Norway

---

Marstrand - Lillesand/Norway


8:05 am Wednesday
Departure finally. Weather’s cleared up but the winds are nearly like yesterday. After breakfast we departed Marstrand where we had alot of shelter. Motored out and put up the main sail early in the morning. Winds are cold. Val has been under the weather. Very sea-sick. I’ve just been sleeping. Lars put a plaster for sea-sickness behind my ear last night. A bit tired.

13:30 pm
Winds died out so we.ve taken in the genoa and are motoring for awhile. Our heading is Norway, ETA Mandal approx 12 hours.

00:40 am Thursday
We didn’t make it to Mandal. Half way thru the afternoon the waves started to pick up and were about 3 - 4 meters high. The front of the boat hit so hard that everything shuddered. We took in a reef but still the boat was having a bad time. Lars decided to get to shore asap. He found a small cove which is East of Kristiansand. We came in the dark and dropped anchor. We had a small meal of Gulasch soup and crashed for a few hours. Val finally got some food into him, thank God.


List of ports:

10th May Lillesand/Norway - Tananger

11th May Tananger (outside Stavanger - Bergen


Bergen - Norway

12th May Saturday

This morning after breakfast we moved Val into the smaller cabin. Before I sorted out the double cabin for Anne-Charlotte. We moved the boat over to the other side of the town. Val took a brisk walk to ask a Dutch boat called Safier, if they would mind us mooring on their side. They said it would be OK so Lars and I made our way over.
After lunch I caught the bus to the Airport. Anne-Charlotte was already there so we took the bus straight back. After she got settled in, we took a trip on the train to the top of Bergen and had a wonderfulo view of Bergen before us.
After dinner we all were tired after the long hours getting to Bergen and Anne-Charlottoe was also tired with all the traveling, so we all crashed out early.

Bergen

13th May Sunday

We all took it easy today. Took a walk around the town. Lots of hills and some very nice houses everywhere. Val went off for a very interesting walk up around the town. Checked out the restaurant where we are to have dinner this evening.
Made lunch, macoroni cheese, my style (or should I say Mum’s style). After we all had a kip but Lars fixed a couple of things. Around 19:30 we went to a restaurant called “Arti”. Our meal was reasonable but very expensive. Anne-Charlotte and I tried to find an ice-cream parlour but each time we tried they just closed. That happened twice but then we tried the 7 eleven and ended up with a lovely ice-cream. Tomorrow we start again on our journey. Our neigbours on Safier left after their passangers arrived. Hopefully we’ll see them again.


List of ports:

14th May Monday
Bergen to Bakkoeyna

15th May Tuesday
Bakkoeyna - Ortnevik

16th May Wednesday
Ortnevik - Flaam

9:45 am
Our journey to Flaam was amazing. So much to see. Waterfalls, small farms high up on mountain ledges. In the small harbour in Ortnevik we had three sides with new fallen snow from the night before. Many of the houses are still farmed, alot with fruit trees and fruit canes. Really lovely to see that they are not just used as summer houses. The scenic mountains around us are unbelievable. Sheer rocks with massive waterfalls. The tops full with snow and the sun shinning so bright it hurts the eyes. Val and Lars saw some kind of small whale, they think it was a dophin or a porpoise. Lars came in and woke me to tell be about them but of course they disappeared when I came out.


16:45
Flaam is the town at the end of the Sognefjord. Most of the town is further up the mountain. Here at the harbour are Hotel’s, souvenir shops the bus and train station. The train goes all the way to Myrdal. We plan on going on the tain tomorrow. Because we arrived so late alot of the shops like the Coop closed at 17:00 pm. Tomorrow is a holiday here. 17th May is celebrated as the Liberation from the Danes many years ago. We’ll have to see what is open tomorrow. We went for a walk. Even the restaurants close early here.

27th May Thursday

Flaam to Myrdal (by train)

Everyone got up early as we took the 10:05 am from Flaam to Myrdal. We had the train mostly to ourselves going up. There are 20 tunnels which were mostly done late 1900, some are really long and curl through the countryside. The sights from the train are amazing. Valley’s that were really deep. Waterfalls that were many meters long. As we got closer to Myrdal there was lots of snow. The lake up at the top looked frozen still. There were little houses up at the top and even a B & B. We crosses the tracks and took a walk across the snow. Mostly the smow was ferm but in pleaces where the sun shone on it, some of us sunk up to our backside. Anne-Charlotte was one of us that needed help. Lars took a photo of her praying for help to get out. We went down to the river which was running very fast. We finally got back to the station again and had some lunch. We got back on the train which left at 13:02. It was packed from a train that came from Oslo. Half way down, Lars and Val got off and walked the rest of the way, around 11 kilometers. Anne-Charlotte and I thought it was too far. It took them 2 - 3 hours to get back. Both were hungry and thirty. I made a late dinner and after we all watched the new Bond film. It’s late at the moment and I’ m having trouble sleeping again. Before I went to bed I put on the first bread for tomorrow. We’ll just have to see how it comes out. Maybe I should put the bread machine on alot more!

---

Comments

[Anne]

Fantastic start!
Hi Carol, Lars and guests - Have been looking at your pictures and reading your blogg. Its all fantastic and a great way of letting us all know what you are doing and where you are. Keep up the good work and enjoy all your travels. Love to all Anne xx

[Tony]

Lars
More like superman holding up the snow!.....tarzan would be a bit cold in his leather briefs.lol