5 days in Norway

short001

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Ely, Cambridgeshire
Have a chance to go to norway (via Denmark ferry)
I only have 5 full days touring when I get there, and would want to fit in the best bits (or as many as possible)
Can anyone who has good knowledge of the country give me a idea of a 5 day route, staying in Huts/cheap accommodation.
Many thanks,
Davie Short.
 
Hi Davie!

Before I start to make a plan:
-Are you leaving the ferry in Oslo, and need to go back to Oslo?
-Weekdays or a long weekend?
-What time a year?
-Have you been here before; -do you want fjords or mountains? Hairpin roads? If ferries OK?
-Do you bring a sleepingbag?
-Do you want to ride fast all day, or do you want to stop often and have a look around - to take pictures and relax? -Do you know 80km/h if a little too fast on the funny roads? I write this so I do'nt give a slow plan to a fast man, or the other way around!

You see:
The schools holiday is from the last week in June to the last week in August, and in that time ''everybody'' is out!
So if you ride in that period you better make reservations for a place to sleep.
Is you are not here in that period you can have two plans;
-one for rain in the west (Bergen, Voss, Gudvangen, Lysebotn, Årdal)
-and one plan for not rain in the west.
The area south and west is absolutely the best, but not if it rains for five days. So a plan B can be useful...

If you can stand rain, if you got a good gear - then I'll say ''go west''.
And read my old posts in the travel section, ''over seas'' - I'm sure you'll find a lot of info there!

And I can help you, but I'm afraid not this weekend, if you can wait.
OK?

Welcome to Norway! :beer:
And do you like thunnels?

:) Liv.
 

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Hello Liv, thanks for your reply, and offer of help. I have given you time to recover from the weekend.
To give you a better idea of what we are doing I will answer your questions.

The plan is to for me and Macca (now he has a proper bike) get a ferry from Denmark to Kristiansand on the morning of Friday 9th June, after staying the night near the ferry in Denmark. (is there a ferry to Krist.)
I will have arranged overnight accommodation on the Friday in Kristiansand (distant family) and would want to start touring on Sat 10th (not till after lunch/hangover gone)
Would then tour Saturday until Thursday, but would want to be back in Kristiansand by 2pm at the latest on Thurs 15th. After staying another night we would get the ferry back early Friday 16th June.
We will be taking tents, and camping gear so wouldn't mind camping, or similar.
Never been to Norway before, and would like to do a bit of everything.
Dont want to spend too long on bike each day, 4 to 5 hours.
Going west sounds great, but a plan B would be good incase of rain.
How long does the ferry take to Kristiansand??
Look forward to a reply soon
Dave Short
 
Hi Dave!

A lot of useful info there! :)

You are making this easy:
It's in June (no school holiday),
and you bring a tent,
and everything over here is new for you! :)

I think the best thing for you is to:
A. Get a god map for Norway south of Trondheim, and make sure the area in the west (Bergen, Voss, Lysebotn, Gudvangen, Sognefjorden, Lom, Geiranger, Dalsnibba) is well covered.
B. Go in the direction of good weather every day! :)
Because most people who has not been in the west here before love it, no matter where they go.
And it won't be a problem to find a place to sleep, so you do not have to make reservations!

-Is this OK?

I can make a list with a lot of places / roads / areas that is good/funny for a man on a bike, and you can pick the route yourselfes, if that is OK?
But I can make you a route, if you like, but I think it's better you just ride where you want!

-Do you have a good map?
Scale 1:300 000 is good, and most gasstations here have good maps from Cappelen. You need two or tree of those maps to cover the area.

The ferry:
What company, from where in Danmark?
Color line?
Kopenhagen (København)?
Hirtshals?
There are not just one ferry...
And I don't know how much time it takes, but I guess the ferry company have a homepage on the 'net, so you can fin out.

I can make a route, if you like!
It is easy to make a route, but there are so many roads...
Have in mind some roads is not open in June if the spring is late, so I have to keep that in mind.

And a plan B: No rain.
I give you a key:
Often there are rain in the west, and sun in the east - at the same time!
The mountains is the key here; the weather are wery often coming from west / southwest, and if there are rain often it rains in the west, but not in the east, bacause of the mountains - the mountains stop a lot of the rain!
So if all the roads over the mountains is open, then you can go from east to west every day, and play with the clouds! You can't win every time, but often!
If the forecast say ''dry weather'' for the next five days; -go west! No doubt!
And if it says ''showers'' =(byger / regnbyger) -go west, because if the temperatur is high you'll dry up fast!

Oh; long letter!
Tell me what you want me to do!

