A Drive From Trondheim to Bergen: Day 2 and 3

The night spent 'camping' inside of the Toyota Urban Cruiser actually wasn't so bad. (If you have no idea what I am referring to, read the first part of the post here) It was much quicker to pack everything up and refold the seats that morning, than it was setting it up last night. We wanted to wake up earlier than we did, but since we didn't get to sleep last night until close to 2am, when we woke up at about 8:30am-ish, that was ok with us. We woke up to this view:




Yesterday was so beautiful and sunny and warm, but today was going to be overcast and a bit chillier. That is actually the normal weather in Norway, cold and rainy or overcast. So I guess the really nice weather we had yesterday was just lucky! My first concern after hitting the road was to try and find some coffee. Since this is Norway, and everything is crazy expensive, going to a cafe to get a nice latte or cappuccino was out of the question, since that would cost at least $10. We opted for the cheaper gas station coffee machine option, which was "only" 25 kroner, or almost $5. I was still so sleepy when I got the coffee, I totally didn't notice the coffee machine for the public customers right in the front of the store, and I somehow wandered into the employee break room where I found a smaller coffee machine (but it made bigger sized coffees) and made two nice big coffees. Then when I went to the register, the cashier was so confused when I tried paying for the coffee. He asked me, "Where did you get this?" And I told him, and pointed to the break room. I now felt a little embarassed, after he pointed to the big gigantic coffee machine for the public use. Oops! Oh well!


There were many spectacular waterfalls along the way to Bergen.

After coffee, everything was okay and we kept driving south towards Bergen. We stayed semi-inland, so the terrain was mostly mountains and lakes. It reminded Romy of Switzerland and the Alps. I thought it was cool too! When we were almost there, we had only one more ferry boat to get on, the one that crossed Sognefjorden, the largest fjord in Norway. In a way, the larger the fjord, the less spectacular it is. That's because the dimensions aren't as impressive, relatively speaking. In my opinion, the best fjords were the tall and skinny ones. The wide ones just look like a huge mountain lake or something (not that mountain lakes are cool. . .)


The city of Bergen from above.

It didn't take us long to get to Bergen once we were over the Sognefjorden. The weather started getting gloomier and rainy, but we just hoped for the best. Along the way, I was feeling like more coffee, so we stopped at another gas station place. We found a little shop that sold waffles and coffee for 10 kroner each, so we got some to try. They had nice picnic tables outside where you could eat, perched above the fjord we just crossed over. The waffles were really good, like crepes. But it didn't take us very long to eat them, and drink the coffee too, so we were soon on our way again. I texted Cova to let her know we were on our way!


We visited my friend Cova and her fiance Vidar in Bergen.

Cova lives with her fiance, Vidar, in the center of Bergen. It was really easy finding her condo, so we had no trouble, even with our crappy map. It was so nice to see Cova again! She had a spare bedroom where she set us up with fresh sheets and towels, and she even made us some fresh coffee when we got there! Then we went out to walk around the city for a while. We saw the downtown shopping area and main square, and then we walked to the ports and docks. In Bergen there is a section of very old houses (almost 1000 years old) and warehouses that are still standing, called Bryggen. Most of them are really crooked and there isn't a 90 degree corner anywhere. It was really funny to walk through. Now there are a bunch of shops and stuff built inside the old buildings. We also saw the old fort building nearby Bryggen. Next, we went up the big hill behind the city, and climbed up the steep streets through a really nice neighborhood. When we got near the top, you could see almost the whole city of Bergen below. It was neat, but also very tiring (well, not really but we were already kind of tired). So it was time for a beer!


Romy found a VW nut on the Norwegian equivalent of craigslist. He explored his mini junkyard of VWs and bought a few parts.

That afternoon we went bar/restaurant hopping, have a beer here, and beer there, and then dinner at a new restaurant that had four menus to chose from. Vidar finally got off work and joined us about an hour after our first beer. They told us about their jobs. They both work for the oil industry. Cova designs pumps and Vidar designs two phase flow meters and also takes care of customer servicing for the flow meters. They are going to get married next year in Spain! How exciting! They had a really nice condo, which was very nice to come back to after a late night out. We've been living in a relatively crappy shared apartment flat with a bunch of old and half the time broken and unmaintained things. It was nice to be in a normal abode for the first time in almost two months where everything was functional!


