Norway in a nutshell

DAY 1: From white to green

From Longyearben we flew via Tromsö and Oslo to Bergen and left our white world behind us. Bergen has 270 days of rain per year. So naturally it rained when we got there. We have a hotel just across from Bryggen, the oldest part of town along the east shore of the Vägen Harbour, long leaning rows of gabled, mostly wooden houses, looks totally cool, let’s get outside with a camera. By the time we get out the light is gone. So a few hours later I sent Jürg out for some night shots…splendid idea !

DAY 2: Bergen to Fjaerland – 240km in 6hrs

It’s just not our lucky day. We see Bergen in typical Bergen weather, it’s raining, more and more as we go along, not just raining, it’s pouring! At the harbour is the fish market, an amazing selection of fish, lots of salmon of course, and even whale, is beautifully presented, in a few hours they will start the BBQ and you can have the grilled fish of your liking.

We start our trip north. The landscape is great, very light and bright green after our white week in Svalbard. There are lots of still snow-capped mountains, fjords and lakes just about everywhere, the slopes and watersides are dotted with houses in red, yellow and white, a lot of the trees are in bloom, like back home a month ago. After ages of slow driving… we make it to our hotel in Fjaerland at the end of the Fjaerlandsfjord, one of the five side arms of the famous Sognefjord looking up to the Jostedalsbreen Glacier. This place is just so typically romantically perfect, just what you would expect when I say : we are staying at a little white fjord-side hotel in the middle of no-where.

DAY 3: The long way back to Bergen – 377km in 10hrs

We wake up with fjord and glacier view, and rain as usual. After breakfast we leave this little gem and do a short round of the town. Very short, it has only 300 inhabitants, which is quite a lot, we thought it had 50. This town is the “book town” of Norway, bookshops everywhere they say. Not really, it’s mostly second hand (dating back to the sixties !) and very old. Very cheap too, a book 10 NOK, please put the money in the little box at the side.

You can maximally drive 80km/h, in towns 50km/h, but every time a house shows up and you are just nice and slowly doing 80, it goes down to 60 or 50, drives one mad. Even Juerg has an urge to speeding here, you just can’t drive that slow on perfect roads with no traffic in sight. We get going, next on the program is the Borgund Stave Church, this one dates back to 1180 and is said to be the ultimate and most authentic one. Once again we are lucky and are there in a rain-free half hour.

We drive through the Laerdal tunnel. This is another special thing, it is the world’s longest tunnel at 24,5 km. To avoid people falling asleep whilst driving lighting is a special factor – every 6km the tunnel is widened and the rock chambers are filled with special lighting.

At the end of the tunnel we turn back and drive up the pass from this side. There is a spectacular viewing platform called Stegastein only 6km up the road. It is like driving up one of the narrower Swiss mountain passes, this one has great views over the fjord and as we drive up a few rays of sun light up the landscape. And a cow drops from the skies… honest ! Good thing we didn’t come 5min earlier or it would have landed on us. The rocky roadside is very steep, it must have fallen from a meadow just above, gotten too close to the edge.

The viewing platform is spectacular, a long wooden walkway which at it end curves down. At the end is a glass wall so people don’t fall out. With a backdrop of snow capped mountains and a fjord to the left and right at its bottom this is the most amazing place we visited today. Now let’s get to Bergen.

DAY 4: To the puffin island – 95km in 2hrs

We fly to Alesund. From there we drive to the little island of Runde where we will photograph puffins, lots of them ! It takes us 2,5hrs, to drive the 100km south. You really don’t get anywhere with these speed limits. It is again a lovely route, the landscape differs quite a bit. It has more hills, not so mountainous anymore, and lots of water, sailing boats anchored around every corner. They have lots of long bridges too, connecting one island to the other. For some other crossings you have to take a ferry. Runde is small and quiet, we like it here, except for the rain of course.

