Over my next few posts, I am going to relive a 12 day road trip that my partner and I undertook across Fjord Norway from 31^st May 2022 to 11^th June, 2022. The hiatus that the pandemic brought international travel meant that this vacation was more anticipated than any before and after having been cooped up at home for the most part of two years, Norway was the perfect panacea, giving one ample opportunity to feast one’s eyes on wide expanses of blue sky.

On landing, luggage retrieval was quick and hassle free. We headed to the airport currency exchange to get ourselves some Norwegian Krone (NOK, one US$ is equivalent to roughly 10 NOK), however it was about 7pm and the counter was closed. Later, at the rental car desk, we were told that the exchange had shut shop a few days back, they told us not to worry, as cards are accepted universally in Norway, this bore true, in fact, there are establishments in Norway that do not accept cash, not vice versa. The rental car desks were clearly signposted and we completed the formalities of signing the rental contract and taking the comprehensive insurance cover within minutes. The car had been booked in advance through Economy Car Rentals, it was a grey VW Polo provided by Europcar. Our own TomTom, satellite navigation system (satnav) installed, we nervously made to ease out of the underground rental car parking. This is always a stressful process, as the satnav cannot receive signal in the underground parking and having been turned on for the first time in a new destination is unable to provide directions. Anyway, before we could exit, we turned back as the fuel gauge appeared to show the tank as empty, the ‘0’ was red, it was supposed to be full, so I clicked a photo and rushed back to the rental desk, while my partner waited in the designated parking of Europcar. I was assured that the tank was full, I needed to see the points to the right of the ‘0’, the vertical dashes to the right of the number gauge, which were going right to the top to indicate that the tank was full. Reassurance gained, we once again nervously headed towards the exit, floundered as we reached the open to get our bearings and to ensure that we were driving on the right side of the road. The satnav still had not found its signal, nor had the cell phone, so we had no option but to take the motorway and hope we were headed in the right direction. It was by now 8.30 pm, but being in the land of the midnight sun we had the advantage of getting our bearings in broad daylight. Our destination the Best Western Leto Arena Hotel, booked for its proximity to the Airport, 12 kms north of it, just off the E6 highway which we would be taking further north the next morning to get to Åndalsnes. Fortunately, we had exited the Airport in the right direction and soon reached our halt for the night. Do not miss out on reading about our misadventure in getting the car back to the rental car parking when we return to the Airport in the last of this series of posts.

Even though the hotel was surrounded by concrete, the bright blue sky where the odd fluffy white cloud hung ornamentally, the verdant treeline beyond the concrete and the brightly coloured homestead across the road gave us a titillating glimpse of what was in store for us and we couldn’t help but jump for joy. The excitement of being in Norway for this road trip, which had originally been planned for May – June 2020, the seeping in of the belief that life could go back to pre-pandemic mode and our liberation from masks, which were still the norm at home, gave us a heady feeling and a robust appetite.

Check-in was painless, the receptionist was pleasant and friendly, she informed us that dinner was a buffet consisting of meatballs, sides, salads and dessert, she said the meatballs she had made herself and they were delicious, not that we needed any convincing. We enjoyed our dinner and prided ourself on our restraint in not partaking of the delectable desserts on offer, as we are following a regime of not eating sweets in the evening. After dinner we took a couple of rounds of the car park and headed off to bed to be ready for our early start the next day.

The next day Tuesday the 31^st of May, 2022, our road trip officially began. Sleep for me was fitful, I joked that my lungs are too used to polluted air and the clean air was proving too much for them to take, by 3 am it was already day outside, I checked the routes we were to take and weather conditions etc. We were ready, and at the breakfast buffet by 6.30 am. The buffet was varied and bountiful. Here started our breakfast saga of smoked salmon, having platefuls of it served for breakfast makes you truly feel you are in Norway.

