Flam, ferries, high road, and Bergen

Today we leave Flåm after being here for 3 nights. I think we nailed it seeing everything there is to see. If you come here and do not have a lot of time, do the train, boat combo, and by all means, drive the snow road. If you are on a motorcycle, just drive around and buy some TigerBalm or BenGay so you can rub it on your neck at the end of a long day of rubber-necking.

We drove north through the loooooong tunnel again with the moon-pools every 5km to Lærdal (note the cool Norwegian character which for 10kr I will teach you how to do). We then took a really narrow 1 laner with pulloffs (man those things wear me out) to Fodnes where we took a short ferry to MannHeller. We then took Rt 55 (more 1 laner/pulloffs) to Hella and hopped another short ferry to Vangsnes. This ferry was a bit longer so I had time to go drool on an Italian guy's K1300RT (he spoke no English but told me everything about his trip and the bike in Italian (I think)). I then got to drool on a BMW 800GS with round the world stickers peeking out from under the mud on his dented and scratched alloy aluminum panniers. I got back in my diesel 4 wheeler and whimpered off the ferry. The drool on my shirt had just about dried when we got to the Hopperstad stave church in Vik that looked just like the other one at Borgond except it had more leftover 15, 16, and 17th century stuff in it. They showed us graffiti behind the altar which of course had no written words, since everyone was illiterate then, but there were lots of pictures of dragons (just to tick off the Catholics), sea dogs, and deer, but definitely lots of dragons. In the late 1800's they restored the church and included a lot of the Catholic stuff that had been taken out (some stored in nearby barns for a few hundred years and somehow not destroyed) during the Reformation in the 1500's (sent the Catholics packing and made Protestantism the official religion).

After the church it was on to my personal highlight of the day, the high road between Vik and Vinje. Not quite as nice as the snow road, but wicked decent. Not as many motorcycles up here, but lots of sheep with bells wandering around nibbling anything they could find. As you start the climb up here there is a sign telling you the road is open (just like the snow road) so I assume it closes when the snow gets too deep. How deep would that be, you might ask. All I can tell you is that the reflective markers beside the road are at the top of 10 foot high posts. Again it is barren and beautiful up here, with very little traffic. We were passed by a few bikes up there and it sure looked like fun. It is actually pretty warm so I did not see a lot of clothes on these guys other than riding suits.

I found this picture of the snow road (with a bike of course) just for reference.

So after coming down the mountain, we took the E16 all the rest of the way to Bergen. If you look at the map, the E16 looks like it would be an interstate (which is is now and then), but for the most part it is a 2 laner, and sometimes it is less (1 lane with pulloffs). We went through a gazillion tunnels today anywhere from 200 meters to 3,4,5 km long. The Norwegians pop a tunnel in just about anywhere so they must be good at it. Almost all are lit, but we found some rural ones that were one lane and dark (with sheep inside sometimes). I looked it up and Norway has more than 900 tunnels adding up to about 750km. They also have the longest road tunnel which we went through a couple times (moon pools).

We arrived in Bergen in a drizzle and quickly got lost and overshot the city and landed on the island beyond the city. The cheapo GPS app for the iPhone bailed us out and got us back into Bergen where the street to the hotel was under construction. Between this and the tunnels, the GPS app was going bananas, but we made it. There is no parking at the hotel but we can park on the street until Monday and then we have to move it to a public parking lot. We donned rain coats and walked downtown and tried a few ATMs but alas, no luck on cash. So we are hoarding our cash and exercising the credit cards which is way easy here. Everyone has tiny hand held machines that are wireless and they all take our antique, chip-less cards. We discovered today that they collect road tolls by shooting your picture, picking out your license plate, and sending you a bill (electronically I assume). I am beginning to think America is getting a little behind the times.

We had dinner at a place that sold seafood right on the dock and also cooked it if you wanted. Dinner for 2 for 255Kr is really cheap for here. That sugars out to $46. Maybe now that we are in the city, the prices will drop a bit. Slog back to the hotel and crash.