Riding to/from Norway - route suggestions?

Bob Jeffries

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I'm planning on a long trip to Norway next year, Covid restrictions permitting, possibly for 4-6 weeks.

I'm tending towards shipping the bike to to Oslo and then me and her fly out to meet it, and the same to get home.

However, we could make it a longer trip and ride at least one way, possibly both ways, but we wouldn't be interested in a boring trudge riding along motorways.

With that in mind we wondered if anyone could suggest a route(s) through the Netherland, Germany, Denmark and Sweden that would avoid a boring trudge along motorways and would be an enjoyable part of the trip rather than just a means to get to/from Norway.
 
How long have you got to get from wherever it is you land on mainland Europe (I assume it is the Hook of Holland) to get to Norway?

Sweden’s border with Norway is some 1,600 km (1,000 miles) long. Where do you intend to head to in Norway when you’ve crossed over the border between Sweden and Norway? Oslo? Trondheim? Tromso?

This is the basic route Hook to Oslo - This is near enough 850 miles

https://kurv.gr/Ds6KQ

This is the basic route Hook, Copenhagen, Malmo, Oslo - This is near enough 1,000 miles

https://kurv.gr/dvNRc

This is the basic route Hook, Copenhagen, Malmo, Tromso - This is near enough 2,100 miles - As you can see it all but avoids Norway entirely

https://kurv.gr/df9rT

This is Hook, Copenhagen, Malmo, Oslo, Trondheim, Tromso - This is near enough 2.100 miles, too but has much more Norway in it

https://kurv.gr/hqSxG

All four avoid all motorways and goat tracks.

You can now see why I ask the two questions.

Whilst Kurviger has its faults, it’s quite useful for just roughing things out. Play around in it, you can’t break it. For example, you could muck around by breaking the Holland / Germany bit into two: Take the motorway from the Hook to Germany and then look at non-motorway alternatives up to Copenhagen. There are even suggestions in the Germany section how to maybe fill in that that part, too.

I am never quite sure why bods say, “Avoiding all motorways” when going, what is a long way from A to B, when the main purpose of their journey is to get to B (in this case I assume, Oslo) to then spend apparently four to six weeks riding around in Norway.

Holland, through north west Germany, into Denmark and through the south west chunk of Sweden into southern Norway is predominantly flat. Does that mean it has to be dull per-se? No, of course not but to avoid the motorways for nearly 1,000 miles will take time and you have to work on planning your route, which itself will depend on the time you have available and the daily distances you want to do, all avoiding the motorways.


To give you an idea: When I made our clockwise lap of the outside of Germany, starting from Lubeck (near enough on the Baltic coast) we had near enough 21 days door-to-door London > Around Germany > London. The German lap was our main purpose and would largely avoid motorways, concentrating on lesser major roads and large’ish minor roads. It would also involve days off the bikes in places, so not all of the 21 days would involve riding clockwise around Germany non-stop. I just bit the bullet and took the motorways from Calais, via Holland to Hamburg and then the ‘better’ roads to Lubeck. Had I just wanted to go to Lubeck and along the Baltic coast and not lapped Germany at all, I might well have done something different, finding smaller roads in north west Germany to get me from Holland to Lubeck. But that would have been a different holiday entirely.

PS The great news is that you have about a year to plan it. That’s great, as many posts start, “Me and my six mates we are off tomorrow and we want us….”
 
Thanks Richard

If we do ride to/from Norway (Oslo) then I would look to be taking about 5 to 7 days each way. We want to see and experience some of the countries we ride through and not just the tarmac we'll be riding along.
 
If your going to Oslo then head for Bygdøy it has the museums bellow all very close, used to be my standard place to take people when they came out to stay

Kon-Tiki Museum (Kon-Tiki Museet) – houses exhibits from the expeditions of Thor Heyerdahl[5]
Norwegian Museum of Cultural History (Norsk Folkemuseum) – an open-air museum with buildings, relocated from towns and rural districts[6]
Viking Ship Museum (Vikingskipshuset) – houses the Oseberg ship, Gokstad ship and Tune ship[7]
Norwegian Maritime Museum (Norsk Maritimt Museum) – exhibits on coast culture and maritime history[8]
Fram Museum (Frammuseet) – site of the ship Fram used by Roald Amundsen[9]
 
Consider taking the Travemünde to Malmo ferry, if you want to miss out going to Copenhagen but do want to go to Sweden. Alternatively, Kiel to Oslo, to miss out Denmark and Sweden. Not that many people (from the UK at least) visit the German Baltic coast, which is a pity.

