Western Fjord Road Trip

6/10

After finally getting our itty bitty Volkswagen Up! from Avis at the Bergen Airport, we loaded our luggage (it just fit), and headed North on a windy route through the Western Fjords area of Norway. We left this part of the trip really flexible, and we would see what we found, and where we end up each day.

First we would head back through Voss where we caught the train into Bergen, and then turn left towards our first of many ferries on this road trip. We also would start to discover just how many tunnels this country has.

Our first stop is a cute little Rest Area, complete with a bakery, bathrooms, and a nice little flooded picnic area.

Sorry for the bad pictures, but man does this place ever have a lot of tunnels! We hadn't even gotten to Voss yet.

Remember those falls the bus driver wouldn't stop at? Turns out that we drove right past them going the other way... this time we would stop and check them out. Tvindefossen is a waterfall near Voss, it sits right on the side of the main highway. The many-stranded waterfall is usually said to be 152 metres high.

From Voss we started up into the hills, rivers, streams, hairpins and sheep would be the norm for a while.

We even ran into a little bit of snow before cresting the hill and heading down towards Sognefjord and the town of Vik.

Vik is famous for two of it's historic churches, the first is the Hove Steinkyrkje, a stone church which was built around the year 1170

The other church is the Hopperstad Stavkyrkje, an all wood Stave church which is assumed to have been built around the year 1130AD, and is still in its original location. This is one of the oldest stave churches still standing.

A short distance from Vik is where we catch the ferry from Vangsnes to Hella and then Dragsvik,ending our first day in the quaint sleepy seaside town of Balestrand.

Oooh, look, another waterfall!

Balestrand

From the ferry you just have to detour around the large harbour to get to the town of Balestrand. We do a quick tour to find a place to stay, there's not many hotels here, but we decided on the Midtnes Hotel

We are greeted by a super friendly and helpful manager, who gives us ideas of where to go and what to see, and he gives us a cheaper rate for a room in the back. We're still not sure if he actually thought this was a room in the back or was being nice to us, but the views from our balcony were great.

Right in front of the hotel is St Olaf's kyrkje, an Anglican church that was built in 1897 as a stave church imitation and has 95 seats. St. Olaf's Church is notable as the inspiration for the chapel in Elsa's coronation scene in the 2013 Disney film Frozen.

After settling in, we walked down into town to explore a little, and get some dinner.

I'm still trying to figure out these signs, Motorcycles jumping cars here, Kids walking snails?

There wasn't many restaurants open in this sleepy little town, but we chose the Pilgrim Restaurant. It was a combination Art Studio and restaurant, we were greeted by a very unique and outgoing woman, who as it turns out is not only the owner of the restaurant and gallery, but also along with her husband, the primary artist.

The menu's were true Norway, I ended up going with an Elk and reindeer combination plate, I just couldn't bring myself to eat whale. Norine went the safe route and got some local salmon. Of course we couldn't turn down what was touted as The World's best cake, and I do have to say, that was some pretty damn fine cake, so flavourful.

It's an interesting building, and we are encouraged to go explore, the gallery is closed, but we are allowed to just go wander around and look at her water colours of scenes of Norway, and look at his impressionist paintings of naked women. Upstairs it is like a museum/swap meet, oddities from days gone by scattered around many rooms, and on the very top a steep stairway takes you to a glass dome where you can look out at the fjord, the mountains and the town.

As we are wandering around room to room, each with a few tables and a couple diners, we hear a giant fart come from the room we just left, and an old guy sitting there quite proud of himself. I know I have heard a burp is a compliment to the chef in some cultures, does Norway have a different way of complimenting the chef?

As we were about to leave, we paid the bill and complimented the owner on her artwork, I especially liked the paintings she had done of the 2 churches we saw in Vik. She thanks us for taking the time, and says she has something for us. She comes back and gives Norine a birthday calendar of her artwork, and gives me two cards, each one with the paintings that I mentioned.

Norine asked her if anyone told her she looks like Meryl Streep. She says, "I have heard that, and it's nice because she seems like a nice person, or she could be a bitch, I'm a bitch". All three of us burst out laughing... what a fun night, we recommended the Pilgrim Restaurant to anyone we met that was heading in this direction.

