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Norway: Crazy about Viking land

Urnes Stave Church Norway - travel
26 °C. No clouds and no wind. Take Jacob Gowland Jørgensen on a road trip to the Sognefjord, where route 55 is in a class of its own. Even in the sunshine.
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Norway: Crazy about Viking land is written by Jacob Gowland Jørgensen

norway map oslo travel

By ferry to Oslo

Okay, admittedly - it's damn lucky that the sun bakes through with 26 ° C in the shade, the day the Oslo ferry spits us and the four-wheeled out in the middle of Oslo.

We walk out into the nice city, visit the fine traveled museum, the Kon-Tiki Museum, and have to go in the shade as we visit Vigelandsparken with all its crawling and photo-friendly sculptures. Because we sweat.

It's a bit surreal, because this trip has been canceled several times due to bad weather here in Norway. But Thor and his thunderhammer have apparently gone to Mallorca, and we're enjoying it.

The story begins a few years earlier, where I sit with the new issue of the travel magazine Globen in hand. An enthusiastic traveler tells about a short trip and shows pictures of the Sognefjord, and it reminds me that I have to go there. It's right up there too.

But as someone who is not built for the Nordic climate, it pains me to have to spend holidays going on holiday in 8 ° C and rain, as it was just that July day a few years ago, when we had decided that we had to drive up there. So the car was turned and it drove south instead.

The following year we gave up in advance and flew to Svalbard, because should it be cold, we might as well get an Arctic experience out of it.

But after a fantastic road trip in South America, we decided that the little family should come along Norway in July 2013, and then it had to bear or burst. Yes, I probably even went so far as to air my favorite hate expression: "It's not the weather, it's wrong with, it's the clothing," because now I wanted to see that Norway right.

To stick to the decision, we quickly booked and paid for a cabin by the inner part of the Sognefjord - right in the butter hole - in mid-July.

In the category of 'good travel decisions', this decision is quite high on the list.

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Lustrafjorden Norway - travel

The horse's garden

We drive out of Oslo, and this first day we see exactly two clouds while eating miles in the car. We are on our way to the town of Kaupanger by the Sognefjord and drive through green valleys to find our cabin Hestehagen.

Yes, if you are a little language nerd, there is a lot of fun to be found in the Norwegian language - which my friends call 'oil Danish', but it is probably not so politically correct korrekt

We find the farm, which is located with a view of the Sognefjord, and our hostess Ingebjörg shows us to a nice old cottage. Fortunately, it turns out that the 'chin' is a garden, so we do not have to live in the horse stable.

We unpack all the food - we did not want the entire travel budget to be eaten up by the Norwegian supermarket prices - and fall into the fjord rhythm. We grill, bathe and have fun, and the kids immediately find a couple of other children to play with. Peace.

After a few days we are ready to conquer the immediate area. The Lustrafjord is a few kilometers away, and Urnes Stave Church is on the other side of the fjord. After a very picturesque drive - and one of the countless small boat trips on this trip - we arrive at the church. It has reportedly added style to many of the other Norwegian wooden churches from that time.

The sun is shining and as we admire the Viking church and the surrounding area, we guffaw the biggest raspberries I have ever seen. They are decidedly gigantic, and it turns out that the fjord area is Norway's orchard, partly because the highest temperatures in the country are here. Me like.

Later we also visit the stave churches in Kaupanger and Borgund, which just appear on the route. The kids are quite preoccupied with the many animals that can be found in the wood carvings at the churches, and if the youngest man could have given high five for a wooden church, the stave churches would certainly have had one for the many dragon carvings.

Because there is something about seeing churches when there are dragons on them.

Borgund Stavkirke-laerdal-norway

In snow and sun, the tourist must go out - to the Sognefjord

Ingebjörg's husband tells us that the area around Sognefjorden is the land of records: Sognefjorden is the world's longest fjord, Galdhøpiggen is Northern Europe's highest point, and Jostedals Glacier is Mainland Norway's largest. And in all modesty, he also thinks that his homemade apple juice is pretty good, for Norway that is... Or the village anyway.

