NTC240A - Touringcenter Norway

Carrie and Laura are not riding on the bikes with us, and were taking a boat/bus tour today to the island of Runde. Since this is one of our bike destinations also, we decided to go the same way, so we could meet up for coffee on the Island. The forecast for today was dry in the morning and rain in the afternoon. Technically this is what happened, but we can barely count the rain we had. we basically had great weather all day. The first 25 minutes was an easy ride to the first ferry, so we could all get used to our bikes and the roads here and ease ourselves in to it. Than on the the Ferry it was, a first time for Ossi. I hope he enjoyed it, because we will have plenty more ferries in the coming days.. Once of the ferry, the roads only got better and we had a great cruise towards the island. So good in fact, we decided to skip the first coffee stop to take advantage of the weather and roads. The island is reached by a very spectacular high arching bridge and than your treated with a picturesque town and a road along the cliffs riding along the island. Here we ran in tot Carrie and Laura, so time for a coffee stop and the first souvenirs. We had to take advantage of the beautiful landscape, so we made some video's of us riding along the cliffs and some drone video of riding over the bridge, for some cool shots. From here we rode around the island, made a stop at Largeness for some pictures and went for a nice and easy lunch with some hamburgers, hotdogs (sort of) and fries. Kurt couldn't resist the Wonderfull roads, so he went back to the bird island whilst we were having lunch, and joined us before we took of again. It looked like the rain was going to come in, but we only had some drips for a short time, before it cleared up again and by the time we got tot the viewpoint above Alesund, we actually had some sunshine. So our ride ended in a high note, bitterly and figuratively. Now it's time to take a shower, have dinner and get ready for tomorrow.

The forecast for today said it would be a little bit rainy in the morning, and it should clear up after. this actually happened many times.. Meaning, it cleared up, started raining again, cleared up and so on.. We had rain, sunshine, and at some point we were even riding in the sunshine, whilst being rained upon.. We started our way from Alesund, making our way trough the tunnel to the north of the city, and folowing the peninsula to the east. A nice and smooth ride to get us in the rhythm of the day. Most of the morning before the ferry was all Wonderfull roads, nice and smooth, easy going. Made our way on to the ferry, to cross to the other side. For a while it looked like it might clear up, until we got to the other side. We made our way up to the viewpoint above the town we arrived in with the ferry. Since we ran in to the other Edelweiss tour group on the ferry, I was planning to get the Drone out and do some videos of both groups arriving to the viewpoint. The closer we got the viewpoint, the lest faith I had in any opportunity of making any videos. Close to the top, it started to rain a lot stronger and the fog started to come in. As we got to the top, we could barely see where the Ferry was docket, let alone any of the nice view we were supposed to have. A few minutes later it did clear up, so we actually did get to enjoy at least some of the view from the sight up on the hill. From here we made our way down and as soon as we got down the hill the weather cleared up, the rain let off and we could see the nice sights again. From here we decided to take the shorter route to the Atlantic road and lunch, in the hope the weather would clear up after Lunch. By the time we made it to the Atlantic road, the weather was nice, and we took some time to take pictures and make a drone video of everybody riding over this special piece of tarmac. After the drive not he road, we treated ourselves to a lunch with some local specialties, Fish soup, Whale steak and a very nice hamburger for the Guide who doesn't eat fish(as a dutchman none the less..) Strengtened for a (to big) lunch, we got on our bikes and took the scenic rout back toward Alesund. We drove along the coastline trough some picturesque rural towns, and very tranquil landscapes. I had bean teasing a little bit, but part of the highlight of the day was still to come after the ferry. On the ferry, it seemed like all were happy to get back to the other side., little did they know, the best roads were still to come. first a wie flower road trough the forest, dotted with some sheep here and here, gave us a chance to flow trough the Norwegian landscape and enjoy the the ride. this was followed by a narrow road, about a cars with, trough another forest. nobody on the road, flowing turns, a nice cruising speed and just enjoying the view and the ride. what a Wonderfull way to close of a Wonderfull day of riding.

After we covered so many kilometers in the last few days, we planned on doing a shorter base route today, which gave us the opportunity to adapt as needed. As was to be expected, Frank and Kurt were more interested in the alternative route and decided to basically do yesterday's route in reverse. Once again, the forecast proved to be very unreliable. It said online that there was about a 20% chance of rain, leaving us wondering if we needed to wear our rain gear in the morning. Luckily, we learned from the last few days and decided to wear it anyway. This was proven correct after just a little while, as it started to get pretty wet shortly after we set off. We made our way towards the Rose Church, which wasn't open yet by the time we got there. Frank and Kurt took this as a sign to head off on their duo adventure of driving the long way around. The rest of us decided to head to the Gudbrandsjuvet waterfall, have a coffee there, and then return to the church on the way back. A little while after the church, the road started to climb up into the mountains, and as we ascended, the fog became thicker and the rain a little heavier. This left us with little visibility of the road ahead, but also provided us with some beautiful sights and views. We made our way to the other side slowly and safely, and once we arrived at the coffee stop next to the waterfall, we treated ourselves to some well-deserved cinnamon rolls and coffee. The building is located directly next to the waterfall, and the architecture and location make for some great pictures. On our way back, we stopped at a viewpoint high up in the clouds, taking more pictures of the great foggy fjords. The church was open once we got back, and we had the chance to look at the beautiful historic building with its wonderful painted patterns on the inside. From here, it was just an easy ride back to Ålesund, where we made a quick stop at the BMW/Harley dealership, had a look around before heading back to the hotel for an early return.

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