Tag Archives: road trip

Road trip Scandinavia: Day 15 (Oslo)

Yesterday I set my alarm to 10:00, but of course I could not sleep later than the usual hour, and by the time it actually went off, we were already on our way to the city centre. We passed by The Royal Palace and its gardens, the University of Oslo, the Nationaltheatret (and its interesting fountain), the Nobel Peace Center, and walked along the Aker Brygge neighbourhood.

After a coffee and a pastry, we continued our tour by visiting the Rådhuset (Town Hall). I did not go inside when I was here a decade ago, so it was also something new for me (and I really liked it).

From here we went to the Akershus Fortress, which was mainly interesting because of the panorama from its walls.

Then we crossed the old square of Christiania Torv on the way to the Østbanehallen (a food court in the refurbished old part of the Central Station), where we had a small lunch (wrap/sandwich). The next sight was the Opera House, which was again new for me too. Here we walked up the blindingly white roof and also had a look inside. It would have been better without all the construction cranes around, but I still managed to get a few OK pictures.

The last stop of the day was the Mathallen, which is another food court, situated in an upcoming, hip/trendy area of the city. Since it was only around four on the afternoon, I could only finish half of the pad thai portion, but we brought the rest (along with a citron merengue) back to our apartment for “dinner”. On the way back we walked along the Karl Johans gate (where it even rained a little), and only stopped for an extra smoothie before calling it a day.

Odometer reading at the end of the day: 3359 km (we did not drive today).

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Road trip Scandinavia: Day 14 (Lillehammer – Oslo)

Yesterday evening I was so tired that (for the first time) I probably fell asleep before Clio did. This morning we slept till 09:00, then had breakfast before heading out for a short walk through downtown Lillehammer into the rain. It is a pity for the weather, but at least we finally managed to get the spatula with a Marius pattern in blue that Clio was looking for since we arrived to the country.

After a bit of drying up back in our room, we checked out around noon, and started driving towards Oslo. Instead of heading straight towards the capital, we took the scenic route, following road 250 to Dokka, road 245 to Jevnaker, and the E16 to Sandvika. Unluckily it was raining almost constantly, except for the last kilometres, so we did not get the opportunity to stop along the road for a nice pick-nick (just for the usual hot dog at a tank station). It is a bit of a shame, because we passed many beautiful lakes and forests. It was also quite a tiring drive, because the road until Jevnaker was constantly turning left and right (while going up and down), and on top of everything I also had to navigate around quite a few potholes, plus occasionally a few sheep with possible suicidal tendencies. In Oslo we are staying in the Saga Apartments, and we arrived just on time to take the last proper, covered parking spot.

After dinner we still went out for a short walk to the nearby Vigeland Park, to enjoy the sunshine (mixed with a few minutes of rain producing a nice double rainbow) and look at all the sometimes slightly strange sculptures of Gustav Vigeland.

Odometer reading at the end of the day: 3359 km (of which 208 km was today).

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Road trip Scandinavia: Day 13 (Hiking in the Rondane, and the Ringebu stave church)

Today we went hiking again, this time in the Rondane National Park. The route, which was considerably flatter than the ones from the previous hikes (details on Strava), started just a few kilometres from our hotel, at the end of a short toll road (to Spranget). We followed some narrower paths along the small river (sometimes through bushes, moors, and small streams) on the way to the Rondvassbu hut, which is situated at the Rondvatnet lake.

There I still “climbed” a bit higher to be able to take pictures from above, before we got something to eat and drink inside (hot chocolate and a waffle with strawberry jam for me, coffee and a slice of banana bread for Clio). On the way back we took the much easier main gravel road, which ran a bit higher on the other, Eastern side of the river.

The scenery was very beautiful, I think this is my favourite from the Norwegian National Parks that we have visited (it is also the oldest one of all). We saw quite a lot of birds (at one point almost stepped on one), but unluckily no larger animals. As it might be also visible on the pictures, the beginning of the day was nice and sunny, but then it became more and more cloudy towards the afternoon.

