PART 2

 

Saturday 9 June 2012

Sogndal - Geiranger: 213 km

 Today we are leaving Sogndal. There is some discussion about the room rate, because owner claims that the price we were quoted on the reservation website is only for one night and not two. But we stick to the text of our confirmation e-mail and get our way in the end. Unpleasant. We drive North, the route we did yesterday to Fjærland. This time we pass by Fjærland and go through yet another tunnel. We head for Skei on the banks of lake Jølstravattnet. It is a small town and we have a coffee - not so picturesque - at the Esso service station. We continue our route North and via a couple of tunnels get the  Innviksfjord. We drive around the fjord's Eastern end. The scenery is very beautiful. Traffic becomes a bit heavier as we are driving on the E39, a larger throroughfare. We see a lot of Dutch cars, most of them campervans. On the other side of the Innvikfjord is Stryn, a  "busy" touristy place which we drive through in a hurry. We now follow route nr 15 veering East. We drive along beautiful lake Strynevattnet and the road keeps climbing passing through a number of tunnels. On our right hand side we see branches of the Jostedalbreen glacier. After yet another tunnel we find ourselves on a mountain plateau in a snow covered landscape. We are now in the province of Oppdal. The roads have been cleared, but here too, high walls of snow line the both sides of the road. At a rest stop we stop for making pictures. The sun is shining and although temperatures are around 4°C/40°F it feels a lot like summer. We leave route 15 and turn left into the narrow route 63 along the mountain lake Djupvattnet. The lake is still frozen and thick layer of snow covers the ice. We are not allowed to stop here, because the road is too narrow. We pass the turn off for Mount Dalsnibba, the highest peak around here and with 1500 metres ((4900ft) one of the highest in the country. The sun is high up in the sky and there is no cloud. Still at this level of elevation it is only 4 degrees. The we start the descend towards the Geirangerfjord. Some 5km before the village of  Geiranger we get to our hotel, the Villa Utsikten, with spectacular views of the fjord below and the cruise ships in it. We have to wait for 15 minutes for the room. Unfortunately there is no elevator ("our hotel was built in 1893 and there were no elevators back then") and the room is tiny, has no tv (1893?), but does have two very comfortable beds. Utsikten is a classic hotel from 1893, that opens only in the summer months. Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany visited regularly. He visited Geiranger 18 times and on 9 occasions he stayed at this hotel. In front of the hotel is a memorial on the spot where the monarch must have enjoyed the same view we are seeing now. After a short break we go down to the village. The mv Eurodam of the Holland America Line is in the fjord and the place is heaving with tourists. Busses come and go taking cruise passengers on their day trips. We do some shopping at the Joker supermarket and have a coffee at a café near the water. Around 5pm we sit down for dinner at the brasserie in hotel Geiranger at the waterfront. The ships are leaving and a soothing quiet returns to the village. We go back to our hotel to watch the match Netherlands against Denmark. What a disappointment: 0-1! Later in the evening Germany plays against Portugal, but not broadcast on the open net. We have to drive down to the village to watch in the lounge of the Hotel Unionen – passing ourselves off as hotel guests. Germany wins with some diffulty with 1 goal to nothing. Much to the relief of the German guests who watching with us. 

Weather: sunny, up to  21°C/70°F

 

Zonday 10 June 2012

It is very foggy outside when get up in the morning. We have breakfast and late some coffee in the lounge. The view has totally gone. Around 9.30 we get some vieuw on the fjord and we can see that there are two new ships in the fjord. We decide to visit the Fjord Centre first. It is a kind of regional museum showing regional history. The Geirangerfjord is a  UNESCO-world heritage site. The museum has many scale models of cottages that should give an impression of - the poverty of - daily life in this part of the world. There is also a great slide show, showing the region through the four seasons in the year. After the fjord centre we do some shopping for our lunch. In the hotel room we make our sandwiches. After that we go to the Flydalsjuvet, a hanging rock overlooking the fjord. It is one of the most photographed spots in Norway. Then take our chances with a drive up mount Dalsnibba. After some kilometers of ascent the fog gets really dense. At some stage vision is reduced to 100 ft. When we go up a little bit more visibility gets better. We turn left for the toll road up to the lookout on the summit. The fog seems to subside even more. The road is lined with enormous walls of snow. The final part of the road is gravel instead of tarmac. When we reach the summit we don't see any view at all. Just fog. We return to the hotel.

Later in the afternoon we do a short walk to the mountain farmstead of Vesterås.

At night we eat at the same brasserie at the waterfront after which we return to the hotel to watch Spain against Italy: 1-1.

Weather: fog, heavy cloud. 14°C/57°F.

