It was a damp overcast day as we left Monicas. We were aiming to get 150km north near a town called Odda. We passed several large waterfalls along the way, the first one we stopped at being Langfoss which tumbles 600m down a rock face and runs under the road into the Akrafjord. The next stop was at Latefossen, a twin waterfall with a modest but powerful 165m drop. There were countless other falls of varying sizes in view of the main road.
Odda sits on the Hardangerfjord and is surrounded by high snow-capped mountains. We continued on a few kilometres to a small village called Lofthus where we found a lovely campsite perched on the hillside overlooking the fjord. The guy checking people in took a step back and wowed as Lolly pulled in. He showed us a great spot perched on a mound above the main campsite, so we felt a bit King of the Castle for the night.
Lofhus is known as the ‘Orchard of Hardanger’ due to all the fruit trees there (largely apples and cherries), and the campsite was built around an orchard. We enjoyed a peaceful night there (an early one after our outrageously late night the night before!) and took advantage of their washing machine and dryer.
Our journey out the following morning took us past orchards and stalls selling cherries at the side of the road. Unfortunately we had no Norwegian cash to make a purchase as they really don’t use it here. We reached a town called Eidford where there was an enormous cruise ship in the harbour. Close up they look so massive, yet when they are sailing through the fjords in the distance they look like a normal sized boat.
We headed a short distance to our next set of waterfalls, one of the best known in Norway, Voringfossen. The tourist infrastructure was impressive with numerous viewing platforms around a scenic trail. Vast quantities of water plunge down 182m from a plateau.
Our route continued along a road that became increasingly dramatic with snow-capped mountains and big patches of snow at the roadside where we watched a bus load of Japanese tourists throw snowballs at each other.
Luiza had recommended to us the Rallarvegen (Navvies Road) cycle trail that runs alongside the Bergen and Flam railway. It can be done over multiple days with accommodation stops along the route, but we were just going to do the Finse to Haugastol section, by parking Lo11y up on Haugastol, catching the train to Finse, then cycle back to Lo11y. The route is one of the most popular cycle routes in Norway, and we passed huge bike rental shops, but with the weather still unseasonably cool it was not busy for us.
It was a short train ride to Finse. Although a bright day, the wind chill hit us as well got off the train. It was a beautiful 27km gravel route with some patches of deep snow at the side of the trail. We were regretting not making the time to do a longer section of it, although a couple we passed said the final section to Flam was closed currently as it was still under snow.
We retraced our steps to Eidford and parked for the night in a service road next to a tunnel with its own waterfall right next to the fjord. We have to say how lucky we feel as we sit in a heated Lo11y watching other travellers cooking at the back of their cars and setting up a tent on a small patch of grass in all weathers. Yes – we are soft.
It was another damp mizzly day as we headed to Bergen. We passed through the town of Voss, which although on the tourist trail didn’t have a lot of interest for us (other than coffee and a cinnamon bun).
Bergen is the second largest city in Norway and is known as The Heart of the Fjords. We were lucky to get parked in a motorhome parking area by an ice rink just a tram ride into the city centre. The weather still wasn’t great, but we jumped on the tram to the centre to have a mooch around. It is set in a stunning location with houses perched on the hillside, narrow cobblestone lanes to wander around, and the photo on all tourist posters, the UNESCO World Heritage site Bryggen – a German wharf that was a central trading point between Norway and Europe. The colouful wooden wharf houses (that have been rebuilt several times after burning down many times over history) are the protected part. These days they are largely souvenir shops, museums and galleries.
Near here is the Fish Market, which once upon a time would provide the locals with freshly caught fish, but today is largely crammed with tourists. Most of the stalls had a basic dining area behind them where you can choose your fish and they will cook it as required. There was also an indoor fish market with more up market looking restaurants which we thought we might try later. Bergen is also a UNESCO City of Gastronomy, with seafood being at the core of this.
We tried another famous Bergen food delight – Reindeer Hot Dog (sorry Rudolph). The best place to get them is the Trekroneren hot dog stand. It is served with mustard, lingonberry sauce and crispy fried onions. It was tasty and a hot snack was just what we needed to warm us up, but we were amused at the American guy in front of us who said he’d been back here three times to try different hotdogs.
