Norway - Part 1 - Malmö to Kristiansand (22 June)

Time for our next trip, and this one involved a lot of driving - which was becoming the norm after Iceland (3155km) and Scotland (2610km). (of further note - this has been in hire cars, back in good old Sweden, our car has just reached it 30,000km service after 19 months)

Knowing that our time in Sweden was going to come to an end at some time soon, we had to work out how we were going to spend our last few trips.  So far we hadn't really made it into Europe (most of the other expat families had done a big drive around Europe), but we'd only really just touched the top of Germany.  So a tour around Europe would definitely have been a good idea, but we also realized that we we'd done a big bunch of the Nordic areas but not much of Norway (we'd hit Oslo and Larvik but nowhere else).  If we ever traveled again (which we hopefully will do) it would be easier to do a big trip around Europe that hit little spots in Norway and Sweden.  So our decision was made to try to see the main parts of the Nordic areas before we went home.

So the outcome of the long ramble above (which was the result of long rambling discussions in the Puplett's Sweden household, and threats of smothering with a pillow from Kris if I didn't stop being so indecisive), we planned out our Norwegian trip.  It was a pretty rushed trip, with lots of small sights and a large amount of driving.

We highlighted a few sights we wanted to see in Norway - Sverd i Fjell, the Kristiansand cannon, Bergen, the Atlantic Ocean Road and Trondheim.  Sadly, this didnt include the most northern part of Norway, but we would have needed an additional 5 days to fit that in.  We had considered the Hurtigruten - the cruise up the coast of Norway, but it was 10,000kr (about AUD$2000) per person and took 16 days).  We didn't have enough time and figured that paying AUD$10,000 to have the kids sit on their IPads and complain about being cold and bored wasn't the best idea.  So driving it was.

Next problem to solve: the sights listed would leave us at Trondheim and a 12hr drive from home in Malmö.  While we didn't mind driving that seemed a little excessive. But there were some sights we wanted to see in middle Sweden so we checked and it was worked out that we could drive east from Trondheim to the coast of Sweden and then work out way back home.  So the itinerary was set:

Day 1 - Malmö to Kristiansand (via the Stromstad - Sandefjord ferry we had caught last time) - 10hrs driving

Day 2 - Kristiansand to Madla/Stavanger - 3hrs30 driving

Day 3 - Madla to Bergen - 5hrs driving

Day 4 - Day in Bergen - No driving (hurray!)

Day 5 - Bergen to Kristiansund via the Atlantic Ocean Road - 10hrs driving

Day 6 - Kristiansund - Trondheim - 3hr30 driving

Day 7 - Trondheim to Sundsvall (Sweden) - 6hrs driving

Day  8 - Sundsvall - Avesta (via Gävle) . 3hrs30 driving

Day 9 - Avesta to Kolmården - 3hrs driving

Day 10 - Day at Kolmården - No driving

Day 11 - Kolmården to Malmö - 5hrs driving

Our destinations

Some notes on driving in Norway:

There are a LOT of tolls on the main roads, most are pretty small (7kr ($1) or so but they can add up, anything bigger than a car (e.g. camper trailer, motorhome etc) can be more expensive.  Our BroPass (automatic toll unit for the Danish bridge) picked up the tolls and automatically paid them, but otherwise a photo is taken of the number plates and sent to the owner.

There are a LOT of ferries along the way.  The charge for most of the ferries (for a car, 2 adults and 3 kids) were between 170kr and 300kr ($25 - 50) and this can add up - our drive from Bergen to Kristiansund had about 4 ferries.  They are good for having a break, coffee and toilet visit and the scenery is pretty amazing.

The main driving times are due to curvy roads and lower speed limits, not only the distances.  Most roads were 70-80kmph (where they would have been 100-120kmph in Sweden).  This gives more time to see the scenery and is safe on the windy roads, but can lead to more driving fatigue and make travel take longer than expected.  And if you think that you'll just go a little faster, there were lots of speed cameras and average speed monitors along the way, particularly as you enter a town (speed limit 40) or a tunnel.

Norway was way more mountainous that I expected - to be truthful I hadn't really researched as much as I usually do, but I was surprised.  There were a lot of tunnels and we could see the bigger mountains inland as we drove the coastal road.

Some of the main attractions aren't as accessible for families as in other places.  This is mostly due to their nature and adds to the their wonder.  But to get to Pulpit Rock (Preikestolen) is a 2-3hour intensive walk each way and very steep.  This is expected, because it is 604m over the fjord, but there was no way we could do it with the kids.  The top is also not fenced (which is great as it doesn't spoil the natural beauty), which means you'll want to keep hold of any kids.  Apparently no-one has died from a fall from the rock, but it's never good to be first.  Trolltunga, another awesome sight is 1000m above sea level and a 23km (10-12hr) return hike with step slopes and demanding terrain.  So my point here is that if these are your goals, make sure you have the right equipment,. right weather and do your research.  They can be very dangerous in winter or for inexperienced hikers.

Ok so enough of my rambling, on to the trip!

One of Norway's many tunnels and also one of Norway's many tolls)

I loved the way the tunnels were cut back into the rock - it made them very impressive and some of them were very long.  These ones were between Sandefjord and Kristiansand.

I took a lot of timelapse captures of the drive, which I will include at the end of each day's post as well as a summary or the distance traveled.


Today's Distance Traveled: 435km to Strömstad, ferry, 208km to Sandefjord
Total: 643km

From the Sandefjord ferry part way to Kristiansand:

The rest of the trip to our first stop:

Our stay was at the Yess Hotel in Kristiansand.  It was a pretty basic hotel, but served our needs - we had two sets of bunks, with a double bed on the bottom and single on the top as well as a bathroom and toilet.  (price was 1436SEK for a night)  (You'll note accommodation in Norway is pretty costly).

We had a buffet all-you-can eat lunch on the ferry so dinner was a couple pieces of circle bread (polar bread) and some yoghurt.

One final note/hint: Food in Norway can also be pretty expensive and, if you're driving 10hrs a day, you may not be wanting to cook for yourselves.  So we (well mostly Kris) came up with a great idea.  She precooked a stew, some taco meat and spaghetti sauce as well as buying some frozen hotdogs.  "But," I hear you ask in a loud and impatient voice (calm down and control your volume or I wont continue, gee some people can be so rude!) "How do you keep it cold between trips - even an esky/ice box wouldn't work for that long a trip and since most days we would be driving, we wouldn't be able to keep replacing the ice.  So we bought a cooler fridge:

Our cool box

Link here - If Clas Ohlson want to sponsor this post I won't complain :)

It plugged into the 12V cigarette socket and kept the food cool while we drove (with normal goods it stayed about 3 degrees, with frozen gear inside it was an average of -9 degrees).  When we stopped for the night we could move the food to a freezer if we had a kitchen, else we had a wall adapter that let us plug the cool box in and keep the food cool until we moved on.

The only issue was that the box did heat up fairly quickly when it wasn't powered - like when we took a fjord cruise - but it kept the food nice and cold and we were able to reheat it at night for a quick and easy meal.