On the way back to Trondheim, we drove through the Lærdal Tunnel.

We couldn't stay long in Bergen the next morning. After a nice big breakfast of pancakes and some fruit, we packed up and hit the road. The weather was improving again as we drove back. This time, we took the inland route, which is the main way most people drive when they are going north-south across the country. One of the highlights was stopping in Voss. The city itself was okay, but we were there to see a guy who had a whole bunch of old VWs. Romy found this guy on finn.no, which is the Norwegian version of craigslist. He lived just up the mountain from Voss, a few kilometers away. And by the way, Voss is the city where the super expensive bottled water comes from, called Voss. I guess they take the water from the lake or something? Not sure why anybody would pay for Voss water (unless its the cheapest option on the menu like in the John Hancock Tower in Chicago). Well, anyways, when we got there, we knew we were in the right place. Suddenly, out of the forested mountainside, a whole bunch of VWs popped up. Beetles, bay windows, old splits, and even some dokas and syncros were all there. It was cool! Needless to say, we spent over an hour there as Romy talked to Christer about all of his projects and cars. Romy even bought a few parts from him, some lights and parts for the beetle dashboard for pretty cheap. And now we know somebody in Norway who can get us a diesel doka syncro when we are ready!


Romy getting ready to check the waters for a dip!

It was almost 5pm and we were barely out of Bergen still in Voss at Christer's VW place. I gave Romy the signal that it was probably a good time to leave, and in the typical Romy fashion, we were ready to go about 1/2 hour after that. We tried to pick the most direct route back as possible, which involved choosing between a ferry boat, or a really really long tunnel, 25km long. I wanted to do the tunnel because it was so long and that in itself made it more interesting to me. I am really glad we picked the tunnel because it ended up being super cool! As we drove through, we had to stay at the speed limit because there are speed cameras inside of the tunnel. This is a form of Norwegian torture. They can be anywhere and there can be multiple, with only one warning sign to let you know. The speed limit is (I think) 80 kmph, which is a crawling 50 mph!!!! So slow! So you can image, we had some time to enjoy the scenery inside the tunnel which consisted of dirty rock walls, some weak lighting, and large fans every once in a while. But every few kilometers (this tunnel was 25 km long) there were these super brightly lit rest areas to stop and pull over in. They were partly to wake you up and partly just cool, like an art form. I was afraid to get out at first because the air inside the tunnel was probably nasty. Later I read that the tunnel has its own air filtration system. We decided to stop and get out and take a few pictures at the last rest area. The air didn't smell too bad. When we got home, I googled the tunnel and figured out that it is in fact, the longest road tunnel in the world and it's called the Lærdal Tunnel! And we drove it by chance! That was so cool!


A polar dip!

The road next took us into the mountains of south central Norway. This is where there is a high concentration of Norwegian National Parks, so it was a neat area to see. The mountains were really beautiful and a lot of the landscape was glacially eroded, like the fjords along the coast. Some mountains were rounded on top and others were jagged. There was a lot of snow. We passed by Jotunheimen National Park where we saw a few tiny glaciers and some still frozen mountain lakes. Romy decided it was a good time to take a dip! It was a short dip, but I witnessed it, and he went fully in the water and stayed in for a little while so it was a real polar dip! Other than that, another highlight of the drive was the fact that in Norway, the passenger inside the car is allowed to drink alcoholic beverages. So of course, I had one cold beer with me, and I opened it and enjoyed a beer while we drove through the mountains on our way back home. It was strange, and I felt like I shouldn't be doing it because I am just used to that way! Every car that passed by I wanted to hide my can of beer! Towards the end of the can, I didn't care as much anymore :)


A typical road through the mountains of the interior part of the country.

Because it was still a long long way back to Trondheim at the Norwegian speed limits, we didn't end up getting back to our place until 2am! When we finally did get back, we went to sleep for a few hours, and then had to get up before 8am to return the car back to SIXT. What a journey! I felt like we saw so much in just 3 days. It was so worth it and I wish we had more time to do road trips like that. I love road trips!

