a Soviet era car that costs under €300 in value setting off from Poland to a different point every year.  The event raises money for orphanages. We had seen many vehicles over the past few days from Geiranger onwards.

We called in at the pleasant fishing town of Kristiansund before catching a ferry out to the Smola group of islands.

They are a group of islands linked together by bridges. Colin had identified these as a good place to cycle on the quiet and scenic roads.  The weather forecast was looking wet for the two days we were planning here, so when we arrived and it was looking OK we wasted no time in parking up and getting out on the bikes for a loop of the island of Smola. It was pleasant but not very exciting scenery. The landscape is very windswept and we were cycling into the wind for much of it.  We had parked Lo11y in a harbour area in a village called Nerdvik.  We spotted a nice parking area by the small harbour, but we weren’t sure if this was allowed. There were no signs saying it was prohibited, but I was concerned that we were in view of some houses.

Norway operates a principle of ‘Right to Roam’. This basically means everyone has unhindered access to the countryside as long as you respect it and leave no traces.  Outdoor recreation is part of Norwegians identity. The etiquette for camping/parking a motorhome is that you must stay at least 150m from the nearest inhabited house or cabin and if you want to stop for more than two nights you must ask the landowners permission.

Colin was sure that the properties near us weren’t occupied, but he went to ask a guy who was doing some maintenance work around the harbour, who said it was no problem at all. In fact he said we should sit on the decking of one of the buildings and enjoy the evening sunshine. So we bagged ourselves a beautiful spot for the night all to ourselves.

It rained pretty hard through the night, so we didn’t rush off in the morning until we were sure it was drying up.  We eventually drove to the farthermost point of the islands by road, to the quaint little fishing village of Veiholmen. It was a lovely place to stroll around. The properties and gardens were all beautifully maintained. We even saw a hedgehog roaming around. In the UK seeing a hedgehog during the day isn’t good news, but as Colin pointed out they don’t have much nighttime at this time of year to go about their business.

As the weather forecast was looking good for the following morning, we had also booked ourselves on a guided sea kayaking tour from here. 

We drove a few miles back to the neighbouring island and parked Lo11y in a church car park while we got the bikes out for another ride. A local stopped and we were worried they may object to us parking there, but to the contrary he said ‘as long as you’re gone by Thursday when there is a funeral taking place, no problem’.

We covered another 30 miles of the island that we hadn’t covered the day before. The first half was into the wind, and we did encounter a few spots of rain, but once again we’d ridden our luck against the forecast. Early on in the ride we met a Dutch lady who was touring around to help her finish off a book she is writing about the pilgrims trail from Oslo to Trondheim. We’d not heard about this, but it is the same principle as the Pilgrims Trails in Spain to Santiago de Compostela, but much less congested. She said whereas in Santiago you can wait hours to get into the cathedral, in Trondheim you are met with a nice cup of tea on arrival.

We headed back in Lo11y towards Veiholmen and found a lovely park up area at the side of the road with beautiful views out to sea and to the village, and as we discovered later is the perfect sunset watching spot at 11.30pm.

The weather the next morning was nice, but there was a cool breeze. We met up with our kayak guide, Anders, who said you can’t rely on the forecasts for the area as this place has its own micro-climate.  There was just the two of us on the tour, and we were soon in the water being shown how to steer the kayaks, which had feet operated rudders which didn’t help with my lack of coordination.  We started going around the sheltered waterways of the village before venturing out to an island with a lighthouse where we had a short break on land. It was lovely experience. The water was crystal clear and it was so peaceful.  Anders told us a lot about living in this area. He is a teacher, and he and his wife run the kayak business in the summer months.  He was into English football and said he’d be watching the England match that evening.

We set off on a 240km drive to get to Trondheim in time for the match. Colin had identified a couple of English pubs that would be showing the match. We parked up in a large motorhome parking area just out of the centre, got our glad rags on for a night out, and caught a bus into the centre of the city.  We found the Three Lions English Pub which looked just like any dodgy English pub - perfect. Although it was two hours before the kick-off it was heaving and we thought we may not get in, but the guy on the door said he should be able to squeeze us in and he did find us a table at the back of the main pub with good views of the many screens. They only served burgers, so we opted for a burger.  The atmosphere was great. They were playing all the typical English football songs (Three Lions, World in Motion, Vindaloo etc) plus lots of classic Brit-pop (Oasis, Happy Mondays etc).

Of course, just before the match started we got the biggest English man in Norway come and sit in from of us. Thankfully his Norwegian wife was mindful of him blocking our view.  After all the very English build up we were a little surprised the match was shown with Norwegian commentary, but we thankfully understood that we’d won!

