Arctic to UK and back again

[mygoldfishbowl]

^^ I once lived for a while in Copenhagen & three words spring to mind, birds on bikes..

One thing people should never ever ever ever do though under any circumstances is catch a coach from there to London. I did it one Christmas & it took 24 hours, by the time we pulled into Victoria I wanted to kill every single person on that coach. Never ever ever again.

Edit. Couch to coach.

Edited by mygoldfishbowl on Monday 9th September 15:47

[Howitzer]

Me and the now wife did this trip in Feb 2012, Norway is a stupidly gorgeous country to drive around!

Good luck and enjoy!

Dave!

[NRS]

The Crack Fox said:

There is a direct ferry, from Immingham to Larvik or Brevik (I forget which), I think it is DFDS Tor lines, cost about £350 one way. The return leg (Norway to UK) goes via Gothenburg.

How do I know this ? Google "f*ck Ryanair, get yourself a Jag"

I remember your story! I was the idiot talking about taking a car over here for parts with you. Sorry I fell out of contact about that - there was a lot of stuff happening and meant to get it sorted out but never got round to it! Was rude though, so I apologise! I had actually been thinking in the last few days about sending you a message to ask if you wanted to be a co-driver to be able to write about the trip on your site!

McFarnsworth said:

I've done something similar last year and I'd also advise you to avoid the Denmark, Germany, Holland bit as it's incredibly boring.

Speedlimits in Norway weren't too bad if you stay off the main roads and traffic cameras are announced well in advance anyway.

Oslo, Lillehammer and Copenhagen are worth a visit, Bergen not so much. Can't comment on the Trollstigen pass as it was closed in December (and we failed to unlock the gate )

Good to know about the "mainland" Europe bit. I am not cetain about the return route yet - may take the Newcastle ferry, or just repeat the Harwich one. I had wondered about doing it "just to have done it". It will take the same time roughly, and although boring will be a bit more interesting than being on a boat for the entire car trip! Denmark is required to get back to Norway generally, and I will visit a few friends at the same time.

Don't worry, I have been living in Norway for the past 3 years (it's Norway to the UK and back, not going from the UK there) so understand about the speed limits. I also have the cameras registered on the GPS so helps too. I actually like Bergen, although not for a very long visit. I also have friends to visit there too. Not been to Lillihammer before. Oslo is really nice.

Pity about Trollstigen for you - I've done it before a few times and good fun. I went early in summer (just after it opened) so avoided the worst traffic. Plus between the buses I would catch up with the "convoy" ahead, then park in a passing place until the next convoy almost caught up, then zip again until the next one. And repeat all the way up!

357RS said:

I did a trip to Norway with some friends last year and in doing the planning found that there are no longer any direct ferries from England to Norway. Hence we went from Harwich to Esbjerg and then Hirtshals to Kristiansand. On the return we chose Oslo to Frederikhavn and then drove to the Eurotunnel.

Good luck NRS with your trip: I remember Trollstigen (it was raining ) and like many roads badly infected with camper vans. Some mad, mad tunnels though!!

Next year proposal is to drive to Nordkapp via a ferry from Rostock (Germany) to Helsinki, a short diversion to St Petersburg, then North through Finland, visit Nordkapp and then drive back South through Norway.

I guess you came here in July then? The German tourists are terrible around that time of year! Thankfully living up in the arctic very few come all this way up, so the roads are much better in the summer. There's also almost no speed cameras here, great roads and probably even better scenery than that around Geiranger. (Google Lofoten - it's similar mountains into the sea, but much more open and so more sunlight. Plus you get the golden beaches that are missing so often in Norway).

If you are planning the trip feel free to give me a shout. I live in Harstad, and as I said Lofoten really is a place you should go if you're going that far north. Most Norwegians say it is the most beautiful part of Norway. If you needed I have a spare room which you could use for free too (and can show some of the best roads, ).

Here are a few pictures from the area I've taken - and almost no traffic, Got to love this part of the world.

[NRS]

Well, it's been an interesting trip so far! Made it to the UK and back to Norway. Overnighted in Kristiansand and came back to the car in the morning to discover someone had cut the roof open and stolen a lot of stuff! Really pissed me off - it also meant I lost all the videos from the trip so far. I would have lost the photos too, but was lucky enough to leave the camera memory car in the car radio and they didn't take it. They stole most of my duty free alcohol, plus 1 kilt shoe, a sporran, a kilt shirt and 1 kilt sock amounst other things! On the most annoying side was my laptop and camera, plus GoPro camera. Yes, stupid to leave it in the car - the problem was I arrived late, had an early start and took a lot of the most expensive stuff into the hotel already! Theft is really rare here, so hadn't really considered it. Worst thing is a lot of stuff on the laptop was not backed up recently, so lost a lot of "memories". Police were completely useless - didn't even look at it and said to claim on insurance.

Car has been good, got the limited slip diff and new engine put in. Think one of the brakes might be sticking a bit. Got a new GoPro today, so will use that on the way back. Tomorrow is a work conference in Bergen, then the next day will be awesome - 5 mountain passes and the world's longest tunnel. Really looking forward to it! Will get pics up when I get back.

[McFarnsworth]

Who the hell steals one sock and a shoe?

The longest tunnel in the world is also incredibly boring. Even with a car that had a police siren to play with in the meantime.

[NRS]

McFarnsworth said:

Who the hell steals one sock and a shoe?

The longest tunnel in the world is also incredibly boring. Even with a car that had a police siren to play with in the meantime.

I know - I'm used to tunnels living in Norway. It's just to "do it" and get the picture as it were. Bit random - they also took some clothes. It's very strange - they seem to have grabbed a lot of different stuff. Perhaps just stuffed as much as they could take and did a runner? They also left stuff like Oakley glasses, no it's a bit random really.