Bergen’s other claim to fame is it is one of the rainiest cities in the world having on average 240 days of rain a year (which we can confirm). With a brief break in the rain, we took the funicular up to a 320m viewpoint of the city. This is one of seven peaks surrounding the city. Although it was a good panoramic view, some sunshine would have made it even better.
We walked back down to the city – a pleasant 45-minute route.
We were regretting eating the hotdog now as dinner time approached, we didn’t feel we could do justice to an expensive fish meal, so we ended up in a pizza place – definitely not on the UNESCO gastronomy list.
With the forecast looking wet and cool the next day, we decided we should do a guided walking tour to learn a bit more about the city, rather than just walking by things. We booked on Martin's 2 hour City Walking Tour. Martin is actually German but has lived and worked in Norway for many years. We were joined by a Filipino family, so goodness knows how cold they must have felt. Martin was an excellent guide and we thoroughly enjoyed learning more facts and the history of the city.
Time for more of Colin’s top takeaway facts on Bergen/Norway:
All the taxis are already electric and as of 1st January 2025 you will only be able to buy electric cars in Norway. Implementing this is an easier task for a country with a population under 6 million. We have been impressed by the charging points everywhere - even in the most remote places.
Junior school children have to have a day out of the classroom every week to visit museums, police stations, fire stations, hospitals etc
The majority of Norway's oil and gas is exported with buildings and vehicles being fueled by electricity that is all green i.e. wind and hydro.
My personal favourite was the ugly sculpture above was made by a member of the 80's pop group A-ha.
After the tour we headed to one of Martin’s top tip eating places, Sostrene Hagelin, a café serving traditional Norwegian fish snacks, including fish cakes and fish soup. We shared a mixed tasting selection which was delicious. The Philippine family were sat next to us too.
We decided to visit a couple of museums. The first one, the Theta Museum, a small museum telling the story of the Norwegian resistance activities during World War 2, sadly didn’t seem to be open, but the Norwegian Fish Museum, set a little further out of town was. Set in an old warehouse there were displays on the history of fishing in the region. Although interesting it was a strange mix of displays, many targeted at children (see photo of Colin & I as sea creatures below), but then there was a quite gory film on seal killing and interviews with fishermen past and present saying the fishing quotas of today are killing off the industry for young people. We were told we could visit a more modern exhibition on fish farming nearby with our ticket, which we did. It was more focused on how critical it is for the world to use our sea resources more efficiently if we are to feed an ever-expanding population with reduced land available. This museum offered RIB boat trips to a fish farm out at sea, which would have been fascinating.
We had an early dinner in a restaurant on the Bryggen that Martin had recommended for seafood. It was in a nice old building, but it was lucky we weren’t hungry as the portions were very modest.
We had an usually leisurely morning the following day, going to a local café and stocking up with food supplies for the next few days. You cannot buy alcohol over 4.7% strength in the supermarkets in Norway (and Sweden), so whilst you can pick up lagers and alco-pop type drinks in supermarkets, you have to go to an official outlet called Vinmonopolet, which as a state-owned company has a monopoly on selling wine and spirits and reports to the Ministry of Healthcare in Norway. They believe that limiting the availability and marketing of alcohol has reduced alcohol consumption in the country.
Of course now we were leaving Bergen it was a much warmer brighter day, but it meant we had a very scenic drive north to the Jostedalsbreen National Park. We had passed some campsites set in beautiful locations, but we’re glad we stuck to our plan and reached the picture perfect village of Fjaerland sat on a stunning glacial fjord. We passed the Norske BreMuseum (Norwegian Glacier Museum) on the way into the village, which we planned to visit the following morning.
We parked in a free car park overlooking the fjord. This became our Top of the Pops site of the trip so far. With the sun shining we got our Bromptons out and cycled up and down the road through the village which is renowned for being a ‘Book Town’. All through the village (and in our car park) there were stands filled with books. Most operate an honesty payment system. There was even a proper bookstore.
You can also see the edge of the Jostedlasbreen glacier, the largest on Mainland Europe. 20,000 years ago it covered nearly all Scandinavia. Today it covers around 474km2.