A Drive From Trondheim to Bergen: Day 1

We've been in Trondheim now for 5 weeks, and the farthest we've ventured out was Hell (about 40 km away). It's not because we are lazy or unmotivated. It's because we've been going to a lot of local places on the weekends to save a little money. There is actually a ton of outdoors stuff to do around Trondheim, especially in the huge Bymarka park. But for our last two weekends in Norway, we decided to go big before we go home! We rented a car and decided it was time to go visit Cova, my friend who I met a long time ago in Paris. Now she lives in Bergen, Norway with her fiance Vidar (who is Norwegian; Cova is Spanish). Both are engineers, and as most engineers in Norway, they work for the oil industry. Their jobs sound pretty cool, though!


The first dramatic fjord we saw out of Trondheim.

It was a strange coincidence that we would be in Norway, and Cova lived in Norway. But we couldn't miss our chance to go and visit and it gave us a great excuse to spend a little money and get out of Trondheim! The car rental was pretty cheap for Norwegian standards. The diesel was about $8 a gallon, but our car we rented (a Toyota Urban Cruiser) got well over 50 miles to a gallon of diesel, so it was manageable! On the other hand, Norway's landscape and weather makes it really hard to build roads. We had to cross a lot of fjords by ferry or underwater tunnel (they were so deep your ears started popping). And some fjords were narrow enough to cross by bridge, but this was rare.


Looking out to Kanestraum on the car ferry from Halsa.

In Norway, there are a lot of tolls. To have a car in Norway is very expensive, so not too many people drive except if they have money. I am not sure who is responsible for building the roads and tunnels and bridges, but after they are built, the people who build them charge a toll. Most tolls are charged per person plus the car. The same goes for car and people ferries. On our way to Bergen, we took the coastal road, and on the way back we took a more inland route. Along the coast, which is all fjords, there were a lot of tunnels, bridges, and ferries that we had to take. So it was more expensive. Each ferry on average charged about 120-150 NOK for both of us and the car, which is about $20-$25. Some tunnels and bridges we had to take were just as expensive! Image crossing the Bay Bridge from Oakland to San Francisco and handing the toll attendant a $20 bill, and not getting any change back!!! That's Norway!


We stopped for lunch at a picnic area on the Atlantic coast just south of Kristiansund.

You might think that the inland route would be a little cheaper because there wouldn't be any bridges or ferries. Only slightly! Over the mountains, if you are not on a main highway, you still pay tolls so they can maintain roads over the big mountain passes. For example, on the way back we had to pay 70 NOK to go over one mountain pass! That's a little over $10. But I'll stop complaining now because in reality, I think every penny we spent was well worth it. The scenery along the way to Bergen was amazing and I was in awe for every kilometer!


We drove the 8km famous Atlantic Road, but saw it on a calm day with nice weather. The inset shows what it can be like during crazy weather!

We started off at about 9am from Trondheim. That was the earliest we could pick up the car from SIXT, the rental company. We were into taking the smaller roads (not the highways), but our map wasn't too detailed to show many of the smaller roads, so sometimes it was a mystery where we were. Out of Trondheim, we headed towards the coast. It was a really nice sunny day so the weather was perfect for driving along the ocean. One of the first things we saw was a loop road that went towards Kristiansund. It was a nice city on the Atlantic. We drove south from there and ended up driving along a really cool road which had a bunch of mini bridges over really small rock islands. We were hopping from island to island, and then we got to a much larger bridge. It looked strangely familiar. We stopped before the bridge where there was a parking area and an information sign.


Driving on a typical Norwegian road. Excellent scenery everywhere!

To our surprise, when we read the sign, it said that we were driving the famous Atlantic Road! Romy really wanted to drive it and now we unintentionally found it. The bridge looked really familiar because I've seen it on internet pictures (I put the famous internet picture as an inset to our picture). In really bad weather, the waves can get really high! But we were there during good times, so the ocean was very calm and it was pretty warm. Another interesting thing is that the bridge is curved. I don't really know the purpose of that, but it looks cool!