By 7.15 am we had checked out and were on our way to Åndalsnes some 430 kms north-west. Driving in Norway is pretty simple, the maximum speed limit is never above 80 kms per hour and most people honour the speed limit, most roads, even the highways, have just one lane, in each direction, interspersed with sections for overtaking, but with the speed limit being so low only those, who are ready to brave a speeding ticket, overtake. The one thing you should be prepared for are the tunnels, every route that we drove had tunnels, and some really long ones, the longest in Norway being 25 kms. This is probably one of the reasons that in Norway all vehicles must have their headlights on at all times, when in motion, regardless of the time of day or time of year. This also means you need to be careful about wearing sunglasses as tunnels come upon you without warning and you could be plunged into darkness. If you are not used to tunnels, as we were not, they require concentration, they tend to get hypnotic and give you the feeling that you are on a conveyor belt in a stationary car and don’t need to control the vehicle.

After driving along lake Mjøsa for some 100 kms we crossed it and entered the former county of Oppland, the area now a part of Innlandlet, stopping at its pretty information viewpoint, the lake now to our right. The highway from here had just single lanes each way, we crossed Lillehammer, the venue for the 1994 Winter Olympics and I could see the ski slopes, now bare of snow.

We were by now super excited as our next stop would be in Rondane National Park, the oldest National Park of Norway. I had been hell bent on not taking the highway all the way, though in hindsight, Norwegian highways are no less picturesque. My research had led me to the possibility of taking Route 27 from a little ahead of Ringebu on the E6 in the direction of Folldal effectively driving Rondane, one of the 18 Norwegian Scenic Routes, through the National Park. I found the Visit Norway website an excellent resource to gather information about all things concerning travel in Norway. It sends you automatically to the relevant websites, for example, if you are searching scenic routes, it will send you to the Nasjonale Turistveger website. Another useful resource to keep abreast scenic route openings and temporary closures etc. is the Norwegian Scenic Routes facebook page.

As we entered Rondane, the scenery changed dramatically the bright green gave way to rugged grey – brown. It felt like we had been transported to another planet. We were dazed, neither of us had expected such terrain, on driving further, we got our first glimpse of snow, it spotted the landscape in patches, if this got us animated, what was in store a little further afield was astounding, a smorgasbord of snow peaks. Some of these were affectionately named by us, one being “Vanilla Mint Dark Chocolate Chip” for its blend of white snow, dark brown earth and green tree cover another was naughtily named Mammy Poko Pants. Rondane is known for its distinctive geology and it was apparent why, the only other topography that I could say it bore resemblance to, from my experience, were the moors of Great Britain.

The Norwegian Scenic Routes are famous for the facilities that have been created along them for viewing the scenery and for their oft quirky toilets. Our first stop in Rondane was at the Sohlbergplassen viewpoint, we were lucky to have it all to ourselves. From here we could admire lake Atnsjøen circled by the peaks of Rondane, and learn their serious names. The sight was breath-taking, while writing this I realise that I am going to run out of superlatives to describe the beauty I am going to behold over the next 12 days.

Our next stop was the viewpoint at Strombu, this, had a few people around, and the possibility of taking walks into the wilderness. It started raining as we crossed the wooden bridge across the Atna river, the earth was already soft and we still had a long way to go so we turned back rather than venture into the wild. We had the possibility of driving 12 kms east to see the Sollia stave church, but since we had a long drive ahead of us and would get plenty of opportunities to see stave churches, chose not to take this detour

We continued driving due north, dumbstruck by the landscape, till we reached Folldal, the village that I had identified for buying provisions for our next couple of days in our self-catering cabin. TomTom had other ideas for us and directed us to the Town Hall, rather than the Co-op supermarket we were trying to reach. We wandered around the building thinking that maybe it was behind the Town Hall, fortunately for us there was a mason working in a building adjacent to it and I hesitantly asked him where the supermarket was, doubting that he would speak English, I was wrong, he responded in stilted but passable English and gave us directions to the supermarket. I mention this episode to highlight that in Norway pretty much everyone speaks English, so language is not an issue for those that speak it.

