Aka. THE ATLANTIC ROAD.

After our morning in Alesund, we continued on to the Atlantic Road. With our diversion to the atlantic road, it took about 6.5 hours to reach our destination, so it was a bit of a hike. But, it was worth it.

We did consider flying around Norway, or getting the train, but I’m so glad that we drove. Yes, the days were long, and there was a lot of driving but it truly was beautiful. It rained most of the way to the Atlantic Road, but thankfully it stopped and the weather cleared just before we got onto it. Honestly, it was just so blue, everywhere.

As it was clear, I wouldn’t really describe it as dangerous as a lot of people would. Obviously if you swerve at all it definitely is! But if you drive it safely like we did, as in at a reasonable speed but not excessive, it’s a really enjoyable drive. The bridges were miraculous feats of engineering, and you never quite knew what you’d get to see driving over one bridge to the next.

It must be crazy living there, and driving that every day. You wouldn’t think anything of anywhere else you drove afterwards. It surprised me how many shops etc were on the way. I know there is a little fishing village on the way, we didn’t have time to stop off there but it looks lovely.

Hamilton drove half of the road, and I drove the other half. It really is a once in a lifetime experience. It’s not like riding a rollercoaster or anything, it’s just unbelievable that it exists as a thing. Good job, Norway. Good job.

After the atlantic road, our day was pretty slow. It rained non stop and got a hell of a lot colder as we were further North. It didn’t get much better once we got to the cabin… As I said before I was going on little to no knowledge when booking places, all I knew is that Trondheim was a big place, so it would be good to stay there so we could have a look around, and then we could continue on to Lillehammer on our journey back to Oslo. I didn’t think about the weather during this though…

I assumed that even though it would be cold, there would be the chance it would be nice enough that if we stayed in a cabin we could have a wander down to the beach and perhaps rent a canoe. We didn’t even want to leave the cabin.

The cabins were genuinely like something out of a horror film. It was slightly misty and rainy, also starting to get a little dark. There seemed to be no one else around but a couple of *very* starey children. It was like no one had been there in years. Also, it was way too cold and wet to go down to the beach, so spirits were low. We had also run out of teabags and were having to share. As English people, this was very disappointing and even a little distressing.

The cabin consisted of two and a half rooms: a living room/kitchen, and a bedroom. I personally quite liked it. My travel companions did not. It had a heater inside, came with some blankets (though we also had sleeping bags), had a little tv and a toilet hence it having 2.5 rooms.

Even though we were very tired, once we arrived there and put our stuff away, we realised that we had very little food. I, especially, wanted snacks. So we set off down the road to find an alleged supermarket that we had been off handedly recommended by a very uninterested receptionist, and amazingly, came across something. It sold food and chocolate. So we got both and returned.

I think if it had been sunny it would have been a bit nicer and everyone would have been happier. Personally, I thought it was cosy, though I slept very well and was very warm in our quadruple bunk beds. I don’t think anyone else did unfortunately.

It was this night especially, we realised how many times we had talked about how it was still light. It had become a bit of a running joke where someone would go to shut the curtains, and have to say before hand ‘look how bright it is still!’ and everyone else would agree. But seriously IT WAS ALWAYS LIGHT.

If you’d like an insight into our short time at the cabin, please view this informative video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua1FAlHt_Ys

Yes. We had pasta most nights.

The next morning we packed up our stuff and continued our merry little journey into Trondheim, after some very confusing attempts at parking, we managed it and went and had a look at the cathedral. This was all we looked at, seeing as we had to continue on elsewhere and weren’t massive fans of Norwegian Rock. To be fair, it was a very nice cathedral.

The drive to Lillehammer was fairly uneventful, aside from being exceptionally rainy. It was over a lot of mountains, and was the first time we had to blast the heater. I also feel the need to say at this point, that although everyone comments on how much things cost in Norway, especially petrol. I reckon it’s cheaper than petrol in England. We did only have a small car, but still there were a lot of us in it and driving up and over loads of places.

Also, though the roads are great. They could really do with some with two lanes. The times we got stuck behind lorries coming down mountains, then had to put our pedal to the metal as soon as there was a half km of double lane-age were countless.

Anyway, we made it to Lillehammer in the end. I had hoped that we would be able to go bobsledding (the main reason I wanted to go to Lillehammer in the first place) but it has the most confusing post code ever. As in, there were three postcodes that we found and NONE were correct. It was in a completely different place than we thought. We must have spent an hour driving around. In the end, we assumed that as it was listed on the Olympic Museum’s page, it must be near there, so we would go there first thing in the morning before going back to Oslo.

So, basically, the atlantic road was good. It was worth all the faff that came after it.

The next post will be the penultimate one about Norway! Covering Lillehammer and our return to Oslo. After that I’ll do a post with the video in it.

I honestly feel so nostalgic right now. I’d quite like to be sat by a Norwegian Fjord eating salmon and watching some Moose. Fyi. We NEVER SAW A MOOSE. Gutted.

If you got through that post I truly salute you. I feel like you were there with us, imploring us to hurry up to Lillehammer and cheer up.

Until we meet again.

Abi

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@abipageaustin