 

Monday 11 June 2012

Geiranger - Åndalsnes: 84km

After breaktfast we enjoy another capuccino in the hotel lounge. Today too, there is a lot of low hanging cloud, however, we our view of the fjord is not impaired. We continue our journey northbound. First downhill to Geiranger and then up again via the  Ørnevegen, or Eagle Road. 11 hairpin curves lead us up to a grand and modern lookout with yet another breath taking view of Geiranger and its fjord. We are soon joined by some bus loads of cruise passengers which is our cue to move on.  We reach a plateau, which is cloudy, but visibility is good. After some 20km we start the descent towards Eidsdal, where we will cross the Norddalsfjord by car ferry. After a 5 minute wait the crossing does not take more than a quarter of an hour. We carry on via theValldal valley. Some 7km into the valley we stop at the Gudbrandjuvet, where we have a good view of a fast flowing rapid, from a handsomely designed bridge. After a while the roads starts to climb up to the  Trollstigplatået, a snow covered plain up in the mountains. Here we are hoping for the spectacular views on the summits of the Bispen (Bishop)) and the Kongen (King) mountains at a height of 1462 and 1614 meters (4796 and 5295ft) respectively, but low clouds shroud them into invisibility. In fact the fog is so dense that a times we can hardly see more than 50 meters in front of us. This is why we miss out on the first part of the spectacular Trollstigen ("Troll's staircase"), the winding road descending into the direction of Åndalsnes. We cannot see a thing. Half way down and about 6 six hairpins behind us we starting to get an impression of the amazing piece of road engineering. Also the Stigfossen waterfall is now visibly gushing down into the valley.

Once down it takes another 15 minutes towards the Trollveggen campsite, where we have rented a hytt (cabin or cottage). It is a small, but comfortable house with shower, toilet, kitchen, bedroom and living room. It even has a tv mounted to the wall. We make ourselves at home before we venture out to the town of  Åndalsnes. There we do some shopping for dinner, breakfast and tommorow's lunch. We then take a look around. It is not a very seeworthy place, that has 3,500 inhabitants. It was heavily dammaged during the Second World War and reconstruction has not blessed the town with too many architectural gems.  The is a cruise ship moored in the towns harbour, the Costa Pacifica owned by the same company that lost a ship off the Sardinia coast (Costa Concordia) earlier this year. We drink coffee at the hotel Rauma with a view on the town hall, sporting its key values on the facade: Opmerksom, Ekte & Samarbeidsvillig (Attentive, Real and Cooperative). That probably took some hard thinking. At the tourist information inside the railway station we ask directions to the Rødven stave church. That is a good 35 km drive around the Romsdalfjord and than some way up North. A very scenic drive. The 14th century church is an original Stave Church, one 28 left in all of Norway. It has been done up a bit i 1712. Unfortunately it is not open for visitors until mid June. So we drove all this way for nothing. Why did the guy at the tourist office not bother to mention this? We drive back to our hytt.

Erik makes us a tasty rice dish and we water it down with a beer. After dinner we take stroll over the campsite and around. Unfortunately no football for us tonight, because we can only receive the three public Norwegian networks and it is not their turn to show a match tonight. 

Weather: overcast, 11°C/34°F.  

Tuesday 12 June 2012

Åndalsnes - Ålesund: 127 km

We have breakfast in our cottage and then drive into Åndalsnes for coffee at the Rauma hotel. After coffee we drive to Ålesund. It is a straigthforward route, without much curves and we get to the Scandic Hotel around noon. The hotel has see front views which come with a forcefully blowing wind. We first finish our sandwiches and then stroll up to the  Jugendstilcentre. Alesund was burnt down in 1904 and was subsequently reconstructed in a Norwegian version of Jugendstil or Art Nouveau. Jugendstil or Art Nouveau was all the rage in Europe with progressive designers who tried to get away from the historising neo-styles of the late 19th century. Norway had become a fully independent Kingdom in 1905, which explains the Norwegian nationalist twist designers attempted to add to their designs. This is cleary visible in Ålesund's town centre. We walk into down town and admire the houses and buildings and even the 1920 Church. After that we take the care up to the Askla lookout point up the hill. The view of the town and the archipellago is great. 

At night we eat at Hummer & Kanari. Decent food and not too expensive by Norwegian standards. I go to the hotel gym for some exercises. At 8.45 we watch Poland play against Russia: 1-1.

