CVE2502 - The Viking Experience
The day of arrival greets us with excellent Norwegian weather, which naturally changes constantly in a very short time. Our guests from the USA, Germany, Switzerland, and Dubai arrive one after the other and are welcomed by tour guides Joy, Axel, and Holger at the welcome briefing in the beautiful starting hotel. After a brief round of introductions, the bike handover begins, and the first motorcycle stories are exchanged. Dinner crowns the day with a culinary delight, and everyone is excited for the next few days. Tomorrow morning, we set off south.
Hello and welcome to our first day of riding. It's 7 a.m. and the weather looks promising, but anything is possible. So, first briefing and then off on the motorcycles, because there's a lot to discover today. The first stop is actually only 410 steps away and is called Aksla (Alesund's local mountain). But since we are motorcyclists, we naturally rode there to take one last look at Alesund before starting our journey towards Trollvegen. The way out of Alesund is not difficult and went quickly. The sky still couldn't really decide whether it would be sunny or rainy, and in the end we had a bit of everything. After passing the Ørskogfjellet ski resort, we headed towards Tresfjord and Romsdalsfjorden, before we turned off towards Trollvegen, where we had our well-deserved coffee. On top of that, we had a view of the highest cliff in Europe at 1100 m / 3600 feet. And a few troll pictures later, it was time to head to Trollstigen. One of Norway's most famous roads, which has been built in 1936. And 11 hairpin bends later, we parked our motorcycles to enjoy the view from above.Norway, you are and you will always be impressive!!! From there, our journey took us down through the Valldal Valley to the Valldal Fjord, before setting off on a small ferry towards Geiranger. Next stop: high above the Geiranger Fjord – Ørnesvingen Viewpoint. A must-see when you're there, even if it's not always easy to find a parking space. But as you can see, it's worth it! Well, now it's not far at all to the hotel, because we can already see the hotel from up here. After 216 km of beautiful Norwegian landscape, the smiles on our customers' faces showed us that they enjoyed it just as much as we did. A great first day, I have to say, comes to an end, and tomorrow? Tomorrow will maybe be even better!!! Why? You'll find out tomorrow here in our blog. Until then, enjoy the pictures! Your Viking Team Joy Holger and Axel
After a fabulous breakfast buffet, here in Geiranger they make everything from the scratch, I heard they even bake the bread, we start our day with the first highlight: the viewing plattform Dalsnibba! The road to from Geiranger to Dalsnibba is already a piece of art when it comes about road construction. Up on 1500m, we enjoy the view down to the most famous fjord of Norway. It simply takes your breath away! Besides, we are on the highest road in Norway. Cool! Cool it is indeed. That´s why we all are dressed like onions :) The more layers the better! From Dalsnibba we roll on and head to Jostedalsbreen Nationalpark center. Jostedalsbreen is the biggest glacier in central Europe and we can see it´s white tongues coming down several mountains. Our day continues with the glacier museum in Fjærland. Do you know why glaciers seem to be blue colored? Now we do. From the museum it´s only half an hour to get to our wonderful hotel in Sogndal, right at the water. Who´s up for a little boat ride? What a beautiful day! Ang guess what: tomorrow Norway is waiting to impress with more nature highlights! Sleep well! Holger, Axel and Joy
And the journey continues through beautiful Norway With the sun shining on our faces, we got on our motorcycles and rode from Sogndal to Bergen. After a short ferry ride, we arrived at our first highlight! Instead of taking the Lærdal Tunnel, which would certainly have been a highlight as well, because it is the longest car tunnel in the world at 15.23 miles, we took the snow road over the mountain range above. But don't worry, we didn't encounter any snow. However, this isn't so unusual, as it doesn't get very warm up there and the snow therefore stays around for a long time. For us, however, it meant enjoying a fantastically beautiful narrow and winding road up to the pass. The landscape changed from green forests to a landscape resembling an almost lunar landscape (tundra vegetation). And a few pictures later, we descended to Aurlandsvegen, which is Geiranger's little brother. A fjord that impresses with its beauty but also attracts many tourists for that reason. Well, then it was time to fortify ourselves for the remaining 189 km of the day. Joy had a secret tip for this, which turned out to be a real culinary highlight. Fortified, we continued our journey via Stalheimskleiva and the well-known Tvindefossen waterfall towards Bergen. And now we are in Bergen, where we will spend the first of two rest days on tour tomorrow. A great day of driving is coming to an end and there is only one thing left to do – enjoy a delicious dinner, which we are about to do, while you can enjoy the pictures. See you tomorrow Joy Holger and Axel
It's a rest day, but that doesn't mean we're not doing anything!!! Today, we had the choice between a short rest day trip on the Mc and sleeping in, followed by exploring Bergen. Or both, which is what we ended up doing. A few of us went on the rest day trip to Fjell Fortress, part of the Atlantic Wall from World War II, while the rest explored Bergen on their own. I have to admit that the weather could have been better. But overall, it was more dry than wet. That meant there were quite a few options for getting to know Bergen better. Whether it's Bergen Cathedral, the aquarium, or the Bergen Maritime Museum and many more, there is a lot to see here. In addition, there is the fish market, which is a culinary experience not to be missed. Well, tomorrow we continue south through the Hardanger region. So let yourself be surprised by what we have to report tomorrow and now enjoy the pictures from our day today. See you Tomorrow Joy Holger and Axel