The Town Hall, though closed had a clean toilet for public use, just as most villages and towns have, and a bank. We tried to get in, to exchange currency but could not, we would later learn that it is now next to impossible to conduct business at banks in Norway, phone and net banking being the only resource for this. There was an ATM so we withdrew some cash to have comfort.

We found the supermarket, conducted our purchases and as we came out of it, we asked a couple of charming ladies, grandmother and daughter, directions to a restaurant and in the process we landed having a lovely chit chat. They were off to their holiday cottage in the nearby hills. I am glad we met them on our first day, because the young lady counselled me that Norwegians may appear a bit lost in themselves, but they would love to engage with people and help them, so we should shake Norwegians out of their daze, when required. Her advice stood us in good stead.

Folldal had its own set of activities to offer, such as walks and a visit to the mines by train in summer tourist season. The weather was still dull but it gave the mossy moorish landscape character, we decided that we could not bear to sit in a restaurant when we could dine alfresco, so we drove west of Folldal along R29 and on the edge of Dovre National Park, with its peaks as a backdrop sat down at a perfectly placed picnic table to assemble our sandwiches from the goodies we had just purchased. Weather was a good sport, it started splattering only as we were wrapping up.

We eventually joined the E6 which we followed slightly south-west to the pretty mountain village of Dombås, the scenery changed at Dombas, the grey-brown gave way to lush green and yellow wild flowers lined the road. From Dombås we followed the E136 in the direction of Åndalsnes.

If Rondane had been other worldly the scenery from here was reminiscent of the Swiss Alps in summer. We were driving through the valley with pine covered slopes peppered with meadows and villages on either side of us, the peaks still snow clad and the clear blue Rauma river gurgling alongside and the railway track, for those who are not doing a road trip in Norway the scenic rail route from Dombås to Åndalsnes, the Rauma Line, is one of the must dos, for a taste of this stunning scenery and the most unforgettable waterfalls, there were thousands of waterfalls flowing into the valley, for us it was a never before seen sight.

The sun was bright which made the colour of everything around us pop, we did the last stretch of about 40 kms without pause and reached our cabin at Trollstigen Resort by 5pm. The resort, which is more a camping, with places for camper vans, motorhomes and the like and a dozen or so cabins is on the out skirts of the town of Åndalsnes in a beautifully appointed valley surrounded by mountains, with the river flowing below it. We had chosen this resort as we had intended to drive Trollstigen (R63), literally Troll’s Ladder, or Trolls Road, the most famous National Scenic Route that turns off from here two days later, but, as luck would have it, avalanches during the winter had caused severe damage to the roads so the road was still closed.

Social media has of course made the word troll a part of everyday parlance, but the original Trolls are ugly mythical creatures that are an indelible part of Scandinavian mythology, as per folklore mountain trolls live in the stony structures of Trollstigen and can be seen from time to time. As a result, Troll statues are ubiquitous in this area, our resort was no exception.

Our accommodation was a wooden cabin with two bedrooms that can sleep up to 8 persons, we had opted for one with a private bathroom, though we found that cabins with shared facilities (bathroom and kitchen), which are more economical, are quite popular. Nordic accommodations of this type, provide you linen at an extra charge, but what is worse is that you have to make your own bed. The bedrooms are always miniscule so I call this concept, by far the most irritating aspect of traveling in this part of the world, still small price to pay for access to such untouched beauty.

We had tea and cake sitting at our pretty picnic table overlooking the river and went off for a walk. On our way back we met another friendly Norwegian lady at the resort, who chatted with us about all things from Yoga to Karma and guided us to drive up the Trollstigen Road as far as it’s information viewpoint in the valley, it being accessible, even though the road ahead was closed, we decided to do this the next evening and retired to our cabin to put together our dinner and call it a night to be fresh for the next Norwegian magnum opus – the Atlantic Road, which I will write about in the next post.