Weather: dry with some cloud. 12°C/54°F

Wednesday 13 June 2012

Ålesund - Oslo - Bodø: almost 2 hrs flight

Breakfast with harbour view followed by coffee at a café down the street. We take the car for a drive to theAtlanterhavspark near the aquarium. We enjoy the fine views of the Norwegian Sea and the islands around Ålesund. The sea breeze makes it chilly.We drive back and prepare for our departure to the airport. From the city centre two long tunnels put us on the island of Vigra, where we find the airport known by the same name. We are in good time and have to wait for the check in counter to open up. We drop off our bags the booth for Norwegian.com and go through security. The flight to Oslo takes 45 minutes. We arive there half an hour early, which gives us more time to change flight to Bodø. The flight to Bodø leaves at 5.25pm. We arrive around 6.35. The Audi A4 combi rented from Hertz is ready for us and our bags don't take long to follow us. We drive into town to the Youth Hostel, which is fine enough. It is based in the building of the Railway station. Our double room includes sheets, towels and breakfast and has en suite shower and toilet and even our own tv set. We hurry out again to find something to eat. We stumble upon Café du Verden. It looks nice, but the wait for the food takes forever. More than an hour. We are in a hurry, as we want to watch the Dutch team in their second match (against Germany). We goble it down in a hurry - it tasted great, such a pity we had no time left to enjoy it. Then we are of to the  Match Bar, where the match can be watched on a giant screen. The entire bar is supporting the Netherlands, but to no avail. The Dutch are defeated fairly and squarely by 2 goals to one.

Disappointed we walk back to the Hostel. 

Weather: in Ålesund cloudy and 12°C/54°F graden; in Bodø light cloud and 9°C/48°F .

Thursday 14 June 2012

Bodø - Reine: 3,5 hrs by ferry

We have breakfast in the Railway Station Restaurant next to the Hostel (included) and go out to find a supermarket.  Bodø has quite a few: all the big Norwegian chains (Rimi, Rema2000, Coop) are represented. After the shopping we drive to the ferry port to line up for the of Torghatten's carferry to the Lofoten islands. We have made an online reservation, so we can line up in the fast lane. The ship sails at 11.15 for Moskenes. It is a smooth crossing. We entertain ourselves with some reading and enjoying the views. We go past small islets and pass fisher boats and the odd dolphin. In the distance the Lofoten rise up from the sea. At 2.30pm we arrive at Moskenes. The sharp snow capped mountains seem to stick out directly out of the water. There is only a very narrow stretch of land around them with just enough space for tiny fishing communities. It is just a few minutes' drive to Reine, where will stay at Det Gamle Hotellet owned by Lilian Dijkema, a Dutch woman who has lived here for ten years. From our bedroom window we have picture perfect view off the sea, the mountains and racks with drying cod. Later in the afternoon we have a coffee at the local café cum flower shop and walk around the village. 

At night we have dinner at Reine Rorbuer’s restaurant Gammelbua. Delicious food. Ik have a Lange (Ling), which tastes similar to cod and Erik has beef. 

Weather: dry and sunny 9°C/48°F

Friday 15 June 2012

We have breakfast at the neighbours of Reine Rorbuer (discount for Gamle Hotellet guests). It is well prepared buffet with meats, cheeses, sausage, hering and the typical Norwegian gammelost (old cheese). After breakfast we head for Å the southernmost village of the island of Moskenesøya. We first drive past the village through a tunnel towards the most southern tip of the island. From there we have nice views of two other islands that cannot be reached by either bridge nor tunnel: Værøy en Røst.  Å consists of only Rorbuer, that form a hotel, a youth hostel and a fisheries museum. A Rorbu is a wooden cottage, most of them partly built on poles over the water, where seasonal fishermen who came over from the mainland could stay overnight during the cod season. A situation that persisted well into the 20th century. The fishermen had to pay dearly for the privelage and could only do so buy handing over part of their catch. These days Rorbu have been converted into holiday cottages. The museum is only mildly interesting and badly presented. We can taste some real cod liver oil there. It tastes ghastly. After that we drive to Sørvågen, where we do a grand walk around a lake. The views of the mountains are stunning. In the afternoon we drive North to Hamnøya. This is a quaint fishermen's hamlet with typical clapboard houses painted in mandatory yellow, red, white and light green. Next is Ramberg, which has its harbour on the Atlantic side of the island. A few miles beyond Ramberg is Flakstad with its fine 18^th century church. Unfortunately we cannot visit before 26 June. We carry on to Njusfjord. The village lies on a cove on the continental side of the Lofoten. It is very picturesque, so much so that they charge an entrance fee for walking around the village. The rorbuer are original 19th century and are rented out. The village is worth the 50 kroner a head. Having seen it all we drive back to Ramberg, where we have dinner in the Gjestegård. The food (cod and lamb) tastes excellent and after dinner we install ourselves in front of the TV to watch the football: Ukraine vs France. The game is suspended some 5 minutes into the match because of thunder. After an hour the game is resumed. France beatst the Ukraine with 2 goals to nil. After the match we drive back - in broad daylight - following the winding roads to Reine. We are some way beyond the Polar Circle and it is almost midsummer. So the sun does not set at all. Not even some twilight time. The sun shines directly into our bedroom at 2am. Our curtains here in Reine are made of white cotton and have decorative value only. It takes some getting used to.

Weather: sunny, 12°C/53°F.

 

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