After the moose-park we continued up to Alfta. The next day the weather was nice so we headed to Galven, but after lunch it turned a little bit too chilly even for the kids. After celebrating my brother’s birthday we started our trip to Norway. Our first stop was Röros, a former mining village that is on the Unesco World Heritage list. At the cabin for the night, we had a trampoline, which was great for the kids after a full day in the car.
The next day we were ready for the amazing landscape; waterfalls, scenic views and serpentine roads. First we climbed up Trollstigen, a serpentine road with 11 hairpin turns on the mountain wall. We made it all the way up but unfortunately we could not see further than an arms-length at the top.
We continued to drive and the sun came out and we could have lunch with a view.
We took a ferry over a fjord in order to get to our next stop, Geiranger, a village at the end of the fjord which often is pictured as representing the Norwegian fjords with a huge cruise-ship anchored in the middle. Then we climbed out of the fjord and waded in water from a glacier before we climbed to 1500 meters above sea level to Dalsnibba with yet another amazing 360° view.
I do not know how many tunnels we went through during our 5-day trip, we lost count the 2nd day. However, what we do remember is the feeling of coming out of every tunnel surrounded by new mountains or looking at new fjords or small cabins up on the hillside.
After settling in our cabin for the night, Mark, Jesper and I took a walk up to a glacier. Cool feeling standing in the middle of the mountains look at the glacier.
Our 3rd Unesco site was the Urnes stave church just outside Sognedal. We took a break from the car and jumped on to a train in Flåm that took us up the mountain, 864m. It was an old train that squeaked in every turn so they should have given you earplugs with the ticket.
The 4th day, Bergen was on the agenda. The kids wanted to do a treasure hunt up at Mt. Floyen, the highest point in Bergen. It turned out that it was a fairly challenging walk with a vague map, but we made it and the kids were rewarded with a “Bergen” yo-yo each….
We drove over Hardangervidda on our way to our last night in Geilo. A very different landscape but as captivating. On our way to Olso, the next day, roadwork took us on smaller roads, passing Utöya where the massacre occurred just 2 weeks earlier. Very sad and unreal.
In Oslo we picked two museums to visit, the Viking museum and the Kon-Tiki museum. Then we drove all the way back to Västerås, completing our 2500 km road trip.
I think I took over 500 pictures during this trip.
