Norway (all)

We don't just have our house on our bikes, we also have our two dogs, Jack and Paco, along for the ride. That's 60kg of furry luggage and another 50-60kg of non-furry luggage between the two of us! Needless to say we don't go fast but we do go everywhere, refusing to let our extra load stop us from tackling hills with grades of up to 18%. We have been on the road with our two dogs since July 2008. So far we have covered 17,000 kms and 18 countries in continental Europe.

Travel By Bike is a website about a group of enthusiastic bikers with more than 10 years of travel experience. From Belgium through The Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Czech Republic, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom. Do not forget look at to the page 'pregnant on bike', reading our travel stories and watching the beautiful pictures!

Cycling with my Lowrider Tricycle and my Bongo drum from Germany to Vietnam :o) stopping my bank career 1/2a ago to fulfil my dream and exploring alternative approaches to life; very interested in the current financial crisis and following future; doing interviews with citizens asking them for their approach to life, and opinions about the financial crisis.

Presenting results of my interviews, blogposts with GPS pics, video documentations,

Believing in One World, One Love, One Unity, Dread Marco

www.velopourvous.com est le site de l'association ``Vélo pour nous, vélo pour vous'', qui à pour but de promouvoir la pratique du vélo.

Entre autres, il raconte les voyages en vélo de ses adhèrents, et pas seulement...

Une grande partie est dédié au voyage de Claudia et Thomas autour d'Europe. Leur but est de faire un inventaire de la culture du vélo en Europe. Des jolis photos et un impressionant carnet de bord vous attend à les découvrir...

From June 16 to August 1 2008, I cycled from Alta to the North-Cape, there I started a 7-week trip through Finland Sweden Denmark Germany Netherlands Belgium and France back to Switzerland.

Day 3 Vilshäred to Kärradal

The day started early. Although the campsite itself was quiet, the road next to it had a surprising amount of traffic. Added to this there was someone racing around in the middle of the night on a moped without a silencer.

At around seven our neighbours decided to start rooting around their car for something vitally important ('oh my God where is my Thermarest inflatable dialysis machine I need it right now' or something similarly life threatening) and by quarter past, it was clear neither of us was going to get any more sleep.

'Oh well' we thought, 'there is always a shower to look forward to'.....Which in retrospect was another of those things you shouldn't say on cycling holidays. For Vilshäred campsite introduced us to peaceful and neutral Sweden's secret weapon: a variation of Chinese water torture known as 'the one kroner shower'.

It was an unforgettable tour of contrasts: from the baking sun in Sweden to the rain and floods in Norway. The gorgeous Swedish coast versus the majesty of the Norwegian fjords and glaciers.

The travelogue contains pictures, videos and trip statistics per day plus some things we have learned from this tour.

Vagabondages autour du monde d'un apprenti voyageur.

Un ou deux ans de voyage au programme pour découvrir l'Europe du Nord, l'Asie et l'Afrique du Nord différemment.

Prochaine étape : la traversée de la Russie en hiver

Vagrancy around the world by a apprentice traveller.

One or two years to discover in a different way north Europe, Asia and north Africa.

Next step : from St Petersburg to Vladivostok during winter time

This is the story of a three-month solo cycle ride around Norway, starting in Bergen, and exploring the Nordland, Troms, and Finnmark counties and a bit of Sweden. The scenic Atlanterhavsvegen (voted one of the world's best road trips) is also described.

Hi everybody, we are 8 students of Udine's University and we will across Europe with a bikecycle. We will start on 08 of August from Nordkapp and after 24 days we will arrive in Lignano Sabbiadoro. We will link the north pole with the Adriatic Sea. Our project is with the Sponsorship of our University. We will meet a lot of students about the University that we will find along our tour. So for more information you can ask at info [at] noborderbiking [dot] com and visit our website www.noborderbiking.com .
[Email address obscured to fool spam trawlers. Ed.]

We enjoyed our first tour of Norway in the fjords, so two years later we went back to see more. For many bicycle tourists Nordkapp, the northernmost road in Europe, is the final destination but because we had limited time we decided to start from Nordkapp and head south. We cycled through Lofoten, along the Coast Route, then through the fjords to finish at Skjernøy, close to the southernmost point of Norway.