It's time to move on!!! Even though Bergen is beautiful and has given us some wonderful moments, the true beauty of Norway lies along its numerous fjords. So it's time to get on our motorcycles and hit the road! We have 400 km ahead of us, dotted with fjords and the beautiful Hardanger region. The way out of Bergen is quite easy as it feels like everyone is still asleep, so we make good progress and get closer and closer to the Hardanger Bridge. Our first stop of the day is a small farm shop on the Hardanger Fjord, where we took a coffee break before the winding road led us to the 202-meter-high (the pylons) bridge. Fifteen tons of steel encased in concrete are really impressive when you drive over them. A few pictures later, we moved on towards the coast and along the Hardanger Fjord on the other side. And then it was halftime, which means it's lunchtime. Refreshed and back in the saddle, we headed inexorably towards the coast. Past the Låtefossen waterfall to the Langfoss waterfall and further along the Etnefjorden/Fjord. What a beautiful landscape! I know we say that every day here in the blog, but there's no other way to describe it!!! It is and remains a feast for the eyes, no matter where we go. At the end, we took a ferry to Stavanger, which marked the finale of today's journey. From there, it's only a stone's throw to Sola. A long day of driving is coming to an end, and tomorrow, on rest day number 2, we'll be heading high up. But we're not going to reveal what that means right now!!! You'll have to check back here tomorrow to find out. And now we're going to enjoy our boot beer, which Joy surprised us with when we arrived. See you tomorrow Joy Holger and Axel
It's a rest day, but just like in Bergen, that doesn't mean we're doing nothing Today there were three options: hiking to the Preikestolen with Joy, a short motorcycle ride south of Sola with Holger, or a trip to Stavanger with Axel. In the end, everyone went for a ride on their motorcycles today, some longer than others. Team Axel set off to explore Stavanger, which was still asleep on Sunday, and the first stop was the famous swords in the mountain. These are a reminder of the Battle of Hafrsfjord in 872, the year Harald Fairhair became the first king of Norway, and are a symbol of the unification of Norway that followed. From there, we continued on to the Petroleum Museum, which was closed on Sunday, but there was enough equipment on display in front of the museum to get an impression of how oil is extracted. A few steps further along the harbor, we entered the old part of town, where the sun and a cup of coffee invited us to stay a while. It was a nice little excursion, which gave us enough time to enjoy the late afternoon afterwards. The rest of the crew was out a little longer, and the smiles on their faces showed us that everyone enjoyed the day. The tour south also had many beautiful aspects, and we decided to take it easy today. First, we drove for an hour through the idyllic farmland along the coast. During a stop in Egersund, the norwegian hospitality was evident, and we were all invited for a coffee. We continued along tiny back roads to the oldest surviving stone arch bridge and finally to Sverd i Fjell, which the Stavanger team had already visited. All in all, a relaxing sunday drive. Well, the tour is coming to an end and there are only two days of riding left, but we will still experience a lot in those two days. So stay tuned and look forward to the pictures and what we have to report. See you soon Joy Holger and Axel
The first highlight of the day awaits us in in the morning! 27 switchbacks lead us down to the tiny town Lysebotn. The vertical rock wall is so steep, one of those switchbacks is build through the mountain in a tunnel. The picture on the navigation system looks like the drawing of a talented kindergarten artist. After we managed the 2620 ft down, we enjoy the fabulous view of the Lysefjord, before we return the same way up! What do you prefer? Switchbacks uphill or downhill? Today we get to practice both more than enough :) Further on we go and head inland. The most spectacular landscape awaits us. At noon we stop at a parking lot on a beautiful lake. And guess who´s waiting for us with an Axel-lent picnic! Can this day get any better? We continue our ride along small and twisty roads, most along the water till we end up at our todays destination: Vrådal. The sky is blue, the sun is shining and we enjoy a beer and some good stories on the terrace.
The final day of riding dawns, and we set off full of anticipation for what awaits us on the route. We once again head through beautiful forests, some of which are already tinged with autumnal colors, and along the lakes and canals of the Telemark region. Since the weather is truly kind to us as we leave, we can take some excellent landscape photos and delay the impending farewell a little longer with a coffee or two. When we finally arrive at the hotel, we enjoy the amenities before dinner and then begin to celebrate the end of the tour. We recap the highlights of the past few days and discuss future trips and plans. These were intense and wonderful days, and the tour guide team of Axel, Joy, and Holger would like to thank you for the wonderful time.