Upon arriving at Bergen the next day around noon, Mark, Horst and I cycled to a nearby Youth Hostel and got settled. Not having really cycled for a couple of days, I was restless and spent some of my energy hiking up Mount Ulriken (the highest of the seven mountains surrounding Bergen) in the afternoon. We then had dinner (smoked mackerel, brunhost, bread and beer that Horst had brought over from the Shetlands) and I crashed for the night (though the sun never really sets at this time of year in Norway).

The next day was spent wandering around Bergen. I met with some Norse Trolls, tasted smoked whale meat, smoked eel and reindeer meat. The whole day was one of rest and acclimatization to Norway.

(... not to mention, "oogling" the pretty Sacandinavian women...)

The next morning, we were all itching to cycle. I was really keen on crossing over the mountains to Oslo, while Mark and Horst preferred to continue cycling the coast along the North Sea Route, so we parted company.

My route would take me, from sea level at Bergen, up to the Fillefjell Pass, some 1,200 meters in altitude and then down to Oslo at sea level.

It was a beautiful, sunny and warm day and the cycle went relatively well, the road being pretty level through some 30 odd tunnels. The scenery was just breathtaking...

The Norwegians sure love their tunnels ! It makes cycling a lot easier by smoothing out the road though some of the tunnels are pretty long (a few kilometers) and not all of them are ventilated or lighted. I took a fall in an unlighted 2 kms tunnel by slipping in a patch of mud in the dark... Cycled through and then spent some time cleaning a badly scraped knee... It wasn't so bad after all.

I cycled till about 7 PM and settled at Vors for the night. This whole day, I hardly gained any altitude...

Late in the evening, I met with a Norwegian who said he cycled from Norway to New Zealand the year before. He said that I'd have a bit of trouble ahead as there was a 30 kms long tunnel that was closed to bicycles (though he said he cycled it once it opened a few years back). He suggested that I cycle to Gudvangen and, from there, take a ferry to Laerdal thereby going around the tunnel. We talked till very late...

... so I had a bit of trouble getting up early in the morning and it was 9h30 AM before I started out.

The day was beautiful, the temperature must have reached 30 deg.C. and it was uphill most of the way. So when I reached Opheim and took a look at this lake it was very tempting to take a dive... but the water was ice cold.

In the early afternoon as I cycled through a Nature Park, my eyes were attracted by this unusually shaped mountain between Stalheim and Guduangen with a crystal clear stream seemingly seeping from it.

I finally arrived at Guduangen by mid-afternoon and took the ferry to Laerdal thereby avoiding a 30 kms long tunnel.

I arrived at Laerdal at the end of the afternoon and continued cycling uphill through a rugged mountain landscape making frequent stops to rest while taking photographs.

I arrived at Borlaug around 9h30 PM and crashed... Today I climbed about 500 meters.

Another beautiful day awaited me in the morning. The first 30 kms or so were climbing very steeply following rapids through a rugged gorge between the mountains and then smoothed out to the top of the pass. I gained some 600 meters and sweated every one of them, but man ! was the scenery grand ! I took a panorama and sat for a while just enjoying the view.

On the other side of the pass, the road followed another river that quickly swelled to form a long fjord along the receding mountains. There were many waterfalls and quaint little villages and I settled for the night at Leira.

When I got up the sun was shining but by the time I was ready to leave it was all grey and after 15 minutes of cycling it was pouring rain. So I changed into my rain gear and continued on. Fortunately it was all downhill. Around noon, the sun was shining again, so I stopped at a service station and changed again. The rest of the day was on and off rain, hot and humid. But since it never rained for more then 15 minutes or so, I hid and waited it out. Overall, the scenery was pretty blah ! in the rain, so I made good mileage and decided to spend the night at Honefoss.

After settling down, the local grocery was closed, so I ate at a hamburger joint. Can you believe a cheeseburger, fries, salad and a coke for the equivalent of C$20 ? Granted the burger was big... but not that big !

The next morning was again hot and humid with intermittent rain. Cycling towards Oslo, I had to hide under a bridge at one point for over half an hour from a torrential downpour. The route was basically up one mountain and down the other side. Anyway, I get to Oslo and am totally lost with no map. Oslo is all hills with streets going each and every way and many of them dead ends... I finally chance upon a Youth Hostel and decide to settle down here. It turns out to be about 10 kms from the center of Oslo and if tomorrow's nice, I'll have a bike ride downtown to visit.

Even modern day Viking soldiers aren't afraid of standing in front of a cannon !

The next day was sunny and hot, so I cycled to downtown Oslo and spent the day wandering around.

Heading south towards Sweden, I started the day cycling in the rain. The cycling wasn't bad and the scenery was OK along the Oslofjorden, nevertheless, it was slow going in the rain and I was cycling mostly along cycle paths since the parallel roads were forbidden to cyclists. Cycle paths are slower, the surface not being as good as that of a road. I reached Sarpsborg, just above the Swedish border, and decided to spend the night here. I'll crossover to Sweden in the morning.

Overall, Norway takes some getting used to...

The Norwegians are a very reserved people and the cost of living is sky high... Boy !... I thought England was expensive !...

Everything with a component of labour is expensive and the sales tax is in the order of 25%... Norwegians are protective to the point of paying more to buy local... though not everybody shares the same beliefs, since shopping trips to Sweden for liquor and tobacco, which carry indecent "sin" taxes in Norway, appear quite popular !

I have some trouble understanding their economic situation... They are rich with oil, have high taxes and a high cost of living, high inflation in the housing sector (prices doubled in the last decade)... Yet salaries aren't so high... but they appear to work short hours... which leads me to believe the workforce is inefficient and being subsidized. In fact, the Norwegians voted against joining the European Economic Union and I think partly due to the protection of their labour sectors...

I chose to cross the mountains from Bergen to Oslo through the Fillefjell pass... climbing about 1,200 meters and going through something like 30 tunnels... Man !, the Norwegians love tunnels... One of their longest is more than 30 kms long... and you have to be careful since some aren't ventilated and hence dangerous to cycle. I avoided the longest ones by taking a ferry ride around them, which gave me the opportunity to really take a look at the Norwegian fjords, which are fingers of water (whether ocean or inland) between closely packed mountains... And the mountains !... rocky and rugged... with innumerable waterfalls from melting snow and glaciers... just beautiful ! I now have a better understanding of the "cliché" Viking character.

But they are very reserved... much more than the Britts... and I found it nearly impossible to get into conversations with Norwegians... except on a few occasions when cyclists stopped to talk to me... This made Norway a rather lonely experience... but probably has yielded some of my prettiest photographs.