We picked some wild strawberries next to the road and had it in our breakfast the next day.

After the Atlantic road, which was technically only an 8km stretch, we returned back inland. When we got to Halsa, we took our first ferry of the day! It was a short 15 minute boat trip to the other side of the fjord. Then we continued on, driving through more mountains and fjords. Eventually we got to Molde, where we took the second ferry of the day. This ferry was crossing more open water, so it took about 40 minutes total. We got to the ferry with about 15 minutes to spare before boarding, and it was getting hot outside, so we indulged in some vanilla soft serve ice cream covered in chocolate! Of course we both got the large size, which in retrospect was way too much but whatever! It was soooo good!


Along the way, we drove up the Trollstigen and went to the observation point.

On the other side of the fjord from Molde, we saw a bunch of huge jagged mountains still covered with snow. We were about to drive through them in the next part of our trip. Not too far away, somewhere in those mountains, was a road called the Trollstigen. That's where we were headed. It is a famous Norwegian road which zig zags up a steep glacially cut mountain valley. Along the road are some waterfalls, and great views! When we got to the foot of the road, it was crazy to realize the scale of the climb! We got to the top, very slowly, where there were some newly built observation decks. The decks had glass walls and railings, so you can see just how high you were! The floor of the observation decks were slotted so you can see down through them. Anyone who is even mildly afraid of heights would probably get sick and panicked. There was nothing except a good 1000 ft drop below, and I felt like I had to clutch the railing to feel safe. Don't drop your camera! It would probably get destroyed and it would be irretrievable!


This is the Trollstigen, a crazy road that winds up the glacially carved mountain valley!

The observation points were really nice and since it was nearing the end of the evening (it was about 8pm), there weren't many tourists out there. That was really great because the huge tourist buses can get crazy on the road, which is barely one and a half lanes wide, with a death drop or rock wall to each side. A big clear and cold river made a huge waterfall just next to one of the observation decks. We spent almost an hour there, before moving on. We kept driving south, and we needed to catch one more ferry before the day was over so we could see the Geiranger fjord.


Aboard yet another car ferry in our rental car! They really pack you in!

We ended up getting to the ferry a few minutes late! We were so upset, since at this time of night (by the time we got there it was about 10pm) they only run once an hour. But as we pulled into the ferry terminal, we didn't see a ferry at the dock, and there were still a bunch of cars waiting in line! Could it really be, a Norwegian ferry that was late!? They are usually so prompt! We were so lucky that the ferry was late. As we pulled into the 4th lane (which meant we would be one of the last cars onto the ferry), we gave each other a high five and waited happily until the ferry came into the docks and unloaded all the passengers traveling the opposite way. Once we got on board, we were pretty crammed in, so that they could fit as many cars as they could.


Old fishing huts along the shore of the fjord in Eigsdal.

The ferry unloaded us in Eisdal. From there it was a really short drive to see the Geiranger fjord. It was absolutely so spectacular! The fjord was so narrow and steep! There were a bunch of waterfalls flowing over the walls of the fjord and the sky was turning all kinds of colors of sunset. It was about 11pm. We pulled over at a parking area off the side of the road where they had an informational sign. From there we saw a trail that lead somewhere. We wanted to check it out to see if maybe we could get a better view. Sure enough, the trail took us along a flat section perched along the steep fjord wall. It went towards the Seven Sisters waterfall, but we didn't go all the way there. We stopped after about 10 minutes in front of another huge waterfall! We had such an amazing view of the fjord from that place! We were kind of scared at some points because the trail went past places that were very much at the edge of a death drop. At one point, I was holding on to a small tree to feel a little more comfortable about standing at the edge while taking a picture. There were some camping spots along the trail, which we were considering camping at. However, I think I would want to rope myself onto a tree in case I would roll in the night. From some of those camp spots, you could literally roll off the mountain and plunge into the fjord below. I am not exaggerating here at all!!!!


My favorite spot of the day: the Geiranger fjord!

