We have finally recovered from our Norway Road Trip and are now happy to report the Gallery now open.

Do please go take a look and we hope you enjoy them.

We may post some more over time and will of course keep you informed if we do.

 

No not a spelling mistake, up early next morning as we had another possibly great Viking site to view in the town of Borre. So early in fact, they weren’t open yet!

 

What they found here was some 50 different sized burial mounds dating from between 600 and 1000 AD. They also had a wonderfully reconstructed Tall hall.

 

 

Inside the wonderful museum and the staff gave us a local history lesson about the area. This got us interested in going to look at a mound in Tonsberg where a Viking burial ship was found. This was one of the ships now on show at the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo.

 

Unfortunately all that is the left is the mound of grass and earth. Along the short walk from the road however they have these little guide points which tell you the story. It was such a nice day and we felt genuinely enlightened!

This was to be our last stop in Norway as we were taking the Horten to Moss ferry. Once we reached Moss, we then drove south to Uddevalla to let Shaun get his train back home. Shaun clearly emotional was welling up, so I quickly jumped back in the car and headed back towards London!

Well, it was a pretty nippy nights sleep, but what wonderful weather we woke up to. Luckily for us too there was a petrol station literally right next door to the hotel to give us a full tank to keep heading towards Kristiansand. Heddal has a Stave church and appeared to be on route, so we headed for it.

 

We just had to stop here and take in some of the view.

 

Don’t worry – we didn’t really break down, and as were driving along we just stumbled upon this Stave church in the most idyllic setting.

 

 

Truly remarkable how these things stay around for so long made of wood. There was a museum nearby, sadly closed.

So back in the car, and on we went to the Stave church we knew about!

 

This is Heddal Stave church and as you can see, she is very grand indeed. But unfortunately, it’s very touristy and most of the structure is not original at all. shame really. Still they had some original pieces inside.

 

So onwards towards Kristiansand, and what can I say, we drove in, looked around, and drove straight on! We had some burial mounds to find and after going through about 6 farms, up small side roads which looked suspiciously private and across a railway line, we ended up here.

Quite possibly our biggest waste of time yet on the trip, so we headed back to Sandefjord and stayed the night in the Clarion Collection hotel, which has a  ‘local pub for local people’ just next door. Don’t go in! Still the city centre was rocking for a Sunday night.

Well at least the Sun had returned, lets hope it stays that way for the remainder of the trip.

We left Bergen behind, heading towards Kristiansand on the south coast. We knew we’d have to stop somewhere on the way just didn’t know where that might be yet!

 

The rain over the past days (and still raining!) meant that the streams and waterfalls were now ravaging white water and this made us come across some wonderful sights.

 

 

Every now and again the darkness would set in as the rain came down.

 

Rainbows were everywhere, just disappearing into a lake.

 

Of course, never too far from a tunnel or 3! We actually went up very high on this route, through the snow topped mountains.

 

Our little 1.2L polo still riding high and not letting us down at any point. On we went and so started to descend from the snowy heights and ended up just as nightfall came in Bykle.

A small hotel simply called Bykle Hotell! Fantastic food, and compliments to the chef.

  

Tomorrow we’ll push on to Kristiansand.

So we stopped in Bergen for a couple of nights. And it rained the whole time.

 

So we decided to head indoors to the museums, most of which were pretty uninspiring, we found some Stave church bits, but most of the rest was very average and not worth the trouble.

 

Back out in the rain again… We were singing tho!

 

Museum again… Edward Munch (of Scream fame) exhibition – but only a draft of the picture.

 

Yep… out in the rain again.. singing!

 

Finally some Jumper shopping! Blimey those Norwegian prices are shocking!

 

What an end to our time in Bergen, Norway’s second city, still at least we got some jumpers as gifts.

As we left the church, the heavens opened up and it was now raining very heavily. When we got to the Ferry we realised it probably wasn’t going to be running so we’d have to go back on ourselves and all the way round the top of the lake to get us back on track towards Bergen.

 

On our way to Bergen in the pouring rain you’d think we would be happy to see a tunnel or two, but no, tunnels are very annoying and we went through the longest tunnel in the world apparently at 25km. This tunnel (and some others) have this occasional ‘blue light’ area which is the only things that keeps you awake! All in all we probably went through about 10-15 tunnels today.

 

Only in Norway would a little bloke be stuck up on a platform thing making sure the side of a mountain doesn’t come crashing down on the road below – in the pouring rain!
Just imagine being told you had to wait 22 mins before you could drive on – in London you’d get crucified!

 

But we made it to Bergen! Yippee!