The original plan was to cover Scandinavia from Nordkapp to Copenhagen with a long stretch along Sweden's east coast. However, safety concerns resulted in a hastily arranged detour along Finland's west coast.

My memory will be mainly of glorious sunshine and, another pleasant surprise, the wind blowing North to South for a good few days when I needed it (as evidenced by the grim determination on the faces of the cyclists heading the other way.)

Epilogue. ``Why have we come all this way to go cycling in Holland''.

Last year we wondered if we should have done the NSCR in Norway last, after doing all the other sections, seeing the spectacular range of countryside and the beauty of it all. This year's trip has sort of confirmed that we might have been right. That is not to say that there is no beauty in the Danish landscape. There is, and in our opinion the loveliest sections of the Danish NSCR were in the Northern part of the Jutland. As for the rest of the route there were gems to be found every now and again, which made it worth doing.........

.............However when you compare the Danish section of the NSCR to Norway, say the NSCR, Rallarvegen or Numedalsruta, the Danish NSCR falls short in sheer WOW! factor. The Rallarvegen in particular has fantastic scenery and it a great challenge. It is also amusing to be cycling at an altitude higher than the highest point in the UK. The Numedal, although it changes considerably from the higher reaches down to Larvik, is just gorgeous and treasures such as the stave churches complement the beautiful scenery.

Epilogue.

Indelible impressions.

The final irritation on arrival in Schiphol did not diminish the wonderful memories we have of the tour and of Norway. The amazing light and vivid colours of sky and sea, the torrential summer downpours, still stay with me to this day. Not forgetting the range of roads and routes and landscape. I still have flashbacks of places that I did not photograph and have no idea where they were on the route.

We wonder if we should have done the NSCR in Norway last, seeing the spectacular range of countryside and the beauty of it all. I suspect that everything else will be an anti-climax after this. Still we started here with the NSCR and we'd like to go back one day and do it again.

This was our first ever long cycle tour, (and my first attempt at a travelogue). The trip was a wonderful experience for the both of us, and got us hooked on cycle holidays. As well as the travelogue there are picture galleries of the trip, and some information about the bikes and gear we used, plus things we learned about cycling.

The Kystriksveien is a beautiful and unspoilt 670 km route along the RV17 coast road from Steinkjer in Trondelag to Bodø in Nordland, Northern Norway. We cycled along 450 km of the juicy bits (using ferries and a couple of buses for the rest) between 29 July and 13 August 2006. This travelogue describes the route we followed and the accommodation we found en route, with additional notes on web links and maps/guides for the journey. The Kystriksveien is known to just a few touring cyclists who appreciate how quiet and scenic it can be; it isn't a destination that sees a lot of cyclists, even during the high season between June and the second week of August.

At moment Raoul (who has left on 12 May from Civitanova Marche, Italy) on his bicycle is along the road to Kaamanen (Finland) where he is going to stay overnight. In the next two days he will reach Nordkapp!!!!! ;-))

A three week bicycle journey through the south of Norway in the year 2004. It was a round trip from Oslo - to Geilo - Flam - and back to Oslo. An amazing journey in a great Country. A detailed travelogue waits for you.

The cycle tour in 2006 we decided to make within Norway. We had in fact never been to the coastal areas between Trondheim and Bodø before. A lot has been done to promote cycling along this coast line, and the choice was not too difficult to make. The coast of Helgeland, as this area is called, is not as well known as Lofoten, that lies farther to the north, but we had already cycled in Lofoten, so this time we went for Helgeland.

15 giorni per andare dal centro della selvaggia Norvegia alle isole Lofoten, lungo la mitica rv17 con le nostre mountain bike cariche all'estremo.

Un team per la prima volta formato da 6 persone, incontri e avventure tra traghetti e fiordi.

During July and August 2005 we cycled through amazing Norway. Mountains, glaciers, fjords, forests, carribean-style beaches (with cold water :( ...), space and stillness. We cycled from the North Cape down to Oslo via the Lofoten, RV 17 Coastal Route, Trollstigen, Geiranger, RV 55 and Rallarvegen. A lot of pictures, tips and travel stories in Dutch (English translations will soon appear).

