Driving in Norway

After a couple of weeks of travelling in Norway we finally got the hang of it. First - it is a very nice experience. The drives between the different points are not only a drive – they are pure sightseeing.

The view from the car window is constantly changing. We can see (and you can see below):

·         Water of different kinds – plenty of waterfalls (sometimes we see 5-6 waterfalls at one place), rivers, fiords and lakes. One more amazing and the other. Some of them even with ice (at the higher altitudes). We have passed several rivers that are good for games like rafting and others that fit for just normal kayaking. But all very, very beautiful.

·         Mountains, mountains and mountains. Some with green trees or grass, some pure rocks and some with snow. Great places for both skiing and hiking.

·         Tunnels, tunnels and tunnels (they must be one of the best nations in the world to build tunnels) – maybe not so interesting to see, but it is part of the charm. They can be quite exciting since some of them are pitch black.

·         Beautiful green fields and forests.

·         Plenty of really, really cutes houses.

BUT…….

Driving 50 km in Norway can take anything between 1-4 hours. Not only are all the roads curvy and narrow, so it is hard to double if you end up behind slow moving vehicles. It is also hard to keep a “Swedish” average speed of 80-90 km/hour; you drive more an average of 50 km/hour. But it doesn’t stop there. Norwegians know how to build tunnels, that is for sure, but not bridges. So for many of the MAIN roads you have to use ferries. All is well if you drive in the middle of the day, since they ran quite frequently, but already around 6 pm they start to run evening traffic, which means one ferry every 30 min or hour. So if you miss one ferry you might end up waiting for whole hour. We made that mistake a few times and ended up spending most of the evening on the road instead of enjoying ourselves on some nice place.

So we have decided that for our next trip to Norway we will choose 2-4 places we want to visit and then stay in that surround for some days. Then we will enjoy our trip even more.