Day 9 - Fjaerland - Geirganger

What a awesome riding day we had!. The Norwegian weather Gods were very kind to us today. Not a single drop of rain, nice sunshine, not too warm, so all together: perfect!

Heading out Fjaerland is always a nice start in that unbelievable scenery. Surrounded by mountains, still fjord water, the glacier on the background...

First stop was already almost around the corner: the National Glaciermuseum of Fjaerland. A futuristic building which learned and showed us everything you always wanted too know about glaciers. Including an impressive movie of the complete Jostedahl glacier area on a 180 degrees movie screen was super!

Right after that  around the next corner was a photostop at the Boyabreen, a side leg of the Jostedahl glacier. Very impressive and very near from where we stopped. Under a sunny sky we followed our way up to the amazing area of the fjords and mountains. Since there was no wind today, the mountains were perfectly mirrored in the silent fjord waters.

A relaxed coffestop under a sunny sky we had in the village of Stryn, of course today at an outside terrace. Afterwards we followed our way along two fjords and then it was time for the second picnic of this tour, this time prepared by our Italian chef Manuel!

When everybody was filled up with delicious food, we headed up to the mountains to pass the summer ski resort of VIdefossen. Good for some amazing pictures ...what a scenery!

And last but not least the well worth trip up to Dalsnibba, the highest road in Norway including a fabulous view of the surrounding mountains and into the abyss of the Geirangerfjord

And to end up this amazing riding day we finished it with a enormous buffet dinner, top food!

A great day with a great group  of riders!!

Day 8 - Bergen - Fjaerland

Day 7 - Rest day Bergen

A perfect day for a rest day in Bergen: dry and some sunshine!. A little sleep in for everybody, a good breakfast and off we went for a nice city walk. Finding our way through the small streets with the nice coloured wooden houses is always good for some nice pictures. After visiting some highlights we walked down the famous Bryggen area along the quays of downtown where today were about 5 cruiseships visiting town. That meant a lot of tourist in town. After our little city tour ended everyone enjoyed the free time in the afternoon!

Day 6 - Sola (Stavanger) - Bergen

Today we had a long riding ahead . Always hard to leave the beautiful beach hotel at Sola beach with it's great atmosphere. We left a bit earlier to catch the ferry from Mortavikken. A firm breeze and a bit sun: the day couln't start better than this. After leaving the feery we headed in direction north-east to ride along the beatiful Akrafjord and Hardanger fjord. Including two photstops at two very impressive waterfalls. Riding through numerous tunnels we also stopped for a nice view on the majestic Hardanger bridge which is a really wonder of engineering. Riding along the other side of the Hardangerfjord we had lpretty much dry pavement which made the afternoon ride awesome. Tired but satisfied we entered the town of Bergen and after parking the bikes in the huge parking garage, we soon found ourselves behind a good glass of beer with a view on the harbour

Shihab is exhausted after a long ride

Day 5 - Vrådal - Sola (Stavanger)

Waking up in Vrådal is like feeling immersed in a old tale from nordic folklore... You wonder only where the troll are? Cruising on the narrow stripe of perfect asphalt along the lake is an exciting morning exercise, with some hairpins to get to Eidsborg stave church. After the mountain we meet another mountain, and then again... until the well prepared grill picnic arranged by Ted. The afternoon is mind boggling: reaching the top of Lysefjord, and then "jumping" downhill through 27 switchbacks (one of them in a dark narrow wet tunnel) is a great experience!

Day 4 - Oslo - Vrådal

A nice start this morning: it didn't rain...! So very quick everybody saddled up their pony's and even before nine o' clock we were on the road! Slowly the landscape changed from urban to hilly and soon we found ourselves in the beautiful provence of Telemarken. Following nice sweeping roads we made a nice loop and ended up in the small place of Heddal , where the famous Stavechurch is located. This very Norwegina style wooden church is built in the 13th century and is still in very good shape. But we first took a coffee to dry up a little bit because the last hour we faced again some firm rain. But after walking around the church, someone up there decided to give us the rest of the day no rain!! It even got better: during the lunch in a former train station , the sun peeked through! The last part of the track of today brought us along the sideroads of the Telemark channel. And as a last bonus we met Lisa, the female bridge guard of the last remaining turning bridge in Norway. And to make it even better: the only boat which is passing daily this bridge was just coming. So Lisa allowed us to all stand on the turning part of the bridge while the boat was passing. Great end of this nice riding day.  As soon as everybody had taken a shower and changed clothes we gathered up in the lobby and enjoyed a good beer and/or whiskey and shared the stories of today accompanied by some nice music by the local piano man!

Day 3: Rest day in Oslo

Grey weather, time to enjoy Oslo from "inside" and visiting its castle Berghus and some of its famous museums, like the polar expedition boat Fram, the other ocean expedition on the raft Kon-Tiki and the Viking Ship museum. This town has so much to offer even when the weather is not really "summertime".

Day 2: Gothenburg - Oslo

The first day is an easy one: long ride with some motorway but also a gentle forest (home of the Mooooose, the undiscussed leading animal in Sweden) and some backcountry roads. A morning coffee break on Vänern, the biggest Swedish lake and then lunch near the Moose Ranch (no, we did not eat burger or salami made with this sweet four-legged animal).

Arrival day, Göteborg, Sweden

And so tour guides Ted and Manuel had a dejá vu and found themsleves back in Göteborg, Sweden to start another edition of the famous Viking Experience tour through Sweden and Norway. This time the group members are  from the USA, Canada, Israel and Saudi-Arabia. In a very comfortable briefing room the group received all the information about the tour and soon we were handing over the bikes in the garage under the hotel. In the nice and quiet restaurant area of the hotel we had a superb dinner and soon the group was getting to know each other. a little better. All eager to ride but some still jetlagged, pretty soon after dinner everyone founds his way up to their room to dream about fjords and nice country roads...Well, they are almost there!