In juli en augustus 2005 fietsten we door fantastisch Noorwegen. Bergen, gletsjers, fjorden, bossen, bounty-eiland-strandje (met veel te koud water :( ...), rust en ruimte. We fietsten van de Noordkaap naar Oslo via de Lofoten, RV 17 Kustroute, Trollstigen, Geiranger, RV 55 en Rallervegen. Veel plezier!

In the summer of 2006 I have cycled from Stavanger in Southern Norway to the Nordkapp. It took me 3.260 kilometer along fjords, across islands and over highlands. These pages put together stories, pictures, maps and information about the cycling trip.

If you have two weeks to spare and a young children, the Lofoten and Vesteralen islands are an ideal area for a summer tour - gorgeous scenery, warm weather, white sandy beaches, and 24 hour sunshine. Best of all, the roads are free from traffic and pretty flat in this area since they hug the seashore. Self-catering accomodation in rorbus (fishing huts) is affordable and very memorable. This is the story of our madcap journey above the Arctic Circle in 2005 with two touring bikes and trailer bike, complete with a guide to accomodation on the islands, some tips about places to visit, and a brief list of what to take with you and what to leave behind. The area described is quite popular with touring cyclists but nowhere near as busy as other destinations during the summer holidays, so people are friendlier and there's far more space to relax in - like New Zealand, but only a couple of hours from the UK by air.

Welcome to Jørn's cycling homepage. If you are searching for ride reports from The Great Trial of Strength and the Tour of Jotunheimen and general information about tours in Norway, you have come to the right place. You can also find information and result from the local races in Trondheim. You can also read more about Velocipede (tm), a Windows based training log program for cyclists, and the Rec.Bicycles.* FAQ file. If you are cycling the net, I also have a list of other cycling related sites around the world. Want to know more about my bikes?

In the summer of 1999 I cycled a little over 7000km across Europe, from Nordkapp, at the northern end of Norway, to Calabria, the southernmost region of Italy. It was the best bicycle ride and adventure of my life so far. This is my attempt to share what I saw and felt.

Six days - eight fjords - nine mountains.

Glaciers, waterfalls, white nights, trolls...and 200 great-spirited cycling enthusiasts sharing the Fjordland fairytales.

Radtour Kristiansand - Stord - Bergen - Shetlands - Schottland - England.

Die Nordsee-Radroute macht süchtig! Mir geht es jedenfalls so, nachdem man im letzten Jahr gerade da aufgehört hatte, wo es immer schöner wird. Das war in Kristiansand, etwa an der Südspitze Norwegens. Wie kommt man da am besten wieder hin und von dort aus weiter? Das weiß am besten unser Freund Terje Melheim, der auf der Insel Stord südlich von Bergen gleichsam Schildwache an der Nordseeroute hält, die genau über diese Insel führt. (Mit Turid und Terje stehen wir seit vielen Jahren in E-Mail-Kontakt, außerdem haben wir uns weiland an der Neisse einmal spontan radelnderweise persönlich kennen gelernt). Unvergessen ist auch die Eröffnungstour der Nordseeroute 2001, die im Internet eindrucksvoll dokumentiert ist und mit etlichen Feierlichkeiten (auch auf den Inseln Bømlo und Stord) begangen wurde. Wer hätte gedacht, dass man einmal in diese nördlichen - und wie wir glauben finsteren - Gegenden verschlagen würde, und das auch noch mit einem Besuch bei Turid und Terje verbinden könnte?

Réveil paisible avec le chant des oiseaux, avant d´aborder 2 cols successifs. Pas le temps de chauffer la ``bête'', ca monte dès le premier virage. Après 2 km, je rejoins les italiens qui ont campé dans le jardin d´une maison du village précédent. Au sommet du col (275m), je décide de continuer à mon rythme qui est légèrement plus rapide que le leur.

Passé Hauge, je poursuis par la route de Rekefjord. Elle est splendide mais très sinueuse, le dernier troncon avant de rejoindre la route 44 n´est même pas asphalté. Je reprends des forces sur la place centrale d´Egersund en terminant mon saucisson emmené de Suisse. Egersund est une ville principalement active autour de son port.