After the hike we drove to Ringebu first to visit another stave church, then further all the way down to Lillehammer. We are staying in the Scandic Victoria hotel, but for most of the evening it was raining quite hard, so we only went out for dinner (to the Heim Gastropub, which was great). Tomorrow we can finally sleep a bit longer, if everything goes according to the plan.

Odometer reading at the end of the day: 3151 km (of which 137 km was today).

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Road trip Scandinavia: Day 12 (Hiking the Knutshøe, and the Vågå stave church)

This morning our alarms got us out of bed already at 07:50, because we needed enough time to have breakfast and prepare our lunch packs for the day’s hike. The Bessheim mountain lodge was a bit more expensive than our average hotel, but their food selection was definitely very nice. After check out we only had to drive 6 kilometres to a nearby parking lot along the National Tourist Route, before putting our hiking boots on and heading into the Jotunheimen National Park.

Instead of the overly popular and always busy Besseggen hike, we decided to do a loop a bit more to the South (see details on Strava). The route first climbed the Knutshøe, then descended following the ridge towards the West, while on the way back it led us through the more-or-less flat river basin just to the South of it.

There were two difficult climbing sections on the way up, first getting onto the ridge (where there were even ropes that we could use as support), then just before the peak (where we had to climb through a series of quite narrow ledges). We started in warm and sunny weather, but as we got higher the sky became covered by a thick layer of high clouds, and a strong, cold wind started blowing from the West.

After we descended to the valley below the weather became better again, but we still had to keep an extra layer on, because this area was also popular among mosquitoes. We had a repellent spray with us, because I expected this part of the hike to be a bit problematic, but they were still annoying.

We arrived back to the parking almost 6 hours after we started, and I am not ashamed to admit that it is not only Clio who was tired. After a not so quick change of shoes we started our drive down into the valley where we came from the day before, then follow the road further to the East. We stopped in Vågå for the stave church and a burger, before continuing to the edge of the Rondane National Park.

We are staying in the Rondane Høyfjellshotell tonight, and we have one of the two rooms that have the best view towards the mountains :)

Odometer reading at the end of the day: 3014 km (of which 115 km was today).

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Road trip Scandinavia: Day 11 (Views around Geiranger, and the Lom stave church)

Yesterday – due to the lack of internet connection – even I went to sleep early, so this morning the alarm at 08:30 was not at all so unbearably painful. I was a bit grumpy because the weather was still cloudy and rainy, but the satellite images looked promising.

As we started driving further on the National Tourist Route we still got a few drops of rain, but then the clouds started to dissolve, and we could already see some blue sky upon our arrival to the first proper viewpoint (Ørnesvingen) above Geiranger. The view towards the bend of the fjord below was definitely special.

From here we descended into the village through a series of hairpin curves, where I unlocked the ‘climb back up in reverse through a 180 degree curve’ achievement while letting an ascending bus pass. Geiranger was at the time pretty much overflown by the tourist groups from the two cruise ships that rose high above the narrow harbour. We had a small lunch break here, before starting our drive out of the valley. Our next panorama point was at the Flydalsjuvet. Again, very pretty, with even more blue sky.

But the road went on even higher, and soon the trees were replaced by rock and snow. We took the toll road up to the Dalsnibba Mountain Plateau, from where you could look down into the green valley of the fjord to the North, and over the snow covered peaks to the South. It was only 5°C up here, so we made good use of all the layers we had.

As we reached the end of the National Tourist Route and turned East, the scenery changed drastically: we left the narrow valleys and rugged mountains behind, and entered a more open, wide river basin. The meltwater had different shades of deep blue and green, first surrounded by pine forests, then agricultural areas as we drove further down.

A good hour later we arrived to the stave church of Lom. What can I say, this was another pretty wooden church, and we were OK with that :)

Soon afterwards we turned South towards the Jotunheimen National Park, taking another National Tourist Route into the mountains. This is a very different area compared to the ones we have seen to the West, with less vegetation, and much more open space.

Tonight we are staying in the Bessheim Fjellstue, and the buffet dinner was delicious (and we both ate way too much of it). Before going to sleep, we still drove to the starting point of tomorrow’s hike to see the scenery under the evening lights too.

Odometer reading at the end of the day: 2899 km (of which 220 km was today).

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