At 11:00pm at night we look out our window and it's still so light out, there is even guys out there fishing still. We weren't tired so we decided to take a little drive to an old church the hotel manager had told us about.

We drove South to see the Kvamsøy Church which sits on an island right off the coast. The white, stone, basilica church has 210 seats and it was built approximately during the years 1280-1300. It was the church for the parish of Kvamsøy until it was replaced in 1903 by the newly built Sæle Church. Since the new church was built, Kvamsøy Church is no longer used regularly. Instead there are only 2 services held each year: one in May and one on Olsok, a national day of celebration in Scandinavian countries..

For a very old church it looked quite new, for the longest time we thought these stone remains were all that was left of the church.

This was the first time that we have ever gone daylight exploring at Midnight, there was no traffic, and no hordes of tourists. I kind of like having this option when traveling, we may have to do this again.

6/11

The view from our breakfast table

Our original plan was to take the ferry from Balestrand up to Fjærland through the Fjærland fjord, turns out the boat going there isn't a car ferry. So we asked our friendly neighborhood breakfast serving hotel manager about it, and he said to drive the long way around, it's kind of a secret route, but it's a very scenic drive and takes almost as long.

I am so glad we "discovered" this road as it is quite special. The drive follows the fjord before snaking up a series of switchbacks towards the highest point of Gaularfjellet. At the top there is a scenic lookout over the valley.

The view at the Gaularfjellet lookout was spectacular when we first arrived, and then the clouds rolled in and it wasn't so spectacular anymore. This entire area was rather stunning once we got out of the clouds, from it's switchback roads and snowy mountains to its traditional grass roof homes and frozen lakes.

A walk over the flexible steel bridge across the Likholefossen waterfall makes for a close encounter with the wild Gaula river. From the bridge you can continue your stroll along the Fossestien, the waterfall path that follows this river.

It seems like we are constantly pulling over along this route because there is something interesting to see.

One unfortunate detour was turning back South to the town of Fjærland to see the Norsk BreMuseum after being told by our hotel manager not to miss it. We could have missed it, it was pretty lame.

Luckily, just down the road was Bøyabreen glacier with a nice cafe called Brevasshytta. I ordered Sausage and Fries expecting some kind of bratwurst, it was just a hot dog on a plate, but the view was spectacular

There's a nice little hike that takes you closer to the glacier, I did find the warnings a little humourous.

After what turned out to be a nice detour we headed back North because we really hadn't seen enough waterfalls yet.

I don't know what these waterfalls were called, but they were cool.

Our next turnoff was maybe the most exciting one, Dalsnibba - the highest road in all of Europe. There is a toll road called Nibbevegen, that goes up to the summit of Dalsnibba, it was completed in 1939 but due to the Second World War its official opening was delayed until 1948. It is a very steep and slow climb in our little standard transmission car up the many tight hairpins that take you up 1500 Metres.

You drive all the way up here, and every damn bathroom is locked up like Fort Knox.

Overlooking Geirangerfjord, Geiranger is 1500 Metres below

And yes, that windy road is the way down.

Our itty bitty car did wonders going up and then back down this road!

Our last stop before getting into the town of Geiranger was Flydalsjuvet, an overhanging rock lookout that looks down the river that flows right into the Geirangerfjord through the town. We watched for a little while as a group of Milennials flew their drone out over the canyon and all jumping up and down waving at it as the drone circled them... silently hoping we could see it crash. We aren't sure, but we think they might be the reason this sign is in the bathroom.

Geiranger

As we did a little extra driving today (the small town of Stryn didn't seem like much), and ended up in scenic Fjord town of Geiranger, we splurged and stayed at the Hotel Geiranger, with 'Panoramic views' of the fjord.

Expectations of what Panoramic actually means when you pay extra for a room are hard to measure. It's a good thing the view was good, because the TV didn't work.

As the sun never really sets, we went to bed with our blackout curtains drawn.

6/12

I woke up early to try and get us on the first Fjord tour, all around our hotel is these ugly little 1-seater cars, how is that even practical?

It's a good thing I booked the first boat tour, because as we are finishing up breakfast, this gigantic cruise ship pulls in blocking our harbour view. Not far behind it we see another one coming, this tiny town was about to be invaded by thousands of people at once.

Luckily for us none of those damn tourists had time to get on our 90 minute morning boat tour of Geiranger fjord.

