Norway
Summer 2022
We have a little more time for this year’s summer holidays. We went on a wonderful trip to Norway. From Switzerland, we travelled through the whole of Germany and took the ferry to Denmark. The next day we only had a short day of driving ahead of us. We crossed the Øresund Bridge to Sweden. After two stops in Helsingborg and Goteburg, we spent the night near Hunnebostrand. Now it was only a few hours’ drive until we finally arrived in Norway. After a few days in Oslo, we took smaller roads to Røros and then to Trondheim. There we swapped the car for a train and drove through the midsummer night to Bodø. With a rental car we explored the Lofoten Islands. After we had our car back in Trondheim, we went to Ålesund, through the Jostedalbeeren National Park and to Bergen. From there, it was time for us to say goodbye to Norway and slowly start our return journey. We took the ferry to Denmark and from there home.
Stopovers on the way to Norway
Our first stop was the Hanseatic city of Lübeck
The first overnight stay was along the danish coast. Evening walk on the calm Baltic Sea
The second overnight stay was along the swedish coast close to the small town of Hunnebostrand. We had a lovely evening cooking with the view over the small habour.
Cosy morning in Hunnebostrand with cinnamon buns for breakfast
Soon we have made it and reach Norway.
Oslo
Our first stop in Norway is the capital. We stayed in Oslo for three nights. As the weather was not so good at the beginning, we visited the Fram Museum. The Fram was the first ship specially built in Norway for polar research which was used on three important expeditions to the North Pole.
The next day we visited the centre of Oslo. We went to the Opera House, the library, along the harbour and through the city centre.
View of the city centre from Ekebergparken
Fram museum and Kontiki museum at the side of the Oslo fjord
Public library
Pram parking space in the library
The opera
Sauna boat for hire
The castle
The parliament
The town hall
Røros & Trondheim
Røros awaited us with drizzle and thick grey clouds in the sky. After 333 years of mining tradition, the last mine closed in 1977. Ore was mined in Røros. The warm colours of the wooden houses really shone in the grey weather. We strolled through the streets with their wooden houses up to 250 years old and their grass roofs to isolation.
View of the city from the slag head
250 year old house with grass roof for insulation
Wind protection by car
The Nidaros Cathedral, it is built over burial site of King Olas II who became the patron saint of the nation.
Storehouses along the Nidelva
DORA 1, the former German submarine bunker which was bulit during the Second World War.
Lofoten
A long night on the train awaited us. The journey from Trondheim up north to Bodø took 10 hours. Mountains, fjords and vast forests passed us by the window. Every now and then we spotted a lonely wooden hut. As we travelled further and further north, it was still relatively light at 2.00am.
Another tasty dinner somewhere between Trondheim and the airport before heading to the train
As the last car, we were allowed on the ferry to Moskenes on the Lofoten Islands. We let the cold Atlantic wind blow around our ears from time to time.
Our first stop on the Lofoten Islands was the outlying village of Å. There we visited the Norsk Fiskeværsmuseum. We walked through various old wooden houses of a typical fishing village in the 1800’s. There was a boathouse, cod liver oil factory, cottage, smithy, post office, fisherman`s cabin and bakery.
View of the village of Reine
Here comes the Norwegian!
We spent our first night on the Lofoten Islands in an old fisherman’s house in Ballstad by the harbor. It was a very cozy little room, just a bit drafty. Pasta cooked in a kettle with pesto tasted very good. Unfortunately, the seagulls prevented us from having dinner outside on the wooden terrace.
The next day we woke up to glorious sunshine. The seagulls couldn’t deny us a cup of tea. We enjoyed the warm sun with a view of the mountains and the harbour. The next day we woke up to glorious sunshine. The seagulls couldn’t deny us a cup of tea. We enjoyed the warm sun with a view of the mountains and the harbour. Today we had a hike to the 962 metre high Himmeltindan. The hiking trails are a little different to what we are used to in Switzerland. It doesn’t go up in small serpentines, but simply straight up the mountain. The view over the rugged Lofoten Islands and the European North Sea was fantastic. Hot after the somewhat strenuous hike, we plunged into the North Polar Sea. It was only a matter of diving in a few times and then quickly running out again. The water was 12°C after all.
Near Ballstad, right next to the road, there was suddenly a huge moose. Our joy was huge: our first Norwegian moose.
A spectacular view over parts of Lofoten.
