Day 17 Odda to Bergen

We woke feeling remarkably ok after yesterdays efforts.  Sure, we could feel that we’d walked 20k’s yesterday but the pain wasn’t too bad at all. 

Major disappointment at breakfast though, no scrambled egg and no smoked salmon !!!  I was gutted.  You know when you REALLY fancy something and you can’t have it?  I consoled myself with 3 cups of coffee instead.

Today we left the lovely town of Odda, and spent most of the day driving.  I had planned a much longer scenic route, that took us up the side of the Hardanger fjord and then to a place call Aurland.  It was a very pretty drive, past apple orchards and berry farms spaced along the slightly less steep land down at the bottom of the hills.  Then we crossed the Hardanger bridge and alternately when through tunnels and past lovely little villages nestled amongst lush green countryside.  

All chocolate box beautiful and we are both complaining that we aren’t really capturing it properly in photos.  One spot in particular, near Voss, had a bunch of houses dotted along the edge of a stunningly still lake, it was like a mirror.  Unfortunately there are not many places to stop, and the bus drivers must get really ticked off with tourists like us stopping in their spots. 

We arrived at Aurland and began the perilous drive up yet another series of switchbacks to the Stegastein bridge.  This is quite a cool structure built out over the drop below offering great views of the fjord below.  It wasn’t a brilliantly sunny day, but it wasn’t raining either, and we had a good view from the top.  

The bridge is quite cool, and has a glass panel at the front, so it feels a bit like you are tipping over the edge.  Traffic was manic, with caravans and campers all making the trip up the narrow winding one-lane-wide road.  There were plenty of places to pull over, and it really is surprising how two cars can pass without touching in such a narrow space. 

Yup, that's a bus ahead, and yes, traffic goes both ways on this road.

We made our way back down and stopped at the local supermarket to buy lunch.  Fresh raspberries, look at the size of them !!! 

You can buy a cup of coffee from a machine too, so we used that to wash down a couple of pastries, and it was time for another 2 hour plus trip to Bergen.  More lovely scenery and more tunnels, one of which was 11 km long, and another one actually had a round-about inside and another adjoining tunnel going off in another direction.  The Norwegians will build a road anywhere.

The trip to Bergen was mostly uneventful, we followed a car towing a caravan all the way and he kept a good steady pace.  We arrived into the city at about 4pm, and the hotel I’d chosen to stay at is right in the centre, near the wharf area (think Auckland Viaduct) and traffic was a mess.   Dora was directing us to turn left to get to the hotel, but there was a large concrete barrier down the middle of the road, and there was no way we could turn left.  So we kept going, the place was full of buses and heaving with pedestrians.  I copped an icey glare from the Politi for not stopping at a pedestrian crossing.  In my defence, there were people standing at the edge of the footpath gawking all over the place, not look at all like they wanted to cross.  Still, I won’t be surprised if I get a ticket in the mail for that misdemeanour.  We found a spot the had a big P sign and whipped in there and parked, only to read the sign properly and realise it was parking for Politi only, and we shouldn’t push our luck any further.  We swapped drivers, J was not enjoying navigating this bit, so we fired up Google maps and found another spot to park while we could check into our hotel.  As luck would have it we were only a block away, so we easily schlepped our luggage and checked in.  We opted to pay for the hotel parking which is a wee bit more expensive than the public option but is much closer, just a block away.  It also means we don’t have to pay for temporary parking while we schlepp luggage back.  So with the car all safely parked in a gated courtyard, we set out to explore.

The place is heaving because we happen to have timed our visit with The Tall Ships Race 2019, and all the ships have stopped in Bergen for a couple of days.  There 59 ships from 18 countries in the race, and we saw probably a couple of dozen lining the wharf area.  They are magnificent.  Never seen so much rope in one place in all my life !  

We wandered a bit, book marking a few places to visit again tomorrow as it was getting on for 6pm and most shops had closed for the day.  We had dinner at TGI Fridays - yes, an American diner, but lots of other places were expensive, and even this was not cheap.  $106 for dinner and a drink each, we’d be moaning if we paid $80 for this in NZ. It had started raining by the time we finished so we scuttled back to our room and called it a day.  I was in bed asleep by 9pm!