In shorts and fleece sweaters, we head for a hiking-friendly branch of the huge glacier, and Nigaardsbræen is right in the eye of us all.

The area is spectacular and relatively easy to walk around, and the kids play with ice cubes in the sun and proudly scale the rocks. There is the option of going on a glacier hike every half hour, just with iron spikes strapped under the shoes you now wear, so we do that and get an experience.

It works, it's safe, and it's stunning.

Nigaard glacier Norway - travel

High on Route 55 and the Geirangerfjord

My only turbobooking from home was to the ferry from Hellesylt to Geiranger, because the Geirangerfjord was supposed to be a very nice fjord. Even for Norway. This is where the cruise ships sail in, and we had to get up and experience it. And it was great too.

In the fjord, the huge rocks jump out of the water on both sides, and even large ships seem small in the haze, while the many waterfalls constantly pour the fjord fresh water.

Today's winner, however, was the Sognefjellsvegen, which runs through Norway's highest mountain pass and is part of the many scenic routes in the tourist-friendly mountain country.

The road via Lom was the only way back to the hut from Geiranger, and what a way!

Norway Route55 Jotunheimen National Park - travel - snowmobiles

Picturesque nature in Norway

It was hard to keep my fingers from the camera that cheerfully clicked out of there and we stopped a lot of times. Both because we had to go out and put the sandals in the beautiful nature, but also because you could get a little crazy about the many turns on the road.

The air was fresh and clear, and the calm penetrating. The snow-capped mountains lay idyllically behind lakes and cliffs, and the views were phenomenal 360 ° around. It took an eternity to get back to the cabin and we were quite tall when we finally arrived.

Norway Route55 jotunheimen national park - travel -

The journey to the center of the Earth

Half of the more than 200 km from Sogndal to Bergen are in tunnels; among other things, the world's longest, which is a devil of 24 km, where you feel like you are rolling into the Earth's interior.

Exciting and really nice with a straight path when you have taken tens of thousands of hairpin turns in a week, but also slightly claustrophobic. Luckily the car rolled us straight through to the other side, where the next tunnel then appeared…

We saw cozy Bergen with its many tourists and drove via the old Viking road along the coast and a few ferries to beautiful Stavanger. Here lay a perfect Bed & Breakfast, which was our last night before we had to sail back to Denmark.

The weather was now completely normal again, and we got both a little drizzle and a little tilt on the sailing trip to Hirtshals.

Early in the morning we drove out onto the wide beaches at Tversted on our way to Skagen. In the morning sun we went for a walk, while the children drew pictures in the sand, and the wind blew us a cool last greeting from the mountain country to the north.

It was a good trip to Norway. A really good trip. And now one could road trip in Denmark begin.

Good trip to Norway.

About the author

Jacob Jørgensen, editor

Jacob is a cheerful travel nerd who has traveled in almost 100 countries from Rwanda and Romania to Samoa and Samsø. Jacob is a member of De Berejstes Klub, where he has been a board member for five years, and he has extensive experience with the travel world as a lecturer, magazine editor, consultant, author and photographer. And of course most important of all: As a traveler. Jacob enjoys traveling traditionally such as car holidays to Norway, cruises in the Caribbean and city breaks in Vilnius, and more out-of-the-box trips such as solo trips to the highlands of Ethiopia, road trips to unknown national parks in Argentina and friends trips to Iran.

Jacob is a country expert in Argentina, where he has been 10 times so far. He has spent almost a year in total traveling through the many diverse provinces, from the penguin land in the south to deserts, mountains and waterfalls in the north, and has also lived in Buenos Aires for a few months. In addition, he has special travel knowledge of such diverse places as East Africa, Malta and the countries around Argentina.

In addition to traveling, Jacob is an honorable badminton player, Malbec fan and always fresh on a board game. Jacob has also had a career in the communications industry for a number of years, most recently with the title of Communication Lead in one of Denmark's largest companies, and has for a number of years also worked with the Danish and international meeting industry as a consultant, among others. for VisitDenmark and Meeting Professionals International (MPI). Jacob is currently also an external lecturer at CBS.

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