Après cette partie montagneuse, je pensais pouvoir continuer tranquillement en longeant la mer du Nord. C´est un peu plus plat, mais un vent violent de face me rend la progression difficile... je ne vois pas le bout de ces longues lignes droites qui n´en finissent plus. Enfin la voilà cette AJ de Vigrestad, que j´ai cherchée durant une demi heure, qui se trouve en fait dans le hameau voisin de Härr. Seule une famille danoise y loge avant d´aller reprendre le ferry à Kristiansand. Je m´y cuisine un excellent riz casimir au Gruyère pour me remettre d´aplomb.

Je suis fatigué après cette journée résumant bien le monde de la petite reine en Norvège : ca monte et ca descend tout le temps et quand c´est plat y a du vent latéral ou de face.

La tappa prevista [Lillehammer - Gjovik] è talmente breve che ce la prendiamo con comodo e tentiamo di visitare Lillehammer, che però non offre un granchè. Così partiamo lungo il percorso che ci indica la nostra cartina, prima lungo la principale e poi lungo stradine secondarie che saliscendono nel bosco, dove ci fermiamo a raccogliere mirtilli. I miei loschi intenti di papparceli a pranzo affogati nel gelato sono bloccati dall'Anto che propone di portarli alla famiglia Servas che ci ospiterà alla sera. A malincuore accetto. Dopo pranzo ci permettiamo addirittura un pisolino a Moelv, dove un ponte ci conduce sull'altra sponda (est) del lago, che seguiamo docilmente fino a Gjovik. Qui la nostra ospitante si rivela una simpaticissima persona, con cui si instaura immediatamente un gran feeling, che rischia di sfociare in amore aperto quando concludiamo la cena con i nostri mirtilli più le sue fragole e una vascona di gelato alla vaniglia. Dopo cena, benchè quasi tramortito dalle tre o quattro porzioni di gelato, riesco a seguire l'Anto, la signora e la figlia in un giro turistico della cittadina, che le nostre due amiche coronano con un bagno in piena digestione in un laghetto artificiale freddino nell'aria fresca della sera. Ma sopravvivono, anzi, sono proprio contente.

It has become some kind of a family tradition to go on a big bicycle tour every summer. But this time we did add some enhancements to our usual plans. Bernhard had already been cycling on our previous tour, when we toured Gotland in the year 2001. But this was in a way the first time with slightly longer daily distances and in areas that could not be called totally flat. Our popular starting point of earlier years in Gothenburg was replaced by Oslo for this tour. This was worth a try, because it brought us closer to the areas we intended to visit and it gave us the opportunity to see different places as soon as the tour started. The clear disadvantage of Oslo is that it is kind of tough to find a legal and good way out of the city, especially when traveling to the east, as we did. And it adds a slightly longer and more expensive ferry trip from Kiel to Oslo. But on the other hand, after having done the ugly traffic of the Oslo area on the first day, things should get nicer at least from the second day onwards and we could see more of Norway.

Total Kilometers/Miles Cycling: 3849/2392 - Total Kilometers/Miles by Train: 435/270.5 - Total kilometers/Miles by car (rushing to Kirkenes to catch the plane to Chicago: 519/322.5 - Average distance per day 167/104.

Herausforderungen liegen manchmal vor der Haustür. Obwohl das nicht so ganz stimmt, denn wir leben ja nicht gleich hinter dem Deich. Aber nur gut zwei Bahnstunden davon entfernt. Es handelt sich um die bislang längste ausgeschilderte Radroute der Welt, insgesamt 6000 km lang: die Umrundung der Nordsee. Das ist die erste ``von 12 geplanten transeuropäischen Radfernwegen'' (EuroVelo) (aus bikeline). Die Route ist erst vor gut einem Jahr eröffnet worden, da gehört man ja glatt noch zu den ersten, wenn man diese Herausforderung annimmt. Bevor die Leute dort Schlange stehen. Wenn es denn dazu kommt...