The Geiranger fjord was my favorite thing that we saw that day so far! But in order to make it to Bergen at a decent time the next day, we needed to keep driving so we couldn't camp at Geiranger. Even though it was past 11pm when we started driving out again, we still had plenty of light and energy in us to keep going. The road dropped down into the actual town of Geiranger, and then climbed back up again over another mountain pass to get out. We found a scenic route called Strynefjellet that wasn't too much of a detour after that, which we decided to take. It went up even higher into the surrounding mountains. So high in fact that there was still a lot of snow everywhere. In some places, the snow on each side of the road was taller than the car and we were in a channel of snow! It was really nice, but we decided not to camp here either because we had summer sleeping bags. Eventually the road starting going down again, back to sea level. We found a good pull-off area and got camp set up. Except we were so lazy and tired by that point to set up the tent (it was almost 2am) that we just pushed the back seats down in the rental and slept inside of the car. It wasn't too bad! The next morning, we continued our journey to Bergen. . .


Driving over the mountains at Strynefjellet, which still had deep snow in July!

A MidSummer Night's Party

Relaxing on the fjord, near sunset.

In Norway, where the sun doesn't set during most of the summer, the summer solstice is a very important day. I think this is true for a lot of Scandinavia as well. In Trondheim, where we are spending part of our summer, we are at roughly 63.4 degrees north in latitude. This is pretty close to the arctic circle, which is at latitude 66.5 degrees north. The sun sets here in Trondheim at about 11:30pm and rises again about 3:00am. Basically, the sun just dips below the horizon for a few hours. It stays light out even when the sun is down. It is light enough to do all kinds of activities without a flashlight. It's like a never ending dusk or dawn. Dusk rolls into dawn and you can't even tell.


The only weirdos wearing sunglasses at night!

One of the girls that we are living with in the shared apartment wanted to host a mid-summer night party. It is traditional in Norway to have a bonfire outside on the night of the solstice. There is a nice beach area close by to the city where we had the party. It is right on the fjord and has nice grassy and rocky areas to sit on.


Playing volleyball at midnight.

We had a lot of food that everyone brought to grill, and we stopped at the grocery store to try some Norwegian beer. I tried Dahl's, which a light Pilsner style beer in a can. It was okay but very light, kind of like a Budweiser or Miller. I also tried Carlsberg which is Danish, and I thought that one was gross. We also tried some imported Samuel Adams, but it was funny tasting and not good because it was made for export and had to be limited to 4.5%. The beer was a bust, but we had fun anyways!


Sunset came around 11:30pm that night!

We were able to see the sunset and the tide come in. Some people who were also partying on a neighboring rocky outcrop had a hard time coming back to shore when the tide came up. The tide completely isolated them on their tiny rock island. They were so busy partying they didn't even notice! The rock outcrop we were on was big enough that the connection to the mainland was never flooded over.


A panoramic picture of Korsvika after midnight.

We ended up going home at around 2am, but some people stayed all night until the next morning! We had plans which required us to be functional the next day, so we decided not to do that.


Biking home at 2am after we left the party.

To Hell and Back

Before we came to Norway for the summer, we made plans to try and go rock climbing as much as possible. Norway is really famous for its fjords and mountains, but it's also famous for rock climbing because of all of the glacially eroded landscape and exposed cliffs.


All ready to go Saturday morning for a bike ride to Hell and back.

So on our second full weekend here, we decided to pick up a climbing guide book at the local sports shop, and pick a place nearby. It was supposed to be pretty good weather, so we decided to go to the place that had the most sport routes to offer, which was a crag called Hell (named after the town it was near, called Hell)! It wasn't too far away, just about 40 km or so from where we were staying. It was actually near the airport that we flew into, so we already kind of knew where it was. We found out that we could go very easily by bus or train (since there were already a lot of transportation options established to go to and from the airport at all hours). But being Norway, the bus and train tickets just to go to the airport would've cost us at the minimum $50! And if we wanted to bring out bikes with, we had to pay for them like they were an extra person!


On the way, we took a break to have some Diplom-is ice cream!

So being cheap (actually, more like thrifty or frugal) we got the idea to just bike to Hell. We've done 40 km bike rides before (albeit on lighter road bikes at home), so the distance wasn't going to be a problem. What we had never done before was bike with a bunch of gear. We needed to take about 25 lbs of climbing equipment (a rope, quick draws, harnesses, shoes, slings, etc) and on top of that, all of our camping things (a tent, thermarest pads, sleeping bags, and warm clothes). Oh yeah, and some food too!