The empty Vikstranda which is part of the bigger Hauklandstranda
Enjoying the sun at the Hauklandstranda
An afternoon visit to the beautiful tranquil village of Henningsvær.
The famous football field of Henningsvær.
We spent our last two nights on the Lofoten Islands in Laukvik. After dinner, we set off again to enjoy the sunset at the small lighthouse. As we were above the Arctic Circle, we knew that it would be a very late sunset. Shortly after midnight, the sun had disappeared behind the horizon. The sky was glowing in strong orange-red tones.
Saltstraumen is a small strait close to Bodø with one of the strongest tidal currents in the world. Up to 400 million cubic metres of water forces its way through a 3km long and 150m wide strait every six hours.
Geiranger & Jostedalsbreen National Park
After a long train ride in the sleeping car (2-seater compartment with very comfortable beds) we arrived back at our car in Trondheim. From there we continued a little further south to Ålesund. We both didn’t like the little town that much. The next day we went on to Geiranger Fjord.
Once again, we were the last car on the former ferry with our little Peugeotino. For the one-hour ferry ride in the Geiranger Fjord to Geiranger, we had luckily caught a break in the rain. Numerous smaller and larger waterfalls cascaded down the steep rocky slopes. The wispy clouds between the mountains and the gray, hazy weather made the landscape look mystical.
The town of Geiranger itself is very touristy. Large cruise ships sail into the fjord every day. We walked briefly through the small town center at the harbour, but then quickly turned around again. Marco found a short hike to the Storsæterfossen waterfall. The special thing about this small waterfall is that you can walk through the back of it. It had started to rain again and so Freddy reluctantly went along. The path was very muddy and slippery in places. In the end, despite the rain, it was a lovely hike with wild blueberries for refreshment.
After such a rainy, cold day, we had booked a small cabin at a campsite just behind Bismo. The road from Geiranger to Bismo was a beautiful pass road through an alpine landscape. A small red wooden hut was waiting for us at the campsite. Fortunately, it was already pleasantly warm inside. We enjoyed our warm lentil soup with a view of the forest and the river from the window.
Our wonderful, warm red cabine in Bismo
We travelled over Norway’s highest pass road (1434m) through the Jostedalsbreen National Park with its glaciers. The low-hanging clouds repeatedly revealed the view of the huge ice field of the national park. We drove to the neighbouring Nigardsbreen nature reserve. From the car park at the Nigardsbreen lake, we hiked another 3km over smooth rock to the glacier tongue. There is no debris on the glacier, so you can marvel at the deep blue colours.
With a view of the glacier, we cooked dinner at the car park in the evening. We wanted to camp in the wild at least once. There were lots of blueberry bushes around our campsite. Yoghurt with blueberries for breakfast is a safe bet.
We visited the Borgund stave church. It is one of the oldest wooden buildings in Europe. There are only 28 of the typical churches left in Norway that used to exist in all of Scandinavia. The church was built around the year 1200 as the village church. It is made entirely of wood.
We spent the night in Bakka on the Nærøyfjord before travelling to Bergen. We were lucky to get a place for our tent, as the campsite was full shortly after us. In the evening we went on a hike to Rimstigen. In between we had great views of the fjord and we found some blueberries on the way.
Back down by the fjord, a Dutchman had just pulled a small halibut out of the water. He gave us a small piece to try. It was very tasty.
The halibut is taken apart and washed.
Our camping spot in Bakka
Bergen
Our last stop in Norway was the city of Bergen. Bergen is one of the rainiest cities in Europe. It rains 248 days a year. We had just arrived in a rain hole, but it had rained quite a lot the days before. This was particularly noticeable at the campsite. The meadows were all soaked with water. The only place for our tent that was as dry as possible was next to the toilet block.
We reached the city centre quite quickly by bus. We took a leisurely stroll through the city centre past the harbour, Bryggen, the German Hanseatic quarter, the fortress and up to the Fløyen viewpoint. From there we had a great view of the natural harbour in the bay of Vågen. At the foot of Fløyen is a beautiful old neighbourhood with wooden houses.
The Bryggen neighbourhood.
We took a short trip to Salhus, which is located north of Bergen. The Salhus tricotage factory was located there from 1859 to 1989. The building and all the machines still exist today. Since 2001 it has been open to visitors. The machines were also switched on briefly during the tour. It was quite a noisy workplace.