Als es los gehen soll, steht keiner Schlange, denn wir haben einen Dauerregen. Wie nachher zu lesen ist, die größte Regenmenge in unserer Gegend seit 1881. Zum Glück verzichte ich auf einen Blick in den Keller, morgens um vier Uhr. Nur mit dem Rad zum Bahnhof zu fahren, das geht nicht, da wäre man ja gleich durch bis auf die Haut? Man kann improvisieren, alles rein ins Auto und dann bin ich weg, mit ein paar geschmierten Broten und einigen Tafeln Schokolade. Der Parkplatz hinter dem Bahnhof ist wegen Überflutung gesperrt. Man kann trotzdem um die Absperrung herum fahren und irgendwo eine Insel suchen, die Packtaschen aufladen und Wasser Marsch zum Bahnhof. Das Auto wird Annika dann später abholen, wenn der Seegang auf dem Parkplatz des Braunschweiger Hauptbahnhofs sich beruhigt hat.

[Titus is the bike] - 12195 km in 8 months through France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Austria, Italy and Greece - includes travelogue and many fine pictures

I've travelled quite a bit through the years, hiking on foot, by car, bus, plane... But cycling is just the right speed. Fast enough to actually get someplace, yet slow enough to smell the flowers as you go... Plus, it's the only mode of transportation where the engine actually improves with usage... Anyways, a friend lent me this book about a couple who spent a couple of years cycling around the world and I thought to myself that I wanted to do that ! So, off I went ! Well, I didn't quite make it... After 8 months on the road, I came back... Mostly due to homesickness, but I should have expected that, particularly on a solo trip...

Mid-morning after leaving Santillana [in Northern Spain], I take a break after a long cycle uphill and watch the progress of this little fellow... That's exactly how I felt... slow... but steady!

A recumbent trip from the southern border of Denmark to Lofoten.

The trip was an attemp to beat Fritz Hansens record from 1999. He did the trip in 20 dayes and nights, 3 hours and 12 minutes. I also went for his average of 289 km a day.

Why alone? It gives you some satisfaction, to know you did the trip alone, and without any help. If you bike in a group, you have to adapt yourself to the groups choice of route and daily distance. When you are alone you are completely free to follow your own rhythm.

A five-week tour of Scandinavia, starting in Oslo and ending in Stockholm. Excellent practical information (the summary data table, which includes graphical weather information, is just great). Gorgeous photos (including the canonical midnight sun, but plenty of other spectacular views), and a very good story make this report an instant classic.

I had been impressed by the magnificent scenery of northern Norway when, during an inter-railing trip 3 years ago, we had taken the train to Narvik, far beyond the Arctic circle, and then the bus on a long and winding journey down the coast to Bod?. I think it was at that time that I first became aware of the Lofoten Islands - as I researched the places we were to visit in Norway, I could not help but notice references to these magnificent islands, which we were not to visit!

They stayed in the back of my mind for some time, but after my successful Hebridean cycling tour last summer the idea of doing a similar thing in the Lofoten islands slowly grew. Having always been a firm believer in the ancient Chinese proverb about it being better to travel hopefully than to arrive, and hence never go somewhere quickly if I can spend a few days doing it instead, it seemed an ideal opportunity to wend my leisurely way up the Norwegian coast on the Hurtigrute coastal steamer. So come early July, I packed my panniers once more and caught a flight to Oslo, from where I travelled on by train overnight to Trondheim on the coast...

Middle of June 1998, we [...] started the trip we had dreamed of for a long time: by bicycle from top to bottom through Europe. A view on the map shows that this journey covers 36 degrees of latitude and in total has a length of 7200 km. The trip started in Norway and from there led us through Denmark, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal and finally to Gibraltar. Not the shortest route, but also an exploration of the better parts of Europe. This on-line trip-report was built up while cycling.

From Minko Oh's cycling site.

A short bicycle trip from one world to another (plus train travel 36 hours from Nikel to St. Petersburg, and a bike trip in the streets of St. Petersburg).

Also see Igor Romanenko's Comments.

In the fall of 1998 I set off on a long journey by bike. It covered more than 15000 kilometers and 14 countries. During this trip I was hit by rocks and cars, I was baked, soaked, and deep frozen by the weather gods. Mostly, however, I had a superb opportunity to see some of the most beautiful scenery in the world, meet wonderful people and enjoy the culture of widely differing lands. This site is about my bike trip from Sweden to South-East Asia via Eastern Europe, The Middle East, Pakistan, China, and Tibet. It also contains general information and links on bicycle touring and travelling in general.