Me and my boyfriend stayed at Lom for a weekend, and had daytrips every day - that was relaxing (sleep the same place every night) and fun, because we went in a different direction each day!
Perhaps that is a good idèa:
Go far the first day (or spend one night) and have a base for 3-4 nights, and then go back to Kristiansand?

Let me know what you want me to do!
If you want to go to Oslo then I recomand you to stay at FjordCamp, close to Oslo and my favorit cafè Tyrigrava the last night, because that is a wednesday night. Wednesdays evening/night I guarantee you more than hundred motorbikes (if it is not raining) are going to pass that campsite and go to Tyrigrava! And I'll be there!
Write ''Tyrigrava'' and click ''images'' at Google, and I'm sure you'll find pictures!

I'm glad to help!
Tell me what you want me to do! :)

:beer: Liv.
 
Plan C

Thanks for that huge chunk of information.
OK this is the plan. We get the ferry from Hirtshals to Kristiansand on the Friday (colour line 14.45 arrive at 18.15) cost €160 return (will get squaddie discount I'm sure, so even cheaper!)
[B]Can you please give me a list of places, roads etc[/B] and we will pick the route daily depending on the weather.
We will stay at Fjordcamp on the Wed night, hope it stays dry, and maybe see you there, will tie up nearer the time.
I have ordered the lonely planet guide book for norway, should be here in next few days.
Just need some good maps. Anyone recommend an internet site that sell them?
Roll on June.
 
5 Days in Norway!!

Hi Short, sounds good! here's a challenge for you. Blast up the E6 and see if you can make the Arctic Circle!! What you don't see on the way up you can see on the way down! Mmmm think of all that lovely strong coffee and Pylsur! :D
 
Do not do like Chris said beacuse:
That way you miss the good views, the hairpin roads, the most beatiful nature.
E6 is a boring road, most of us natives do not like it; when we got the time (like a holiday) we do not drive/ride there - we only use it to go fast from A to B.

I have lived here all my life and I'm not sorry that I have not drove E6 from Oslo to Polar Circle. But I have been on the small and narrow roads, and those I love!

http://www.hadelandlag.org/history/norway/current/2005HadE.htm
Try this link; some of the colored words are good links, and that way you can learn and surf.
This is a tour passing; Geiranger, Lom, Stalheim, Sognefjord and Voss.

I'll be back for a must-see-list, and a must-ride-roads-list.

-Did you read my old posts at ''over seas''? There is a lot of info there.

I'm sorry Chris, but I'm not agree your advice is good!
If you ride in 120km/h where the speed limit is 90km/h you may loose your driving lisense...
Speed cameras do not take pictures from behind, so they are not dangerous for motorbikes, but there are a lot of civil police, and the police often hides and get you when you think there are no danger - tourists too.

If you want to ride fast; go to Germany.

:) Liv.
 
Chris's advice is not good!

Hi Liv, you are exactly right! The E6 is not the best of roads to travel and Southwest Norway is the most fantastic place. I was only kidding and your advice as ever is spot on! If I wasn't going to Iceland again I would be in Norway! Oh and the Norweigians are very friencly to Scottish Bikers! We were asked to stay with a Norweigian Biker on two occasions, He apologised for not speaking because he thought we were German!! :D
 
The Scottich people are friendly to Norwegian bikers too! :beer:
''Been there, done that, got a kilt on my Scarver!'' :D

Some old people can not forget the war, so they do not like Germans - not fair!
And some in Europe do not like Swedes - and that I totally understand! :D
Swedes - they got Volvo and SAAB, we got oil and nature, and that is much better! :D
(OK, some swedes are OK, and some are nice. ...OK. I admit; they are great people, but we are alvays joking about the swedes! :D )

All bikers are welcome to Tyrigrava!
And to Norway!

:beer: Liv.
 
Germans

Glad to hear they hate Germans, me and Macca both ride bikes with German number plates (as we are Brit Soldiers serving in Germany)
Could be a quiet trip when noboby will speak to us !!!! :eek:
 
speed

As we live in Germany we are quite used to unlimited speed on the motorway, so it will be quite nice to have a chilled ride in Norway (we may even go slow on our bikes, woof woof! :D
 
Speed

Dont Know If I Can Go Slow.....Special Edition Is A Bit Faster :thumb Everyone Knows That.... ;)
 
Speeding in Norway is a No No!