Miracles do happen, and at 20:00 all of a sudden the skies clear and we decide to go to the puffin site after all. Dressed up as for our arctic trips we walk up the steep hill for about an hour or so. The weather decides to play along and it gets sunnier and sunnier. Soon the paved path ends, from here its more or less a mud bath (yes bath not path), so here we are, slipping and sliding uphill, trying to avoid the worst muddy patches.

Once over the rim the wind is so strong it almost blows you off your feet. Not a bird in sight. They say there are 100’000 breeding pairs here, that is 200’000 birds. If only 10% was here there would still be 20’000 which one should be able to spot, we only had 20 in Svalbard, and we saw those! A birder tells us to wait and they will come and fly up to us, but not before 22:00 or so. So we climb down a hazardous ladder and sit between the rocks waiting for the puffins to come. Jürg says he’s not leaving without a puffin photo, so we are stuck on this stupid rock…

At 23:00 we call it a day and head down. We are definitely not going up here tomorrow evening for another try. After 30min of mud-sliding down the hill we drive back to or little house. I am so disappointed. This is the end of my birder career.

DAY 5: there’s always a plan B – 260km in 9hrs

We can’t do the boat tour either, so we will do a scenic drive along the coast. This was the emergency plan all along. After breakfast we leave for a ride along the coast to Maloy, stopping at Selje on the way there. We somehow end up at the Adsam Gallery in Selje, a nice little seafront town.

On a sunny day you could take tons of pictures here and sell them as “art-cards”. Did I mention today is the first day since we arrived on which it is NOT raining ! The sky is a grey blur and the light is totally lousy, but we do our best to leave out the sky and get some photos of the place anyway.

From here it is not far to Maloy. We reach it at around 17:00, a 6 hour trip to cover 130km. The way home is a lot faster as we decide not do any more photo stops, the light is totally gone and we’ve had enough. Jürg speeds ! He did 90-95 in the 80km/h zone. He, who has been telling me to keep to the speed limits at all times, is breaking the rules! I have to admit it was to catch the ferry, which we made with 2min to spare, but still… he wasn’t much slower after the ferry part.

DAY 6: A sunny day at last

We wake up to the sound of rain on our window, once again… But another miracle, just as we are leaving the sun comes out and we have the sunniest day of the whole Norway trip. First stop is in Fosnavag on the neighbouring island. It should have a real good coffee place here called Madelynn Coffee. It is easy to find, upon entering town take the first right, then left and you’re there. It is the best and friendliest place we visited this trip, and great coffee !

Check out the webpage : www.madelynn.no

It is incredible what a little sunlight can do, the mood is better, and everything looks better. The grass is greener, the houses redder, the sailing boats whiter. We decide to do an extra stop at the Alnes Fyr, a lighthouse on the island of Godoya. A picture perfect little town, a wooden Norwegian fishing boat in the harbour, the red and white striped lighthouse in the back.

The lighthouse is just what one would expect of a lighthouse. Striped red and white, a few white wooden buildings beside it, set on a barren coastline, a meadow full of flowers in front of it, waves crashing on the shore on a rocky beach just beside it. Lovely !

Alesund is just as beautiful as Bergen but on a much smaller scale and much less touristy. It was totally burnt down in 1904 and rebuilt in the Art Nouveau (Jugendstil) style of that time. Let’s start exploring this town. The best way to do that is to go up to the viewpoint Fjellstua on the town hill called Aksla. The only bad thing is that to get there you have to climb 418 steps to get to the top.

DAY 7: A heat wave at home

As usual it is raining when we wake up, lucky for us, it stops around 8:00. We decide to go up Aksla once more, now with the light in our back. Not all the way though, no need, the view is brilliant, even from halfway up. The town is quiet and deserted at this early hour on Sunday morning, we have the stairs to ourselves.

On the way back to the hotel we stop once more, the old buildings are reflected in the very calm waters so beautifully, we just have to take a few more shots. After breakfast it’s time to go to the airport, no problem, it is raining anyway. Let’s go home, it’s nice and hot there. I don’t think we’ll be needing our Norwegian hats anymore !

Gallery with our best photos : Go to gallery

Text and photo by Astrid & Jürg Bluemel for bluemelphoto.ch