The following day we woke to sunshine after a lot of rain the previous day.  We got on our Bromptons and cycled into the city centre for a proper look around.  Trondheim is the fourth largest city in Norway, but with a population of just over 200,000, is still smaller than our home town of Northampton.  It has a big university population, it is known as Norway’s capital of knowledge with it being home to the Norwegian University of Science & Technology (Norway’s largest university), is a very foodie place and has established itself as Norway’s leading cycling city.  It even has the world’s first bicycle lift to assist cyclists up a steep hill (more of this later).

There are lots of nice sites to see in the city. We started at the famous historic bridge Gamle Bybro which looks down on the colouful 18th century wharf houses. The Bakklanddet area next to here has narrow winding streets and lots of coffee shops.

A short distance from here is the Nidarosdomen, the cities medieval gothic cathedral dating back to 1320.  We had a walk around the inside where it has impressive stained glass windows, an ornate roof and a huge organ. The cathedral is dedicated to St Olav who introduced Christianity to Norway in 1024.

We called in at a tourist office and picked up a map that showed a cycling route all around the key arts of the city.  We found ourselves back to the bike lift or Trampe as it is called. It was opened in 1993 and was the first and only one in the world. It carries 20-30k cyclists up the hill annually and can take up to five at any one time. Having thought it was out of order earlier, it now seemed to be ready to use, so Colin got himself ready to do it while I got in a good photographic position.  His first attempt came to an end part way up when the bike juddered over some gravel.  He said it was incredibly hard work – you have to keep your legs locked in a certain position. By now he has attracted a small crowd of other tourists and a group of younger guys on bikes all keen to have a go. As you know, Colin likes playing to the crowd, so on his second attempt he gave a masterclass in how to do it. The other group of guys all fell off at the start.  I opted for the easier method of pushing my bike up the hill.

We pretty much covered all the main areas of Trondheim by the end of the route. It’s a nice city, with the good weather making it great day to take it at an easy pace We finished the day at the Brattora area, a happening area for food and music venues. We sat outside in the late afternoon sun and had a delicious bowl of fish soup.

Of course the biggest concern we had now was ‘where are we going to watch the Euro finals?’  Initially we thought we’d head to Bodo, but looking at the map we realised this would mean whizzing past some of the most scenic coastal roads in Norway. After a bit of research, Colin came up with a Sports Bar in a small town called Mo i Rama.  We had three days to get there, and with no major attractions we could see, we had a fairly gentle time of it.

We did find a few interesting stops. The first one was the Falstad Concentration Camp (near Levanger) which operated from 1941-45 and was one of the largest prison camps in Norway in WW2. Around 4,200 people were held here, manly consisting of Norwegian political prisoners, prisoners of war and forced labourers from the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.  Norwegian Jews were also held here before being transferred to Auschwitz.  The barbed wire fences and watchtowers have gone, but the small museum was put together very nicely.

A little further on we visited the Stiklestad National Cultural Centre, telling the story of King Olav who was killed here in a battle in 1030. We didn’t go into the cultural centre but did visit the church there where it is said the altar was built upon the stone that Olav had died on.

It was a beautiful day and we decided to book into a proper campsite to do some washing and get our chairs out for a change. We stopped in a big site in Namsos next to a lake. It was a bit too holiday park for us, but we did get the washing done.

We woke to brilliant blue skies the following morning and enjoyed a leisurely day driving through stunning scenery – we’ve run out of superlatives to describe it now.  We had a couple of nice ferry rides too, the final one being in the evening light and for over an hour.

We parked for the night in a layby watching the colours changing over the evening.

The following day we had yet more beautiful views and ferry trips. We’d pulled over in a terrific viewpoint for a brunch late morning.

We ended up in Mo i Rana much earlier than we’d planned. We parked in a Toys’ R Us type car park in the centre of town – not really where we wanted to be on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. We were bemused by two Norwegian motorhomes who were parked there with tables and chairs out in their bikinis having food and drinks.

We jumped on our Bromptons to check out the town which took about five minutes. There was a nice waterfront area with a promenade (it even had sun loungers) and there was an area of nice old wooden houses. Being a Sunday, town was largely closed, but we did manage to get a coffee and checked out the Sports Bar where we were going later.  Unlike the Three Lions in Trondheim, this looked more of a genteel bar and restaurant.

We got ourselves back here for 7.30 and were met by the owner who was a lovely guy.  He said they’d reserved us a good sport to watch the football, but suggested we eat out on the decked terrace at the back. He was a massive Leeds United fan, and insisted we took his photo with his supporters’ flag outside the venue.  The food was decent – we had very unNorwegian fish and chips and pizza.

The area for watching the match was much more civilised than Trondheim, with the locals sitting quietly, but we could see they were generally supporting England. There was an English guy from Middlesborough near us who lived further North in Norway, but was in Mo i Rana for a job.  The Norwegian guy sitting next to Colin spoke fantastic English and his knowledge on English and Spanish football was incredible.  Well I think we all know the result of the final – we had to concede the better team won and unfortunately Football’s not Coming Home yet again….. On the bright side at least we don’t need to plan our future route based on Sports bars.