Norway 3

14. 7. 2017 – 26. 7. 2017, Lom – Trondheim, 729,5 km

From the town Lom we were slowly rising along the light blue wild river Otta which was flowing above the Geirangerfiord. We made the way a little bit funnier with PET bottles and cans collecting. They are deposited in Norway but tourists through them away a lot from their car windows. We cleaned the nature and for the earned money we afforded some little sweets. We slowly climbed to the height of 1038 meters. Snow covered tops of mountains were all among us but the sun was up so we didn’t mind to celebrate our first reached 5000 km in the snow.

Right after that we enjoyed an amazing 17 km long downhill ride leading to the touristic town Geiranger. Kata stopped few times to take some pictures and noticed some nice steep slope roads on the opposite mountain. She was calming herself by saying that this is for sure not our future path. The Geiranger town is crossed with one road lined with souvenir shops, a tourist shop, grocery store and a ferry port. But the ferry was running in the opposite direction than we needed sadly. Kata’s scary worries came true and 11 long steep slopes were patiently waiting for us. We bought a pack of biscuits and ate them immediately. All sweated we climbed up to the view above the Geirangerfiord, we took a couple of pictures and saw ourselves in our sleeping packs already. In the evening in our tent we were thinking how more difficult it will be to bike up the Trollstigen (The Troll path) made of another 11 mountain steep slopes. Eventually we found out that we could have gone them downhill because we already managed the ones from Geiranger instead. Nevertheless it wasn’t easy to get to the point view above the troll path. At least we were biking and all around there was a sweet smell of strawberry fields but we didn’t have any cash so we couldn’t have bought any. In turn a little rise shown up so we stopped for while above the wild river Gudbrands bru.

Shortly before the top the rise became much harder and also it started to rain and fog. All wet and cold we hid in a bistro located on the view. We decided to wait until the fog is gone so we could have enjoyed the view. After two hours long waiting the sky got clear for like 5 minutes so we quickly made a “click, click” and took a view of all the zig-zag paths. And that were the last dry 5 minutes for the next three days. The gore-tex shoes didn’t make it already on the first day so we had to use the plas-tex (= plastic bags in shoes). Our feet were enjoying this upgrade a lot, our noses in the tent later in the evening did not so much. With the worse weather also the landscape got worse. The rivers were coloured brown, fiords were stinking with fish and villages stopped being lovely. On the fourth day the weather got better so we left the plastic bags in the first trash can and leaded with a good mood towards the coast.Our day became even a little better thanks to a Czech summer-worker who was selling the nicely smelling strawberries. She noticed our flags and started a talk to us. In the very next moment she donated us with one box of those delicious strawberries.

After a few kilometres we came to the Atlantic road which is a road connecting several little islands with bridges. One of those bridges was even retractable. The only con of this beautiful road is its end – the undersea tunnel which is obviously not accessible for bikers. Fortunately there is a bus line which we used and took a bus to the town Kristiansund

Then we continued on a ferry to the other small islands. On the board we started to talk to a Norwegian guy. Besides others we learned that it is legal to catch fish in Norway without any permit and it’s allowed to take up to 15 kg of fish. Sadly, he added, he heard it every year in the news that some Czech was arrested due to ignoring this limit. Well, what we can say. Also he was calming us down that there were mostly flat landscapes ahead of us. Well if Czechs are ignorant than Norwegians are faking up. Since the very beginning the way was very hilly. Our foreheads got pretty sweaty time to time. Nevertheless the landscape became much nicer, the sea was showing all different shades of blue, pine trees weresmelling all around and rounded rocks were leading for a picnic. It started to be quite hot though so we even bought a snack in a form of ice cream in two litres size.

We got close to the island called Hitra where we came to pick up a package received from our family. As luck would have it, there was the only way to the island – the undersea tunnel. The bus was going there but only once a day. We decided to hitch hike then. However nobody was into carrying our two bikes even though they were super clean. The fog fall down and it got so cold. After three hours of trying we resigned and hid in a bus stop to eat bread with marmalade. The bus was supposed to come in two hours. All of the sudden a car stopped by near to us. A smiling man asked us if we wanted to get on the other side of the tunnel. He said he saw us here earlier that day already. It was like a miracle. There was also a young blond lady with him. They both got from the car and started to load our bikes by themselves. We were just staring at the situation and didn’t believe it. Apparently there are still good people among us. These two drove to Hitra only because of us. Right after that we hit the road fully excited to open the package full of tasty stuff from home. We were going to our Czech friends. Standa, Ruda, Roman and mister Jaroslav greeted us with open arms and cold Pilsen beer. After a long time we were treated so well. On the very next day guys caught some fish and Roman cooked a fish soup as a starter and roasted butter fish as a main dish. In this super lovely company we would have been able to stay longer but it was about the time to leave. The third biggest city of Norway- Trondheim- was ahead of us.                                                                                              

When we finished with some more sleeping and dried our things we set off to Trondheim. Kata was still mentioning the hand ache (caused by her fall) so we spent a few hours in Trondheim hospital. The hand was ok, all bones on their right spots so we could have gone for some sightseeing. Besides the fact that Trodheim is the third biggest city of Norway it used to be its capital city in years 1030 – 1217. However in the middle age it was called Nidaros. Right by the border of the city there is a Nidaros cathedral which is the most Nordic located gothic cathedral in the world. Olav Haraldsson, the Viking king who was spreading catholic faith in Norway, was buried in here. Later after his death when his grave was opened it was discovered that his hair and nails are still growing and he was canonized to St. Olav. On the outside wall of the cathedral there are visualized the statues of bible characters and other legends. Along the river flowing through the city centre there are many colourful small houses from the 19^th and 20^th century which were used as warehouses for goods. There is a stronghold standing above the city which was built after a big fire in the year 1681. Nowadays it is a recreation place. There is also a bike lift leading up to it which was made as the first one of its kind in the world. It was supposed to motivate Norwegians to bike. Paja was so looking forward to try it but unfortunately it was out of order on the day of our visit. We said good bye to this city and continued further to north.