The (possibly) last batch of the photos from Norway. The further away the holiday gets, the more I forget how impossibly expensive it was; and how impossibly beautiful it all was.
Norway photos part 2
Tag Archives: norway
Norway photos pt 1
After being on holiday for two weeks at the end of July / start of August, and taking a lot of landscape shots, I think I landscaped myself out.
Both holiday locations (Wales and Norway) were beautiful, but I was compelled to shoot and edit and I think it all got a bit too much. So much so, that it wasn’t until this afternoon that I put the Wales shots on my PC from the external hard drive.
I had another pass through them, and found some more shots that I took in Norway that I liked but hadn’t edited.
Day 8 – Ă…lesund
Today we return home. We don’t have to check out of the hotel until 12, and we’re getting picked up to go to the airport at 1 – so that is good.
We’ve had a little potter around, but it’s a long day as we have to drive back from London airport when we land. 
Whilst in Norway I have learnt:
Driving is easy – there aren’t many cars at all. Roads are long and straight when driving to different places.
Everything is expensive. Except for petrol, which was strangely reasonable.
Day 7 -Molnes
For our last full day we drove to Molnes, Vigra. I think that it is still part of Ă…lesund, but it is on a different island.
It was a nice coastal walk, and the sun was shining. There were sandy beaches, rocks and mountains! 
We were both a bit tired though, so we came back not long after dinner time and had a nap.
Day 6 – Geiranger
Today was my turn to drive, and it was a longer day with several things happening. Firstly we were to drive to Stranda Ski Village to take the gondola up to the top of the mountain.
What a view! We sat down at the restaurant at the top and had some meat soup (yum!). We pottered about for a bit before taking the gondola back down. There was free WiFi up there too – so obviously we uploaded some piccies to social media đŸ˜‰ And then I went on Pokemon…… 
Then we drove on to Hellesylt to get the ferry to Geiranger. This wasn’t quite as good as I was expecting. It was a nice hour journey, but it wasn’t the best. The views, as kB rightly pointed out, are better from higher up not lower down.
Once we were off the ferry we had two view points that I wanted to shoot from. The first one was in the opposite direction to home, and it was a really steep, really windy road. Because it was in the opposite direction it meant I had to drive up, and then back down it.
The second view point was up the Eagle Road, which was another steep, windy road but this was more like the troll road so it was a bit better to drive up. After that it was back to the hotel.
Day 5 – Trollstigen
This was our first proper driving day (Of two), and kB drove us to Trollstigen. This was about a 4 hour round trip (2 there 2 back).
The route there involved driving part of the Tourist Route 63. It was a very pretty route and we kept stopping off along the way. 
This was the longest kB had driven on “the wrong side of the road” and he did good!
Once again the weather forecast was predicting rain but once again we didn’t get any! Well we did have a bit of a down pour on the way there but it didn’t last long, nor did it happen when we were at trollstigen, so all good! 
We didn’t get back to Ă…lesund until after 9pm though, so it was a loooooooong day.
Day 4 – Godya
Today we picked up the hire car. I was somewhat nervous (to say the least!) but we set off out to Alnes because I wanted to see the lighthouse. This is about a 30 minute drive from Alesund, and so with the trusty sat nav on, off we went.
Getting to the Alnes was pretty straight forward, but I wasn’t too keen on the tunnels we had to drive through, the strips of light on the ceiling made my eyes go a bit funny. 
When we got there the lighthouse had scaffolding around it! So I was a bit annoyed as it was my main thing to photograph today. We walked around for a bit though, and found the beach. We then set back off to drive to the other side of the island where there was a hike to the top of the cliff.
On the way there we made a pit stop at another lighthouse. This one was without scaffolding, and the views were much better. 
We stopped there for a bit and admired the view. It’s odd how everything in the distance is blue. Blue and misty. The weather today has been hot again! The weather forecast predicted cloud and rain from 4, but it was mainly sunny and we had a thunderstorm at about 8.
The hike up to the top was a bit nicer than yesterdays. It was more smaller rocks, which means that the ground was, on the whole, much easier to walk up. It was still a steep uphill walk though. 
When we got to the top we had more great views, slightly different to those of yesterday because we were further south. We could even see a snow topped mountain in the distance.
At this point the sun went in for a bit, so it was the ideal time to whip out my skirt and take a selfie đŸ˜‰ kB says I must be the only person in the world who climbs up mountains to get changed and take a picture đŸ˜› 
Day 2 – Aksla Utsiktspunkt
Today we went up to the viewpoint at Aksla. We also bought loads of goodies from the supermarket.
This morning we sat on the balcony at the hotel, before going on a little tour around Ă…lesund, and finally walking up to Aksla viewpoint. 
Tomorrow we are going to go to Sukkertoppen as we ran out of time today, and it will take about 4 hours to walk to, up and back down. I think the weather from this point gets a bit more … hit and miss, as today has been lovely and sunny!
Day 1 – Norway, Ă…lesund
Today begins our week long trip to Norway. Norway has long been on my bucket list. Fjords, mountains, black metal, vikings. Perfect!
We had a long day yesterday as we had to drive to the airport, which was about 3 and a half hours. We finally checked into the hotel at the airport just after midnight.
This morning we had a casual 5 minute stroll to the check in desk, before having a relaxing few hours in the airport. Once we were in Norway I started with “oooh will you look at that” (The only correct response for cloud topped mountains), before the weather changed and Thor welcomed us with a thunderstorm. 
Once we were in the hotel and unpacked it blew over, and the rest of the evening has been warm and pleasant. Now, as I type this we are sat on the balcony at the back of the hotel. kB is drinking his £14 beer (!!!!) and we’re looking out at the various islands and mountains and watching the sun dip lower in the sky. It’s still light though, and it’s almost 10 o’clock.
Tomorrow we are going to go and get some bits from a supermarket, and explore the city. Apparently we can go on the Ă…lesund city tour for free, and I want to walk up to the Sukkertoppen and explore the area around there.
Manadh Photography 