Blogs from Bergen, Western Norway, Norway, Europe - page 19

First thing to notice about Norway is how expensive everything is. Take a beer from back home for example, about $3.50 maybe but over here for the same thing it is around $15 or more.. I am not even going to try and work out how much meat is by the kilo more than doulbe from back home though.. Other than the prices in Norway it is just awsome. I flew into Bergen on the West Coast and this city is supposed to get 275 days of rain a year but I lucked it and the three I was there was very hot actually so made for some great hiking around the mountains. The city is right on the water and it is pretty much surrounded by mountains. It doesn't seem like a really big city ... read more

Tuesday 2nd September Remind me not to be smug about the weather in future - it absolutely chucked it down today. Anyway loaded up the bike and set off for Ulvik via the old fjord road after nambying my way out of Bergen. Cobblestones may look nice but they are f*cking slippery when wet and the Norwegians seem to have found a super slippy white paint for them - which is nice. Anyway once out of Bergen, what a stunning ride (called route 7 I recall). The road follows a river, which periodically erupted in magnificent waterfalls, for about 20-30 miles before settling in and following Hardanger fjord's shoreline. Check it out on Google Maps - but plot a route through Alvik not Voss. If you think, “hmm that looks like it would be a good ... read more

Sunday 31st August Slept like a baby on the ship last night - an apt analogy: the continual rocking of the ship akin to a rocking cradle. I like ships - you can poke flying and the misery of airports, boats are the way to go. Sea is quite calm this morning, no more than ½-1 metre swell and it is a fair day. Sunnies are a necessity on deck, which is where I am sat writing this. To be fair it wasn't too bad last night either, so I must have misheard the tannoy. Nothing like that crossing of the Bay of Biscay where even the staff said it was really bad, Shame in a way. I guess I am a sick mother, but watching people try and remain dignified while wobbling down the aisles ... read more

I arrived back in Bergen Friday morning at 7am. I headed back to my dorm to pack and check out of my room. I had two more mountains to climb. After turning my keys in and leaving my stuff in Stephie's room, she and I headed to climb them. It was late afternoon when we started and it took about two hours to climb Lyderhorn. When we reached the bottom we were both exhausted and it was starting to get late. We decided to forgo climbing Damsgardsfjellet. Although I would have loved to climb all seven mountains I'm happy with the six I climbed. Stephie said that the last one was the steepest climb and most boring anyway. I guess I will just have to come back to Norway to complete the last of the seven. ... read more

Hello! Welcome to our first blog on our tour. We attempted to say farewell to the UK from a place of less than outstanding natural beauty by leaving on a ferry from Newcastle. Unfortunately, even South Shields was looking lovely in the sun, and a small tear was shed at the last sight slipping over the horizon (there maybe a touch of artistic licence there). After a night on board (during which we slept soundly and the crew were, apparently, seasick), we arrived in Norway expecting hot weather. It was pouring down and we couldn't see the tops of the mountains. However, despite this the scenery was stunning. Reminiscent of the west coast of Scotland, but on a larger scale, and without the midges. We transited through Stavanger and Haugesund, and went north along the scenic ... read more