The Lærdal Tunnel. 15.23 miles long Food at Sogndal Dave & Donald make aquaintances with Gjest Baardsen, one of Norway’s most notorious criminals Viewpoint at Karistova Stone age picnic beside Strynsvatnet The road had just been opened
Regroup at Geiranger
Arctic Adventure - 10 to 31 May 2018 Part 2 Story by Margaret Campbell
This
was to be a day of firsts, not only the steepest road and railway, but
after a short drive on leaving Flåm we encountered the second
closed pass of our trip and had to drive through the longest road
tunnel in the world. At 24.51 kilometers (15.23 miles) it connects
Lærdal to Aurland carrying two lanes of the main road connecting
Bergen and Oslo and was opened in 2000.
It was then a short
drive to another ferry across the Sognefjord to our overnight stop
in Sogndal. No restaurant in the hotel so we had a nice walk round
the town to find somewhere to eat then back for a leisurely glass of
red on the verandah overlooking the fjord.
After
another good breakfast we headed off in sunshine and very soon the
Josteldal Glacier came into view. This is the largest glacier in
continental Europe with an area of 188 sq miles and although we could
only see a very small portion of it was impressive. On we went driving
on lovely roads that were reasonably quiet and very interesting
stopping in a large layby beside the water for lunch. Our afternoon run
was over a high pass that had only just been opened a couple of days
before and the evidence of the snow blowers was a 10 to 12ft wall of
snow that bordered the road.
Dropping
back down to the village of Geiranger we stopped for a quick regroup
then alongside the fjord for a short while before climbing back out to
the most spectacular viewpoint where we stopped again for photographs
and to drink in the vista including the seven sisters waterfall which
did not disappoint apart from being a bit hazy.
A short
journey and we arrived at another ferry that took us from Eisdal to
Linge and to our hotel at Valldal. Valldal is situated on the
Norddalsfjorden and our hotel was very new and had commanding views of
the fjord where we watched the sun go down and anticipated
tomorrow’s drive.
Leaving
Valldal the next morning we once again headed north and looked forward
to some more interesting roads the first of which was the Trollstigen
(Trolls road).
Not quite the Stelvio but a good one with 11
hairpin bends each named after the person who supervised the
construction work on that particular section. It was opened in 1939 and
immediately became a tourist attraction but is only open from the end
of May to October – we were lucky as it had only just opened the
day before we were due to drive it.
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This
was to be a day of firsts, not only the steepest road and railway, but
after a short drive on leaving Flåm we encountered the second
closed pass of our trip and had to drive through the longest road
tunnel in the world. At 24.51 kilometers (15.23 miles) it connects
Lærdal to Aurland carrying two lanes of the main road connecting
Bergen and Oslo and was opened in 2000. 
After
another good breakfast we headed off in sunshine and very soon the
Josteldal Glacier came into view. This is the largest glacier in
continental Europe with an area of 188 sq miles and although we could
only see a very small portion of it was impressive. On we went driving
on lovely roads that were reasonably quiet and very interesting
stopping in a large layby beside the water for lunch. Our afternoon run
was over a high pass that had only just been opened a couple of days
before and the evidence of the snow blowers was a 10 to 12ft wall of
snow that bordered the road. 
Dropping
back down to the village of Geiranger we stopped for a quick regroup
then alongside the fjord for a short while before climbing back out to
the most spectacular viewpoint where we stopped again for photographs
and to drink in the vista including the seven sisters waterfall which
did not disappoint apart from being a bit hazy. 
Leaving
Valldal the next morning we once again headed north and looked forward
to some more interesting roads the first of which was the Trollstigen
(Trolls road). 