Also, I should warn you in advance, we will get wet, and there will be more photos of waterfalls, so please have your scroll finger prepared. Just like always, it starts raining, and all the non-Canadians run inside the boat, popping out when they see a huge waterfall, then back inside. We had the best views on the boat, we just paid the price by getting wet, umbrellas don't work on boats.

The most famous of the waterfalls is the Seven Sisters (also known as Knivsflåfossen), it's the 39th tallest waterfall in Norway. The waterfall consists of seven separate streams, and the tallest of the seven has a free fall that measures 250 metres (820 ft).

The boat makes one stop along the way, we nose into a little ledge on one side of the Fjord, and four hikers jump on to shore. Skageflå is one of a handful of historic mountain farms on the steep mountainsides along the Geirangerfjord. It sits approximately 250 metres (820 ft) above the fjord. The farm is a 2 to 4 hour walk from the nearby village of Geiranger, but can also be reached with help of our local sightseeing boat. They face a very steep climb.

Back safely on shore, and a little bit damper, we were watching these little tender boats running back and forth between the 2 cruise ships. One after another they filled up the town with tourists, we filled up the gas tank and got out of town as quick as we could.

We could see this zig-zag road from our boat tour, not much later we were driving out of Geiranger up that road.

Just outside of Geiranger is the Eagle Bend viewpoint looking over Geirangerfjord... the longer we stayed the worse the view got. Perhaps it was time to move on.

Once again, we had to catch a little car ferry from Eidsdal to Valldal so we could continue heading North.

Another surprise stop along the way was the raging waters of the Øvstestølen valley. Litlelangdasalva and Berilldalselva rivers provide unique stops along the way, cause raging rivers are way different than regular waterfalls.

Just a little further down the road.

Our main destination for the day was Trollstiggen, a winding road with 11 hairpin turns and 10% incline. Trollstigen is closed during late autumn and winter. A normal operating season stretches from mid-May to October, but may sometimes be shorter or longer due to weather conditions. Luckily for us, it was open.

At the peak is a collection of tourist shops, a restaurant and a series of viewing platforms along a trail to see the Stigfossen waterfall and the winding Trollstiggen roadway below.

Stigfossen falls 320 metres (1,050 ft) down the mountainside. When we arrived you could barely see the road that runs below and across the base of the falls, but the fog lifted enough for us to have a perfect view of the road we would soon be driving down.

After stretching our legs on the trails, using their bathrooms and getting about as much fresh air as humanly possible, we jumped back into our Up! for the descent down the Trollstiggen. I sure hope those brakes were serviced before we picked up this car.

We made it down safely and continued South towards Andalsnes. Not sure what this little mini-troll-mall was on the side of the road, but it had Ice-Cream and bathrooms, life's necessities.

Ålesund

As it was quite foggy, the views of the great wall in the town of Andelsnes wouldn't be great, so we decided to drive a little further and head to Ålesund. Ålesund is spread across three islands in an archipelago, it's known for the art nouveau architectural style that was used after most of the city burned in 1904.

Apparently it is a popular town too, we ended up going to 4 different hotels to find a room before finally ending up at this newly renovated hotel. After checking in, we decided to take a walk through the town.

We saw these Smart car roadsters in Europe years ago, but for some reason they still haven't made it to North America.

Everywhere we go, we are seeing trolls now.

In Ålesund you can visit the local Mountain and hike up to the Aksla viewpoint. There is a panoramic view of the archipelago, the town centre, and the amazing Sunnmøre Alps. Fjellstua, which is situated at the top, has got an outdoor restaurant, café, and a platform to enjoy the view. To go up to Aksla you follow the trail and take the 418 steps that go up from the Town Park.

At first we just thought we would go a little ways up and take some pictures, but we both felt very energetic and decided to go for it. A true way to test Norine's recently healed ankle.

It was a tough hike up, and even harder on the knees on the way down, but 836 stairs were well worth it for the views.

After that big evening hike, we just had enough energy for an Iskrem (Ice Cream), and to get back to our room for sleep.