Hi Short 1, as Liv says watch your speed, we saw the cops 'waiting' on several occasions and I must admit at 80kph you see so much more scenery! Oh and the roads are better than this part of Scotland, less potholes! Only saw one big one on the way to the Norkapp and it was filled in on our return! That long tunnel is amazing as is the old road over the top, complete with frozen lake, I'm sure theres a speed camera near the South end though and sure enough it's face on! My GSA is German too!! From Block Am Ring in Braunchweig or summat like that!! One of the most amazing thing about Norway is the Tunnels, they are everywhere and up to 15 or 16 miles long, some corkscrew others are deep, some are nice and light others are dark and scary but one thing about them all is that its not a good idea to ride into them with your sunglasses on!! :D
 
Tunnels/slow white ones

One of the most amazing thing about Norway is the Tunnels, they are everywhere and up to 15 or 16 miles long, some corkscrew others are deep, some are nice and light others are dark and scary but one thing about them all is that its not a good idea to ride into them with your sunglasses on!! :D[/QUOTE]

LOL, I can imagine Macca will try to keep his glasses on trying to look cool, as he has the dull, slow, white GSA(SE). :cool:

Where in the borders are you from Chris. I am from Biggar, 10 miles from peebles and Lanark.
 
Dull Boring GSA(SE)

Mmmmm Slower you say...Dave Keep on going to slimming world,when you are down to my size we should have about the same speed, (only joking mate.i need to go too :beer: )

I doubt it though because everyone know's the SE is the fastest.

Kawasaki has gone to GT by the way.
 
Black is the Fastest!!

Hi Short 001, I'm down near Cockburnspath, theres a few Gsers in the 'hood' and more down the badlands near Berwick!! There's this one guy, a real pain,rides a silver GSA, always on this site! :D I'd steer clear of him If I were you! Prefers Spain to Scandanavia or Iceland! Anyway your trip to Norway sounds good and probably a lot warmer than where I'm off to! My memories of Norway are all good, next time I'd like to go up to Finmark again near the Russian Border then down through Finland a bit! Even in early June up there it was bloody freezing Reindeer everywhere and someone told me they even get Bears, big white ones!! Maybe Liv can clarify!
 
If you see a white bear, a polar bear, in Norway;
you better go back to the pub and have two more beers! :beer:
After two more beers the white bears often turn into pink elephants, and THAT we have in Norway! :D

I got an useful link for you here:
http://met.no/radar/sorost.html
It shows where it is raining or snowing in Norway right now.
Right now my area, Oslo, are yellow, and it is -8c outside, so it means I have to go out and shovel snow - again!

:beer: = you see nice natives.
:beer: :beer: :beer: = the ladies start looking good.
:beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: = the animals are coming, often polar bears.
:beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: = the polar bears turns into pink elephanst, and all the goodlooking ladies has left you ours ago.
:D

:) Liv.
 
Polar Bears and Pink Elephants!

Hi Liv, just checked out your weather site! No Bears on the weather radar! So how similar is Norweigian to Icelandic? I'm learning a little and it's hard but good fun! Some words are like 'Old Scots' I think 'you' left some words when you visited 'Holy Island' just down the road!! Could we have our Gold back now? You've had some for over a thousand years( we won't charge interest!) :D A very good thing I found about Norway was the Hytter Huts, really good accomodation with clean showers and room to stand up in and all for£20-30 for a four berth(early season) and there were always plenty of these sites around(at least on the E6!) But it was so cold up in the north, at least -9 degrees, in early June at one in the morning, in broad daylight with the sun still shining! That takes a lot of getting used to!! I suppose it will be dark up there at this time, do you ever go?
 
chris neil said:
Hi Liv, just checked out your weather site! No Bears on the weather radar! So how similar is Norweigian to Icelandic? I'm learning a little and it's hard but good fun! Some words are like 'Old Scots' I think 'you' left some words when you visited 'Holy Island' just down the road!! Could we have our Gold back now? You've had some for over a thousand years( we won't charge interest!) :D A very good thing I found about Norway was the Hytter Huts, really good accomodation with clean showers and room to stand up in and all for£20-30 for a four berth(early season) and there were always plenty of these sites around(at least on the E6!) But it was so cold up in the north, at least -9 degrees, in early June at one in the morning, in broad daylight with the sun still shining! That takes a lot of getting used to!! I suppose it will be dark up there at this time, do you ever go?

I have never been to Iceland, but I'm sure it's different. It's colder, I know!

I was at Holy Island last summer, and I showed my Norwegian Flag at a cafè and I promised to behave this time. They smiled!

1 hytte, 2 hytter, = huts! :)
Yes, when you are two on tour a hytte can be a good thing, and it's not that cold (or wet) as a tent. But bring your tent and sleepingbag - you'll never know.

We have sun all winter down here, close to Oslo, but it's dark up north. I believe Tromsø got the sun back for some minutes last week.

-Do you like snow?
The pictures with bikes is from a meeting in February; Primustreffet. (Now, I'm not sleeping in a tent up there that weekend! If I'm up there at all I'm driving my car and only stay there for the day.)
The rest of the pictures if from my place last week.
http://usera.imagecave.com/Reima/Tiddelibom/

:) Liv.
 


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