The museum was very interesting. We watched a visually stunning panoramic film of the glacier and walked around the interesting interactive displays on the glacier. There was also a climate exhibition warning what the world will be like if humans continue to use up resources at the current rate. One quote that stuck in my mind was’ If all the peoples of the world were to live like us, it would require the energy and resources of more than three planets’.
When we left the museum, a short way down the road there was a viewing area of one of the tongues branching off the glacier.
We retraced part of the route we’d driven the previous day and headed to a nice looking campsite in the town of Skei that had terrific views. It was quite pricey, but had good facilities and we thought it would make a good base to do a 30 mile cycle ride around the waters edge. The first half of the route was down the main road, and the cycle path disappeared pretty quickly, but thankfully the drivers here are very courteous to cyclists. We turned onto a less trafficked road and enjoyed the beautiful scenery all the way back to Skei.
We were incredibly lucky with the weather, as the forecast rain didn’t start until early evening, but it did rain heavily all night. We really felt for the German motorcyclists in their little tent next to us.
One of the top tourist destinations in Norway is the Geiranger fjord, another UNESCO World Heritage site. We tried to book a boat trip down the fjord from Hellesylt to Geiranger that would take in the beautiful waterfalls and sites along the fjord. There were no trips available for a number of days, so in the end we decided to put Lo11y on the vehicle ferry at extra cost, but it meant we got to see the 15km of the fjord from the water. As the weather was pretty dreadful we questioned if we were being daft spending £140 to not see very much in the pouring rain and low cloud, but ever the optimists we ploughed on hoping conditions would improve.
We reached the town of Hellesylt in good time, and with very little to do there other than have a coffee (once the coffee shop opened at 11am which seems to be the norm in Norway) and view the waterfall in the centre of town.
We asked at the ferry terminal if we could catch an earlier ferry, which thankfully they said yes to. The ferry was full of tour bus tourists, so we found a sheltered spot outside to take in the views as far as we could see them – the snow topped peaks were well and truly covered by the low cloud. We got a good view of the Seven Sisters waterfall where surprisingly 7 waterfalls drop 250m into the fjord and the other scenic waterfalls along the route.
The area to the right of the port was rammed full of motorhomes, so we weren’t tempted to stop the night here. Instead, we decided to visit three of the key viewpoint areas, before heading off towards Alesund.
The first viewpoint, Flydalsjuvet, for the classic view of Geiranger was a short drive up and out of town. Unfortunately when we got there we could only see thick mist. Oh well, onwards and upwards on a very scenic but twisty road towards the Geiranger Skywalk advertised as Europes highest fjord view at 1500m. The viewpoint has a glass walkway and guard wall to give you all round views. We arrived at a beautiful lake where the turn off for the Skywalk was, but found the road was closed. We were a bit baffled, but when we looked around we could see there had been fresh snowfall, so we’re guessing that the road must have been impassable.
So we had to retrace the windy 16km route back to Geiranger. We pulled in at the first viewpoint (or non-view point) again which was still no better, but I convinced Colin to wait 5 minutes and finally the mist swirled away briefly for a view of Geiranger and the fjord.
We drove out of the town in the opposite direction which took us up a steep road with 11 hairpin bends called Eagle Road taking you to 2030 ft above sea level. There is a viewing area at the top with terrific view over the Geiranger fjord – once again we could only see mist, but we had learnt after the last one that patience pays off and after a few minutes we did get some glimpse of the beautiful fjord we had sailed own a few hours earlier.
From here we continued on about another half an hour to catch a ferry that would put us in striking distance of Alesund the next day. We congratulated ourselves on our perfect timing as the ferry was in the terminal. One of the ferry guys came over to us and broke the news that the ferry had collided with the jetty and it would not be up and running again for at least 3 days. We looked at a map and realised this diversion would add about 180km onto our journey to get round to Alesund. Even more ironic, we had to drive back past all the viewpoints we’d visited this day. Hey-ho – you can never have too many good views!
We drove until well into the evening and eventually pulled into a picnic area just of the road with stunning views over the water. There were a few other motorhomes parked up, but we looked in wonder at the people who pitched a tent and started cooking dinner in the rain.
We made an early start in the morning to give us time to get to Alesund to find parking and be set to watch the England v Switzerland match that evening.
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