Never Borred

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!

dsc09722 dsc09725

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.

dsc09732 dsc09751

dsc09752 dsc09754

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.

img_0389 img_0394

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!

Two Stave Churches, Sun is out!

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.

dsc09680 dsc09681

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

dsc09685 img_7432

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.

dsc09693 dsc09688

dsc09687 dsc09691

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

dsc09697

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

dsc09718 dsc09720

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.

dsc09708 dsc09714

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.

img_0380

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.

img_0382

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

Rain rain, tunnel tunnel, Snow!

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!

dsc09617 dsc09621

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.

dsc09642 dsc09651

img_7323 dsc09648

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

img_0298 img_7179

Rainbows were everywhere, just disappearing into a lake.

img_7306 img_7363

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

img_0307 img_7399

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.

img_7416

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

img_0317 img_0318 img_0322

Tomorrow we’ll push on to Kristiansand.

Singing in the Rain

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

img_0221 img_0223

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.

img_0226 img_0230

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

img_0246 img_0251

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

img_0273 img_0281

Yep… out in the rain again.. singing!

img_0282 img_0283

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

img_0284 img_0287

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

Stranded

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.

img_0199 img_0197

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.

img_0200 img_0202

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!

img_0204 img_0206

But we made it to Bergen! Yippee!

img_0186 img_0185

The Urnes Stave Church

So we left a wet Valdalen and headed towards our next location, the Urnes Stave Church. Just before we could get going another warning light in the car about Oil, so we stopped off near a garage (which was closed) and ended up buying oil in a local supermarket!

img_1877 img_0151

The rain was fairly persistent and so by the time we arrived at the port to take the ferry across it was already getting darker, so we decided to find a hotel and venture there next morning.

img_0153 img_0159

The hotel we stayed in was rather odd, no TV in the rooms and they were very expensive. People looking at you strangely as though we were somehow from another planet, not just English. However,  it was right next to the ferry! Next morning things were looking slightly brighter and we got across.

dsc09567 dsc09582 dsc09610

dsc09606 dsc09583 dsc09608

It was quite fantastic and we were extremely impressed with how they had managed to keep it preserved. And so onto Bergen…

 

It’s a Troll’s World

One thing we’d noticed, they do love their Trolls in Norway and we were about to venture into areas named heavily after them. Trollkirkedalen and Trollstigen were our next stops.

img_0121 img_0127

img_0131 img_0134

Up we climbed, a fantastic view point from up here, and some lovely caves at the end which we’ll let you discover for yourselves!   Onwards to Trollstigen, a famous mountain road!

dsc09478 dsc09485

dsc09496 dsc09505

dsc09511 dsc09532

dsc09537 img_0144

Shaun gets to relax after managing to drive our tiny, but heavy, VW Polo 1.2 up this road. One of the most demanding mountain roads which as you can see has not been built with our car in mind!

Still our ‘little baby’ as Shaun calls it, managed to get us to the top for some absolutely stunning views. Norway have outdone themselves here, and the visitor centre at the top is a fantastic (with ice winds) place to get any vantage point of the Trollstigen highway.

A while later, non-alcoholic beer, pizza, and off to our beds in the toy-like hotel we picked.

img_0145 img_0146 img_0147 img_0150

 

The Atlantic Road

We left Oppdal next morning and the weather was looking a bit grim…

img_0094

Still we had about 100 miles to cover before we got to Kristiansund, which is the northernmost point we would be reaching on this trip. It also happens to be not too far from the famous Atlantic Road.
Although the weather was a bit overcast, it did begin to pick up just a bit.

dsc09145 dsc09153

There were stunning views all the way.

dsc09268 dsc09291

We stopped for a quick ‘team’ photo and a break.

dsc09338 dsc09380

Yep – we’d got to the Atlantic Road!

dsc09392 dsc09402

dsc09409 dsc09422

That last one is Kristiansund just as we went to bed, more Atlantic Road photos from the following day below. We now headed on to Trollstigen another wonder road up a mountain!

dsc09439 dsc09451

dsc09452 dsc09457

img_0119 img_0120

Bye bye wonderful road!

The high ride to Oppdal

We left the lovely old Winter Olympic city early and headed up north towards Oppdal.
Definitely gloomier today, very overcast and a bit more chilly. We were certainly heading higher up too and after about an hour on the dual carriageway we started to ascend up the mountains.

dsc09039 dsc09054

This makes for much slower progress, as not only are you on smaller roads, but you just keep stopping every 5 minutes to look at the fantastic scenery!

We found a nice spot, parked up and got the beans on!

dsc09109 dsc09112

dsc09113 dsc09119

And so continued the beautiful scenery…

dsc09122 dsc09131

Time was flying now and so we decided we didn’t fancy getting stuck here in the middle of literally nowhere – so we headed towards Oppdal and here she is…

img_0088

Whoops, no that is us jut enjoying a nice cool (non-alcoholic) beer. Here is Oppdal…

img_0091 img_0093

Good night!