July 16, 2023
Langenuen to Bergen
The last cycling day of a tour tends to be anticlimactic and such was the case today. We were heading into Bergen where we are excited to meet up with Robert and Kathleen, our kids, for a week's visit in Norway. We will cycle a couple more days in England, but today was really the last of this part of our adventure.
In this rainy part of the world, we had planned our last day on weather windows. Breakfast and pack up in our dry motel room, then ride during the middle part of the day when when the probability of precipitation was below 50% and hopefully being moved into our AirB&B apartment before the heavy rains at 4pm. It didn't quite work that way.
We had also debated taking the faster route with a bike path along the noisy #13 highway, but in the end were glad we opted to go back onto Tysnsoy Island to ride a longer, hillier, less-travelled and more scenic road. By now we are old hands at the ferries, so we coasted up to the wharf with a few minutes to spare, pushed our bikes on, found a space to tether them and headed into the lounge to watch the coast go by. On Tysnsoy we quickly warmed up with a long uphill with views back across the strait to our motel and stripped off the unnecessary raincoats. The next 12 km was delightful riding, up and down hills, into bays and back to the strait, past settlements and through woods. Our anticipated lunch stop at the first village on the route, Uggdal was thwarted by the one shop in town being closed on a Sunday, so we dug out the last chunk of bread and cheese from our packs. Luckily, the shop entrance had a roof so we stayed dry as the first shower of the day blew in.
The next shower came about 15 minutes after we resumed riding and was longer and much heavier. Again, luckily we ducked into a bus shelter just in time. These delays meant we came into Vage for the next ferry at 2pm, only to find bedlam. This was the weekend of TysnsoyFest, and the wharf area was crowded with bedraggled music fans, many of whom had packed up from a wet, multi-day event, waiting for the next ferry and trying to find shelter from the latest deluge. It was 3:30pm by the time we were off the ferry and starting on the 32km ride into Bergen. As anticipated, there was bike path all the way and it was very hilly, but what we didn't expect was the difficulty staying on route. Apart from the occasional, official bike path to Bergen sign, most route choices were unmarked and as we did not want to have our phones out in the rain, this meant we had to stop and dig out the phone to consult the GPS. There may have been some lovely scenery on the route, but we didn't notice much.
Once in Bergen, the signage was better and the rain had stopped so we could appreciate the views onto and around the seven hills surrounding the city.
It was after 6pm when we pulled into our apartment and, by the time we were onto the 3rd floor, the heavens had opened and the water was streaming down the windows. Yes, we had read that Bergen gets lots of rain and, although we haven't seen much sun in the past two weeks, today was still a surprise. Overall it had been a pretty good ride, 65km with 700m of climbing, but we were tired and glad to put the bikes in the garage, make dinner in the full kitchen and climb into a warm, dry bed.
| Heart | 5 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Today's ride: 56 km (35 miles)
Total: 3,498 km (2,172 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 9 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 5 |
9 months ago
9 months ago
Thanks for commenting. We have really enjoyed Norway. It rained quite a bit over our almost three weeks here. Most of the time it was a drizzle and often we were able to hide out somewhere. However this last week has seen some major dumps of rain. Again it doesn’t last long and we were indoors. Norway is amazing. We have just arrived by bus at a lodge for the night. It is pouring out. Tomorrow we are climbing to Pulpit Rock. It is supposed to be sunny for most of the day. We have our fingers crossed! All I can say is beware of the weather. Apparently June was beautiful…..
9 months ago
9 months ago