11pm from our hotel room window

6/13

Before continuing on, we stopped just outside of town at the Sunnmøre museum. This open-air museum offers a glimpse into the past with more than 50 distinct historic homes and buildings. Among the buildings are barns, workshops, small homes with sod roofs and a church. There are also more than 40 boats, which the museum says is the largest collection in all of Norway, including replicas of Viking-era ships, and a Medieval Age Museum with artifacts from a partially excavated trading post.

We spent a chunk of the time avoiding large groups of young screaming school kids, but it was quite interesting to see the same style of grass topped houses we were seeing during our drives through the country.

We took just enough time to stop and smell the flowers before taking another ferry and a tunnel over to the coast for the world famous Atlanterhavsveien.

Atlanterhavsveien (Atlantic Ocean Road)

The Atlantic Ocean Road or the Atlanterhavsveien (also spelled Atlanterhavsvegen) is an 8.3-kilometer (5.2 mi) long section of road that runs through an archipelago along the West Coast of Norway on the Norwegian Sea. It is built on several small islands and skerries, which are connected by several causeways, viaducts and eight bridges. It was constructed between 1983 and 1989, and the Norwegians voted it Construction of the Century in 2005.

The road officially starts in the town of Bud, our first stop just outside of there was a spot called Kjeksa. A viewing area where you can see the unspoiled views of the sea, and a leftover Radar tower from WW2 placed there for that exact reason..

As mentioned, the Atlantic Ocean Road is connected by a series of bridges,the most prominent and famous being Storseisundet Bridge.

There is a few pullouts and stops along the way, such as Geitøya and Eldhusøya which is an island with a round trip trail overlooking the archipelago.

Don't ask me about this black tower with a white painted cross on it, i have no idea, and I couldn't find anyone that does. We continued the drive from Kristiansund and due East to the town of Trondheim, the 3rd largest city in Norway.

Another car ferry and more bridges, but none quite as dramatic as what we had driven over on the Atlantic Ocean Road.

Trondheim

Trondheim, formerly called Nidaros, was founded in 997 as a trading post, and it served as the capital of Norway during the Viking Age until 1217. We decided to stay there for 2 nights so we could do a little exploring, and more importantly book some flights to the Lofoten Islands. The P-Hotel that we stayed in was interesting, it was nice enough, but the complimentary breakfast would be hung on your door in the morning, and they had the lousiest wifi we had experienced the whole trip. My best option would be to head to the Tourist Information in the morning to book our flights.

With no luck using the internet, we headed out towards the wharves area of town for dinner, we ended up at a funky/trendy place called Søstrene Karlsen Bar & Kjokken. The first waiter dumped us when he found out we couldn't speak Norwegian, and although the food was very good, the service wasn't. We should have gone to that national chain restaurant Olivia's, there was one right next door. I'll give Søstrene Karlsen this, they did have cool bathrooms.

Back to our room for some sleep, you can't leave the windows open because of the drunks coming out of the local bars, that's ok, we had to close the drapes because this is what it looks like at 11:00pm and then 2:00am, that's as dark as it got.

6/14

We woke up to our complimentary breakfasts hung in bags on the door, an ost og skinke sandwich (ham and cheese in two dry pieces of bread), an orange juice that was mostly orange coloured water, and an apple. The apple was good.

I walked the 1 block to the Tourist Information to discover that they can help me with anything to do with Trondheim, but can't help me with getting to other places in Norway. They suggested i go to the Bibliotek (library) and use their free computers. So over I go to the Bibliotek, and the reception sends me to the 2nd floor where the computers are. I sit down and get a please login screen, she was a little embarrassed when I had to go back down and ask for a login name and password. After all that I was able to book flights to the Lofoten Islands for the next day, as well as a place to stay and a rental car. The rental car seemed like a good deal, even if it was a small mini-van.

With everything booked we had the entire day to explore the town of Trondheim, first stop was the Wharves and Bakklandet areas.

Gamle Bybrua crosses the Nidelva River connecting to the Trondheim neighborhood of Bakklandet. The historic bridge was built in 1681 with the reconstruction of Trondheim after the great fire of 1681.

These recycling stations were super interesting, each broken up into paper, plastic, glass, and a large collection storage below the ground, all conveniently located near to the 7-Eleven. It struck me as funny that all throughout Norway we would see the stores listed as 7-23 instead of 7-Eleven, but in Trondheim they actually had a 7-Eleven, full of yummy snacks like Salt Skum.