If you find yourself near Kiel, the later bits of this thread might be of interest.

https://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php/494659-German-Baltic-coast/page2
 
You have five to seven days to get to Oslo, so you have plenty of time.

Just by tapping around in somewhere like the Tourenfahrer magazine website, you can get some ideas on how to maybe stitch ideas together.

https://www.tourenfahrer.de/tour-datenbank/

04493a00c7908d2488d4f67732501800.png


With a bit of zooming in and out, a bit of infill, along with looking at some paper maps or whatever, that would get you from roughly Amsterdam to the German coast.

In the Tourenfahrer website, just zooming in a bit on the bolder dark blue line that takes the rider under Bremerhaven and and over the top of Hamburg, shows that it takes what seems to be an interesting enough way. With a bit of imaginative digging around in the website, you can find the original article, along with the map that zooms in really well. Then zoom in on Google Earth to get a snap shot of the roads. I use this method a lot to see what roads are like. I figure that if I can see a car or two or a decent sized lorry on any road, it’s probably not entirely goat track. Similarly, for small roads that are sometimes obscured by trees, if the local council has gone to the trouble of painting road markings on bits that you can see (junctions are usually visible) then it can’t be a dirt road. Houses and hamlets along the way are usually a good sign, too.

https://www.tourenfahrer.de/tour-datenbank/tour/aufgerundet-deutschland-2-601/detail/
 
I really wouldn’t worry about it being flat. It’s just different to it being hilly or twisty or mountainous. There are still some nice places to go through and roads to ride. You’ll hardly be rushed over the five to seven days. Not least, if you change your mind, a motorway or fast national road is never far away.
 
Following on from post #8 just by tapping around you can find alternative ways, which (with some more mix’n’match) might be useable. Here’s an example, which would miss out the curve along the coast, via Norden and Essen, as suggested in another blue line. It’s a circular route but you could maybe use the top leg, perhaps or even the bottom stretch. As the Dutch town of Groningen lies just off to the west, you should be able to join it to the Dutch blue lines. Similarly, mix it in with the other lines that might pop up or just look at a half decent map and play around in ViaMichelin or Kurviger.


c2a2fcf587af91d24a4fd230d16c5f25.png



https://www.tourenfahrer.de/tour-datenbank/tour/kreuzfahrt-331/detail/

A rough translation of the blurb says:
The region between Weser and Ems does not offer mountains and valleys, but if you want to hike motorcycle hiking relaxed through a blooming park landscape with a maritime touch, especially in spring, you will get your money's worth here, especially in spring.

As I said, it’s not the Alps, it’s just different. It may suit your timetable and ‘no motorways’ ideas really well.

The great thing about the internet is that there is a mass of ideas out there. Dip around in various websites, not limiting yourself to motorbike ones, if only to get a feeling for what it’s probably like. Not all websites are shite or full of lies, that’s for sure. You do have to work at it a bit but hey, it’s your holiday not ours, so that is only fair :D

The only proviso that I’d add is that it’s crazy to assume that, just because it’s abroad, it doesn’t mean that there will or has to be ‘Great roads, mate’ everywhere, any more than there has to be ‘Great roads, mate, no motorways’ between London and Dover or London to Chelmsford, if you were a German or Frenchman enquiring how to get from A to B in the UK.

:beerjug:
 
It’s flat and boring…. Go to the Alps.

Phew, got away with that one.

close one.... :) totally flat boring nothing to see move along.... and tell them to stay away....!

who would want to wake up have a relaxed breakfast by the baltic sea, in a quiet land that time forgot sort of place, mooch about build up an appetite and then pop over to the north sea coast for lunch.... look at loads of cool stuff and eat more great food along the way and then cut out to Danemark or Poland for an adventure... and some snacks.... get back and watch the sunset.... safe in the knowledge you've met any annoying bellends...

what people want and what they should seek out is to ride in precession on congested roads then claim how they conquered the mountain pass, while standing about discussing the merit's of green bungies or whatever overpriced shit they've bought from touratcrap...
 


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