We found a cool camping spot right near the climbing wall.

Well, we weren't exactly sure that we could do it, since we had no pannier bags or anything for the bikes except one rack over the back wheel of Romy's bike, and two backpacks. When we laid all of our stuff out in our bedroom, we realized it wasn't all that much, but it was kind of heavy. We put half of it inside backpacks, and the rest we tied with some rope to the back rack of Romy's bike. Then we strapped our sleeping bags to the handlebars, and we were pretty much ready to go!


A stairway to climbing heaven in Hell!

Romy looked at Google maps before hand so that we knew where to go, and wrote it all down on a piece of paper. We made sure to eat a good breakfast, and then we rolled out, at about 11am on Saturday morning. I was concerned that we left too late until I realized, why? It never gets dark here so it doesn't matter what time we actually show up! The ride took us quite a while (about 4hrs), but we crossed some nice terrain and stayed along the fjord just about the whole way. Most of the way, there was a dedicated bike path which made the riding very easy and smooth. We just followed the bike path, and occasionally, we had to turn off or cross the road to the other side. The route had a few hills, but it was pretty much flat since it followed the water.


The wall at Hell isn't that high, but it is overhung.

Soon we were nearing the airport, and we could see the control tower and some big planes flying in and out. At that point we stopped at a river to refill our water bottle, and also stopped at the last grocery store before the climbing area to get some food (we planned on buying it last minute to avoid carrying food with us). We had to try some of the Norwegian ice cream too, even though it was getting cold out (damn Norwegian weather). The brand was called Diplom-Is, and they make ice cream like drum sticks. I must admit, the ice cream was not as good as Finland's Ingman-S cones, but it wasn't bad!


I am lead climbing our first route that evening.

After we were on our way again, we started looking out for signs pointing to a big sports complex and stadium. The crag was just beyond it, on a forested hillside. It didn't take long until we were there, just a few miles. At the stadium parking lot, we found a sign pointing to the path that lead up to the rock wall. We dragged our bikes up the steep trail, and started looking for some camping spots. In Norway, there's something called All Man's Right, which allows anybody to walk over any land (private or public) and camp anywhere as long as it's not too close to somebody's house. So as long as we found a nice camping spot, there was no question of whether or not we could camp there. We eventually found a spot which we cleared out for the tent, and it actually was very close to the climbing wall. In fact, we could hear the climbers yelling and laughing.


Romy is ready to get his climbing action on!

We set up our camping spot, and then took a nice break for a few hours. We relaxed after biking for so long, and had a snack. We read the climbing guide to see which routes we wanted to climb, according to their rating (which was given in the Norwegian system and French system). Around 6:30pm, we decided it was time to climb! The sun started peeking through the clouds, and it was actually warming up. Perfect climbing weather! So we got all of our gear together and started heading up the trail to the wall. When we got there, the first section was extremely overhung and some people there told us that those routes were all really hard. We kept walking to the easier stuff, and the wall was getting less and less overhung. Finally we got to a place where there were benches set up, and a fire pit.


A huge black banana slug from Hell!

The routes in the easier section weren't very high, but they were vertical or slightly overhung. The rock was a conglomerate, but smooth, sharp and hard like granite. We picked an easy one to start with, and I lead the first route. It was a lot of fun! Then Romy lead one that was close by, which was also cool. Although there weren't a lot of jugs, there were a bunch of deep pockets on the easier routes. From there, we just kept hopping from anchor to anchor and top roping the rest that were within reach. We climbed until 10pm or so. It was amazing, because we had no idea what time it was because the sun was shining on us and it felt like mid-afternoon! When our arms were tired out, we still had a bunch of energy, so we went back to our tent and put all of our climbing stuff away, and went on a hike. We started walking up a trail that took us to the top of the hill. We discovered that up there was a huge bunker thing and an artillery storage room built during the second world war. Now it was all abandoned and grown over. We sat and watched the sunset from the top. Then we headed down and went to sleep. I had to put eye covers over my eyes because the sun was too bright to sleep otherwise.