For people riding their bikes up the hill towards the Fortress there is the Sykkelheisen Trampe, a bicycle escalator. The Sykkelheisen Trampe is the first and only bicycle lift in the world. The prototype was built in 1993 in Trondheim and was removed in early 2012. In 2013 it was replaced with updated technology under the name "CycloCable". You place your right foot on the starting point (the left foot stays on the bicycle pedal), and then push the start button, a little footplate emerges under your foot and you are pushed forward up the hill. If your foot comes off the plate, it drops down out of sight, and you can try again. We watched a couple trying to use it for almost 30 minutes, then some old guy comes up and away he goes no problem. The couple ended up walking their bikes up the hill.

It's a bit of an uphill hike to get to Kristiansten Festning which overlooks the main city of Trondheim. The fortress was built from 1681-1684, and was a key component of repelling the invading Swedes in 1718. With all the cannons surrounding the large star shaped complex you can understand how.

Throughout the fortress was strange little statues, part of an outdoor sculpture exhibit.

In the center of the fortress walls is the white fortress tower with multiple viewpoints in all directions. At one point this was used as a fire watch and is now a museum. We climbed up to the top floor and quickly left when we discovered the floors were just 2x8 planks, really old, and very creaky... we asked the girl working there if anyone had fallen through the floor, her response, "Not yet".

We hiked back down the hill and across the river to the Nidaros Cathedral which has been a popular pilgrimage site for nearly 1000 years. Built over the burial site of Saint Olav, the king of Norway in the 11th century, who became the patron saint of the nation. It was built from 1070 to 1300, and designated as the cathedral for the Diocese of Nidaros in 1152. It is the northernmost medieval cathedral in the world.

Unfortunately for us, a giant crane was right in front of the church, and workers were meticulously cleaning and repairing the statues that adorn the entire front face of the cathedral. The detail in the structure of this cathedral was amazing.

Inside the Cathedral... I do not know where these pictures came from, because you aren't allowed to take pictures inside. ;-)

Inside the information center was displays of some of the gargoyles that adorn (or adorned) the sides of the Cathedral.

Next to the Cathedral is the Archbishop's palace. In the Middle Ages, the Archbishop's Palace was a religious and political centre. It was designed to be a self sufficient Keep complete with stables and workshops, armoury and mint. After the Reformation, the palace was turned into a Military base for the King's Lord Lieutenants and was (temporarily) renamed "The King's Manor".

Next to the Nidaros Cathedral and Archbishop's Palace was the Trondheim Museum of Art, but after seeing the statues out front, we decided to skip it. There was more impressive art just placed around the city.

Trondheim City Hall entrance

We decided to check out the smaller Vår Frue kirke (Our Lady's church), the oldest part of the church dates from the 12th century. It is now a haven of support for those that need it in Trondheim, serving coffee and providing shelter.

We grabbed some local pastry and drinks and had a little picnic in a cute little park called Stiftsgården... Turns out it's the garden of Scandinavia's largest wooden palace with 140 rooms. I think I'll just remember the palace as being closed that day. Instead we got to enjoy a small group of men passing around a bottle, and a group of teenage girls doing an impromptu selfie photo shoot.

We headed back to our room, and as soon as we connected to WiFi I had a message from Avis. They couldn't fulfill our rental agreement because the vehicle is not available. It is now 5:30pm the day before we arrive, aaaaaaarrrrrgggghhhh. I found out Avis, had an office in Trondheim, and it closed at 6:00. I ran over there and met a very nice lady who offered to try and help. Turns out the great deal I had arranged was for a moving van, and they don't have any of those where we are going, and apparently they don't have any cars available now. After pleading my case, the lady phoned the head office, and worked out a deal all in Norwegian. I don't know what she said, but she promised that there would be a car waiting for me when we arrived at the Lofoten Islands airport. Whew!!!

Feeling much better, we headed back out to find somewhere to eat. I probably failed to mention this, but the largest chain restaurants that we saw in every city in Norway was not McDonald's or Burger King, it was T.G.I.Friday's, they were everywhere, in Oslo there was at least 3, here in Trondheim we saw 2 of them. We decided to skip TGIF and went to a cute little place called To Rom og Kjøkken (Two Rooms and Kitchen). I can honestly say that TGIF would not have even come close to our dinner that night.