Ooops, I meant preferably late Juneor Early August, but it is not like the differnece will be that great.

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Weelie, could you just clarify me something?

We're going from Oslo to Nordkapp in late June, and we're not sure whether we should head west from Oslo to the coast (Bergen/Floro) and go all the way up or head straight to Trodheim and go north. Are the fjords in the north as nice as the ones in the south?Because the southwest seems to be a very touristy place, therefore more expensive...

We have a week to get to the Nordkapp, but can be a bit flexible if needed!

Cheers
Fernando

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The fjords on the west coast are the most spectacular. The fjords down south, like in Oslo are not much of anything.

Bergen is a really nice Hanseatic city worth seeing if you have the time. The time to get you from Oslo to either Trondheim or Bergen is about the same. But, your trip will become one or two days longer if you decide to go to Bergen first as it will take you probably another 10-12 hours of driving to get you from Bergen to Trondheim. I still believe it is worth the trip though as you will be able to see some spectacular moutains between Oslo and Bergen, and you will also be able to see more spectacular fjords. The mountain regions of the Jotunheimen, Rondane and Dovrefjell (Dovre)has spurred numerous tales of Trolls, the stories of Peer Gynt, etc. Stopping to do some hiking at for instance Besseggen is worth while(a bit touristy, but spectacular never the less, unless you are affraid of heights). Sogn og Fjordande and a boat trip on the Geiranger fjord is likely one of the most common itineraries... you will love arriving and leaving by motorcycle, but maqke sure your brakes are in order as the hills are long, sttep and bendy.

I took my American friend Marek to some of these places...

Picture of Besseggen:
The picture doesn't really bring justice to the place. The colour of the glacier water on one side is bright turqoise while the other is dark blue, and there are some really steep cliffs. Park your bike, take a ferry to the end of the mountain and hike over the ridge back to your ride. The hike will take you about 6 hours.

My friend Marek hiking accross Besseggen



Picture of Bergen

The Geiranger fjord:

My american friend Marek at the same place


Trollstigen, a famous bendy road.

My american friend Marek at the same place

I can highly recommend putting in a couple of days extra to experience some of these excursions... and don't worry, you will be safe. I double dare you to take a dip in the glacier water... it is refreshing. You pay top dollars for bottled water of this type in NY, etc, as the water is melted water from glaciers that are as old as dinosaurs.

Once again, I highly reccomend the book I noted earlier. Another great tip in assessing the value of visiting some place is to use the picture function in google to find pictures of the place.

I'll check up on this thread from time to time, so feel free to post more questions to me.


[This message has been edited by Wheelie (edited 06 February 2006).]

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Also a picture of the Geiranger fjord. There are guided tourist boats several times a day

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You might as well have a look at our trip - 6 weeks up the west coast, 3 days down Sweden... and I might add - ZERO research, just found a boat that took us to Bergen from England, and rode north.

On the left menu, "Our trip", Norway...

Grant

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For ferry tickets give Motorsport travel a ring they have never been betten Newcastle Kristiansand cost me about £330 and that was for the best cabin above the waterline, this year bought my ticket Newcastle- Amstadam £187
Motorsport Travel 01759 301010

Fcasado dont miss the the northern FJORDS if you are landing at Kristiansand head north towards the Fjords Route 9 and miss out the drudge of a road that goes to OSLO R18 up the coast. This means you can miss out on the road from OSLO to Trondheim R6 which is really a waste of your time in Norway - it does have some lovely views but also a lot of boring sections. R9 , R134, R13 will get you up to Hardangerfjord in a day from there go towards Vik, Gerainger - trollstiggen and onto Trondheim then on North from there. The main route E6 arctic highway has some miserable bits and you will miss out but its the only way to get north in a week. Bye the way Nordkinn (kinnarodden north of gamik at the end of R888) is really the most northerly point in mainland europe also it is free ! - no road to the northern point you have to walk Nice after such a long ride - I really think to stick to main roads is to miss so much but if that is what you have to do !!!. If your investing time and money on this trip try to make a little more time you will not regret the extra time you have set aside. Whatever you do have a great trip and enjoy Norway ( PS very heavily policed for speeding etc between MOI RANA and Narvik)

Thanks for that Adventure950!

We're probably landing in Oslo from Denmark, and will make the way up from there. It's still quite unclear for me whether we should head to the west coast or not. You touch an important issue about our trip, the time, we definitely don't have much more than 10 days to get to the Nordkapp! Is it worth paying to get into the park (or whatever they've got up there) in the Nordkapp?

Appreciate all the help chaps!

Fernando

p.s. - Ohhh yeah, we'll definitely watch out for the speed limits, being on a budget wouldn't be very nice a £ 300 quid fine!

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The North Cape is a bit "been there, done that". The weather is usually quite crappy and the price for entering the plateau is rather steep. FWIW I'd suggest you use your precious days by going from Oslo to Bergen (plenty of nice roads to choose from) then by coast northbound towards the Lofoten Islands.

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Got to agree with INDU to be honest I never went onto Nordkapp - just to commercial and expensive - For me I went to Nordkinn but to be honest if you have only 10 days I would suggest going up the coast only as far as Lofoten as you are getting all the best of Norway in the time you have Its a hell of a haul upto nordkapp for what it is and the weather up the top can be pretty damp and foggy then you see nothing anyway. Whatever floats your boat really! For me the Fjords and Lofoten are great. If you want to go further North go another time and make time and take in Northern Finland and the SAMI towns and Villages. But in the timescale you have follow INDU's advice
Oh! by the way if you have not booked your ferry I think you will find there is a ferry Denmark to Kristiansand as I met quite a few Danish lads at the port waiting for the return ferry to Denmark. But also the back roads from Oslo over Telemark and towards western fjords are really nice.

[This message has been edited by adventure950 (edited 27 February 2006).]

Thanks for the advices guys!

We have to go up north (in Norway) anyway, because we're heading south through Finland and that will probably be another 4 days.

Just the general idea of the trip:

We're going from England into France; then Germany (Black forest); go into Denmark spend a week there; Norway ;Finaland;Baltic States; Poland; Slovakia; Hungary; Romania; Bulgaria; Serbia; Bosnia; Croatia; Italy etc etc

We'll be 4 months on the road doing the whole european continent, that's why we have a little short time. However we can stay longer in Norway if we think that it's worth.

We haven't booked the Denmark-Norway ferry yet?Do we have to do it well in advance? We're leaving England on the 12th of June, and probably taking the ferry from Denmark to Norway on the 25th of June.

Cheers
Fernando

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I'd book well in advance - at least 30 days, if not more. But if you don't catch the ferry you could always ride around. Copenhagen - Oslo is some 7 hrs by road.

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Do you go through Sweden then?We haven't thought about it, and actually might be better because the ferry is quite expensive I think and we don't know exactly when we'd be taking it. We were quoted something around € 250.00 for the ferry!

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I've just played the route on Viamichelin.com and it came out to be 600 Km (Copenhagem to Oslo)...The best thing is that we can spend a night in Goteburg (about 300Km from Den), so I think we'll leave the ferry option then!

Thanks a lot for that Indu!

Fernando

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Fcasdo seems to me your doing your tour the wrong way round would it not be better to go Newcastle to Norway -Finland _ ferry to Estonia - Baltic states - Poland - Germany - slovak countries - romania - bulgaria etc back towards italy - austria - swiss - france UK. It would seem then you would save a fortune on repeating countries have less ferry journies and also you would get the better climate while in the north and the cooler climate when down south sept/oct. Just a thought.