Heading back home after a strenuous weekend (and more to come).

The next morning we woke up kind of late. We had plans to try and climb again that morning, but decided we should just head back, since we planned on taking a slightly longer and harder bike route back that would take us through the mountains instead of along the fjord. It didn't take us long to pack up. This time on our way out, we took a different trail out of the climbing area, one that was much wider and graded (it used to be an access road to the bunker at the top of the hill). We were out of there in no time, and hit the real road soon after that. The route we took back went along a two lane country road for about 6 km, and then turned into the mountains onto a gravel and dirt graded road that was actually private. I think cars are required to pay a toll to use it, but since we were on our bikes, we just ignored the sign and kept going. It was basically like a national forest road back in the US. It was really nice and scenic and took us through the forest, past small farms, and along several rivers. We passed many camping areas, and even a waterfall!


We took a nice break by a river and it was sunny!

The biking was getting very exhausting though because we kept having to go up and down and up and down! We took so many breaks along the way because it was tough! Towards the end, we went past a huge reservoir lake (it was natural but reserved for drinking water). It was pretty sunny the whole way, but storm clouds were brewing in the distance. Then suddenly, it started pouring and we tried to take some cover under a stand of trees. We avoided most of the rain like that, but we still got wet. However, as soon as the rain passed, it got so sunny and hot that we dried out almost completely within 1/2 hour! That was nice! It took us over 6 hours to get back home. When we got home, we had just only enough energy to unpack and make dinner. Then we crashed!


By the end, Romy was carrying a lot of stuff!

We had a bunch of fun on the bike trip to Hell and back. I was so surprised that we were able to carry all that stuff on two crappy mountain bikes, and with no special gear except two backpacks and a rack over the rear tire. And the best part, it didn't cost us anything, which was great!

My Favorite Pile of Rocks

There is a special park just on the other side of the Nid river, very close to where we are staying in the shared apartment in Trondheim, Norway. We first noticed it when we took a bike ride up to Bymarka. Along the way, we passed this park, and it had a rainbow painted pile of rocks!


A rainbow pile of rocks!

I don't know who's idea it was to paint the rocks, but it looks so cool! After looking at them every time we went bike riding, I just had to bring my camera along and take a picture. They made me smile every time I saw them. A funny thing was that this park was always deserted. It looked like a nice place for kids to play, but we never saw anybody, even on the nicest sunny days!


A close up of the rainbow rocks.

Trondheim, Norway

It was cold and rainy/overcast when we arrived! Is it summer?

We arrived in Trondheim, Norway after almost 24 hours of traveling. Even though we are pretty jet lagged, we decided to try and walk around the city to see some of the sights. Here are the highlights from our short walk.


View of the colorful riverside buildings from the red bridge.

There is a huge tidally influenced river that flows through the center of Trondheim. It comes from the mountains inland, and flows into the fjord, which is actually part of the North Atlantic ocean. The river is named the Nid and there are many bridges that cross over it. One of them in the old downtown area is nicknamed the Red Bridge (because it's red!) and from it you can see all of the colorful buildings that line the river. Their foundations are 'wet' and they actually stand partially on stilts!


Nidarosdomen cathedral is the largest medieval age building in Scandinavia.

Towards the old center of town stands the Nidarosdomen, or the Nidaros Cathedral. It used to be a pilgrimage place for many religious Norwegians, who came here by foot on a special trail. It is the largest medieval age building in all of Scandinavia, and is part of an ancient archbishop's palace complex. It used to be where all of the kings of Norway were crowned.


The white fort (Kristiansten) stands perched above Trondheim on the top of a hill.

At the top of one of the hills surrounding the city is a white fort called Kristiansten. We walked up the hill through a really nice neighborhood and walked around. There are old canons and stuff surrounding the fort, and a nice lawn where people have picnics. You can see almost all of Trondheim from the fort.


A traditional Norwegian ship sails in the fjord.

We also saw a traditional Norwegian boat (maybe based off of the Viking design) sailing in the fjord. It was in town because it was taking part in an outdoor play that week.