Goodbye Norway

Here we are, back in Sweden, on the west coast, on the way to Gothenburg.  And it is warm here, feels like the tropics after the cold of Norway's fjords.

 We are staying at a campsite, called Dafto, by Stromstad, just inside the Swedish border.   Dafto is a five-star holiday resort with Daftoland, a theme park, next door.   We chose this camping ground because we had vouchers, but found they expired two weeks ago.  So we decided to stay anyway.  The resort is full of children, as Swedish children started their holidays two weeks ago, and Norwegian children started their holidays yesterday.

The pirate themed swimming pool, one of two.

 The themed restaurant.  Pirates again I think.  There are also plenty of activities as well.   Our grandchildren would have loved this resort but they are not here with us, sadly.  Holidays have not yet started in the Netherlands and in England.   And Australia, is just too far away.

 I think the water in the photograph below is sea water, as we are beside the coast. Perhaps an inlet.

Now I need to go back to yesterday, back to Voss, north east of Bergen.  A good start to the day. We put the mover on to take the caravan to the car.  This piece of equipment always impresses the neighbours.  And on Friday morning most were watching us.  As usual.

Then it was off on the E16, destination a campsite on the road to Oslo.  The E16 is one of the main roads between Bergen and Oslo, and the only road that remains open during the winter.  

We drove down towards one of the arms of the Sognefjorden, which is the narrowest and deepest fjord in Norway.  

 There is a railway line that goes down from Myrdal to Flam, a steep descent, very picturesque, and it is meant to be the third most visited tourist attraction in Norway.   The cost of the journey is about £60 return.   We  decided against the trip, after being ripped off at the Nature Centre.   

On the road down to Flam the scenery was beautiful, as was the fjord at the bottom.  The sides of the mountains rose out of the water, very steeply.  I would have loved to go on a cruise on this fjord.  But too late, we were heading out of the area.

 There was not even the slightest breeze so the reflections on the water in one of the small lakes was quite amazing.

 After Vlam, we started climbing uphill again.  And it was here that we drove through the longest tunnel in the world, 23 kms.  It had three rest stops, which were lit up to mimic daylight, to stop drivers becoming drowsy.  Very weird lighting.

 Then out into a valley, very peaceful.  More yellow buildings.
                                     
 After the steep roads, and the extraordinary long tunnel, we were ready for coffee, but there was nothing open anywhere.

A very welcoming place, great outdoor cafe, but the door was tightly closed.  The season has not started yet.   We should have known.

 I took this photograph of the mist covered snowy mountains.  And I thought sadly, that we were leaving them behind us.

But that was not the end of the snow.  Further on there was a sign to say the E16 was closed, no doubt for some much needed repairs, which they could do now that the higher roads were open.  And that was where we had to go, up onto a minor road, the 52.   So we climbed up, and up, until we came to the pass.

At first we saw only small huts that the famers used during summer but the houses became larger and greater in number and we realised that they were used in winter for cross country skiing.

And there was still plenty of snow too, up there on the pass.   The road was quite decent, and wide enough to pass oncoming traffic easily.

 Once we dropped down onto the 7, we went past a downhill ski resort.  Coffee time.  Unfortunately we chose to buy coffee at a service station.  It was undrinkable.  A great disappointment, as more than two hours had gone by since we first felt the need for a coffee.  Oh well.

So we continued on, with the road going downhill, and through many, many tunnels.  Norway must be experts on tunnelling, as they have tunnels that twist around and around, have roundabouts in them, climb uphill or go downhill, and go deep down under the Oslofjord even.  Some were brightly lit and others were so dark, they were quite scary.

We drove further than we planned, and eventually we stopped at a friendly little campsite on the edge of Tyrifjorden.  I reversed onto this pitch without hesitation.  But we needed to use the mover this morning due to another caravan that came in after us.  It was parked close beside us, and stayed hitched up to the car which hung over the road, just enough to block an easy exit.  Another chance to show off the caravan mover.

The view of the fjord.

 In order to celebrate our last night in Norway, I cooked the Norwegian's favourite takeaway, a hot dog wrapped in bacon.  Double fat there.    I only had enough bacon for two hot dogs, and I admit the bacon certainly complemented the hot dogs, which were a great improvement on English hot dogs.   On a positive note also, we could read that they contained 70% pork,  but all the other ingredients were unknown, thank goodness.

So this afternoon we left Norway, sadly.  We only saw a small part really, but it was beautiful, breathtakingly beautiful.  It was not a difficult country to tow a caravan in either, once you sorted out which roads to take, but most busy roads around fjords were best avoided, either in a motorhome or car and caravan, due to the narrowness, but connecting roads were fine.

An expensive country to visit, there was no doubt about that, but by planning carefully it was possible to lower the costs somewhat.  We found that by staying in camping grounds, buying food from local supermarkets and packing a lunch each day, lowered the cost immensely.  We also bought no alcohol, sparkling water or soft drinks.  Coffee was expensive, and we limited that to one a day.  People can free camp in Norway, and we could see that was a popular way of travelling the country.  If we still had our motorhome we would have done likewise.

But not everyone has a motorhome, or a caravan, or a tent, or the time to take such a long holiday as the distance to drive there, is great, even with the help of ferries.   I felt taking a coach tour of Norway would be tortuous, sitting in a coach for hours on end as it slowly drove around those twisty narrow roads.

However, taking a cruise would be the most relaxing and enjoyable way to see the fjords as the ships sail right into the remotest corners.  And there are plenty of cruises to chose from too.

For people, for whom money is plentiful,  staying in hotels and eating at restaurants is not a great problem.  But for most of us, Norway on a budget, takes much planning, ingenuity and organisation.

I must add before I forget, that most people speak English, which greatly helps us lazy English people.  Also the Norwegian language has many similaries to English, so translating signs and instructions is really easy.  Even the spoken language has similar inflections and words.  But then some of our English words have their origin in Norway.   A Viking legacy.

Goodbye to Norway, a beautiful and enthralling country.